[Dev] Consume Rummble API & OAuth for the Geo-WIN

One of our little side projects that we developed with our Rummble API is the Rummble Recommend a Place application for Facebook users. Using the public Rummble API we were able to effortlessly develop a simple web app that uses geolocation data to obtain cities closest to the current visitor and also deliver results when people want to recommend places for a particular person to visit.

Given the time and cost of building your own geospatial infrastructure or implementing expensive commercial APIs, we found the public nature of our own API enables us get creative when building projects around all core Rummble services.

Using the OAuth library for Ruby, we were able to use the OAuth Consumer classes to make requests to the search.findCity and rummble.getNearestRummbles methods.

The Rummble API supports OAuth 1.0 authentication, and should work straight away with most standard client libraries. One of the main things to watch out for, as raised by developers in the Rummble API Google Group, is that OAuth public key should be passed as a parameter, instead of in the HTTP header. Also, make sure endpoints for request tokens, access token and authorisation URLs are set correctly.

We understand that issues with OAuth authentication can prevent projects getting off the ground, so if you’re having problems, we’ve probably been there before and will do everything we can to help!

OAuth has a long future ahead. Facebook recently adopted OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorisation for their recently launched Graph API, which uses SSL instead of the complex signature schemes and token exchanges.

As ever, we appreciate your thoughts and feedback. How would OAuth 2.0 support impact your decision to implement an API? Is there anything missing from the Rummble API? What geo-projects are you dreaming of? We can help make it happen. Feel free to post to the group or contact us directly. FTW.

Revealed: The Hardest Local Hero Medal To Win In The UK

There are over 5,186 medals for Local Heroes up for grabs in the UK, but as of July 2010 the hardest of all to snitch is…

Local Hero for Pubs in Finsbury

..with over 143 other users competing to be Finsburys Local Hero for Pubs. If you’re not familiar with Rummble medals, you should read more about becoming a Local Hero, but here’s a brief explanation:

How Do I Win Medals?

Rummble uses its unique trust algorithm to work out who are the most influential people in each area for specific topics. By influential, we mean who is trusted most for their opinions, by the rest of the community.

You can view the medals on any of our Rummble mobile apps and of course on the mobile website (m.rummble.com).

When you Rummble (add a rating, review or check-in) in a specific area related to the specific topic (e.g. rate a pubs in Finsbury in London) you will be competing with other users who are reviewing and checking-in in that specific area; whoever has the most trusted ratings in that area (whoever has the most reviews agreed with) gets to be the Local Hero.

How hard each medal is to win, depends on the number of places in that subject in an area and the number of people reviewing.

Finsbury, London, UK

What’s really cool is that Rummble medals are calculated for real-life area boundaries in the UK and US.

Finally, as peoples opinions change – because places change too – don’t forget that you will have to keep Rummbling in order to retain your medals!

Become a Local Hero!

Local Hero (Only UK&US Based)
What is it?

Really simple.

It’s a competitive gaming mechanic. Local Hero medals are rewarded to the most discerning rummblers that have the highest true score. Just like Rummble’s personalised scores for places, Local Hero takes into account ratings from all other rummblers, regardless of whether you have an existing friend connection. So if you are an influential person in a specific area for different activities i.e. art, nightlife, bar, sushi, you might become the Local Hero for that specific area BUT this does not necessarily mean that you will stay the Local Hero since the medals are recalculated every six hours.

Local Hero for Fast Food of London goes to Lampone

Purpose

One of the purposes in designing this competition was to build a unique game to compliment Rummble’s existing service; so when you visit a new area, instead of just searching for nearby places, there’s a good chance that some of the best places will have been rummbled by the local hero. It’s like having a pool of local experts ready to point you in the right direction.

How does it Work?

It uses Rummble’s unique trust algorithm to work out who are the most influential people in each area. Being perfectionists, we decided to represent each areas with precise geographical polygons, instead of boxes. This makes our calculations much more accurate. We currently have polygons for UK and US, with more countries coming soon.

You can view the medals in Rummble for Android and IPhone apps, and on the mobile web (m.rummble.com). The upcoming new website will also include Local Heroes and leader boards.

We would love to hear your feedback about Local Heroes!

Look Out for Rummble Stickers!

Rummble has almost completed the first phase of “Rummble for Local Business”.

We ran our first sticker tests in Amsterdam under the code name “Operation Quebec Romeo“. Now you can find Rummble stickers here in the UK – in some of London’s coolest venues.

Each sticker is unique and interactive. Using your phone, simply scan the barcode (aka QR Code) on the sticker to visit the Rummble listing for that venue. It’s lightening fast!

Not only does it make it easier than ever to share your location with friends, but you can also see who else has checked-in to that venue. How cool is that?

Don’t have a QR reader app on your phone? We recommend the following free apps:

• iPhone – i-nigma (iTunes link)
• Android – Barcode Scanner (Android Market link)
• Windows Phone – BeeTag or i-nigma
• Blackberry & Symbian – i-nigma

You can also type the “rmb.ly” short url on the bottom right of the sticker directly into your mobile web browser.

So, next time you’re painting the town purple, keep a look out for Rummble stickers.

Fruits of our Facebook Hackathon

Recently the Rummble team to took part in London’s biggest ever Facebook Developer Garage and Hackathon.

Andrew and Callum started from scratch and developed the concept, core functionality and pitch during the day on Sunday. Having won the evening pitch, judged by none other than Mark Zuckerberg to be a “simple solution to a problem which needs solving”; Alex joined the party at Dare Digital’s office to code through the night to prepare for live demos on Monday.

The idea, which spawned from a brainstorm with Alex’s non-technical sister, Sophie, is to allow Facebook users to ask for personalised recommendations for places from their trusted Facebook friends.

Pitched as the ”laziest way to get recommendations of places to go”, the lazy part is where Rummble’s tech ninjas got stuck in. After selecting a location, the app suggest friends that should be able to offer great place recommendations, based upon the information connected to their profile in Facebook.

We are truly excited to bring this simple gem of an idea to life to share with fellow Rummblers and Facebookers. So, we hear you ask, how does ‘Recommend a Place’ work?

Here’s how it works

1. Tell us the city you want recommendations for
2. We find which friends know the city
3. You select who you want us to ask
4. We post to their wall asking for recommendations
5. You get a list of awesome places to go!

So head on over to http://apps.facebook.com/recommendaplace to ask your friends for great recommendations for this beautiful sunny weekend!

Rummble Tips: Publish Rummbles to Twitter

When creating a new Rummble on the website or mobile site,  you can now choose to publish it to Twitter where all your followers will be able to view the Rummble’s title, tags and rating, and they click through to the Rummble site to view more details if they wish.

It’s a great way to share your Rummbles and let your friends see where you are. All you have to do is link your Twitter account to Rummble by using this link :

http://www.rummble.com/private/displayexternalaccounts.do

Publishing Rummbles to Twitter

When you see this page, scroll down where you see Twitter and write your Twitter username inside the box. Click OK, it will automatically link you to the Twitter site. They will ask you to allow Rummble access, click allow and it will take you back to the Rummble site, all done and ready for you.

Publishing Rummbles to Twitter

New m.Rummble.com Mobile Web Updates

We thought it would be great to update our Mobile Web site where you can easily share and find places nearby that you will like.

Just go to m.rummble.com from your iPhone, Android or your Windows Phone.

New Update in mobile web m.rummble.com

Changes:

• Quick Sign Up
• Twitter Sign Up
• Added Check-in functionality
• New News Feed
• See Who’s Nearby
• See What’s going on around you
• Improved Rummble Detail Page with check-ins, tweets and further information
• Improved User Detail Page with latest rummbles, check-ins and medals
• New Add Rummble wizard

As you can see in the picture below, you can check out your friends activities and see their Rummbles quickly and easily!

New Update in mobile web m.rummble.com

Find World Cup Venues on Rummble

Here at the Rummble HQ in London, we’re trembling with excitement about the seismic global sporting spectacle that is the FIFA World Cup Finals, now set to kick off in South Africa.

We made it easier than the off-side rule to discover and recommend venues that are showing the World Cup.

He’s how not to score an own-goal when deciding where to watch the match:

1. Sign-in to Rummble on the web, mobile web; or on your Android, iPhone, Windows Phone (it’s free!)
2. Search for “worldcup“
3. Check out the list of nearby football-friendly venues.
4. Check-in and tell your friends where you’re watching the match via Facebook or Twitter

To kick off, we already tracked down over 100 venues here in London, loads of venues in Berlin and Paris, and at least one in the capital of every participating European country.

But this is just to get things started, we also invite you become the referee to join us in sharing the best World Cup venues. Simply add “worldcup” as a tag when rummbling a venue.

For hundreds of millions of people, there is no better excuse to meet up (and drink beer) with friends, than to watch 32 countries battle it out on the pitch for ultimate football glory. Rummble helps you discover places nearby that you might enjoy and find yours friends. Seems like a perfect combination? The best bit is that afterwards you can use Rummble to find the next place to go, to comiserate or celebrate!

Enjoy the World Cup and keep rummbling!

Team Rummble

Are you are part of a venue that is screening the World Cup? Please email worldcup@rummble.com – we’d love to hear comments, suggestions and rants from the community too!

Note: We tried our best to make sure that these venues show World Cup games, but please check in with them before you make plans to assure they are actually showing the game you are planning to see.

Local Heroes More Heroic and Rummble for Android bug fix

Two bits of important news today:

• An upgrade to the Local Heroes interaction
• Important bug fix for foreign language Android phones

Heroes

In Rummble for Android (or from your phone browser at m.rummble.com ) you now receive instant feedback from Rummbling (i.e. creating a review or a check-in to a venue) to see instantly which medal you’re competing for and also if you’ve won it.

Don’t forget, becoming a Local Hero is not just the number of check-ins, it is based on a smart algorithm which works out how trusted you are by the Rummble community.

If the most people agree with your opinions about a subject in a certain area, we think it is right that you should be recognised for your superior knowledge and opinions for that area- you are, a Local Hero!

The Local Hero update includes:

• New medal overview page
• Local Heroes algorithm tweaked to include certain types of check-in in the calculation
• Instant re-calculation of medals for a direct feedback after Rummbling or check-in
• More medals for more subjects – now just waiting to be discovered!

Rummble for Android improvements

Improvements in the Rummble for Android app include the above, plus:

• Removed all loading dialogues in the Rummbling process – no more waiting while rating!
• Changed the layout of the check-in screen and integrated the medals feedback inline
• Update-check process so you never miss an update (you’ll be warned at up start if there is a new version)
• Non-English Android phones: Fixed a crash when you’re using a different language than English

It’s Friday! That Means New Rummble Releases!

Rummble for Android v1.1.3 in Android Marketplace

Lots of tweaks in this new update, including:

• Rummble now remembers most recent search queries (last entered search strings)
• “I’m here right now” on rating of Rummble, so you can rate AND check-in with one easy action!
• Layout changes of check-i -screen (title now “Checked in!” to make it clearer, counter on top right)
• Feedback after publishing checkin-status (success/failure)
• Added text to navigation tabs
• Added top bar with check-in and back-button on all tabs of Rummble Details screen
• Photo can be added from file and camera on review of a Rummble
• Map view works correctly even when no address is set
• Changed Rummble personalised rating icons to default to Emoticon style smilies on the Rummble List
• …and added an option under Settings to change back to numeric-icons if you dont like them!
• Implemented average ratings as grey ratings (coloured ratings are personalised to you and unique to you!)

..but there’s more. Want the very very latest version (before it has been fully tested and to help us make improvements? you can always download the latest build even before it hits the marketplace, at http://bit.ly/rumalpha

Rummble for Mobile Web updated

For those not lucky enough to have an Android, iPhone or Windows Phone, we’ve also updated the Rummble Mobile Site at http://m.rummble.com

• Quicker Sign-up
• Twitter Connect Sign-up
• Added Check-in functionality to the Rummble/Review Details view
• New Activity Feed for Friends and what’s happening Nearby
• Improved Rummble Detail Page with
  • recent Check-ins
  • who was here previously
  • recent Tweets about the venue
  • plus further information
• Improved User Detail Page with
  • Recent Rummbles,
  • Recent Check-ins
  • Latest Medals
• New Add Rummble wizard which matches your new review to nearby or existing Rummbles automatically

..more to come very soon, please give us your feedback and have a fantastic weekend!