Clip and Share / Blog: Recent posts

After doing some work on building the API for future versions of Clip & Share, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to just call things off and leave the future of Clip & Share up to the community.

I wish I could say that this isn't just a cop out, but unfortunately, I'm having trouble even convincing myself of this. But I will offer up at least one excuse: The direction I wanted to take the project in was beginning to bump up against the limitations of Google Chrome. For example, one of the things that I wanted to create in the API was dynamic localStorage calls based on input from the method that was called. It turns out that Chrome makes this very difficult (if not impossible) to do. I understand the security implications, but it sure would have been great to be able to implement this into the API framework!... read more

Just wanted to give an update on the deprecation of the Facebook App attached to Clip and Share. Last night, I posted that I would be removing the app ID from the software so that it would no longer be tied to my Facebook Developer account and could actually be independent (as open source software should be) of any one particular person's developer accounts. Unfortunately, Facebook requires an app ID (and redirect URL) for all uses of the dialogs API. I've experimented with a couple of workarounds, but haven't found one that I am satisfied with.... read more

Mid-week, I will be deprecating the Facebook App that has been representing the extension. It has been a holding ID that has been adding "via Clip and Share" to Facebook posts in the gray text area. While this deprecation is not really a big deal, it is important to ensure that you are running the latest version of the software in order to make sure you don't get any unwanted error messages. An update should be released tomorrow morning or early afternoon.... read more

I decided that, while working on the new API, I would take the opportunity to explain a bit about the foundations of the software since I am ultimately having to rethink every detail as I redesign the framework. I'd like to start off by talking about what I consider one of the key concepts of the extension - the fact that OAuth is not used in any portion of Clip and Share.

OAuth has become one of those fundamentals that just about every developer working on a social media platform has become familiar with. It has given developers the opportunity to get a key that unlocks the door without letting them steal your car in the process. It's really been quite a great influence on the way we even do something as simple as logging into a site. Even the SourceForge site you're reading this on right now has an option to sign in using an OAuth connection to some network or another.... read more

As development moves forward and Clip and Share moves closer and closer to becoming a more powerful and highly customizable application, it's only fit to step back and take a look at the possibilities. It seems that the software is quickly growing past the point where clipping and sharing are sufficient. In fact, the possibilities for the software have blown wide open with the preparation of the 3.0 release!... read more

I just wanted to give an update to developers about the current status of 3.0. As I've began the coding process and started to think about the actual implementation of new features, I've decided that it will be more and more practical to create an API specifically for Clip and Share. You can get a preview of what the API looks like and how it will work by finding the API Reference page in the wiki. (It hasn't been posted to the front page of the wiki yet because it's still not even a complete rough draft of what things will be like!)... read more

Version 3.0 is on the way! However, I want to stress that this is more of an update for developers than for end-users of the extension. In fact, I'm suggesting that developers put off any plans for their own versions of Clip and Share until this release has been made. This will be a total rewrite of the existing codebase!!!

Why rewrite the entire codebase? Simply put, I want to make the extension more open source friendly. When I set out to build Clip and Share originally, it was my code and I was the only one who had to look at it (except for the occasional person who may want to snoop around in the backend of Chrome). It was also originally going to handle only Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. These are the three sites I use most, so they were the priority.... read more