What is Zing?

Zing is an opensocial compliant social Networking Site (SNS) built in Java web technology. It is using Apache’s Java Shindig framework for OpenSocial compliance. While we (see the about us section below) were developing Zing, one of the most important thing for us was to keep it simple. Zing has almost all of the basic SNS features like application gallery, scrapbook, albums, media items, mailing option etc. Yet is very simple and straightforward to understand and use.

Zing is currently version 0.9 beta

What can I do with Zing

1. You can leverage zing as a base for building your social networking site. It is opensocial compatible, so that is a bonus.
2. You can use zing as a reference implementation of opensocial compliance using Apache’s Java Shindig framework.

How can I use Zing

Go to our getting started page [here-http://code.google.com/p/zing/wiki/gettingStarted]. We also have a brief about the architecture of our application [here-http://code.google.com/p/zing/wiki/Architecture]

What is zing’s short term roadmap

1. Verify on unix/linux and Macintosh platforms.
2. A brand new look & feel
3. Turnkey deployment
4. Easily customizable look and feel.
5. Compliance with all of OpenSocial’s REST based interfaces as OpenSocial API matures.

Technical brief

1. Opensocial version 0.8
2. SNS container is integrated with Apache Shindig Java Server, which is an open source implementation of the OpenSocial specification and gadgets specification.
3. The integration of Shindig with SNS is done via iFrames, which provides the environment to execute the gadgets inside the web pages.
4. The RESTful capabilities of the Shindig container are exposed through RESTful Service Handler.
5. Caja is used in Shindig Container to safely allow scripts gadgets provided by third party.
6. OAuth, used in SNS, allows to access private resources (photos, videos, contact list, bank accounts) stored on one site with another site without having to hand out username and password.

Related Projects:

1. Php version of Zing (Esprit) : http://code.google.com/p/esprit/

About us

We are Impetus Labs or iLabs as we call it. iLabs is a R&D consulting division of software product R&D company called as Impetus technologies. (http://www.impetus.com). iLabs focuses on innovations with next generation technologies and creates practice areas and new products around them. iLabs is an active contributor to the Shindig project. iLabs is also actively involved in various Open Source technologies.