Problem: Social Networks and Client Libraries

It's not a secret that I have several applications running on Social Network platforms.

Launched initially on Facebook last year several web applications were scaled up to support bebo platform in January this year.

It was relatively easy since Bebo has had a similar platform (actually they licensed Facebook platform).

Right now there are at least 5 major networks with API platform open for applications: Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Hi5 and Friendster. I'm going to scale up my applications to support all of them from the same application canvas and database.

There are obvious issues involved with such implementation for example standardization:

• Facebook and Bebo are based on Facebook API.
• Facebook is in the middle of the major redesign to its API and user profile.
• Myspace and Hi5 are based on Open Social. In addition both have introduced REST API recently.
• Friendster has its own REST API.

Another issue, which IMHO is more important is the lack of client libraries for languages other than PHP. My applications are .NET based (C# + MSSQL):

• There are 2 known client libraries for Facebook on the internet written in .NET. Both are not maintained and are written like junk:
  • Both are full of bugs and not maintained (not in sync with Facebook frequent changes).
  • Both are designed like applications and not like client libraries for 3rd parties to use.
  • Performance sucks big time.
  • Do not support Facebook recent redesign.
• There is no .NET library for Bebo and Friendster. Friendster has official library for java, however it seems like not operational from a brief review. Friendster documentation is not up-to-date.
• There is 1 known library for Myspace written in .NET.

I own 50% of one application written in PHP + MYSQL but it's not going to scale in the near future, not to mention it has not launched yet.

The problem: how to scale up 3rd party applications written initially for a particular platform to support and run on all other Social Network platforms ?

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In one of my recent posts - Problem: Social Networks and Client Libraries I tried to define the problem of lack of client libraries written in .NET to support Social Networks open platforms. Here is my solution - write these libraries myself. The first network will be [ ... ]