Jaiku support is broken since they've released the new API

[Miia Sample]

Since Jaiku migrated to Google AppEngine and redid part of their API, several Jaiku features have gone AWOL. With the old API key system apparently being deprecated and upgraded to use OAuth in authentication, neither receiving or sending messages work.

ref: http://api.jaiku.com/docs

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

i hope some one gets this fixed soon!

[Amr Mostafa (amr-mostafa)]

I will start working on this.

[Amr Mostafa (amr-mostafa)]

Looks like this would take a bit more than I expected. OAuth would mean that the user would have to authorize us through their browser (or something like that).

I will continue my work but I we need ideas regarding the User Interface/Experience.

Related discussion: https://twitter.pbwiki.com/oauth-desktop-discussion

[Amr Mostafa (amr-mostafa)]

I've linked my branch and attached a screenshot. It's starting to work. Early testers appreciated.

What currently works:
- The OAuth authentication (with a preliminary UI)
- Retrieval of messages.

What needs to be done?
- The properties dialog UI with OAuth (there is a UI but it needs to be improved, suggestions please)
- The JSON responses from Jaiku had changed, subsequently all operation methods needs to be updated to read them correctly.
- Refactoring and fine tuning.

It would be really great if someone can grab my branch, start gwibber and try to use jaiku. As I said, it should authenticate you successfully and retrieve your messages. See attached screenshot.

[termie (termie)]

termie, developer for Jaiku here, what has broken in the API for you? Plenty of other sites continued to function normally after the change, what interfaces were you using and how did they break?

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

@Amr i've installed your branch but I cant see jaiku in the Accounts

[Ryan Paul (segphault)]

@termie: Everything is broken. The old URLs and authentication system don't appear to work at all. There also doesn't seem to be any way to get a regular pre-OAuth API key anymore. The new APIs are extremely bad and are not at all conducive to building an efficient desktop client. Why doesn't entry_get_actor_overview work? Why are profile images not included in entry_get_actor_overview_since? When will there be complete documentation for these API calls? How can I get a regular stream like I used to be able to get with $user.jaiku.com/contacts/feed/json?

[Ryan Paul (segphault)]

I'm very uncomfortable with the poor quality of Jaiku's new APIs. It's clear at this point that Jaiku is not being properly documented or maintained. The changes that the developers have made since the project was open sourced are a huge big step in the wrong direction.

For now, I'm marking this bug wontfix. I strongly encourage Jaiku users to migrate to other services. I'll reopen if the Jaiku developers can address my concerns.

[guywithkeyboard (guywithkeyboard)]

Disclaimer: I have no idea how Jaiku used to work before it moved to app engine. I started working on Jaiku part time after the move.

As for the rest of Ryan's points:
* http://www.jaiku.com/api/key should give you the old style api key
* How does entry_get_actor_overview not work? Is it the offset thing? I thought it's been clarified already.
* Profile images - I need to take a look at it; I'm not as familiar with the codebase as termie.
* To get a user's stream, either /user/$username/(json|rss|atom) or $username.jaiku.com/(json|rss|atom) would work
* When will there be complete documentation - Yes the current documentation is pretty bare. I'll try to take a crack at it this week. Tracking bug: http://code.google.com/p/jaikuengine/issues/detail?id=116

Anything else that we can do to make the API more user friendly? It'd be very helpful if you can create issues in http://code.google.com/p/jaikuengine/issues .

[Ryan Paul (segphault)]

@guywithkeyboard: I really appreciate the response!

I'm pleased that the old authentication system is working. I have updated Gwibber so that it will work again with the conventional APIs. After a bit of trial and error, I also managed to get thread replies working again too using the new entry_add_comment method.

I've decided to stop there for now. It works, and that's really what matters. I'll consider updating it again to use oAuth and the other new APIs when the code is more mature and the documentation is more complete.