Whew. We’ve been putting the finishing touches on the new Enabled documentation.

You’ll see that it’s a wiki, on the Hayes build of Mindtouch’s Deki Wiki software. Expect to see some editing ability added in soon, as well as some of the neat abilities supported (bi-directional API support!).

In addition to much more simple API Reference, and a walkthrough for getting started with the API, you’ll also notice that we’re offering to promote developers who use the Box.net API in their apps.

This promotion works two ways:

1. Shared Files - whenever a user of your application shares a file through e-mail, we’ll include the name of your application and a link to your website in the text of the e-mail.

2. Your API - if you allow your application’s users to safely save and simply share with the Box.net API, we’ll work with you to get your API working directly with our user interface, so that launching your application to edit a file or document can be a one-click affair for users.

In a world of open platforms and open data, it makes the most sense for us to work together with developers to promote useful services. In the end, the user benefits most of all, with easy access to best-of-breed saving, sharing, and collaboration tools.

FireUploader

by

Rjonna 

What: An application to make Box.net accessible directly from your browser.

Why: Because it’s fast. Besides, who doesn’t want to turn Firefox into their OS?

How: Javascript and the Box.net API.

Fireuploader is intuitive and has a well-designed UI. But that’s only so helpful to a developer who wants to improve their project, so here are some ideas for future developments:

1. Syncing support. I often find that lots of my “house cleaning” activities take place while I’m offline. Taking care of uploading and backing up important files can’t happen if I don’t have a web connection, but by using a new offline/online framework such as Google Gears or another kind of local SQLite implementation, perhaps Fireuploader could be a killer app for offline as well as online use.

2. Parallel Publishing. Fireuploader has seperate interfaces for Flickr and Box. At first, this seems to make sense. Why would I want to store photos in more than one location?

When a photo is really important to me, and I have a service like Box that can act as a safe deposit space, maybe a more appropriate question is Why Not?

There’s a hilarious video that the Onion published last week.

While this scenario is far-fetched, what isn’t so far-fetched is the idea that you may want to do something with important files that the web service you originally published to won’t allow you to do.

By sending your file in parallel to Box.net, you have an insurance policy against such scenarios.

Because FireUploader eventually intends to interface with many different web services, I could imagine it being very useful for users to have the ability to easily publish files to Box.net as well as other applications 

I’d like to thank Rjonna again for using Box.net in his app. While most Box.net API apps are either server-side or add onto desktop apps, it’s great seeing your extension bridging the two together with admirable ease-of-use. 

We’ll keep an eye out for more of Rjonna’s projects.

-James

What’s big and blue and growing all the time?
If you guessed Box.net’s developer source code widget, you are correct!

PHP5 Library and Example App

First up on today’s menu is a library and example application for PHP5.

We took a medium-size Box.net integrated web app of over 600 lines, and reduced it to under 100 very prose-like lines of useful code.

It’s open source, so if you’d like to make a change (or you have questions) e-mail James at Box.net.

Python (Conduit Project Source Code!)

We hear Python is pretty delicious, especially with some framework on the side.

Unfortunately, there are no seasoned Python chefs on the Box team.

But our open-source developer community is showing us some love in the form of a Python binder class.

The Python code is from John Stowers at the Conduit Project.

Conduit is a total synchronization solution for GNOME desktops on *nix systems.

By storing your files in a Box account, Conduit lets you backup photos, files, and e-mails, transfer between computers, or even transfer from computer to mobile devices.

A new version of Conduit was released this week, so if you’re running *nix on your Box, check it out at conduit-project.org.

Conduit is open-source and has its own API which in turn interfaces with the Box API.

We think that’s a neat idea. In fact, if you can think of a good API for Box to interface with, e-mail James at Box and let it out.

If you’re not already subscribed to the blog, now would be a good time to do so. We’ll keep the tasty morsels coming.

Bon Appetit!

James