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Project: JGoogle Package

Project: JGoogle Package

Hello everybody, I’m Aaron Schmitz – an open source software developer and senior in the mechanical engineering program at the University of Minnesota. I’ve been using open source software for as long as I can remember, and this summer my project for Google Summer of Code is to create a JGoogle Package that will allow easy interaction with the Google APIs from within the Joomla Platform.

In 2011, I participated in Google Code-in – placing 4th overall and earning a tour of the GooglePlex this summer. Google Code-in was an excellent opportunity for me to interact with additional open source organizations such as the LimeSurvey PHP survey platform.

Because of how much I enjoyed Google Code-in, I knew I wanted to spend my summer doing open source programming through Google Summer of Code. After looking at the list of selected organizations and briefly talking to the mentors of each, I knew that I wanted to work with Joomla this summer – partly because of my previous experience with the CMS, and partly because I’m still awed by the fact that Joomla powers nearly 3% of all websites. During the application period, I worked with mentor Elin Waring to issue pull requests to resolve a handful of small issues in the Joomla Platform.

My project proposal for Google Summer of Code is to create a JGoogle Package that will allow easy interaction with the Google APIs from within the Joomla Platform. This summer, the package I create will include both a set of classes which generates embeddable code for Javascript APIs and a set of classes which connect to the Google Data APIs through OAuth and similar authentication protocols.

In addition to creating these extensible frameworks, I will implement a few highly popular APIs such as Google Analytics, Google Maps, and Google Calendar. The benefit of these APIs to developers is clear. Right now, there are between 50 and 100 Google Analytics extensions in the Joomla Extensions Directory. The classes in this package would, for example, allow developers to make a quick call to a method to retrieve Google Analytics tracking scripts rather than implementing this code themselves. 

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