The advantage of simple APIs

I still can’t believe how simple it is to set up new features within a blog utilising WordPress.

Take the recent launch of the LinkedIn Company Insider widget, which is now integrated here on a few pages

It was simply a case of adding a script line into the header file to load the javascript applet that performs the magic, and then setting up a new Dynamic Text Replacement using Scott Reilly’s plugin that was already being used to provide some quick shortcuts for stockcharts amongst others, and that was it.

Now with the magic, you get a nice little icon after the company name (like this Ipanema Technologies ), and if you’re registered on LinkedIn, a click will provide a popup with the names of some contacts in the company that you know. As for security, it uses a cookie that’s already on your system if your a registered LinkedIn user, and this is transfered directly to the LinkedIn servers by the script, which is also sourced from LinkedIn.

Ain’t that magical?