Class: Google::SocialGraph

Inherits:
Object
  • Object
show all
Defined in:
lib/social_graph.rb

Overview

SocialGraph query object. Create with the identity URL(s) to check and pull information from. Note that you shouldn’t mix multiple users’ identities in one SocialGraph object!

Searching the social graph

require 'social_graph'
# We'll use Digg's Kevin Rose as our victim because hey, he's a pretty popular guy!

result = Google::SocialGraph.new "http://www.digg.com/users/kevinrose/"

# Get all people that Kevin refers to as a, acquaintance, contact, friend, or someone he's met
graph.refers_to_as([:acquaintance, :contact, :friend, :met]).inspect

# Now let's get a list of all the people that say they've met Kevin
graph.referred_to_as(:met).inspect

# Anyone can say anything they want, but we want to know where else on the web we KNOW is Kevin.
# This looks for mutual links between sites to each other, with the given XFN identity.
graph.mutual_reference_as(:me).inspect

# We can also find people that Kevin is a friend with (and people who are friends with Kevin back!)
graph.mutual_reference_as([:friend, :met, :contact]).inspect

Constant Summary collapse

HOST = 
"socialgraph.apis.google.com"
OPT_KEYS = 
[:edi, :edo, :fme, :pretty, :callback, :sgn]
DEFAULT_OPTIONS = 
{:edi => true, :edo => true, :fme => true, :pretty => 0, :callback => nil, :sgn => nil}

Instance Method Summary collapse

Constructor Details

#initialize(urls) ⇒ SocialGraph

Create a new graph query. Pass a URL or array of URLs to use as the query entry point. For example, if you wanted to find relationships to Kevin Rose, you might use his Digg profile at www.digg.com/users/kevinrose/

Note that any page that supports XFN will work. Pages that don’t support XFN won’t return any useful info, but they won’t cause problems either.



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 47

def initialize(urls)
  @urls = urls
end

Instance Method Details

#attributes(attr, options = {}) ⇒ Object

Get a list of attributes from your search. For example, if you wanted a list of RSS feeds attached to this user, then you would get:

query.attributes(:rss)



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 81

def attributes(attr, options = {})
  result = query
  results = {}
  (result["nodes"] || []).each do |node|
    node_addr = node[0]
    attr_hash = node[1]["attributes"]
    if attr_hash.nil? 
      results[node_addr] = nil if options[:include_nil]
      next
    end
    results[node_addr] = attr_hash[attr.to_s] unless attr_hash[attr.to_s].nil?
  end
  return results
end

#debug=(b) ⇒ Object

Turn debugging or off. When debugging is on, will write to RAILS_DEFAULT_LOGGER (if running under rails), or STDOUT otherwise.



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 97

def debug=(b)
  @debugging = b
end

#mutual_reference_as(relationship) ⇒ Object

Combines refers_to_as and referred_to_as to get verified relationships.

For example mutual_reference_as(:me) would return all nodes where any two nodes reference each other with a “me” XFN tag.



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 123

def mutual_reference_as(relationship)
  (relationship_map(relationship, "nodes_referenced") & relationship_map(relationship, "nodes_referenced_by")).uniq
end

#query(options = nil) ⇒ Object

Perform the query and return the graph info from Google as a Ruby hash. You can see the full option reference at code.google.com/apis/socialgraph/docs/api.html

See DEFAULT_OPTIONS for the options passed in by default.

Unless you want the raw info, you don’t need to use this directly. Use refers_to_as, referred_to_as, mutual_reference_as, and attributes instead.



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 56

def query(options = nil)
  return @result unless @result.nil?
  
  options ||= DEFAULT_OPTIONS.clone      
  
  path = "/lookup?"
  q = {}
  if @urls.is_a? String then
    q[:q] = CGI::escape(@urls)
  elsif @urls.is_a? Array then
    q[:q] = @urls.collect {|u| CGI::escape u}.join(",")
  end
  options.delete_if {|k,v| !OPT_KEYS.include? k.to_sym}
  q = q.merge(options)
  query = q.collect {|k, v| "#{k}=#{v.to_s}" }.join("&")
  path = "/lookup?#{query}"
  debug_msg("Fetching #{HOST}#{path}")
  body = Net::HTTP.get(HOST, path)
  @result = JSON.parse(body)
  return @result
end

#referred_to_as(relationship) ⇒ Object

Get a list of all people that refer to this person with the given XFN tag. A list of valid tags can be found at gmpg.org/xfn/join

For example, referred_to_as(:me) will get all nodes that refer to this person as him/herself. This can help you discover a user’s identities elsewhere. However, note that anyone can refer to this person with an XFN “me” tag, so don’t trust it unless there’s a mutual connection.

Another example would be referred_to_as(:friend) to get all people that call this person “friend”.



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 116

def referred_to_as(relationship)
  relationship_map(relationship, "nodes_referenced_by")
end

#refers_to_as(relationship) ⇒ Object

Get a list of all people this person refers to with the given XFN tag. A list of valid tags can be found at gmpg.org/xfn/join

For example, refers_to_as(:me) will get all nodes this person identifies as him/herself. This can help you discover a user’s identities elsewhere.

Another example would be refers_to_as(:friend) to get all people this person calls “friend”.



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# File 'lib/social_graph.rb', line 106

def refers_to_as(relationship)
  relationship_map(relationship, "nodes_referenced")
end