October 16
Windows Live Events: Create Event API and Event RSS
You’ve probably heard about the launch of Windows Live Events, but unless you’ve been using a web debugging proxy like Fiddler, you probably didn’t know that there’s a way to programmatically instantiate a Windows Live Event. Try clicking this link:
http://spaces.live.com/api.aspx?wx_action=createEvent&wx_targetSite=eventSpace&wxp_name=Movie+Night:+Live+Free+or+Die+Hard&wxp_alias=livefreeordiehard&wxp_contactName=John+Smith&wxp_contactPhone=206-555-1212&wxp_location=Space+Needle&wxp_address=4th+Ave.+and+Broad+St.+in+Seattle&wxp_latlong=47.62061,-122.34942&wxp_mapType=h&wxp_mapZoom=18&wxp_description=%3cimg%20src='http://entimg.msn.com/i/150/mo/OneSheets/new3/LiveFreeorDieHard.jpg'%3e&wxp_template=IIEventOscarParty.xml
API Details
The link should have taken you to an event create page with all of the specified parameters pre-populated. Yep, it’s a long link, but it’s intended to show all of the parameters (most of which are optional.) Here’s the link in a more read-able format:
http://spaces.live.com/api.aspx
?wx_action=createEvent
&wx_targetSite=eventSpace
&wxp_name=Movie+Night:+Live+Free+or+Die+Hard
&wxp_alias=livefreeordiehard
&wxp_contactName=John+Smith
&wxp_contactPhone=206-555-1212
&wxp_location=Space+Needle
&wxp_address=4th+Ave.+and+Broad+St.+in+Seattle
&wxp_latlong=47.62061,-122.34942
&wxp_mapType=h
&wxp_mapZoom=18
&wxp_description=%3cimg%20src='http://entimg.msn.com/i/150/mo/OneSheets/new3/LiveFreeorDieHard.jpg'%3e
&wxp_template=IIEventOscarParty.xml
As you can see, parameters are URL encoded. The mapping parameters (mapType, mapZoom) are consistent with Virtual Earth. Check out their interactive SDK for more info.
Potential uses
Below are just a few ideas for how you might use the Create Event API:
- If you own a site that lists local events or venues like MSN CityGuides or eventful, the Create Event API will hopefully help you enable your users to easily create Windows Live Event spaces to invite their friends to the events that you listed
- If you’re a local band, DJ, comic, etc., adding a create event link to your list of upcoming shows will make it easy for your fans to invite their friends
- If you own a venue like a restaurant, bar, club, etc., consider adding a create event link to your website to help your visitors get their friends together at your establishment
- If you’re a political candidate or advocacy organization, you could add a link to your website to make it easy for your supporters to create a coffee, house party, or debate watch party
- If you’re an athletic team, you could add a great an event link to your game schedule so people could easily schedule an outing
These are just a few ideas for using the Create Event API. I hope you find these useful and if you have feedback on the API or other suggestions for potential uses, please leave a comment. Thanks—
--Rob
RSS
P.S. Publicly accessible events also include an RSS feed. You can see this by adding /feed.rss to the event’s URL AND in additional to basic RSS elements like <title>, <link>, <description>, and <pubDate>; <geo> and <georss> elements are also included.
Update: 12 November 2007
Thanks to Thomas J. who pointed out the following:
* More full documentation will be posted on MSDN
* The "wx_targetSite" parameter is unnecessary
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