Topic: Foursqaure Integration?

Foursqaure Integration?

Viking John
Participant

@vikingjohn

2 years, 11 months ago

Hi Paul,

I’m not a developer, but I’m wondering if it’s possible for the possible scenario to be implemented with the achievements module.

I use an application on my Android phone called Foursquare, it’s basically a location based game using your GPS, you ‘Check In’ from venues when you visit them. You can unlock badges for number of visits, type of venue visited & he person who visits a particular venue the most by checking into that venue every time they visit will become the ‘Mayor’ of that venue. More details on the game here: http://www.foursquare.com/

My question is….I would like to use your achievement module on my site. Would it be possible for you to link up your achievement module with the Foursquare API so that we can create custom achievements for locations visited?

The scenarios I am thinking of in particular is say for example a football fan site. I would like to offer an achievement on my buddy press site for fans who attend a specific match, i.e. they attend the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Rather than have to manually verify users attended the event such as having them post photos of themselves with their ticket at Wembley on the day etc, it would be much easier if I create an achievement that users the Foursquare API to check if a user checked into a specific venue on a specific date, if so then award them the achievement.

This would probably require a custom profile field to be created in BuddyPress for the users to specify their Foursquare username etc.

The Foursquare API can be located at: http://groups.google.com/group/foursquare-api/web/api-documentation

This would be a really nice feature but I am not a developer so don’t think I would be able to hack your code to make my customisations this way.

Could you let me know if number one……is this possible to integrate the two applications this way? number two……is this something you would consider building into the application for a future release?

Cheers,

John

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Paul Gibbs
Keymaster

@djpaul

2 years, 11 months ago

Hi John
Someone else asked yesterday about geolocation achievements, Ike 4SQ, and it’s an interesting idea. I understand 4SQ has badges for certain check ins (I think there’s a star bucks one).

Utilising the 4SQ API would make more sense as a BuddyPress site owner is extremely unlikely to convince their users to visit a particular webpage and press a button, or download a site-specific app. HTML5 does offer support for geolocation, so it’s not impossible to envisage a 4SQ-like client built in a browser.

Viking John
Participant

@vikingjohn

2 years, 11 months ago

Thanks for the response Paul. I’ll expand a little further…

I’m not specifically requesting Geolocation achievements, more of a request for Foursquare integration. I’m an avid fan of Foursquare and to encourage activity within Foursquare I would like to offer my site users additional achievements on my site based on their Foursquare activity (if they use it). If they don’t use Foursquare then they will not be able to unlock the additional Foursquare achievements on my BuddyPress site.

Would it be possible for yourself or another developer to build in Foursquare integration (using the API or via the users Feeds – http://foursquare.com/feeds/ as Foursquare makes check in history available via RSS, KML and ICS feeds) via a plug-in for the achievement module?

For example create a new folder located at: wp-content-plugins-achievements-foursquare

Within this folder will be the additional functionality to add Foursquare integration for the achievements module.

Adding this plug-in will then give you additional options from the create achievement screen to create achievements based on Foursquare activity.

For example when using the Foursquare add in:

1. In the admin area click ‘Create New Achievement’

2. There should then be a new option visible called ‘Foursquare’

3. When you click the create new Foursquare achievement you will be taken to the create new achievement screen that has the following fields:

* Name
* Description
* Points
* Foursquare Venue ID
* Action (Event)
* Awarded when (Options of ‘Check In Number’/'Check in on Specific Date’)
* If ‘Check In Number’ is selected in previous step then the field of ‘How Many Times’ is displayed). If ‘Check in on Specific Date’ is selected then a Date picker field is displayed
*Advanced Settings

4. An additional custom profile field will also be added to users profile where they add their Foursquare username/ID

5. The achievement module will then periodically check Foursquare either using the API or the RSS Feed for the user, based on what is set in the users profile field, then check the venue ID against check ins that match that user. If the parameters returned match any of the ‘Foursquare’ achievements created within BuddyPress then award the achievement.

For example if the achievement created was to check into a venue on a specific date & User X checked into venue Y on date Z then award the achievement.

I think using the Feed sections rather than the API might be a better option as the API will have limits to the amount of hits in can take. So if we create a new custom profile field in BuddyPress for the user to enter their Foursquare RSS feed then buddy press can do a check on that feed instead?

What do you think? Is this possible?

gpo1
Participant

@gpo1

2 years, 11 months ago

@xberserker Can you look into this for
http://buddypress.org/community/groups/cubepoints-buddypress-integration/
cc: @vikingjohn

Paul Gibbs
Keymaster

@djpaul

2 years, 11 months ago

@Gpo1 quit hijacking my posts in my plugin’s group!

John: definately possible, yes.

gpo1
Participant

@gpo1

2 years, 11 months ago

Sorry.. LOL

Viking John
Participant

@vikingjohn

2 years, 11 months ago

Thanks, that’s great.

Now I just need to find a developer wand twist their arm in to doing this!