In this new post to her blog Lorna Mitchell looks at some of the work she's done to extract information out of the Google Analytics accounts API via an OAuth interface and parsed via SimpleXML.

I'm using pecl_oauth to authenticate users against their google accounts (see my post about using OAuth from PHP), but even after I have a valid google user, working out which analytics accounts they have access to and how to refer to them is a puzzle in itself, so I thought I'd share what I learned.

In her example she shows how to fetch the permissions for a user (which analytics they can access) via a call to the "/feeds/datasources/ga/accounts" URL. This returns some XML easily parsed by SimpleXML to grab the accounts' names and IDs. This is used to fetch the profiles and gather the "magic tableId" for use with the Export API to pull the actual data.

The Pique Web podcast has released their third episode with a special guest, Chris Shiflett, joining hosts Paul Reinheimer and Sean Coates.

n this episode, Chris Shiflett joins hosts Paul Reinhimer and Sean Coates to talk about user accounts, sessions and best practices for modern web applications. Sean also had the opportunity to speak with Lee Fernandes, the creator of the PHP Anthem, and we attached the conversation (and the song) to the end of this episode.

Things mentioned in this episode include BrooklynBeta, 1Password, Weak Web of Trust and the lyrics to the PHP Anthem. You can either directly download this latest mp3 or subscribe to their feed for this and other episodes.

Joshua Eichorn has a reminder about the WebThumb (a PHP-based website thumbnailing service) contest that he's having.

The WebThumb contest ends on the 15th. I know there are couple projects out there that haven't officially entered. If you want to have a chance to win an upgraded Webthumb account make sure to get your entries in, the contest website has all the details.

The WebThumb service is a web service that allows remote users to request a thumbnail of a site and, when it's ready, automatically fetch it to be used however they want. You can even defined custom heights and widths for the browser to use.

Joshua Eichorn has a reminder about the WebThumb (a PHP-based website thumbnailing service) contest that he's having.

The WebThumb contest ends on the 15th. I know there are couple projects out there that haven't officially entered. If you want to have a chance to win an upgraded Webthumb account make sure to get your entries in, the contest website has all the details.

The WebThumb service is a web service that allows remote users to request a thumbnail of a site and, when it's ready, automatically fetch it to be used however they want. You can even defined custom heights and widths for the browser to use.

On the JSLabs blog today, there's a new tutorial showing how you (yes you) can use the Facebook Developer's API to pull information from their systems.

The facebook API allows you to access profiles, friends, photos, and events. To access the API from an outside server, you need to go through the following steps:

• login to your Facebook Account
• get an account key
• Get the client library
• The php 5 library can be found here

He uses the PHP library to make the connection - a simple call to the API (complete with API key, the location of the interface, a secret key, and a session key to provide a unique identifier. The request made logs a user in (much have a valid Facebook account) and grabs: the count of the messages waiting, the number of posts to your wall, and a list of available photo albums.

On the JSLabs blog today, there's a new tutorial showing how you (yes you) can use the Facebook Developer's API to pull information from their systems.

The facebook API allows you to access profiles, friends, photos, and events. To access the API from an outside server, you need to go through the following steps:

• login to your Facebook Account
• get an account key
• Get the client library
• The php 5 library can be found here

He uses the PHP library to make the connection - a simple call to the API (complete with API key, the location of the interface, a secret key, and a session key to provide a unique identifier. The request made logs a user in (much have a valid Facebook account) and grabs: the count of the messages waiting, the number of posts to your wall, and a list of available photo albums.