We are excited to announce the release of the Google Friend Connect Plugin for Discuz! 7.0. This project is hosted at http://code.google.com/p/google-friend-connect-plugins/.

Google Friend Connect allows simple user authentication using any OpenID account such as Google, Yahoo, or AIM. Instead of filling in yet another profile form, your users can connect to their existing identities, showing current profile pictures and information. The ability to easily integrate profiles increases user engagement and activity on Google Friend Connect enabled sites.

Google Friend Connect plugins are currently available for WordPress, phpBB and Drupal. Today, we're very pleased to announce a new plugin that will make it easy for webmasters to use Google Friend Connect on their Discuz! sites. Discuz! is one of the most popular forum platforms, so we think a lot of users and site-owners will benefit from this new tool.


Example page: after installing Google Friend Connect Plugin


Example page: user successfully logged into forum using Google Friend Connect Plugin

Features:

• Based on the latest release of Discuz! (Discuz! 7.0).


• Multi-language support: English, Simplified Chinese(UTF8, GBK) and Traditional Chinese(UTF8, BIG5).


• Support for various templates in Discuz!. Even if you use your own customized templates, it will not require extra effort to install this plugin.


• Easy to install. Just download the plugin, upload it to your server directory, and edit the configuration files according to the installation instructions.


• Use Google Friend Connect profile information, such as your profile picture and your personal bio, in your Discuz! profile. The plugin can also propagate changes from your Google Friend Connect profile to Discuz!, keeping your information current.

To see the plugin in action, please visit the demo sites (in English and Chinese). If you are a Discuz! forum administrator, you can download the plugin as a zip archive and follow the instructions for installation to deploy it on your site. The code is open sourced under Apache License 2.0, and contributions are not only welcomed, but encouraged. This project hosts an issue tracker which will be populated with known issues and requested enhancements, so please use the tracker to report any new bugs or incompatibilities you find, or to request new features.

For more information, please check the user manual.

Posted by Xiaohui Lin, Jacky Wang, Sha-Mayn Teh, OpenSocial Team

This guest post was written by Mauro Gonzalez from Globant. - Ed.

I recently developed a plugin to add Google Friend Connect social features to WordPress blogs. This plugin allows your visitors to authenticate using any OpenID account such as Google, Yahoo, or AIM and then comment on your posts with no need to complete a registration form.


When a visitor authenticates as described above, a WordPress account is automatically created for them. You can later add or remove permissions for the visitor from the WordPress site administration pages. If desired, WordPress comments can be replaced by Google Friend Connect comments gadgets. In this case, no WordPress account is created, since Google Friend Connect handles both the rendering of the comments as well as comments moderation. Regardless of whether the Google Friend Connect comments gadgets are enabled or not, comment entries display the user profile picture and link to the user’s profile. In addition, a set of social gadgets are available, such as the Social Bar, Members, Recommendations, and Global Conversation gadgets. When recommendations are enabled, a "Recommend" button is displayed below your posts allowing the site members to choose the content they like most. The most popular posts will surface to the top of the list within the recommendations gadget.

The blog activities -such as posting content or commenting on a post- are submitted to the Google Friend Connect activity stream, which is visible on the social bar. All of the plugin features, as well as the color scheme, size, and labels of the social gadgets are easily configurable via admin panel, using regular WordPress admin interfaces. The plugin installation does not require any programming skills at all and you can get it at the Google Code site. To see this plugin in action visit either the WordPress with native comments demo or the WordPress with Friend Connect comments demo.

Posted by Mauro Gonzalez, Globant

This post is of a geeky nature, feel free to skip it if you're not wearing a propeller beanie. - Ed.

Those of you who have tried your hand with the developer side of Google Friend Connect might have seen The Chow Down application, a sample website that demonstrates how Google Friend Connect can be cleanly integrated into a website with an existing login mechanism. Today, we are glad to announce that this sample is now available in two more languages: C# and PHP. Both the samples have been kept as similar to the original Python sample as possible.

The C# version of The Chow Down has been developed as an ASP.NET website and is compatible with the Mono environment. The latest stable release of its source code is available for download. You may also obtain the source code from the repository.

The PHP release is also available for download and its source code can be found in the repository as well. The PHP version uses the OpenSocial PHP client library to connect to Google Friend Connect.

The source code for both samples are freely available for use under the Apache 2 license.

We hope you like these samples and use them as reference to integrate Google Friend Connect with your websites. Feel free to discuss these samples on the developer mailing list.

Posted by Anash P. Oommen, Google Developer Relations

Normally when we misplace files here at the Googleplex, we ask our best engineers to get them back. But today, we've gotten rid of a few files on purpose, and we're happy to see them go!

Today, we're making it even easier to get started with Google Friend Connect. We've heard from a number of you that uploading files to activate your website is not always easy. So starting today, you no longer have to worry about downloading or uploading files. Setting up a new website just involves entering your site's name and URL upon logging into www.google.com/friendconnect.

Additionally, we've updated the "canvas mode" that's used inside gadgets. So now, when you click the zoom icon in the upper right corner of some gadgets, you'll see a lightbox that displays the gadgets' contents, instead of being taken to a new webpage.

To get started with Google Friend Connect, visit www.google.com/friendconnect.

Posted by Jonathan Terleski, UI Designer, Google Friend Connect