Dunking your Cake into a tasty source of data

APIs make it easier for developers to interact with web applications and systems. To understand the capabilities of the Learning Registry, and how Jorum could potentially use and benefit from the it, I decided to create a CakePHP Datasource for the Learning Registry API. My framework of choice is CakePHP. CakePHP is designed for rapid development, and is ideal for prototyping web applications.

So far, I’ve created the READ parts of the LR Datasource. The LR Datasource abstracts the connection requirements and the intricacies of the API and helps connect Cake developers directly to the LR, allowing them to simply “plug-in” to a node and use the data obtained directly in their developments.

Recently, I have been working on the Jorum Dashboard; a web application that will provide an up to date, accessible window to statistical data about Jorum resources. The dashboard is written in CakePHP and I have been able to plug the LR Datasource directly into the application, giving me access to LR nodes (including the JLeRN nodes).

With the READ capabilities of the Datasource I can access paradata about resources and display that information within the Jorum Dashboard.

In the future I’d like to develop the Dashboard so that it submits the DSpace stats about resources, collects further usage data about resources from other sources including Topsy, Twitter, Google, Klout, and posts this paradata to a Learning Registry node.

You can find this and other CakePHP Datasources that I am working on at the following Git repository: https://github.com/cookiescrumbs/Datasource