Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The Google Checkout team focuses a lot on how we can best meet the needs of both buyers and merchants, especially since these interactions are the raison d'être for this service. But there's a third constituency we aim to serve that isn't quite so apparent—namely all the developers out there working with the Google Checkout API. These are the folks who do the important work of integrating merchants' websites with the product and making available the more advanced functionality found in the API, which in turn helps expand the network of sites offering Google Checkout.
Granted, I'm somewhat biased since I'm involved in developer support for the Google Checkout API, but all developers—regardless of if they're just kicking the tires on the API or are in the midst of integrating—should be aware of the resources available to them.First and foremost, the epicenter for all things API-related is the Google Checkout API section of code.google.com. There, you'll find a lot of different resources including the developer's guide, sample implementation code, and our small (but growing) collection of developer's cookbook articles.
One other thing not to miss is the Google Checkout Developer's Forum. A growing community gathers there to discuss all things related to the API. A great example of the developer community in action are the different posts addressing needs around the use of HMAC SHA1: there's a post about a Javascript implementation for use with Classic ASP, another on HMAC_SHA1 in Ruby, and an explanation of how to do the same in Perl.We've got a lot more developer resources planned for the coming weeks and months. If you have any thoughts about how we can improve your experience as a Google Checkout API developer, please get in touch. I'll personally read all of your suggestions, and hope to respond whenever possible.
