How to Flag a Post or a Discussion in a LinkedIn Group as a Promotion or a Job using Scribe and Java

As a sequel to my earlier post, Programmatically Posting to LinkedIn Groups via LinkedIn REST API and using Scribe-Java OAuth Library, in this post I will demonstrate how you can Flag a Post or a Discussion in a LinkedIn Group as a Promotion or a Job using Scribe and Java.

Consider the output of our example program in my previous post:

Notice the following header and its value:

Location = http://api.linkedin.com/v1/posts/g-5046253-S-259167773

This URL contains the post id of the published post and it is the very last part of the URL “g-5046253-S-259167773”.

So, what we will do now is the extend the same program/example and will try to extract the “Location” header value and then extract the “post-id” from that value:

//http://api.linkedin.com/v1/posts/g-5046253-S-276447044
String preUrl = "http://api.linkedin.com/v1/posts/";
String url = response.getHeader("Location").substring(preUrl.length());
url = preUrl + url + "/category/code";

Once you have the target URL, you can now proceed with the HTTP PUT request, using the url as a LinkedIn REST API end point.

OAuthRequest request = new OAuthRequest(Verb.PUT, url);
request.addHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml");

Now, if you want to Flag your Post or Discussion as a Promotion, you should add following XML stanza as the pay load to this request:

request.addPayload("<code>promotion</code>");

OR, if you want to Flag your Post or Discussion as a Job, you should add following XML stanza as the pay load to this request:

request.addPayload("<code>job</code>");

And, finally send the request to LinkedIn REST API server:

signOAuthRequest(request);
response = request.send();

When you run this updated program, you will see an output similar to the following on your console:

The Code 204 is fine, in our case as it complains about “No Content”. Your Post or Discussion on a LinkedIn Group has been Flagged as a Promotion or a Job.

Programmatically Posting to LinkedIn Groups via LinkedIn REST API and using Scribe-Java OAuth Library

In this post, I will demonstrate how you can post to LinkedIn Groups programmatically via LinkedIn REST API and using Scribe-Java OAuth Library.

To start with, you need to have an active LinkedIn account. Plus, you need to create a new LinkedIn Developer Application from LinkedIn Developer Site. If you want help on this, please refer to my previous post in which I demonstrate how you can create a new LinkedIn Developer Application, set different Scope(s) and how you can get following:

1. API Key
2. API Secret
3. OAuth Token
4. OAuth Secret

Do note that, for this example, you need to have 'rw_groups' scope because it is required to retrieve and post group discussions as authenticated user. So make sure you have checked the relevant box against ‘rw_groups’.

A LinkedIn Group Post contains following elements:

1. Post Title
2. Post Summary
3. Content URL
4. Content Image URL
5. Content Title
6. Content Description

Here’s the code and inline explanation of what it does:

Once your program ran successfully, you will see a response on your console, similar to following:

Using LinkedIn REST API to Share Content Programmatically via Scribe-Java OAuth Library

In this post, I will demonstrate how you can use LinkedIn REST API to Share Content programmatically via Scribe-Java OAuth Library.

To start with, you need to have an active LinkedIn account. Plus, you need to create a new LinkedIn Developer Application from LinkedIn Developer Site. If you want help on this, please refer to my previous post in which I demonstrate how you can create a new LinkedIn Developer Application, set different Scope(s) and how you can get following:

1. API Key
2. API Secret
3. OAuth Token
4. OAuth Secret

Do note that, for this example, you need to have 'rw_nus' scope because it is required to retrieve and post updates to LinkedIn as authenticated user. So make sure you have checked the relevant box against ‘rw_nus’.

A LinkedIn Share contains following elements:

1. Comment
2. Content – Title
3. Content – URL
4. Content – Description
5. Content – Image URL
6. Visibility

However, if your application can't provide all the metadata, LinkedIn will attempt to fetch the missing content for you. So we will only provide following and rest will be handled by LinkedIn itself:

1. Comment – against the content you want to share
   • For example: “H-1B Work Visa USA - Everything you need to know - Info, Tips, Guides, Stats, News, Updates, Recommendations, Community, Jobs and much more!”
2. URL – of the content you want to share
   • For example: “http://h1b-work-visa-usa.blogspot.com”
3. Visibility

Here’s the code and inline explanation of what it does:

Once your program ran successfully, you will see a response on your console, similar to following:

You can use the update key to request the XML or JSON representation of the newly created share. This can be achieved by making a GET call to http://www.linkedin-ei.com/v1/people/~/network/updates/key={update_key} (setting {update_key} to the value you received in the previous response)

Alternatively, you can choose to to use the update url to redirect the user to the newly created share. This URL serves as a direct link to the posted share on LinkedIn.com so they can view the share in the browser.

Consuming LinkedIn REST based Web Services using Scribe OAuth Java Library / API

In this post, I will demonstrate how you can consume/call LinkedIn’s REST based Web Services using a popular and easy to use OAuth Java library called Scribe. As an example, we will call LinkedIn’s Group API to fetch the number of members registered in that group.

Register a new LinkedIn Application

{ If you don’t have a LinkedIn account yet, you should create one now }

First you need to register a new application with LinkedIn to receive an API Key. This unique key helps LinkedIn to identify your application lets you make API calls.

Log into your LinkedIn Developer Account

Click on “+ Add New Application” button

Fill out the form – you need to fill following mandatory fields:

• Application Name = My First Test App
• Description = My First Test App
• Website URL = {URL where your people should go to learn about your application.} – Note you can create a free Java Cloud Hosting Account as shown in my previous post
• Application Use = For this example, you can select “Groups and Collaboration”
• Live Status = Development (You can change it to “Live” once you have done your testing and want to go live)
• Developer Contact Email = Your email address
• Phone = Your contact number
• OAuth User Agreement – Default Scope
  • r_basicprofile
  • rw_groups
• Agreement Language = Browser Local Setting

Once you fill the form and click on “Save” button, you will be provided with an API Key, Secret Key, OAuth User Token and OAuth User Secret. DO NOT SHARE THESE WITH ANY ONE ELSE.

Create a new Java Web Application that will consume LinkedIn REST based Web Services

You will be amazed to see how Scribe made it easy to do OAuth and finally call the web service:

I externalized the secret keys, token and other information like URL, duration etc. so it becomes easy to change the configuration of your application with out re-compile the application all again. In the init() life cycle method of HttpServlet, I loaded all those externalized variables:

Here,

• apiKey, apiSecret, token and tokenSecret are the ones you generated above.
• url is the LinkedIn Group REST API’s URL (we will replace the {{gid}} with actual Group Id in our servlet)
  • http://api.linkedin.com/v1/groups/{{gid}}:(num-members,name)
• durationInMillis is the time to cache the member count value. During that time any calls to this servlet will serve the client with cached value instead of making a call to LinkedIn Group REST API. Once that time is passed and comes a new client request, the servlet will attempt to fetch the value from LinkedIn Group REST API and update its cache. {durationInMillis defaults to 60 x 1000ms = 1 minute}
• numMembersPrefix, numMembersPostfix, namePrefix and namePostfix will be used to extract the LinkedIn Group Name and Member Count from the REST API Response XML.

In the doGet() life cycle method of HttpServlet, notice that this servlet expects a request parameter ‘gid’ i.e. LinkedIn Group Id, from the client and if not found, it sets the content to ‘INV’ i.e. Invalid Group Id.

If we received a valid ‘gid’, then we first check it in our cache which is a simple HashMap<Long, GroupInfo>:

If we didn’t found an associated GroupInfo object in our cache, we create a new one. And then we check if it’s a first request coming for this ‘gid’ or the time passed since the last request against this ‘gid’ is greater than the configured ‘durationInMillis’ then:

Make a call to LinkedIn Group REST API

Save the time to GroupInfo’s lastChecked – so we knew when did we last fetched the Group Information from LinkedIn.

Extract the name and memberCount from the response xml and set them in GroupInfo object.

Also, set the extracted memberCount to content, to be returned to the client.

Save the updated (or newly created) GroupInfo object in cache.

Else, if the time passed since the last request against this ‘gid’ is less than the configured ‘durationInMillis’ then:

Simply return the member count value from the cache.

Click here to view this servlet live in action - http://smhumayun.ap01.aws.af.cm/ligmcs?gid=5046253

If you remember my last post about a FREE LinkedIn Group Member Count Widget for Blogger, Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Moodle, Typo, Alfresco, Windows Live, Blogspot, SharePoint, etc.., this widget service uses very similar code like the one I’ve demonstrated above.

You can see the production version of the same being used here.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE SOURCE CODE FROM HERE

MemberCountServlet.java:

web.xml:

FREE LinkedIn Group Member Count Widget for Blogger, Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Moodle, Typo, Alfresco, Windows Live, Blogspot, SharePoint, etc..

While LinkedIn and other third parties offers numerous widgets and plugins, there’s one that is often requested by those who owns or manages or participates in one or more LinkedIn Groups.

LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.

In order to promote your LinkedIn Group, the only option you have is to add a “static” link of your group on your blog, CMS or website. But, that’s unlike how LinkedIn’s own or other Social Platforms widgets, badges, plugins offer “dynamic” linking that also displays useful information that shows how effective your community is and what’s the strength of your community.

Consider following examples:

LinkedIn Share Plugin – shows number of shares

LinkedIn Recommend Button – shows number of recommendations

Twitter Tweet Button – shows number of tweets

Facebook Share Button – shows number of shares

Above examples, shows how these “dynamic” info links are more appealing and effective when it comes to end-user experience and ultimately online marketing.

On the other hand, LinkedIn provides a rich API to do a number of interesting things with the data trove you have in the form of your LinkedIn Profile, Connections, Jobs, Companies, Groups etc.. However, these kind of integrations require a certain amount of development skills and expertise and there’s no solution for those who didn’t have that and just wanted to have easy to integrate buttons, widgets, etc. just like those shown above.

Good news! I’ve developed an online tool that would allow you to generate LinkedIn Group Members Count button/widget easily, without any requirements of development skills or expertise. Its simple and quick to generate as many buttons as you like and its FREE!!!

All you need to generate free widget for your group is:

1. Your LinkedIn Group Id – for example “5046253”
2. Title of the Widget – for example “Join our LinkedIn Group”

How to find Group Id of your LinkedIn Group?

Go to the home page of a group you like

Right click on the Logo of the group and if you have:

• Internet Explorer – then select “Copy Shortcut”
• Firefox – then select “Copy Link Location”
• Chrome – then select “Copy Link Address”

Paste the copied URL onto some plain/text editor. It will look like:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=5046253&trk=anet_ug_hm

Notice the group id highlighted in yellow above. Copy the numeric number right after from “&gid=” and up-till very next “&”. This is your LinkedIn Group Id.

GO AHEAD AND CREATE FREE LINKEDIN GROUP MEMBER COUNT WIDGETS NOW!

CLICK TO VIEW LIVE DEMO