Monday, November 05, 2018
With the holidays right around the corner, two new shopping related interfaces have been added to WiredPages & It's Personal.
The interfaces are powered by popular shopping networks which offer developers API access for tool development. The new QiSoftware tools are demonstrated via the following links.
Another QiSoftware tool which uses Amazon's Product Advertising API is demonstrated on the WiredPages Libraries page - the New York Times BestSellers.
Do you follow behind-the-scenes dealings with media executives and personalities? The WiredPages Media page has a new resource which provides headlines primarily associated with media personalities and executives.
Other plans for the Media page include:
- FCC API Call Sign Station Search
- NPR API Station Search w/ Live Playback
There are several new tool additions planned for WiredPages, so stay tuned.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
In 2011, I installed a tool on the WiredPages Reference page which provided USPS Postal Codes & the ZIP+4, along with latitude/longitude geo-coordinates for any address in the US.
Though the original data source continues to offer geo coordinates for any address in the world, the US Postal Codes are no longer available.
Over the summer (2018), I discovered the USPS offered API business services including:
- Price Calculator
- Verify an Address
- Track a Package
- Print a Shipping Label
- Lookup Delivery Dates
Late last week, the interface I developed using the Address Verification API was installed in the main area of QiSoftware[.com] as a product demonstration.
The Address Verification API is sophisticated and can, upon request, provide business related address information, however the QiSoftware demonstration does not allow for the optional input of the business name as part of the query submission to the API.
As shown in the above illustration, the new interface also provides the geo-coordinates and now also- the Google Static Map for the address.
Why not reinstall the new interface on the WiredPages Reference page? Simply a matter of preference. When I initially installed the "PlaceFinder" tool on WiredPages, bloggers were using different services that required geo-coordinates1. The intent was to provide an easy means to retrieve latitude/longitude coordinates.
QiSoftware offers customized software solutions to assist business owners with everyday needs. The USPS Web Tools® APIs offer useful data specifically geared toward business owners. How do you want your data?
1 Latitude/Longitude can be entered in the <meta name= .... /> area of the <head> .... </head> section of an "HTML" file.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Work continues in an effort to provide entertainment level services for visitors to the WiredPages Style & Events page.
The latest addition to the page, an Eventful API powered interface allowing visitors to search for events anywhere in the world.
Eventful is an online calendar and events discovery service owned by Entercom. The service allows users to search for and track upcoming entertainment events in their area...
PageSix also includes a Facebook Plugin providing "notable events" both here and elsewhere. Extensive research goes into providing links for the events listed, so if you have a notable event and would like consideration-- provide the Facebook Event in a message via the WiredPages Facebook Page. Not all events are listed, however suggestions are welcome.
Sunday, October 07, 2018
In late September (2018), a scheduled server move of the hosting-q.com domain (QiSoftware Web Hosting site) caused an unforeseen issue, resulting in a re-evaulation of the QiSoftware Web Hosting service offering.
The decision was made early last week to retire the web hosting offering, and links were quickly removed. On Friday, the site (hosting-q.com) was moved to a new hosting service and IP addresses updated.
Part of the problem, hosting-q.com did not have enough in the way of resources to handle the many Java server side applications used on WiredPages and other areas of QiSoftware.com.
QiSoftware core development efforts have always centered on Java software implementation. In 2002, when QiSoftware first went online, many web hosting services did not offer affordable JSP Web Hosting support.
The problem? If potential clients could not afford JSP hosting, then how could they afford QiSoftware Software? Business dictated offering the JSP web hosting support.
Hosting-Q.com went online in 2006, however never really had clients. Contact the FBI if you have questions.
Today, most web hosting services offer affordable JSP Web Hosting support, making QiSoftware's own web hosting reseller offering, an unaffordable "business" & "legal" luxury.
The site, hosting-q.com will remain part of the QiSoftware online business network, however now only a background resource.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Visitors to the WiredPages Employment page can now obtain information related to wages for a specified occupation and US location.
The new tool is a Java Servlet powered by a Department of Labor resource through the CareerOneStop website. The screengrab (below) illustrates the tool running in standalone development mode.
The data is presented in percentiles and based on prior year data collection.
Briefly, Wikipedia's definition of Percentile
A percentile (or a centile) is a measure used in statistics indicating the value below which a given percentage of observations in a group of observations fall. For example, the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20% of the observations may be found.
Below, illustration of how the new tool appears on the Employment page.
CareerOneStop and the Department of Labor offer many useful online tools for job hunters and researchers.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Are you a business owner? Have you claimed your Yelp Business page?
The WiredPages Dining & Travel page now boasts a new tool, Yelp Reviews.
The Yelp API offered several options for custom program development, or business owners may want to install pre-defined HTML snippets which will produce custom Yelp Badges for use on business sites. This is a great promotional tool if your business is well received.
During the development phase of this project, I noticed unicode escape characters in some of the "json" results data. This mainly, when requesting international business locations.
The Java Servlet used in this implementation was adapted to transform the Unicode escape sequence to the international character being represented, for display results.
Yelp, is a great resource for business owners, business patrons, and reviewers alike.
