Jason recently wrote about the newest Buzzsaw API for Member Management. The sample application he posted was written in C# and .NET 1.1. I wanted to post and update I just received. Here is a new version of the sample program written in C# and .NET 2.0 as well as an updated help file:
One of Constructware's strengths has always been data integration. Constructware has a Data Integration process and methodology that is used by many of its clients to hook up to accounting/financial/ERP/MUD applications.
Buzzsaw has forever had a WebDAV API which allows documents to be uploaded and downloaded outside the Buzzsaw client interface. Really really handy and useful for lots of things like synching with local files, uploading on a scheduled basis, or drive mapping through tools like Webdrive.
Late in 2006, we quietly (shhh!) rolled out a Member Management API which gives you webservice access to your member list, groups, passwords, and so forth on a Buzzsaw site. It's designed for gearheads developers, though -- so your average Site Administrator isn't going to get much out of it. But if you're building an application that needs to access the Buzzsaw Member list, I present to you....drum roll please...
The Buzzsaw Member Management Webservices API Documentation File (Zipped For Your Convenience)
Download UserGroupPermissionAPI-2006-08-14.zip
Read it and weep. Seriously, there are some sample apps and things, and some pretty good documentation, enough to get a pretty good Buzzsaw - Friendster mashup application written, if you were so inclined...
Not to be outdone by Google, Amazon.com, eBay and the like, we have ourselves a bunch of snazzy webservices (what?) here at Buzzsaw.
If you're a coder (even a cowboy coder), you can use these to access information about a Buzzsaw site - including its members and some attributes about those members.
The WSDL for Buzzsaw's Member management is here.
The WSDL for Buzzsaw's Attribute service is here.
You'll need a valid Buzzsaw login to access either one; use this format:
Sitename\Username
Password
Example: "Mysite\Bud Melman" "SnazzySpecs1234"
Here's some sample code, courtesy of developer Dave Watt, that gives you a .NET example of how to access Buzzsaw via its webservices API. (Unfortunately the blog software doesn't want the indentation to show up when I paste it in, so you get to imagine that it's neatly formatted as it was when I got it from Dave.)
Module Module1 Sub Main() Dim test As String = "" Try Dim service As New projectpoint.MemberManagement.MemberManagement() System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = False Dim NewCreds As New System.Net.NetworkCredential("User", "PWD", "Site") Dim NewCache As New System.Net.CredentialCache NewCache.Add(New Uri(service.Url), "Basic", NewCreds) service.Credentials = NewCache test = service.Hello() Catch ex As Exception Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString) End Try Console.WriteLine(test) End Sub End Module
Good luck with it, hopefully you can find new and useful ways to connect to Buzzsaw with this API, which I think is just fantastic.
Jason
R.I.P., Calvin Deforest.
It seems that we are overdue for some product tips so I've decided to share one of my favorite Buzzsaw tricks. Buzzsaw supports the WebDav protocol for accessing data. This means that you can access your Buzzsaw site through any WebDav client. Your permissions continue to control what you can see and do on the site, but you can connect to your data through additional channels.
Any 3rd party software that supports WebDAV can be used to access Buzzsaw. For example, Mac OS X has built in support for WebDAV, and there is a java based software DAV Explorer that uses WebDAV also. Listed below are other examples of 3rd party client software that can be used to access Buzzsaw.
Regardless of which utility you use to access Buzzsaw, you'll need the following URL: https://webdav.buzzsaw.com/yoursitename then just use your Buzzsaw Username and Password to authenticate.
