Gowalla API wrapper for node.js

http://gowalla.com/api.docs

The Gowalla API is really simple to use but I wanted some syntactic sugar because typing is lame.

Usage

Initialize

gowalla = new Gowalla(API_KEY, YOUR_SECRET, (optional: username), (optional: password));

The username and password are optional. You can get a lot out of the API without it.

Querying

Gowalla uses a REST api and nests tons of their request, i.e. /users/id/pins, /spots/id/events etc This lib lets you mimic that. Example:

user = gowalla.user("jspies", callback);
user.stamps(callback);

You can even chain it:

gowalla.user("jspies").stamps(callback);

In the chain above, no request is even made on the call to user() because there's no callback. However, you can callback:

gowalla.user("jspies", callback).stamps(callback);

Searching

You can search the spots you pull back from a lat/lng

gowalla.spots(30.2697, -97.7494, 5).search("Torchy");

Polling

You can setup events on spots to tell you when someone checks in there. Or items to see when they move

gowalla.spot(10542).poll(10, "April 2, 2010", function(checkin) {
  console.log(checkin.user.first_name+" is admiring the Mystery Gorilla");
});

gowalla.spot(10542).stop(); // when you tire of the Gorilla

OAuth2 now, and checkins

Here's an example using Express, a node.js framework, http://github.com/visionmedia/express

 app.get("/gowalla", function(req, res) {
   res.redirect(gowalla.authorize_url("http://my-website-of.awesome/gowalla/auth"));
 });

 app.get("/gowalla/auth", function(req, res) {
   var code = req.query.code;
   gowalla.get_access_token(code, "http://my-website-of.awesome/gowalla/auth", function(error, access_token, refresh_token) {
     if (error) {
       res.send("Error: "+ error);  
     } else {
       // you should save the access_token and refresh_token in your db if you want to make future requests
       res.redirect('/');
     }
   });
 });

And now checkin

 gowalla.spot(197397).checkin({
   lat: 38.9085106333,
   lng: -77.21468345,
   comment: "I love checking in",
   post_to_twitter: true,
   post_to_facebook: false
 }, function(msg) {
   if (msg.error) {
     if (msg.error == "authorization_expired") {
       // need to refresh
     }
   } else {
     res.send(msg.detail_html);
   }
 }, test? put true here for testing);

Example script:

var Gowalla = require('./gowalla');
var gowalla = new Gowalla("YOUR APIKEY", "YOUR SECRET");

gowalla.user("jspies").stamps(function(data) {
  var num_stamps = data.stamps.length;
  for(var i=0;i<num_stamps;i++) {
    console.log(data.stamps[i].spot.name);
  }
});

What's Next?

Chain Gang Support

OAuth2 Client

Check-in over API

Update: Nothing is next, because Gowalla died like 2 years ago.