Make sure you have:

• Node.js ready to go
• The files for this workshop downloaded
  • See http://the-dining-philosophers.github.io/code-weekend
• Some sort of text editor, with those files open
• A Venmo account

Topics to cover:

• What is an API? How do they work? How do I use them?
• Sending emails using Nodemailer
• Sending HTTP requests from Node.js
• OAuth tokens and how 'the OAuth dance' works
• Using Venmo's API to send payments

Hopefully you're comfortable with:

• Node.js basics
• Storing data in sessions
• Creating and processing forms

We're using yesterday's finishing point as today's starting point. Like yesterday, we have milestones to jump to if you get behind or need to copy/paste something.

We'll start by going over the application from the end of Workshop 2 to make sure everyone is familiar.

Background: API

An API (Application Programming Interface) is essentially a way for you to plug in a wire from your application/library/code to someone else's, enabling communication between them. then communicate between them.

In the context of a hackathon, that 'someone else' is typically a 3rd-party service such as:

• Venmo
• Dropbox
• Twilio
• Twitter
• Spotify/Rdio

What we'll ultimately build

By the end of this session, our application will be able to:

• Send emails
• Do the OAuth dance with Venmo
• Use the Venmo API to send payments

Things we'll use to do that

• Packages
  • Nodemailer
  • request
• Venmo app, which you can

Milestone 1

• Get Nodemailer working and connected to Gmail
  • npm install --save nodemailer
• Send a fixed email to an email address provided by the user

Milestone 2

• Send a note as an email instead
• Add a 'send this note' form to the note view

Milestone 3

• Authenticate with Venmo
  • npm install --save request
• Store the Venmo credentials in the session
• Create a venmo page for sending payments

OAuth

Venmo's API

• https://developer.venmo.com/
• Request authorization: https://api.venmo.com/v1/oauth/authorize?client_id=...&scope=make_payments%20access_profile&response_type=code
• Venmo redirects back to our endpoint, /venmo/oauth?code=...
• Get access token: https://api.venmo.com/v1/oauth/access_token?code=...
• Provide access token to: https://api.venmo.com/v1/payments

Questions?