3 ms·

ASk HN: A json - jsonp proxy service

11 points by retube 16y ago

Hi All, I've run up against the cross-site ajax issue of not being able to request a json from another domain. Sadly this domain does not offer a jsonp alternative. Of course I can write/host my own proxy, but 1) I was wondering whether there are any proxy services already available (Yahoo yql?) or 2) if not, whether it would be worth setting one up for public use? Feedback/thoughts appreciated!

petercooper 16y ago
Does the other domain have a CORS policy? If so: http://ajaxian.com/archives/cor-blimey-cross-domain-ajax-is-really-here http://ajaxian.com/archives/cor-blimey-cross-domain-ajax-is-...
- retube 16y ago
  No idea. Thanks for the link, I'll investigate.
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    It should be noted that as far as I know, CORS only works with FF 3.5+, Safari 4+, Chrome (4+?), IE8+ and current versions of Mobile Safari. You'll still need a JSON(p) proxy for others, but if CORS is supported by the server, it's worth using just for the speed gain & bandwidth savings.
lenni 16y ago
I think Yahoo pipes does what you need: http://pipes.yahoo.com http://pipes.yahoo.com
- retube 16y ago
  ok, interesting. I know nothing about pipes, so will look it that. Thanks.
  - buro9 16y ago
    Pipes is a wonderful thing, you can do a lot with it (like consume Google Analytics emails with it to be able to make public charts by scraping the analytics XML attachments and surfacing them as public JSON: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-17-n73.html http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-17-n73.html ). The only problem with pipes is that if you're building anything that you will depend on (rather than it being a "nice to have") then your service now wholly depends on Yahoo maintaining pipes. The question I always fall back to is, "Do I want my service to be wholly dependent on a third party if I can avoid it?". As you can avoid it, I'd choose to write my own proxy in this instance.
charliepark 16y ago
Check out GDATA (from Google) and YQL (from Yahoo). Actually, here's a tutorial that goes into using jQuery and YQL: http://ajaxian.com/archives/using-yql-as-a-proxy-for-cross-domain-ajax http://ajaxian.com/archives/using-yql-as-a-proxy-for-cross-d...
- retube 16y ago
  ok great thanks. I'll try and hack it to avoid using jQuery though, not a huge fan of using libs if only utilising a single feature/function
pierrefar 16y ago
I set up exactly this thing yesterday with Yahoo Pipes. But they're having problems these days (apparently since December): lots of connection refused errors and others. Some bloggers "broke up" with the service and others were more blunt.
- retube 16y ago
  do you pay for this? Are there caps on usage or restrictions on application types you can use it for?
  - pierrefar 16y ago
    All free. Start here: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=overview http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=overview
    - retube 16y ago
      Cool, thanks. Just thinking, but is there not a way in javascript to just get the contents of a URI as a string? Which you could then eval? Presumably this will be possible with WebSockets?
paulirish 16y ago
http://jsonpify.com/ http://jsonpify.com/ is probably ideal for you.... The API is like http://jsonpify.com/api?url=XXX&format=xml&jsonp=mycallback http://jsonpify.com/api?url=XXX&format=xml&jsonp=myc... but you can also do this with http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ and http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/ . Both are excellent and used often for this exact purpose.
- retube 16y ago
  Yes looks like exactly what I'm looking for - super simple. I note he also mentions YQL, which might be the way to go for higher-use apps
- donohoe 16y ago
  I've used YQL via the Console and works a charm unless the site prohibits it in its robots.txt (like Google Image Search) http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console

11 points by retube 16y ago

petercooper 16y ago

Does the other domain have a CORS policy? If so: http://ajaxian.com/archives/cor-blimey-cross-domain-ajax-is-really-here http://ajaxian.com/archives/cor-blimey-cross-domain-ajax-is-...

retube 16y ago
No idea. Thanks for the link, I'll investigate.
- pmjordan 16y ago
  It should be noted that as far as I know, CORS only works with FF 3.5+, Safari 4+, Chrome (4+?), IE8+ and current versions of Mobile Safari. You'll still need a JSON(p) proxy for others, but if CORS is supported by the server, it's worth using just for the speed gain & bandwidth savings.

lenni 16y ago

I think Yahoo pipes does what you need: http://pipes.yahoo.com http://pipes.yahoo.com

retube 16y ago
ok, interesting. I know nothing about pipes, so will look it that. Thanks.
- buro9 16y ago
  Pipes is a wonderful thing, you can do a lot with it (like consume Google Analytics emails with it to be able to make public charts by scraping the analytics XML attachments and surfacing them as public JSON: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-17-n73.html http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-17-n73.html ). The only problem with pipes is that if you're building anything that you will depend on (rather than it being a "nice to have") then your service now wholly depends on Yahoo maintaining pipes. The question I always fall back to is, "Do I want my service to be wholly dependent on a third party if I can avoid it?". As you can avoid it, I'd choose to write my own proxy in this instance.

charliepark 16y ago

Check out GDATA (from Google) and YQL (from Yahoo). Actually, here's a tutorial that goes into using jQuery and YQL: http://ajaxian.com/archives/using-yql-as-a-proxy-for-cross-domain-ajax http://ajaxian.com/archives/using-yql-as-a-proxy-for-cross-d...

retube 16y ago
ok great thanks. I'll try and hack it to avoid using jQuery though, not a huge fan of using libs if only utilising a single feature/function

pierrefar 16y ago

I set up exactly this thing yesterday with Yahoo Pipes. But they're having problems these days (apparently since December): lots of connection refused errors and others. Some bloggers "broke up" with the service and others were more blunt.

retube 16y ago
do you pay for this? Are there caps on usage or restrictions on application types you can use it for?
- pierrefar 16y ago
  All free. Start here: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=overview http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=overview
  - retube 16y ago
    Cool, thanks. Just thinking, but is there not a way in javascript to just get the contents of a URI as a string? Which you could then eval? Presumably this will be possible with WebSockets?

paulirish 16y ago

http://jsonpify.com/ http://jsonpify.com/ is probably ideal for you.... The API is like http://jsonpify.com/api?url=XXX&format=xml&jsonp=mycallback http://jsonpify.com/api?url=XXX&format=xml&jsonp=myc... but you can also do this with http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ and http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/ . Both are excellent and used often for this exact purpose.

retube 16y ago
Yes looks like exactly what I'm looking for - super simple. I note he also mentions YQL, which might be the way to go for higher-use apps
donohoe 16y ago
I've used YQL via the Console and works a charm unless the site prohibits it in its robots.txt (like Google Image Search) http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console