By StrangeWork.com: On February 28th, 2008 Pownce released version 2.0 of their API. The major update in this new version is the ability to post messages, links, files, events and even replies via the API directly to a Ponwce.com account.

Below is an ASP script I wrote to update your Pownce profile automatically through the new API. I’ve included the complete script for download at the bottom of this post.

Pownce requires the username and password values be encoded using base64. Below is an ASP function that will convert any value over to base64 encode.

const BASE_64_MAP_INIT = “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/”
dim nl
‘ zero based arrays
dim Base64EncMap(63)
dim Base64DecMap(127)

‘ must be called before using anything else
PUBLIC SUB initCodecs()
‘ init vars
nl = “

” & chr(13) & chr(10)
‘ setup base 64
dim max, idx
max = len(BASE_64_MAP_INIT)
for idx = 0 to max – 1
‘ one based string
Base64EncMap(idx) = mid(BASE_64_MAP_INIT, idx + 1, 1)
next
for idx = 0 to max – 1
Base64DecMap(ASC(Base64EncMap(idx))) = idx
next
END SUB

‘ encode base 64 encoded string
PUBLIC FUNCTION base64Encode(plain)

if len(plain) = 0 then
base64Encode = “”
exit function
end if

dim ret, ndx, by3, first, second, third
by3 = (len(plain) 3) * 3
ndx = 1
do while ndx <= by3
first = asc(mid(plain, ndx+0, 1))
second = asc(mid(plain, ndx+1, 1))
third = asc(mid(plain, ndx+2, 1))
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( (first 4) AND 63 )
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( ((first * 16) AND 48) + ((second 16) AND 15 ) )
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( ((second * 4) AND 60) + ((third 64) AND 3 ) )
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( third AND 63)
ndx = ndx + 3
loop
' check for stragglers
if by3 < len(plain) then
first = asc(mid(plain, ndx+0, 1))
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( (first 4) AND 63 )
if (len(plain) MOD 3 ) = 2 then
second = asc(mid(plain, ndx+1, 1))
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( ((first * 16) AND 48) + ((second 16) AND 15 ) )
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( ((second * 4) AND 60) )
else
ret = ret & Base64EncMap( (first * 16) AND 48)
ret = ret & "="
end if
ret = ret & "="
end if

base64Encode = ret
END FUNCTION

' initialize
call initCodecs

Every site/script that interacts with the Pownce API requires an application key. To get your application key, simply register a new application on Pownce. Just replace {app_key} in the below script with the application key that Pownce provides to you.

In this example we will be posting a LINK to your Pownce profile. Be sure to reference the Pownce 2.0 API documentation for specifications on posting messages, events, files, etc.

‘*** set your Pownce username and password variables
p_username = “username”
p_password = “password”

p_username = p_username & “:” & p_password

‘*** Base64 encode your username and password
p_username = base64Encode(p_username)

‘*** replace {app_key} with YOUR application key
strPownce = “http://api.pownce.com/2.0/send/link.xml?app_key={app_key}”

‘*** the link you want to post to Pownce
pownce_link = “http://snapfoo.com/images/snapfoo_logo.jpg”

‘*** the description you want to post to Pownce
pownce_update = “SnapFoo.com Logo – Foo You!”

Set xml = Server.CreateObject(“Microsoft.XMLHTTP”)
xml.Open “POST”, strPownce, False
xml.setRequestHeader “Content-Type”, “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”
xml.setRequestHeader “Authorization”, “BASIC ” & p_username
xml.Send(“note_to=public&url=” & pownce_link & “&note_body=”&pownce_update)

‘*** view the Pownce response
Response.Write xml.responseText

Set xml = Nothing

That’s it! Using the above method you can easily create scripts to update Pownce with anything you would like.

Download Source File to Update Pownce using ASP