Developing Glassware using the Mirror API

Tools to Get Started

When the Google Glass Explorer Edition launched, the Mirror API was available only to whitelisted Explorers email addresses. In October of 2013, Google opened the Mirror API to everyone. That’s terrific news, because even if you do not own Glass, you can start developing Mirror API applications today.

Before you begin building the next great piece of Glassware, you will need to head over to the Google API Console and create an API project.

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1. Go to https://code.google.com/apis/console.

2. Create a new API Project. Use a friendly name that you will remember (eg. MyMirrorApp).

3. Click/tap on Services.

4. Scroll down to Google Mirror API services.

5. Enable Google Mirror API via the on/off slider

6. Click on API Access and follow the directions to Create an OAuth 2.0 client ID. Be sure to choose “Web Application”. The rest of the defaults are fine.

7. After the ID has been created, click/tap “Edit Settings.”

8. Add https://mirror-api-playground.appspot.com as a JavaScript Origin and click/tap Update.

9. Make note of the Client ID as you will need that for testing.

Once you have a Client ID, you can head on over to the Mirror API Playground at the following URL. https://developers.google.com/glass/playground

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1. Type or Paste In the Client ID.

2. Click/tap Authorize.

3. If all is well, you should see a pop-up asking you for authorization.

4. Click/tap Accept.

5. Bookmark the Mirror API Playground page.

With the API Console Project created and the Mirror API Playground configured, you have the tools to start experimenting with the Mirror API.

As a developer, you may be asking, what else do I need? The Mirror API allows you to use the web development tools that you may already be familiar with. Google provides QuickStart applications for Go, Java, .NET, PHP, Python, and Ruby. That’s a pretty exhaustive list if you’ve worked in web technology during the past decade.