Introducing Ning Apps for your Ning Network!
Updates
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Ning Apps, available today on your Ning Network. As a social platform, we’re finding that each interest and passion requires a unique combination of features. Ning Apps dramatically expand the quantity and quality of the features available on your Ning Network, and allow you to engage even further with your members.
Today you can choose from more than 90 Ning Apps, and that’s just the beginning. This number will continue to grow as developers here at Ning and around the world build additional Ning Apps tailored around your interests and passions.
Every Ning App has been developed to integrate beautifully with your Ning Network. This means that the Ning Apps you add will be a natural extension of your Ning Network. For example, the Cartfly App on the Ning Network below automatically takes on its theme (click the image to see a full-size screenshot):
In addition to matching the look and feel of your Ning Network, Ning Apps can also post updates to the Latest Activity on your Main Page. For example, if you upload a new item to your Cartfly shop, this will create an activity item on your My Page and the Main Page. Both members and Network Creators will have fine-grained control over whether or not their Ning Apps send updates to Latest Activity. For more information about managing the settings of your Ning Apps, check out our article here.
To get started today, sign into your Ning Network and click the new “Ning Apps” icon in the Manage page. From here, click “Add Ning App” to automatically add a new tab to your Ning Network for the Ning App that you’ve selected. Just like your other tabs, you’ll be able to organize and rearrange how your Ning Apps are displayed with the Tab Manager. Here’s how the Tab Manager will look with Ning Apps enabled (click the image to see a full-size screenshot):
If the Ning App has a Profile View for members, it will also automatically get added to their My Apps page which we talk about in detail here. For more information about adding and organizing your Ning Apps, see our article here in the Ning Help Center.
You can also see the complete list of Ning Apps in the Ning Apps Directory (click the image to visit the Ning Apps Directory):
From the Ning Directory, you can check out more than 90 Ning Apps for Collaboration, Communication, E-Commerce, Fun and Games, and Fundraising. We’ve also created “Featured” and “Staff Picks” categories so you can quickly see the cream of the crop. This list will grow as developers continue to build Ning Apps tailored around your passions and interests.
If you want to see Ning Apps in action, we’ve set up a Ning Network where you can try out some of the featured Ning Apps and see if they might be a good addition to your Ning Network. Here on the Ning Blog, we’ll be spotlighting some of our favorite Ning Apps in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you’ve found a Ning App that’s perfect for your Ning Network, we’d love to feature your story on the Ning Blog and share it with Network Creators everywhere.
Do you have a shopping cart? I don’t see where it would be located if you do. Other sites have them and I need one.
Pastor Mark: Please share your question on the Creators Ning Network. We also have a Help Center that has a lot of informative articles. The Ning Blog isn’t always the best place for support questions. Thank you!
Hi Chris,
After leaving that Ning Network up for about a month, we stopped allowing new members to join, since it was really just to give people a place to check out what they were all about.
I’d encourage you to experiment with adding them to your own Ning Network, or see how they look on https://creators.ning.com/ — there are two under “Creator Pulse.”
> we’ve set up a Ning Network where you can try out some of the featured Ning Apps
Actually not, since it is invitation-only.
Is there a way to add Opensocial Network Ning Tabs, for instance, I’ve been trying to add a Buddy Poke Tab and I don’t want to allow members to add their own apps
Hi, just wondering if I could add a new feature to my network. for example, I want to add a video chat to my network but couldn’t find it. I have seen different networks with video chats and I hope I could put one on mine.
Thanks, looking forward to hear from you.
ciao sono antonella ma si puo mettere una chat piu carina sulla pagina datemi una risposta grazie da antonella
I think Ning should spend more time continuing to develop their own Apps that are hosted on Ning and that have access to your network’s database so that when your members post something it shows their avatar and links back to their profile. This would make Ning the best content management system on the web hands down! .. but these 3rd party apps are a very messy and a lazy way of offering us low quality features.
The Ning platform is amazing and it’s own apps are very nice like the blog, forum, groups, videos, Events, Chat, Status, and pages apps.
Are we going to be able to access “who’s online” – where it shows the people online at the top of your main page kinda of in a revolving slideshow?
I have seen it on several pages and am very interested in it.
Hi Tim,
There isn’t a Main Page option right now for Ning Apps, but one good idea we’ve heard is to add an image/screenshot of your Ning Apps to a text box and then link to the tab where it’s available.
Hope that helps!
-Laura
Hi. I’m wondering if I can add a Ning App to the hompage of my network. It’d be great to be able to add a twitter feed for a search or a question for a poll for example.
Thank for this site is my happy that i am enjoy this site
but i can open my mail only
Hi Timmy!
That’s a great question. Ning Apps are developed using OpenSocial. Any developer familiar with OpenSocial should be able to create a Ning App. You can find more info about the development process at developer.ning.com.
Thanks!
Laura
This is crazy cool well done you guys…..my question is this: “Where can i find a developer to write an application for me and my team?”
Timmy Edgar
GigIRC.com
ok the apps look cool
I’d really like to see some good educational game apps created.
Hi Tom!
We are already offering a Classifieds app. It’s called “Marketplace” and you can find it on the second page of the featured Apps on the Ning Apps directory. If you want additional features on the Marketplace Ning App, you can contact the developer directly and pass on your ideas and suggestions.
Cheers,
Laura
Love the new features. I know you have the “Contact Page” by Apps, they have been saying for a long time that you are also rolling out their “Classifieds” app as a ning app. Can you confirm this? If so, when do you plan to roll it out? It works great for classified ads and also business directories.
So far, I’m batting about .500 with apps working – no matter how I configure Hulu it gives me an HTTP 500 error – and PollDaddy has landed on a big ‘oops’ page after I tried to sign up within the app.
NewsShare seems OK though, as does Twitter Tracker.
Oh well, birthing pains I suppose. Onward!
Laura,
The dating application..I understand ads but their ads are so noisy. Maybe talk to him about turning the noise off. Everytime you vote it says “you’ve won”. They should not have three ads on this application. That is over the top!
Application wishlist is a Share it, or retweet button.
Hi Laura, thanks for your help,
As many says, we should be able to choose where to put our apps, i’ve got complains too. Please, let members decides where they want to put their apps!
Many of my users were using an app called Pokebuddy that created a little animated avatar on their profile page. Now with this implementation that avatar has been relegated to the My Apps link and no longer appears on the profile page. My users HATE IT. I am getting inundated with complaints by folks wanting their Pokebuddy avatar back on the Profile page and not hidden behind a link. I’ve tried and tried to fix this but cannot. Is there going to be some fix to allow apps back on the other pages?
ATTN: Laura Oppenheimer…
Love that apps are now available. I have added NewsShare to my site (www.theskateboardersjournal.com).
It it shows as a tab, which is great…I would also like to place it on the main part of my front page, just like you do with a text box. Is that possible?
Thanks,
Jack
Before you created your new Apps, the Apps I had already downloaded displayed nicely on My Page. Now all my Apps have been moved to a page called My Apps. Personally I don’t like this change. I prefer to have my Apps on My Page.
I also noticed that I now have a new twitter type Update feature on My Page. Did Ning add this to My Page??? And how do I remove it.
Hi Caledobook!
With the launch of Ning Apps, we moved all Apps to their own page, the My Apps page on your profile. If you had any My Apps installed, this is where you can find them today! The My Apps page will display any apps you’ve added to your own profile, as well as any Ning Apps with a profile view.
If you are seeing something different, please drop us a note at help.ning.com and we’ll take a look!
Thanks,
Laura
Why half of the apps have disapeared? BuddyPoke, Box.net and PoKER texas were the most used apps on my network, and it’s not there anymore…
I’m very disapointed, can I get it back???
Cheers
Richard… I make the app a sub tab under my manage tab… while I test the app… then only the Admin can see it .. Hope that helps.
Robert
Why limited?
Thanks.
I’m wondering why when an app is added I can not set that tab to “Administrators” view only. I’d like to be working on a tab and ensure the setup is correct and functioning properly prior to opening it up on the network.
I started working on my sites store using one of the apps and Cafepress and immediately started getting responses from members who were trying to use the app to purchase though nothing had been set up. There is no way for me to work on the creation of the tab / feature without it being “live” and thus is creating a headache.
i love this
Excellent!! manymany thanks!
one thing to improve.. a homepage block/resource to manage in the ning layout.
What do you think?
Looks promising but would like a little more support material on the apps.
Would be nice if we had a text box on the top of each app page that we can customize to give our network users more information on the app. I feel a lot of the apps are confusing in the way they are presented especially when you are on a private network. For example, the chat or the gaming apps that are interacting with other social networks and sites so you don’t realize that it isn’t a member of your site that you are talking to.
Documentation on most of these apps is very limited. Is there a place where NCs can discuss the uses and maybe help each other out on how to use various apps or are we supposed to do that on getsatisfaction?
thanks
Regarding poll daddy. You could do it “old-school”, set up a a PD account, create a poll and paste the javascript code in a text box on main. This works perfect and you actually don’t need the app for that. Also member don´t have to sign-up anywhere just to poll – like with all those Facebook poll adds – which is pretty lame.
Now comes my question regarding tokbox. I am really puzzled what to tell my members. I realized yesterday when I opened tokbox in my network that there INDEED where two members chatting happily with each other and I could join them – WITHOUT ANY SIGNUP. Although – there where no clue WHO those members where.
So it seems – you just GO to the tokbox page and can join the videochat.
But then – how do you know who’s online? Do I have to tell my members: “Go to chat first, see who’s online, try to get their attention and invite them to go to Video chat?”
Hmm.
And then – I tried to open the tokbox even when signed-out of the network and suprisingly enough – you COULD see the page. So this means – when a network is public everybody and his dog can join a videochat?
In other words – tokbox on Ning is not private at all – it’s open to the world.
Well – I am curious what suggestions I will get. But all in all . The app project is pretty impressive so far.
Greetings
gfisch
Fantastic – many thanks for these improvements. Lots for us to start experimenting with! 🙂
big thanks for this services
Wow thank you! This new feature will help my network a bunch!
m-Fruit
great way to go
Love that apps are now available. I have added NewsShare to my site (www.theskateboardersjournal.com).
It it shows as a tab, which is great…I would also like to place it on the main part of my front page, just like you do with a text box. Is that possible?
Thanks,
Jack
Cool. Is there anything in the future for a who visited my page app and or a point system that give member points their activities on the network. I think this would be great once members know they gets for what they are doing. Makes them keep active more..
Great Apps. Thanks..
Ok, the poll finally shows up after a while. 🙂 The only complaint I have is if someone wants to add a comment it takes them to the Polldaddy site. I think Ning should keep our members on our networks. Why not just put the regular Ning comment function on the poll page?
I alway say thank’s for the this ning company
i not clever to write english so i write little wordfor you
have a good luck this ning.com
always be always
Hi Baker,
You can remove any Ning App you’ve added directly from your Ning Network’s Tab Manager. All you’ll need to do is click on the X of that tab your Ning App is located on and click “save.”
Best,
Laura
how do you uninstall an app?
Hi The Groovy Rat and Umair!
That’s a great question. We have a limit of five Ning Apps right now to make sure that adding these new features doesn’t slow down the speed of Ning Networks. We’ll be looking at data in the next weeks and months to make sure that all Ning Networks continue to run quickly. If it looks like Ning Apps don’t affect network speed, we’ll consider dropping this limit or at least pushing it out.
Thanks!
Laura
Great job Ning. Just wanted to inquire that why is the Installed Apps limited to 5 only per network?
It’s all very well having 90 apps, but when we are limited to only 5 on our network then there really is no point. This limit should be at least 10.
Regards
Hi Groovy Rat,
A good option for running your Ning App on the Main Page is to take a screenshot of it and post it with a link in a text box on Main. This lets your members know that there’s great content on the tabs and sub-tabs to check out!
Ning Apps do not, on their own, have a built in Main Page view. It’s possibly it’s something we’ll look in to in the future, but adding a Main Page view isn’t in our immediate plans.
Cheers!
How can we add apps to the main pages of our networks?
Regards
The poll app doesn’t seem to work properly. I created a tab and created a poll. But when I log off to see what others will see I do not see the tab and do not see the poll. Where’s the poll??
Hi,
I hope it will be awesome.
I have a question,How can I add all new app in my site?
I’m loving the apps. Great job guys….now can we PLEASE have the profile pages back to the old way? 🙂
Is there anyway to use more than 4? There are a lot of good apps I would like to add but I’m already at my limit.
Hi Chris!
Hopefully I can clarify 🙂 The Ning Apps you can add to your Ning Network are developed by third parties. For some of the Ning Apps to work, you’ll need to sign up with the service that made the app (for example, with a Ning App that lets you sell things, you’ll need to sign up with them so they can process payments for you, etc). Other apps, like Twitter Tracker and WordPress, don’t require you to sign up — you can simply add the NIng App and you are good to go!
Thanks,
Laura
I was excited about this but I am confused. So to use these Apps you need to setup accounts with the App developer? For example, I want a poll to be on my home page, can that be done? I want a Calendar that my users can post events, birthdays, etc that would be accessible by everyone. Every app I clicked on is asking me to setup an account, why doesn’t my Ning account work as a log in.
Hopefully I am just confused, thanks to anyone who can post and claify for me.
Chris
Is there any chance of getting blog apps for our Blogger format?
Is there an app yet that rewards points for network activity such as posting, etc? There used to be something like this so some older networks, like Twittermoms, have it. It would really be an awesome feature.
Is there any plans to add a visitor counter? Thanks,
Cliff
This is so great..easier for us to do..especially if we have already account with those other websites mentioned. Thanks this is good news.
Gostei muito da novidade, mas ainda estou aprimorando as entradas e as questões no Ning. Minha pergunta é, não irá dificultar?
Grata
hey this is great news! thanks a lot to the ning development team for constantly improving this great site. more power!
This is first time I am looking Ning Networks and I hope this will be really wonderfull and beneficial for our network.
Hi Test Dude!
The 90 + apps we’ve launched with are just the beginning. If you want to create a new Ning Apps, head to the Developer Network . All the documentation and other information you’ll need to get started is there!
Cheers,
Laura
Is there a link for developers? How can we create new apps for Ning?
Great features. An addtional way to reach ou to more people.
Poll Daddy! Great choice, but how can I post a poll to the MAIN page of my network and can Poll Daddy PLEASE create a style with a width that fits the left column of the Ning network (220 px) so that I don’t have to muck around in their CSS style sheet???
How about a link to the Ning directory? Reading 2nd to last paragraph I’d love to check it out, but looked around and …?
This looks great!
I’m still a litle confused though – if I want the map app for example, can I add a page on my network that has this map app on without having to enable apps to be available to all members?
i.e. If I just want one app on my network and no others – is this possible?
Thanks,
Phil