I AM ALPHA

What's This All About?

AOL is introducing an exciting new way for you to create and share your own personalized Web pages called AIM Pages.

AIM Pages are made up of modules — small Web pages built using a microformat called ModuleT that can be embedded easily into other Web pages — and themes, which are designs for pages. Using AIM Pages, you can drag and drop modules into your AIM Page in a publishing environment we've created that we call the Playground, and the folks at AIM Pages call the Publisher Tool:

This site is a place for developers and designers to learn how to create their own modules and themes, test them, and upload them to AIM Pages. Once you've uploaded your modules, other AIM Pages members can use them on their AIM Pages.

So, What's a Module?

A module is a small Web page with a specific functionality – such as a stock ticker or a calculator. A module might display your Amazon.com wishlist, or provide a place for people to search for videos and see your favorites.

Anyone can create a module--all you need to know are the standard tools, like XHTML, CSS, and maybe a little JavaScript, if you want to get fancy.

FAQ

Module Examples

Need an idea for a module? Here are a couple:

• Display your recent pictures from AOL Pictures (or Flickr).
• Mash up AIM Fight!
• Get the weather and do something fun with it.

Why Make Modules?

 Why would anyone want to create pages with modules?  Why should you create modules?

• When you build a module, it will  be available to anyone making  an AIM Page--that's potentially million of people looking at and using your creation. Plus, we'll do all the hosting.
• You can put your name and a Web link on your module so all the world will know it was made by you.
• They're cool. Modules are small and fun and use state-of-the-art tools.  And we've made it as simple as possible to build them. We've even created a microformat that defines exactly how you'll put them together.

Get Interactive

There are lots of ways to get in touch with us and keep up with what's going on:

• The Message Boards
• The Developers' Blog

How Do I Get Started?

Here are the steps:

1. Start with the documentation. We've even got an FAQ.
2. Then, review our module microformat.
3. Use the Module Maker and get coding!

We've created workshops that show you step-by step how to create modules:

• Get cool: To build a simple module, with HTML and a style sheet, check out Workshop 1.
• Get even cooler: To build a Flash module, see Workshop 2.
• Keep cool: Build a server-side module with an RSS feed. Workshop 3 tells you how to do it.
• Go over the top with cool: Use Ajax to make your module dynamic. The steps and sample code are in Workshop 4.
• Re-use the cool stuff you've already built: Workshop 5 is the place for learning how to do this.

If you want to build a theme, take a look at the Themes Workshop. You can't upload your custom theme in the Playground yet, but that's coming soon.

Disclaimer

This is an "alpha," site, meaning things can (and probably will) break unexpectedly and for no good reason. There may be (and are) bugs, some of them serious, (like the lack of  Safari support). We are working to fix them.  And, we appreciate all comments, ideas, and bug reports. 

We reserve the right to remove modules.

We don't guarantee production levels of support, availability, or quality.