Context.IO sponsored last night’s party at php|tek 2013 in Chicago. It was a terrific event that let the attendees unwind after a couple of awesome days filled with entertaining and informative presentations. Throughout the evening, prizes were awarded to the best Lego creations. Prize categories included best wonder of the world, best Dr. Who themed sculpture, and best php elephant. All in all, it was a fantastic conference and an awesome party.

One of the first things I wanted to do after joining the Context.IO team is to update the Python library to have 100% coverage of version 2.0 of the API. You can find it on our Github here. I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think.

The only non-standard library that it’s dependent on is the Oauth2 lib. You can grab that here. Here’s how you instantiate the main object with your credentials:

import contextIO2

CONSUMER_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
CONSUMER_SECRET = 'YOUR_API_SECRET'

context_io = c.ContextIO(
  consumer_key=CONSUMER_KEY, 
  consumer_secret=CONSUMER_SECRET
)

The module is fully docstringed out, so you should be able to play around in the Python interpreter and help() objects and methods to see what all you can do. Here’s how you can query the API for an account.

accounts = context_io.get_accounts(email='johndoe@gmail.com')
# since we return a list, let's be sure we have a result
if accounts:
  account = accounts[0]

If you store the account id in your database, you can instantiate an account object without tapping the API this way:

account = c.Account(context_io, {'id': 'ACCOUNT_ID_HERE'})

You need to pass in the parent, so the url endpoint gets built correctly and the objects can figure out how to authenticate. For some of the resource objects, the parent will be the main context_io object. Most others take an account object as a parent. You can tell what the parent should be by checking out the documentation. You can pass in any parameters via a dictionary.

Most resource objects have a .get() method that’s used for updating itself. This is handy if you store things like message ids and only want to pull specific message bodies out. Check it out!

message = c.Message(account, {'message_id': 'MESSAGE_ID_GOES_HERE'})
# populate the message object with data from the API
message.get()
# pull the message body
message.get_body()
print message.body

That’s a fast introduction to the new library. Check it out and let me know what you think! Happy hacking.

Context.IO was at Angelhack San Francisco this past weekend. Angelhack is a global hackathon competition that takes place in over 30 cities. The winners get a chance to pitch to investors and are enrolled in Angelhack’s accelerator program. Very exciting stuff! We were there as a sponsor to enable the participants to easily work with the inbox.

While the hackers worked diligently over the 24 hour period, there was plenty of fun to be had. A few participants enjoyed strapping on a sumo suit and settling their differences in the ring!

Context.IO offered an AppleTV and a $100 iTunes gift card to the team who best used our API. The hack that won our prize is called yourefer.me by Peter Ma. This slick little mobile app enables developers at conferences and hackathons to easily refer people to their company’s recruiters. Peter hacked in Context.IO to provide metrics arround how many candidates have been referred. Peter was also selected to pitch as one of the finalists. Congrats and great job, Peter!

We’ll be at upcoming Angelhacks in Toronto, New York, and Washington D.C. I hope to see you there and discover what you’ll build on top of Context.IO!

One week ago today we announced that we’ve joined Return Path! In all the celebration and excitement, we didn’t have a chance to post a recap of the awesome Inbox Love Hacks event we hosted in SF on October 20th. So without further ado, here’s what went down at the first ever email-themed hackathon!

My awesome co-hosts, Adria from SendGrid and Jeremiah from Awe.sm and I were greeted bright and early Saturday morning by the lovely Amber at PARISOMA. Coffee and breakfast, followed by sleepy hackers, followed in short order. Our turnout was a diverse mix of product people, designers, and polyglot hackers that had one thing in common: they got email, and wanted to build something exciting on it. We couldn’t have asked for a better crew!

Once the API demos were done, ideas were pitched and teams were formed. They didn’t have too long to get a minimum viable product together (one of the judging criteria), so everyone got down to business and hacked right through lunch. Once our judges showed up later in the afternoon, everyone knew demo time was getting close and the mad sprint to the finish line kept the room pretty quiet for an hour or so!

In the end, we had two awesome teams that took away prizes. We selected the team behind Kaleidobox for the best use of the Context.IO API. Thatcher, Margaret , Moon and Zac built a beautiful, intuitive app that allowed users to visualize, search for and interact with attachments easily. Congrats, team!

The big winner of the day was FileSquirrel. They created a very cool mobile app that used Context.IO and Sendgrid to share attachments on your mobile phone. Congrats to Tony, Pavel, Thomas and Lucas! FileSquirrel won $500 for the best use of SendGrid as well as the chance to demo their hack on stage at Inbox Love in Mountain View. We saw them rock it on stage…  and when the audience started asking about pricing, we knew they’d hit on something with potential. Not bad for an app that was built in less than 7 hours!

We can’t wait for Inbox Love Hacks 2! Until next year! Thanks again to our judges Jared Goralnick, Erik Eccles, Jonathan Bruck and Sachin Rekhi, and to our fellow APIs, SendGrid and Awe.sm!

We’re excited to announce we are now part of Return Path! We’ve joined forces with this innovative company to ensure our API has the long-term support it needs to scale and grow to meet the needs of our growing developer community. If you’re already a part of that community – great news, you don’t have to change a thing! Plus, scaling your app with us just became much more affordable.

Is Anything Changing?

Return Path’s support means Context.IO will accelerate its pace towards its mission to provide a unified, modern and easy API to integrate email data into your apps. For existing developers, nothing needs to change. All API endpoints remain the same and we’ll continue to support your apps as before.

For existing and new developers there is one significantly great change that will impact you immediately – and that’s our new pricing model. Joining Return Path has allowed us to vastly scale our free offering. As of today, developers can access up to 5,000 mailboxes for free (no more Basic Mailboxes; there’s only one type of mailbox now and it’s what we used to call the “Pro Mailbox”). This means apps integrating email data with Context.IO will now be able to do so at no cost well past launch.

Beyond the 5,000 mailbox point, you now have two options. First, you can simply continue to expand your user base at the low cost of $0.10 per mailbox per month (starting at mailbox #5001 and above). Second, if you anticipate or are ready to integrate a large amount of mailboxes, you can opt for our Premium API* access. For a fixed $5,000/month fee, you will have access to unlimited mailboxes and API usage, as well as priority support from our tech team, all backed by an SLA.

Not only will we work directly with you to integrate and scale your app with Context.IO, but we’ll ensure priority resolution of support tickets. Of course, all of our developers will continue to receive best-in-class customer service as they have up to now, but Premium API users will be considered crucial partners that will directly impact the expansion and growth of Context.IO and will be treated as such.

$1M Startup Innovation Program

Are you a startup out to change the way we interact with email? We want to help you get your Context.IO powered product in the hands of a massive user base as fast as possible, and a lack of funds should not be stopping you. Read more about it here http://context.io/startups.

Who’s Return Path?

Return Path is the worldwide leader in email intelligence.  Return Path’s industry-leading email intelligence solutions utilize the world’s most comprehensive set of data to maximize the performance and accountability of email, build trust across the entire email ecosystem and protect users from spam and other abuse. Return Path has a reputation for helping businesses build better relationships with their customers and improve their email ROI and help ISPs and other mailbox providers enhance network performance and drive customer retention.

Why Return Path?

Return Path has been email’s ally for the last 13 years. We are excited to join forces with a company that shares our vision that email is not only here to stay, but is ripe for innovation. Return Path believes in our mission to make access to email data easy and fast for developers and allow them to build groundbreaking applications and tools that will improve productivity for all of us.

Are you guys moving out of Montreal?

We’re proud to say that our team will be remaining firmly planted in Montreal, Quebec. We’ll become Return Path’s official Quebec office, working closely with all of Return Path’s global network of offices, especially with the awesome development team in Austin, Texas.

Any questions?

We want to answer them all. Get in touch at hello@context.io and we’ll be sure to get back to you!

Read Return Path’s official announcement here.

We can’t wait to take Context.IO to the next level as a part of Return Path! Join us as we build amazing things powered by email!

It’s here!

Tomorrow morning is INBOX LOVE HACKS at PARISOMA!

http://goo.gl/maps/dvYFP

Here’s what you need to know:

All you need to bring is your LAPTOP, any adapters you may have for a projector (although we should have you covered), and your fine self. We’ll be feeding, quenching your thirst and keeping you energized all day (yes, even you vegans! Do keep in mind that we won’t have a ton of gluten-free options, but talk to us and we’ll hook you up with something!)

ARRIVE BY 9 AM LATEST! We’ll be doing API demos and workshops right at 9 AM, and for those without teams and want one, we’ll be connecting you with fellow hackers. You can work solo or in teams, as you wish. There are no specific limits to team sizes, but let’s keep it reasonable (5 or less).

The criteria the judges will be looking at is pretty general, but at the end of the day, your app should:

1 – WORK. No fancy features or bells and whistles required, but we’re looking for an MVP or functioning prototype.

2 – either DISRUPT or be extremely FUNKY, and try to keep it closely tied to email. Maybe you build an app that uses contacts in email to save tons of time and improve productivity, or maybe you build a beautiful infographic based on email habits. Either way, we’re looking for something extremely AMAZING. Anything that does not decidedly stand out either way likely won’t make the top 3.

3- USE OUR APIs! To qualify for prizes, your app must use one of the partiipating APIs, and using more than one won’t hurt your chances either. Speed things up! Get your keys ready tonight! To remind you, here they are again:

Context.IO: email inboxes as datastores you can tap into to bring context to your apps. Replace and go above and beyond IMAP.
SendGrid: adds transactional email to any app within moments, replaces SMTP servers and more!
Awe.sm: use social data in your apps!

4 – be CLEAR. You’ll have 2 minutes to demo at the end of the day, and  we want to see you DEMO and not show us slides.

And here’s what you could win:

Best use of Context.IO’s API: $500!
Best use of Sendgrid’s API: $500!
Best use of Awe.sm’s API: an iPad!

The top three teams will be demoing on stage at INBOX LOVE on Wednesday October 24th in the afternoon, in front of the WHO’S WHO of email innovators, investors and disruptors. The top team will get passes for the entire day long event, as well as secret bonuses that we’ll reveal tomorrow!

Finally, last but not least… our official judge lineup. Linking straight to their LinkedIn profiles here to give you a quick look at their impressive judge-worthy credentials:

Jared Goralnick
Erik Eccles
Jonathan Bruck
Sachin Rekhi

This is going to be fairly epic, friends. We can’t wait to see all of your pretty faces there tomorrow!

Tweeting about this event? Duh. Remember to use the official hastag, #IBLhacks!

Cheers,

Sarah-Jane at Context.IO, Adria at Sendgrid and Jeremiah at Awe.sm.!

Inbox Love is just around the corner, and our hack event on October 20th at PARISOMA is promising to be huge! We’re rapidly approaching capacity, which we’re thrilled about, but it also means you need to register ASAP!

We’re excited to announce some pretty dope judges and some sweet prizes!

Our first two judges are:

Sachin Rekhi:

Sachin Rekhi is Founder & CEO of Connected, a professional contact manager that brings your contacts and conversations together in one place. Connected was acquired by LinkedIn in October 2011.

Sachin was previously a Senior Product Manager at imeem, a leading social network that enables users to share, discover and interact with music, videos, and photos. Sachin led emerging monetization efforts, including international monetization, online audio advertising, and imeem VIP, a premium subscription service. In addition, Sachin oversaw the imeem Media Platform, which allowed third party developers to build media-centric applications on imeem.

Prior to joining imeem in 2008, Sachin co-founded Anywhere.FM, a web music player that allowed users to upload, play, and discover music online. Anywhere.FM was acquired by imeem in January 2008. In addition, Sachin held marketing, product management, and engineering roles at Microsoft, Paetec Communications, and Goldman Sachs.

Sachin earned a BS in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Finance from The Wharton School.

Jared Goralnick:

Jared Goralnick is Founder & CEO of AwayFind  as well as a cofounder of the Inbox Love conference.

Jared founded and organizes Ignite DC and Bootstrap MD, groups which promote pursuing your passion and provide startup entrepreneurship education. He’s also the Executive Vice President of the Information Overload Research Group, and a mentor at both Founder Institute and 500 Startups.

We’re so excited about having Sachin and Jared on board to bring their expertise to your disruptive apps. We’ll be announcing more judges soon!

We’re also excited to offer you more details on the main prize. The top three best hacks will be demoing live on stage at Inbox Love, and  the top team will all receive tickets to the day-long Inbox Love conference in Mountain View on October 24th.  We’ll also have API prizes, including $500 in cash from Context.IO and $500 from our awesome co-organizers at SendGrid!

We can’t wait to see you there! Let’s harness the power of email and build some amazing things!

Inbox Love 2 is upon us on October 24th, and to kick off the event with a bang, Context.IO, along with SendGrid (and more to be announced!) are hosting the first ever Inbox Love Hacks!

This event will be all about email and the amazing app platform it provides. Join us to build productivity, analytics, collaboration, customer relationship, marketing and document management (and more!) applications that can provide insight, automate tedious tasks, allowing us to connect in more meaningful ways.

The top 3 hacks will have their chance to demo for a panel of the creme de le creme of email experts at Inbox Love in Mountain View on the 24th. We promise, the prizes will be well worth your while.

We’re hosting the event at the cool Parisoma coworking/event space right in the heart of SOMA.

We can’t wait to bring the email love to San Francisco for our first ever official Bay Area event! We’re opening this up to all attendees of Inbox Love as well any anyone else interested in building cool things on email! Register now – capacity is limited but possibilities are endless!

Stay tuned for more exciting details on the coming weeks…

REGISTER: http://inboxlovehacks.eventbrite.com

Check out Bruno’s awesome slides from LSRC 6 on Email as a Datasource for Apps!

We came, we saw, we hacked overnight – not only that, but we were welcomed with open arms by Austin’s incredible tech and startup scene, who made it incredibly easy to be a Montreal company organizing and  hosting an event in a city some of us (me!) had never been to.  Some seriously impressive hacks were built overnight from Saturday August 11th to Sunday August 12th! Here’s a breakdown of the awesome winning hacks, along with a few of our own honourable mentions.

2nd Place – NotifHack, created by OtherInbox‘s Ben Hamill and Bob Potter, combined Twilio and Context.IO to create a nifty tool that allows users to setup rules to filter email push notifications to your phone. Looks like these two will enjoy shared custody of a sweet Apple Thunderbolt display!

1st place – the big winner of the weekend was Jesse Lovelace, who created Deadman.io. Engaging in some risky business? Deadman.io is a digital deadman switch or insurance policy that triggers calls, emails, or texts of important files, photos and/or data (as defined by the user). Deadman.io combined Twilio, Sendgrid and Context.IO. Jesse also managed to not only get a functional hack in place that leveraged 3 of the 4 participating APIs, but he was able to create a simple website and present his hack with flair. Not bad for 15 hours on no sleep!

Many thanks to our awesome local judges Mickey Ristroph, Jon Loyens and Joe Boutros. They didn’t have an easy task, and they did an awesome job!

 Not everyone could be a big winner, but there were a few standouts that we were pretty excited about. One of these was Remail.IO, a service that solves the problem of redundant scheduled emails. Ever scheduled an email only to be in contact with its recipient before the scheduled email goes out, rendering the scheduled email invalid? Kind of embarrassing when that email goes out anyways because you forgot to remove it from the queue. Remail.IO uses SendGrid to send out emails, and Context.IO to know when you’ve replied to a scheduled contact and takes them out of the scheduling queue. Embarrassment avoided! We know that Taylor Brooks was one of the creators of Remail.IO (thanks twitter!), but unfortunately we didn’t catch your teammate’s name! Let us know what it is so we can send you some t-shirts!

We also liked Reply Analytics, which used Context.IO to create a slick interactive dashboard of personal analytics for your email habits. If you’ve ever wondered what your average response time is for email, when you send most of your email and more, this hack will show you. Did you create Reply Analytics? We didn’t catch your name and we want to send you a t-shirt!

It was awesome to see Brandon West from Sendgrid again and meet Keith Casey from Twilio and Chris Lamprecht from Searchify. So glad you could join us!

Thanks again go out to Josh Baer, Veronica and Allyson at OtherInbox and Sarah and Matt at Capital Factory. We couldn’t have done this without you!

Thanks everyone who participated for making us start counting down the days to our next Austin event! We can’t wait to come back!