As some of you might have noticed, the LinkedIn Company Profile Plugin has been discontinued by Microsoft/LinkedIn. I am looking for help on how to create an alternative:
- First option: "fake" the plugin, i.e. use a browser's web dev tools to inspect and copy all content from the iFrame (which is returned by the js plugin and injected in the html dom), and hard code this in my html. Same for the CSS. So it would visually look like the Company Profile, but I assume that it would not show how the visitor is connected to the company, whom in her/his network works there, etc. It would basically just be a very elaborate link to the company's LinkedIn page itself, but without any real "functionality" as the current plugin has;
- Second option: use the new API to re-build a similar company profile.
So the first seems feasible, but sill quite cumbersome and lots of work to copy all the DOM and CSS elements to make it work, in particular compared to the original plugin. So my question are some pointers on how to proceed and pitfalls to avoid.
For the second option, I started reading through the documentation, but this is just beyond my capabilities, i.e. to use the API and build this from scratch. I assume Microsoft/LinkedIn wants companies to build custom applications (and spend $$ on developers and IT consultants), but for small companies with no budget this is not realistic. Maybe in a few months there are developers that share their solution so others can learn and re-use, but for now, LinkedIn basically is chasing companies away.
rant
As an aside, I am just really annoyed why such a useful plugin would be discontinued. I can understand that the API would evolve, but it would not be much effort (for a company like Microsoft/LinkedIn) to adapt the existing plugin with the new API, and offer this to users. Maybe this is still in the pipeline, but I do not find any information about this on the LinkedIn/Microsoft website.
end rant
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