WSO2 open-source mashup builder leverages JavaScript
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WSO2 is offering its open-source WSO2 Mashup Server product, which leverages JavaScript and Web services in assembling mashups, on Monday. In positioning the product for use by JavaScript developers, the company is looking to enable delivery of more functional mashups than can be built with alternative GUI-based tools. A hosted online version of Mashup Server, called Mooshup.com, also will be launched Monday as a community site for developing and sharing mashups.With WSO2 Mashup Server 1.0, WSO2 anticipates a confluence of Web 2.0 social capabilities and enterprise needs. "Basically, what we believe is that enterprise IT is going to go more toward a social enterprise structure where the IT offerings are not only by IT staff but by anybody in the enterprise," said WSO2 Chairman/CEO Sanjiva Weerawarana.But WSO2 is targeting Web developers who can write JavaScript. "The main purpose of WSO2 Mashup Server is to allow developers to author new Web services in JavaScript," said Jonathan Marsh, WSO2 director of mashup technologies. These Web services can be consumed within other enterprise tools and exposed as an RSS or Atom feed, he said.WSO's mashup platform is not intended to complete head-to-head with more GUI-based business level mashup products. "There's a feeling that we had that limiting yourself to a GUI right off the bat gets you started very quickly, but you quickly reach walls that block you from doing precisely what you'd like to do," Marsh said. Eventually, users of those tools have to resort to JavaScript, he said.Mashups can be authored within the administrative UI, with a text editor, or with any popular IDE, WSO2 said."It's an interesting aspect to choose JavaScript as sort of the primary scripting language," said analyst Michael Cote of RedMonk. JavaScript has been primarily used in AJAX-style (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) development, Cote noted. But plenty of people are familiar with JavaScript, he added.Built on the WSO2 Web services application Server, WSO2 Mashup Server can use information from Web services, HTML, and feeds and publishes the result as a Web service. Each service has metadata to simplify consumption by other mashups and Web services clients. Content and presentation are separated through XML and Web services to enable a service to be consumed by another mashup.Web service and UI artifacts are generated, such as WSDL, REST URLS and JavaScript stubs. Services can be composed from such sources as Web services, RSS, and HTML.Additionally, services can be accessed using a request-response pattern or be programmed to run over a long period of time. For example, a mashup initiating instant messaging alerts can warn transport companies about possible delays when there is snow.By leveraging WSO2's application server and registry, the mashup server gains capabilities for enterprise security, reliability, and governance, WSO2 said.Mooshup.com is being launched in a beta version. "The purpose is to help us drive downloads of Mashup Server," Marsh said.WSO2 sells support services for Mashup Server, with prices ranging from $2,000 per server per year to $8,000 per server per year, depending on levels of support.
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With open-source software being formally introduced Monday, WSO2 seeks to bridge the Ruby programming language and the Ruby on Rails Web framework with the SOA and Web services spaces.The company is set to debut WSO2 WSF/Ruby (Web Services Framework for Ruby) 1.0, providing a Ruby extension to support the Web Services WS-* stack. Ruby developers can incorporate security and reliable messaging capabilities needed for trusted, enterprise-class SOAP-based Web services, WSO2 said. But the product also supports the alternative REST (Representational State Transfer) Web services."Ruby, as you know, has become a very popular language the last few years, and what we are enabling is for Ruby to become part of an enterprise SOA architecture," WSO Chairman/CEO Sanjiva Weerawarana said.While Ruby has been popular in the Web 2.0 realm, sometimes it needs to talk to legacy architectures, he said. With the new framework, developers could build a Web application using Ruby and then hook into enterprise infrastructures, such as JMS (Java Message Service) queues. For example, a Web site might be built with Ruby that then needs to link to an order fulfillment system based on an IBM mainframe or minicomputer, Weerawarana said.With the December release of Ruby on Rails 2.0, the builders of Rails swapped out a SOAP library and replaced it with REST capabilities. In doing this, David Heinemeier Hansson, the founder of Rails, stressed that that SOAP and its attendant WS-* stack had become too complex.But Weerawarana stressed REST may not always be sufficient. "[The REST preference] is a perfectly fine position to take if you don't need any kind of these security and reliability infrastructure [capabilities]," he said. WSO2's framework would replace the SOAP capabilities removed in Rails 2.0, he said.Weerawarana's stance was seconded by a user of the company's products, Stefan Tilkov, CEO of infoQ, a consulting firm near Dusseldorf, Germany. While saying he likes Rails because it picks and chooses technologies, such as opting for REST over SOAP, Tilkov said businesses may not be ready to welcome Rails and the lesser known REST Web services at the same time, he said."Sometimes, you have to decide whether you want to fight all of the possible battles at once. Trying to introduce both Rails and [REST] at the same to a company can really be a challenge," he said. WSO2 is providing WS-* and SOAP capabilities for Rails, Tilkov stressed.Still, Tilkov likes REST. "I'm a very big REST fan, and I [advocate] the use of REST whenever I can," he said.WSF/Ruby 1.0 binds WSO2's Web Services Framework for C into Ruby to provide an extension based on three Apache projects. These include: Axis 2C, which is a Web services runtime to support REST and SOA; Sandesha/C, supporting WS-Reliable Messaging; and Rampart/C, for WS-Security capabilities.Also, WSF/Ruby 1.0 uses Ruby on Rails as its deployment model for providing services.Client and service APIs are offered. Support is featured for SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2. The software is interoperable with Microsoft .Net, the WS02 Web Services Application Server, and other J2EE implementations. SOAP Message Transmission Optmization and WS-Addressing capabilities are included as well.Downloadable here, WSF/Ruby 1.0 is offered under the Apache License 2.0. While it is free, WS02 does sell development and production services as well as training for it. Production support prices start at $2,000, while development support begins at $2,500 for 10 hours. Training costs $400 per day per person with a minimum of five persons required.WSO2's long-term strategy includes allowing scripting languages like Ruby, Perl, and PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) to participate in an enterprise SOA.
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CompaniesÂ Web services orchestration platforms share linkage through Collaxa
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Over on our sister site, AjaxDeveloper.org today, there's a note about the latest release of Joshua Eichorn's HTML_AJAX PEAR package - version 0.3.1.    HTML_AJAX 0.3.1 is out, lots of good bug fixes, and iframe fallback support for Opera and IE with activeX turned off.  More details are available on the release notes on the wiki.  Feature wise were getting close to beta release, its mainly getting a browser compatability test suite added in and doing some basic API review. If you have experience supporting an API without breaking bc, it would be great to get your feedback on HTML_AJAX.    In the release notes, there's mention of several bugs with Internet Explorer implementations and some yet unsolved problems (IE memory leaks and table support in Konqueror). Check out the rest of the notes for more of the bugs and issues they've taken care of...
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In a new post to his blog, Robert Swarthout about a PHP frontend he's been developing for working with Subversion repositories:   The frontend needed to be designed in such a way that each developer could access their working copies and make the full range of actions against them. I decided to also use an AJAX setup so that pages would be quickly loaded and updated by a single toggle of a folder.   A few issues popped up, including tracking edits correctly through the interface. His solution revolved around an Apache MPM that could serve different pages to different users and groups. With this solution in place, the functionality could be built up, a list of which he provides including:  create working copy from repository (svn checkout) svn blame svn delete search files (via a grep/find combination, omitting .svn folders) svn rename
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Aaron Wormus has a new note on his blog today about his presentation at this year's Zend/PHP Conference & Expo and another speaker he's excited to hear.    One of the Zend conference sessions that I'm pretty excited about is Don Samisa Abeysinghe's (of WSO2) "Fully Fletched Web Services with PHP".   I'll be presenting a session on "Moving to PHP5 with Style." This tutorial/case study will be based on experience in transitioning several codebases from PHP4 to PHP5, creating unit tests & started a move towards a service based architecture without a complete platform rewrite.    Aaron's talk fits under the banner of the "PHP Development" talks, including others on topics like hosting PHP applications on Windows, working with PDO, unicoding in PHP6, and using PHPUnit.
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Open-source spam blocker gets legal makeover with switch to Apache license. Oh, and tech upgrades.
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When hard a work coding, browser windows with manual entries have a nasty habit of multiplying (at least when I work). So, neededless to say, I was happy to find GotAPI.com, a site that compiles the reference materials for several different web development languages into one handy browser window.  The page, by default, searches HTML resources, including the W3C specs and Microsoft's MSDN materials. Those and the w3schools website show up often in the other languages available - CSS, XSL, XML, and XPath. The PHP manual that's referenced is just pulled from the PHP.net site, but it's still nice to have it all right there.  When searching, a "suggeted terms" box pops up to help you narrow down the search faster. It searches not only the beginnings of the words for your term, but it looks inside them as well, matching anywhere.   It would be nice if the site had some kind of bookmarking system built into it - then you could keep a reference and just flip back and forth between the pages with a single click of the mouse.
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Mashups and SOA are part of the same continuum that links the new Web 2.0 components with business information and services.  Mashups provide a quick and easy way to solve many of today's simple business problems.
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Popfly is the company's mashup creation tool for non-technical users that was introduced in alpha form in May.
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I added his expand/collapse code to the HTML rendering of Scripting News, per my recent request. It seems to work nicely.  Does it work in Opera? Please let me know.
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Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi, Ltd., and NEC Corporation have released their jointly developed messaging software as open source. This software implements the Web Services Reliability (WS-Reliability) standard, a
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IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Computer Associates International have joined original developer group in support of the WS-Eventing specification for subscribing to web services-based events.    The specification is intended to define a baseline set of operations that allow web services to provide asynchronous notifications to interested parties.
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According to a new post on the ThinkPHP blog (pointing to the original story on the Yahoo Business site), WSO2 has released a web services framework WSO2 WSF/PHP.   According to Yahoo Biz, a company called WSO2 released their WSO2 WSF Framework C-library. What is more appealing is that there are now bindings for PHP available under a Apache 2.0 license. The company WSO2 describes itself as: "We are thought leaders in the Apache Web service project, where our engineers are core contributors to key projects including Apache Axis2, Apache Sandesha, Apache Rampart, Apache Neethi, Apache Axiom and Apache Synapse."   The framework provdes a set of resources that can be used to quickly create web services for your application. It also features interoperability with .NET and J2EE implementations.   The ThinkPHP post even helps you take the first steps by providing a step-by-step guide to installing the source and getting it up and running.
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In this installment, a solid programming style has been imposed, a JavaScript class model developed for Preezo which supports single inheritance and simple, tightly bound class definition code. This is important when working with large applications. By Guyon Roche. 1129
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Looking to make Web development easier for Java developers, the Apache Software Foundation began offering this week Apache Wicket 1.3, an open source component-based Web framework.Formerly housed at SourceForge, the Wicket project moved over to Apache last year; version 1.3 is the first release bearing the Apache nameplate, said Martijn Dashorst, chairman of the project and a senior software developer at Web application development firm Topicus. Enhancements have been made in areas such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and portal support."The purpose [of Apache Wicket] is to make development for Java developers simple as a possible," Dashorst said. "We use a component model for that."Developers can create components with plain old Java and HTML, Dashorst said. Apache Wicket 1.3 is downloadable here.Developing Web applications in Java has been a problem; Apache looks to address this with Wicket, according to Dashorst. "In JSF (JavaServer Faces), for instance, it's fairly hard to create your custom components. You need to have almost a graduate degree to create custom components with JSF," he said.Apache Wicket's lack of reliance on XML is hailed on the project's Web site."With proper mark-up/logic separation, a POJO [Plain Old Java Objects] data model, and a refreshing lack of XML, Apache Wicket makes developing Web apps simple and enjoyable again. Swap the boilerplate, complex debugging and brittle code for powerful, reusable components written with plain Java and HTML," the site said. Wicket emphasizes a logical separation of design and code.A key improvement in version 1.3 is enhanced AJAX support. "Pages can be a lot more dynamic than previously," Dashorst said.Google Guice capability has been added as an alternative to using the Spring Framework with Wicket. Developers also can use Wicket pages directly in a portal without changing a line of code.Also new is the switch to the Apache license over from the Lesser GPL (GNU General Public License). "It's more business friendly," because it allows companies to create closed-source products from Wicket, Dashorst said.A user of Apache Wicket, Nicholas Heudecker, principal at software development firm System Mobile, said his company migrated to Wicket and away from Struts."With Wicket, it's just a lot easier. There's no extraneous configuration. Everything is controlled within the Java code," Heudecker said. "Once people have an opportunity to take a look at it, they'll really like it.?Although pleased with the extra AJAX support and development features in version 1.3, Heudecker added he wished there were better tools support for IDEs. Heudecker said he uses the JetBrains IntelliJ Idea IDE with Wicket but would like more tools.Version 1.3 can scale to very large numbers of users with stateless pages and components. An Apache Velocity template engine in version 1.3 allows for user-generated macros in applications such as a content management system.The logging API in Apache Wicket 1.3 switches from commons-logging to SLF4J (Simple Logging Fa?ade for Java). This bolsters debugging and makes application deployment safer.Although the current version of Wicket is anchored on Java Development Kit 4, the next release in a couple months will be based on Java 5, gaining benefits such as generics to improve safety, Dashorst said.Wicket has been downloaded about 120,000 times since it began three years ago. It was moved over to Apache because of infrastructure issues such as spam and sustaining outages in the Subversion repository at SourceForge, Dashorst said.SourceForge representatives could not be reached for a response.
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ObjectWeb will begin distributing an open source BPEL server in the coming weeks, expanding the available options for a middleware technology used to link several applications and data sources into a larger business process. It will be the second open source BPEL server released in recent weeks.