Mashups, and New Trends In Enterprise Software

1. Mashups, and New Trends In Enterprise Software Brian “Bex” Huff Chief Software Architect Jan 2008

2. Agenda • Intro to mashups • Demos of mashups • Technology behind mashups • Limitations of mashups • The future of mashups

3. What the HECK is a Mashup?!?! • It’s a Hybrid Web Application • Reuse formatted data from existing sources • Access and display data with dynamic JavaScript • AJAX, DHTML • Analogous to Portal Servers • Portlets written in J2EE or .NET • Mashups written with mostly JavaScript • Mashup widgets work in both .NET and J2EE environments • More of a design philosophy than a tool or a framework

4. What’s the Mashup Design Philosophy? • Separate your information from its presentation • Upgrade your enterprise architecture for easy data access • Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) with SOAP • Resource-Oriented Architectures (ROA) with ReST • Create an easy-to-use JavaScript API for data access • Access SOAP or ReST services with AJAX • Load RSS or other XML-formatted data • Keep it simple! Don’t break the web! • Tell people about your API • Step back, and see what happens!

5. Examples of Mashups • Housing Maps • http://housingmaps.com • JavaScript mashup of Google Maps and rental data from Craig’s List • Chicago Crime • http://chicagocrime.org • JavaScript Mashup of Google Maps and Chicago crime statistics • Google Flight Simulator • http://www.isoma.net/games/goggles.html • Flash mashup of Google Maps and an airplane video game • Thousands of other Google Maps Mashups: • http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/

6. Housingmaps.com Mashup

7. Chicagocrime.org Mashup

8. Google Fight Simulator

9. What’s the Value to Me? • If data is easy to reuse; innovation is bound to follow • No enterprise Java learning curve! • JavaScript Widgets, instead of complex J2EE Portals • Don't need enterprise programmers for enterprise products! • Mashups run in user’s browser, not an app server • Security, performance, uptime managed in your infrastructure • Enterprise programmers focus on infrastructure • Application developers need only know JavaScript • Important piece of Enterprise 2.0 • Give your employees a “safe” place to test new apps • Lower the barrier of entry for enterprise software • Allow innovation to happen at all levels

10. Enterprise Mashup Examples • Map customer addresses, or company locations • Visualize the geographic area your serve • Mashup people with their search history • Customer service / Sales knows what they are trying to find • Mashup sales activity with sales forecasts • Business activity monitoring, updated every few minutes • Monitor it with a Flash dashboard • Published data also useful for generating reports • Any data you have can be displayed in a widget • One line of JavaScript on a HTML page • Much easier than integrating application servers!

11. Technology Behind Mashups • Back-End: data repositories • Large enterprise applications: ERP, CRM, ECM • Raw database tables • Middle Tier: application server • Securely connect to back end data repositories • Single-sign-on strongly encouraged • SOA / ROA interface • Publish content statically in JSON or XML format • Place dynamic content in a cache for optimal performance • Front End: web browser widgets (JavaScript, Flash, Silverlight) • Use custom API connector to Middle Tier • AJAX, Remote Scripting, etc. • JavaScript user interface library (YUI, MochiKit, Dojo, etc.)

12. Sample Public Mashup Diagram • Housing Maps downloads Craig’s List data • Publishes static JavaScript on a schedule • User requests HTML and JavaScript from Housing Maps • Google Maps and user’s browser do all the work of rendering the page! Google Maps Craig’s List Static HTML & JavaScript housing maps

13. Sample Enterprise Mashup Diagram • User requests HTML from intranet page • Page includes references to secured enterprise JavaScript resources • User logs in to app server middle tier, downloads secure JavaScript • Single sign-on makes this invisible to user • Enterprise infrastructure handles performanceand security for you! ERP System App Server A Mashup server Static HTML ECM System App Server B

14. Enterprise Mashup Checklist • Google Maps is the gold standard • Publicly available static resources: images, JavaScript • Easy to use JavaScript API • Also supports XML, KML, and JSON • Uses Remote Scripting instead of AJAX for more flexibility • Access restricted by an API license key • Prevents overuse by inexperienced JavaScript developers • Enterprise mashups need a bit more • Single Sign On ensures secure access to private data • Web caching between browser and application server • Data caching between application server and back end • Guidance for users who design mashups • Suggested JavaScript / Flash toolkits

15. Mashups Beyond Google Maps • Freebase.com • Like a Wiki, but with structured database content • Run queries and draw results with pure JavaScript • Salesforce.com – hosted CRM • Mashups with proprietary APEX language • Combined reports on salesforce data, and ultra-secure in-house data • Mashup toolkits for any public web sites • Google Mashup Editor: http://editor.googlemashups.com/ • Yahoo Pipes: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ • Microsoft Popfly: http://www.popfly.ms/ • Not many off-the-shelf enterprise solutions yet

16. Limitations of Enterprise Mashups • Accessibility for the blind • Text-to-speech readers don’t support JavaScript • Have not been seriously updated since 1998 • Existing web standards that ban JavaScript are obtuse and outdated • WAI, WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0, Section 508 • Accessibility solutions • Avoid standards, use new tools, empower the handicapped! • Web 2.0 can be much more empowering than Web 1.0 • Use Firevox and AxsJAX to add accessibility to AJAX and Mashups • http://www.firevox.clcworld.net/ • http://google-axsjax.googlecode.com/ • Use mashups to add accessibility to non-accessible pages!

17. Limitations of Enterprise Mashups, cont. • Security • Need single sign on (SSO) security for data and services • Difficult to do SSO over the greater internet • Performance • Dynamic service requests slower than static XML files • Poorly written JavaScript that makes too many AJAX requests • Stability and Uptime • Can you trust Google Maps to be up 24/7? • What if a server outside your domain breaks? • Content reuse problems • Potential of data theft if information is too re-usable

18. The Future of Mashups • App servers used more to mashup-enable back end systems • Service-Oriented Architectures more common • Lend themselves very well to mashups • As do Resource-Oriented Architectures • Make Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) optional • Keep the bar low for “hobbyists” • New formats: • JSON will surpass XML for data transfer • ATOM will surpass RSS for syndication • Accessibility standards will eventually catch up • Good tools and ease of use are more important than “standards”

19. The Future of Mashups, cont. • Mashups empower users to find data in silos • Enterprise Widgets replace portal servers • AJAX and JavaScript replaces J2EE and .NET for some portals • Other portals replaced with full web applications • Freebase becomes vastly more popular • Still in alpha release • Unknown if it can scale to Wikipedia’s size • Web based data mining, and data visualization tools • JavaScript based rapid application development tools • Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight visualization engines

20. Questions? • My Company: • http://bezzotech.com • Oracle Enterprise Content Management solutions • My Blog: • http://bexhuff.com • Technology, lifehacks, and all that good stuff… • My Self: • bex@bezzotech.com • Brian “Bex” Huff