Mashup web platform for the next-generation SOA: EzWeb

Transcription

1 Mashup web platform for the next-generation SOA: EzWeb Marcos Reyes Ureña Telefónica I+D

2 Why are we interested in services front end from the IT Systems world? The IT systems complexity impacts on time to market and customer and user satisfaction We have made steps in the right direction (EAI, BPM, SOA ) but the promises of reusability, adaptability, scalability, productivity and loose coupling still aren t a reality Maybe because users haven t been taken into consideration as an integral part of systems architecture. It is necessary to explore a user-centric approach The next generation service s front end will allow systems to acquire and exploit user knowledge as a main tool to solve some of the current IT systems problems

3 solving problems in key scenarios Problems they face now What EzWeb will bring INDIVIDUAL The services are neither proactive nor accessible: is difficult for users to look for services they need at each time. Cannot compose personalized applications and situational processes to manage their digital home and daily life The Service Delivery Platforms will become accessible and proactive, providing what I need, here, now (my context) My daily life gets managed from a single point I easily configure and access SME S ENTERPRISES Cannot afford development of customized applications Need to mix COTS apps from different vendors but cannot afford EAI costs ASP solutions are few (they require a huge investment) and have not delivered their promise: too monolithic, not customizable Apps are not delivered in time and do not easily adapt to changes: users have to solve problems on their own Applications are too monolithic: difficulty to incorporate innovation from third parties (available in the Internet) 3 Knowledge is not properly exploited The ASP model becomes realizable Playing level field for IT SMEs devoted to develop resources Catalyst of the ecosystem involving large ISVs, IT SMEs and broker/aggregators End-user becomes part of the development lifecycle, thus accelerating it Ability to import innovations coming from Internet Ability to exploit knowledge foster productivity

4 The reality of SOA Today, a real Service Oriented Architecture is the main goal of most Enterprise Systems. However most used SOA implementations (WSDL/SOAP for example) don't seem to provide the promised solution... System integration is not as easy as they told us... Beware with the WS* Stack In fact we have YARPC (Yet Another RPC) CORBA, RMI, COM... But services are more than RPC calls. They must be something Useful Final users have been forgotten Try to give a WSDL to your mother

5 We need services that: Looking for the new SOA Involve and empower users The only way to get their satisfaction Adapted to real user requirements... and their needs Usable, touchable and accessible Making it empirical and real Make easy system integration The best solution involve several Systems Interact in a marketplace Market rules to services evolution ( solutions Bring to reality SaaS (beyond ASP Really configurable Software as a Service Anyway not all is lost. Real Services already exist!! At least... in the Internet.

6 What's a Gadget? Gadgets are supposed to be SMALL, REUSABLE and USER-CENTRIC Service front end applications Welcome to the Post-IT Generation!! Generic gadgets are desirable but ad-hoc solutions are allowed too... only if they are quick & cheap enough Sometimes all you need is a Kleenex!! Gadgets should be adapted to real problems Gadget Evolution versus Application Creationism The idea is to Develop USEFUL / Develop FAST 2008 Odyssey:! My God, It's full of... Gadgets!

7 Gadget s Mashup: The SOA enabler New mechanisms to discover, use, share and manipulate Gadgets are necessary Allowing easy and feasible service integration Making solutions highly accessible and reusable Empowering users to build their own applications (including situational apps) Catching the long tail!

8 Catching the long tail The Long Tail concept appears all along the Web 2.0 universe It was at first applied to business models: Selling less of more But it can be applied to: Acquire less Knowledge from more People Exploit less Technical Expertise from more Developers Develop less Requirements in more Systems Employ less Work from more Workers

9 And also to IT projects

10 So... why EzWeb? Build and compose your own Applications Personalise your apps. Not only contents Develop Small & Beautiful Anyone can develop the best gadget ever Back-end Support Preferences, context, notify events, persistence... EzWeb is an open source platform Front-end system integration Integrate systems and functionalities at user level emarketplace infrastructure Helps you to make business

11 For more information BLOG: WIKI: TRAC: MAILING LIST:

12 Mashup web platform for the next-generation SOA: EzWeb Marcos Reyes Ureña Telefónica R&D

13 How to develop a Gadget? Get Inspired Searching, Browsing, Reusing, Importing, Wrapping, Adapting... COPYING We are the dwarfs standing on shoulders of giants Catch the idea One idea, One gadget... Two ideas, Two gadgets... We need simple solutions with a well defined behaviour Think about Gadget data flows Gadgets want to be SOCIAL, not only with other Gadgets but also with People and environment No more lonely apps

14 ( Gadget?(II How to develop a Design your interface (pen to paper) One screen is better than two Desktop belongs to user. Don't waste pixels! Remember: Gadgets prefer to live in the front end layer (View) But you'll need the support of a back-end (Model / Controller) Sometimes EzWeb could be your Model and Controller Choose the best technology Gadgets are agnostic: XHTML / FLASH / APPLETS / XUL / SVG... anything your browser can eat!

15 That's all?... we need a template Why do we need a Template? Template allows gadgets to share information with the world in an standard, declarative and semantic way. The same gadget implementation could have several different templates. Depending on how we want them to be exposed or used. Of course you can use a default Template, but you will lose some platform interesting capabilities Template has two main sections: Integration Variables: Binding Flows to Aspects Description: with all kind of context information That's all Folks!

16 Properties They allow free persistence Preferences They permit configuration User Forms Context Event Slots The easy way to access the delivery context Talk to other gadgets Receive notifications from other gadgets Integration Variables?.. and so on... One concept to rule them all!

17 Technological context

18 EzWeb technological architecture DB