Transcript Web 2.0, AJAX, and REST in IBM WebSphere Portal

ID506: Web 2.0, AJAX, and REST in IBM WebSphere Portal
Thomas Schaeck, STSM
Lead Architect Quickr and WebSphere Portal Web 2.0
Stephan Hesmer
WebSphere Portal Web 2.0 Architect and Lead Developer
®
What is Web 2.0, AJAX and REST ?
®
What is Web 2.0 ?
 A term coined by Tim O‘Reilly
(see http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html )
 Increasingly used for next generation
World Wide Web Applications and Services
 Web 2.0 has many aspects:
Business Models that survived and have promise for the future
Approaches such as services instead of products, the Web as a platform, ...
Concepts such as folksonomies, syndication, participation, reputation, ....
Technologies such as AJAX, REST, Tags, Microformats, ...
And many others ...
How do Web 2.0 Sites differ from „Web 1.0“ Sites ?
 Strict „Web 1.0“ site
 Modern „Web 2.0“ site
 „Web Master“ runs web site, users
consume
 Few content editors
 Web site provides content and
applications for users
 View-only markup
 Only human users
 Accumulates relatively small amounts
of information and content
 Fixed categories / Taxonomy
 Unidirectional
 Users collectively contribute to the web site,
they don‘t just consume
 Every user is a content editor and rater
 Web site provides content, applications, and
collective contributions of all users
 Semantically tagged markup
 Humans and applications as „users“
 Accumulates huge amounts of information
and content
 FlexibleTagging / Folksonomy
 Bi-directional
App
App
Web
Site
Web
Site
App
Data
Data
App
Observations
 Web 2.0 consists of social and technical aspects
 The social aspects of Web 2.0 are much more fundamental
than the technologies
 Web 2.0 Sites can derive huge value from their user
community if they achieve critical mass
 Some Web 2.0 companies have achieved extremely high
market captialization (Google ($109,66 bn) bought YouTube
for $1,65 bn)
 The Web 2.0 Site itself often only provides the infrastructure
and guidelines for user participation
 The community then adds value to the site, e.g. by writing
articles, posting videos, sharing bookmarks, etc
 Typically, these Web 2.0 sites have APIs for use by developers
of mashup applications acting as multipliers
 Web 2.0 user interfaces typically apply the AJAX technology in
order to achieve more responsive UIs
What is AJAX ?
 AJAX is the acronym for
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
 The purpose is to create more dynamic and responsive web pages
 It is also about building web clients in a Service Oriented Architecture
that can connect to any kind of server: J2EE, PHP, ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails, etc.
 AJAX involves existing technology & standards: JavaScript and XML
 Pattern: Page view displayed in a web browser retrieves data or markup fragments
from a service and refreshes just a part of the page
 AJAX is non-trivial, it requires deep and broad skills in web development ...
... but the benefits to be gained can be huge compared to classic web applications
 AJAX enables major improvements in responsiveness and performance of web applications,
e.g. used at Yahoo! Mail, Google Maps, live.com, and others
 AJAX is NOT hype – it is very real and very useful for highly interactive applications
AJAX compared to classic Web UIs
service
Browser
Server
In the typical web application,
each request causes a complete
refresh of the browser page
Browser
Server
An Ajax application begins the same way.
After the initial page loads, Javascript code
retrieves additional data in the background
and updates only specific sections of the
page
 Ajax forces you to think about discrete services.
 It may drive requirements for new services from your IT department
What is REST ?
 REST is the acronym for „Representational
State Transfer“
 It is the architectural model on which the World Wide Web is based
 Principles of REST




Resource centric approach
All relevant resources are addressable via URIs
Uniform access via HTTP – GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
Content type negotiation allows retrieving alternative representations from same URI
 REST style services
 are easy to access from code running in web browsers, any other client or servers
 very popular in the context of AJAX
 can take full advantage of the WWW caching infrastructure
 can serve multiple representations of the same resource
 More info: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm
Web 2.0 Concepts that are interesting for enterprise use
 Self-establishing Communities collaborating around topics of common business interest
 Support User Contribution, treat users as co-authors and leverages their skills better
 Accumulation of user knowledge to make apps smarter the more people use them
 Enable users to add value by adding meta data, e.g. rate, tag, bookmark, comment
 Allow users to Take Control and let them make applications most useful to them
 Separate User Interface from Services to make services re-usable
 Fine grained access to data supporting mashups
 Mashups combining existing services into new, useful applications joining information
 Situational Development of applications through line of business can help make
businesses more agile
 AJAX to enable rich, interactive, highly responsive Web UI
 Use of Semantic Tags and Microformats to enable dynamic augmentation with
contextual menus or information
Web 2.0 in WebSphere Portal
®
IBM WebSphere Portal is the User Interface to SOA
Other Clients
Web
Browser
Rich
Clients
Mobile
Client
Other Clients
Presentation Services
MS Office &
Windows
eForms
Xforms
WebSphere Portal 6 Overview
WebSphere
• Instant messaging
• Team Rooms
• Electronic Forms
• Workflow Builder
WebSphere
•Web Content Management
•Portal Document Manager
•Workflow Engine
WebSphere
• Presentation
• Customization
• Application aggregation
• Java Portlet API
• Use of 100’s of portlets
• WSRP support
• Admin
• Single sign on
• Search
• Personalization
• Portlet Generation Tool
(Portlet Factory)
• Composite Applications
• Cluster Support
• Application Server
• Database
• LDAP Directory Server
WebSphere Portal – An Example
 w3 portal for all IBM employees
 > 300,000 users
 Portlets provide essential information
 Highly personalized - displays the right
info to the right users at the right time
 End-user customizable - users can
create custom pages
 Has become a key tool for every IBMer
 Major productivity gain
Targeted info delivery to users
Users can easily find the apps they need
Portals are the way to provide governed business mashups
combining public information, enterprise apps and data
Rich Clients
composite applications
role-based
processdriven
Thin Clients
in context
Mobile Clients
Critical enabler:
Openness
Security-Rich Composite application
or view, that assembles and delivers
services in the form of portlets
in the context of a business process
Standards based access to integration and innovation
Web 2.0 / AJAX / REST in WP and related Products - Today
 WP 6 allows User Contribution to portal sites through both WCM and PDM
 WP 6 enables Situational Development through Composite Application
Templates and through Lotus Designer / Portlet Factory / Forms Designer
 WP 6 allows users Taking Control of their pages and choose content (if allowed
by admin)
 Custom AJAX Portlets can be written today to run on WebSphere Portal,
e.g. using the Dojo framework and widgets or the AJAX support in RAD
 WP 6.0 exploits AJAX for context menus, search menu, and some admin portlets
 WebSphere Portlet Factory can generate AJAX Portlets with incremental update
and autocomplete
 IBM is strongly engaged in Dojo (see http://dojotoolkit.org/ ) as major
contributor
Disclaimer
The following includes material that is
directional in nature and does not imply
any product plan commitment on the
part of IBM.
Screenshots in this presentation are
from prototypes and likely to change
significantly by the time products are
released
New Web 2.0 Work under development for WebSphere Portal
 REST Services to open up portal for mashup applications – services for server persistence,
portlet settings and user profile access to simplify Web 2.0 application development
 AJAX Portlet Programming Model Extensions based on Dojo+IBM Extensions
 Client Side Aggregation and Customization using REST Services for better UX and
improved performance
 AJAX Client Side Feed Consumption to enable highly efficient integration of information
through feeds (Atom and RSS)
 Semantic Tags to allow smart markup to enable value add by portal, e.g. dynamic menus
 Client Side C2A/Property Broker and Drag & Drop based on Semantic Tags integrated
with server side property broker and C2A support to enable cross-portlet interaction locally in
the browser as well as with server side code
 Sample AJAX Portlets with source showcasing the new capabilities to demonstrate and give
samples to customers for how to exploit all the above
 Integration, Aggregation and Customization of Google Gadgets
REST style Web Services exposing Portal to Mashups
 Goals:
 Separate portal user experience from portal data
 Expose relevant data separately for use by other apps ( Mashups)
 Public REST style Web services for





Access
Access
Access
Access
Access
to
to
to
to
to
Navigation Node Hierarchy
Page Definitions
User Profiles
generic Content Persistence
markup fragments of individual portlets
 Mashups can use these services to implement custom applications
leveraging portal infrastructure services
 WebSphere Portal’s Web 2.0 Client Side Aggregation uses these
services as well
Emerging WPLC Services&Feeds and Application Examples
Product:
Common PIM Portlets
for Mail and Calendar Access
Calendar Services
Domino
Mail Services
IM Service
Custom Situational Application:
Simple AJAX Mail / Cal summary
views with awareness
Conference Service
Sametime
Awareness Service
Activity, Blog Services
Connections
Geneva
Portlets, Notes Plugin,
Sametime Plugin, Desktop Integration
Persona, Community Services
Team Space Services
Quickr
Documents Services
Custom Situational Application:
Problem tracking application
allowing to see author presence
and location in map and contact via IM
Search Service
Contacts Service
Persistence Service
Product:
WebSphere Portal
Client Side Aggregation
Portal Services
WebSphere
Portal
Portlet Service
User Service
Maps
…
Internet Services
Web 2.0 Fragment Model
 Simple and extensible Web 2.0 fragment programming model
 Agnostic of how fragments are generated, may be
 generated by portlets on WebSphere Portal
 generated by PHP code on Web.0 or PHP servers
 generated by .NET servers
 Can start simple, with option to grow more sophisticated
 Basic fragments – HTML only
 Slightly more advanced – add use of Semantic Tags
 More advanced – add use of Dojo and custom JavaScript
 Fragments can use public JavaScript interfaces
to conveniently invoke WebSphere Portal’s REST-style Web services
Web 2.0 Fragment Programming Model
Web 2.0 Fragment
Semantic Tags
Dojo Widget Markup
JavaScript Functions
REST Calls to Portal Services
User Profile Access
Settings Access
Persistence Service Access
REST Calls to other Services,
e.g. other WPLC services
Weather Info, News, Sports, …
CRM, HR, … Services
etc
Web 2.0 Client Side Aggregation
 Browser-side Aggregation, Navigation and Customization
 Superior user experience
 Highly reactive and direct user interface
 Many actions possible without server roundtrips
 Avoids page flickering
 Accesses and manipulates portal information through REST services
 Renders XML obtained from the server on the browser side
 Implemented using AJAX, XML, Dojo, and JavaScript
 Improved performance and scalability through
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Reduced server side processing - offloads rendering to browser
Reduced bandwidth requirements between server and browser
Reduced client-side processing – mostly fragment reloads, few page reloads
Improved cachability, all artifacts can be cached independently
AJAX based Client Side Aggregation in the Web Browser
REST-accessible Markup Fragments
from WP Portlets or any other URL
Atom / RSS Feeds
Services created with Google Gadgets
WSRP Services
Semantic Tags, Context Menus and Drag&Drop
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 Extensible set of tag types such as person, address, phone number, document, ... is
used to mark content elements with types (semantic tagging)
 Behaviours like e.g. context menus, annotations, highlighting, drag & drop, etc can be
applied to everything that is semantically tagged
Semantic Tags (Portal-Independent Technology)
AJAX based RSS/Atom Feed Consumption
 Allow simple consumption and display of Feeds in portal pages
 Atom feeds
 RSS feeds
 Implemented using AJAX, Dojo and JavaScript
 Gets settings defining the feed to display from portal
 Retrieves feeds from origin servers via AJAX proxy
 Renders feeds in the browser rather than causing server load
AJAX RSS/Atom Feed Consumption directly from Origin
Google Gadget Integration
 Enable customers to easily integrate Google
Gadgets into portal pages
From an end user perspective, Google
Gadgets integrated in WebSphere Portal
behave just like local portlets: viewable and
customizable like any local portlet
 If allowed by admin, users can drag Generic
Gadget Portlets on their pages and select
Gadgets to display from the Gadget Catalog
Gadget Portlet initially lets user select the Gadget to
display from the Gadget Catalog
Gadget Portlet then displays the selected Gadget
User can view and customize the selected gadget like
any local portlet
 Administrators can pre-define Gadget
Portlets for the portlet palette
Generic Gadget Portlet is pre-configured by the admin
to connect it to a certain gadget, e.g. an admin could
create a “Map Portlet” by creating a Gadget Portlet
and connecting it to the Google Maps Gadget
Users can then select such pre-configured Gadget
Portlets from the palette and drag them onto their
pages like any local portlet
Google Gadget Integration – A Gadget integrated in
WebSphere Portal as a portlet
Google Gadget Integration – Selecting a Gadget to
integrate into WebSphere Portal as a portlet
IBM Portlet for Google Gadgets Architecture
Google RSS Feed
listing
available gadgets
Configuration
Mode
IBM Portlet
for
Google Gadgets
Customize
Mode
View
Mode
Customize
Mode
View
Mode
Google
Gadget
AJAX Portlets using Dojo
Web 2.0 Portal Architecture
Classic
JSR 168
Portlets
AJAX enabled
JSR 168
Portlets
WSRP
Service
Feed
Service
WSRP
Consumer
AJAX Feed
Consumer
HTML+Dojo+JS
Fragments
(from J2EE,.NET,PHP,
HTTP or other Server)
AJAX Fragment
Consumer
Quickr
Connections
MyPlaces
Portlet
Connections
Portlets
(Wikis, Blogs,
Lists, Doc Libs,
Discussions)
(Activities,
Blue Pages,
Social Bookmarks,
Blogs)
AJAX Programming Model Extensions
(Dojo Framework & Widgets + AJAX.0 + REST accessor JS functions + Semantic Tags + Client Side Click-2-Action)
REST style Portal Services
(Persistence, User Profiles, Portlet Settings, Navigation, Pages, etc)
WebSphere Portal Foundation
WebSphere Application Server
Conclusion
 Web 2.0 is important for the enterprise
 AJAX and REST are important technologies related to Web 2.0
 IBM uses Web 2.0 concepts and technologies sucessfully in its intranet
 WebSphere Portal already today in WP 6 provides Web 2.0 capabilities
and leverages Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX
 Future releases of WebSphere Portal will add more Web 2.0 features
and expand use of AJAX and REST
 WebSphere Portal will integrate with Lotus Connections and
Lotus Quickr