Mashup Camp Silicon Valley 2008

InformationWeek's Fritz Nelson's interview with Jonathan during the Mashup Camp in Mountainview, CA.

As seen on TecWebTV

Learning to Create Mashups

I'll be running an on-line training which teaches you how to create Mashups on the WSO2 Mashup Server next week.

You may have already registered yourself on mooshup.com or downloaded our Mashup Server and discovered how easy it is to create a simple Mashup. This training will show you how to use a lot of the features we've built into the server and really harness the power of the development model we've provided to compose or personalize web services.

Anyone with some programming experience and a basic knowledge of JavaScript could quite easily be mashing up information from a web service, static HTML page and an RSS feed, to create a personalized service with a HTML UI and EMail/IM alerts at the end of this session.

Sounds interesting? Take a look at the course details and decide.

- Channa

Mooshup moves to WSO2 Mashup Server v1.0.2

Mooshup.com has been upgraded to version 1.0.2 of the WSO2 Mashup Server.  Why release 1.0.2 so quickly after the 1.0 release?  And what happened to 1.0.1?  Inquisitive minds want to know!

One of the advantages of open source is that the code is exposed to security challenges and the code itself can be inspected for security flaws by a wide audience.  The WSO2 Mashup Server naturally underwent this scrutiny with its formal 1.0 release, and one of our own WSO2 engineers (not working on the Mashup Server) set about trying to hack his way into the system.  Unfortunately he succeeded in finding a way to create new users in the system without authorization to do so.  Ouch!

We immediately developed a patch for that hole, deployed it on mooshup.com, and then built a 1.0.1 Mashup Server release with that security patch in (as well as a couple of other bugs likely to be unpleasant to some users - see below).  Although we tested the areas affected by the patch adequately before releasing 1.0.1, it turned out there were some build problems and unrelated parts of the build were corrupted, including that the try-it and stub code which had reverted to a previous version, thereby missing improvements and bug fixes that were an important part of the 1.0 release.

So we went back to the drawing board, fixed the build problems, and built a clean 1.0.2 release, and performed a complete test pass that didn't surface any new issues.  A bit of an unpleasant learning experience for us, but a valuable one we can use to improve our future release processes.

Since 1.0.2 includes a security fix, we recommend WSO2 Mashup Servers to be upgraded promptly!  Download 1.0.2 here.

The other issues fixed in 1.0.2 are:

• Preventing admins from changing the passwords for the built in "system" and "anonymous" users - which produced unpleasant effects.
• Function scheduling via system.setInterval() now works in conjunction with included stubs.
• Fixed corrupted links to mashups in RSS feeds.
• Added missing files to the source distribution.
• Fixed a WSAS instability wrt Hibernate sessions.

All the fixes above have now been propagated to mooshup.com, making it effectively a 1.0.2 installation.

There are a growing number of issues and improvements that have been reported in our JIRA, and we plan to address most of those in an upcoming release.  Feel free to add to the list as you come across things that could be done better!

- Jonathan

Upcoming presentations and training

I'll be talking about mashups at next Monday's Web Services on Wall Street conference, starting with the opening panel: "Enterprise Mashups For Wall Street – Leveraging SOA and Web 2.0".  If you're there, come say hi!

We also plan to do a regular series of free Webinars to introduce people to the WSO2 Mashup Server and to mooshup.com.  I'm giving the first one from 12 Feb from 9-10AM PST.   Register now!

Or if you've already gotten a taste for the product but want more in-depth training, you can register for an online session on 13 Feb from 9AM-12PM PST.  Details here: Introduction to the WSO2 Mashup Server.

- Jonathan

WSO2 Mashup Server in the news

Here are a few of the new stories that have emerged following the release of the WSO2 Mashup Server and the launch of mooshup.com:

• Information Week:  WSO2 Injects Mashups Into The Enterprise
• InfoWorld: WSO2 open source mashup builder leverages JavaScript
• Application Development Trends: WSO2 Unveils Open Source Mashup Server
• CMS Wire: WSO2 Releases New Mashup Server on SOA Platform
• ZDNet: WSO2 targets ‘Social Enterprise’ with combined JavaScript/Web services Mashup Server

Some of the blog reactions we're getting are gratifying too - see My First Mashup.

- Jonathan

WSO2 Mashup Server 1.0 released

The WSO2 Mashup Server team is thrilled to announce the immediate availability of the 1.0 release!

We've been working hard for well over a year to produce a product that has a great set of features, a super-cool user experience, and a high quality level.  And now it's time to set this bird free and see how it flies!

Our beta release garnered some great feedback even though it was still rough around the edges.  Here's my favorite blog quote from an early tinkerer:

A powerful programming language. Laughably easy XML manipulation. Simple access to SOAP services and REST resources. Transparent publication of itself as a service or resource in turn. Isn't this the holy grail of service composition? - Wisdom of Ganesh

In our humble view, ABSOLUTELY!  We conceived of the Mashup Server as an alternative to the difficult and costly service composition solutions that were available, and built a platform that makes Web services (and anything that approximates a Web service such as an RSS feed or an HTML page) scriptable.

Not only can you mash information sources together into composite information flows, but as a powerful development platform the Mashup Server serves many other purposes as well:

• Service creation and deployment
• Service translation
• Building user interfaces for services
• Rapid prototyping
• Simple workflows

Read the press release and stay tuned to this space for more information!

- Jonathan

Welcome to the mooshup.com blog!

Mooshup.com is officially launched!

Mooshup.com is an online community of mashup authors, where they can develop, run, and share their mashups.  Powered by the WSO2 Mashup Server, these mashups consist of simple JavaScript functions which are exposed automatically by the Mashup Server as Web services.

The easiest way to create a mashup for use on mooshup.com is to download the free open source WSO2 Mashup Server, and use notepad or your favorite IDE to start creating some simple JavaScript functions.  The Mashup Server will turn those functions into full-fledged Web services with rich metadata, default UI and UI building tools, all of which can be accessed through a Web browser.

When you're happy with your mashup and wish to make it available 24/7 you can push the "share" button and it will be published to your account on mooshup.com, where others can use it, comment on it, rate it, and build more cool mashups on top of it.

This blog will provide announcements, tips and tricks, and ideas for improvement for mooshup.com and for the WSO2 Mashup Server, and collect feedback and suggestions for ongoing improvement of both of these products.

Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you enjoy mooshup.com!

- The WSO2 Mashup Server Team

Channa, Jonathan, Keith, Prasad, Tyrell, Yumani

(Plus Thilina (now working on a PhD) and many more who played pivotal roles in bringing this idea to fruition.)