This paper explores trends past, current, and future in the mashup space and surveys the types of tools used to build and distribute mashups. The goal is to develop a set of criteria for the reader to use when evaluating mashup platforms for the development of business applications. Where appropriate, analogies to existing technologies and methodologies are employed.
MASHUPS
Understanding Mashup Building Platforms
for Business Applications
PROTOPROTO
OverviewThis paper explores trends past, current, and future in the mashup space and surveys the types of tools used to build and distribute mashups. The goal is to develop a set of criteria for the reader to use when evaluating mashup platforms for the development of business applications. Where appropriate, analogies to existing technologies and methodologies are employed. However, the paper's intent is to introduce and clarify the various layers of technology in the mashup space, not to make relative value judgments or to advocate particular vendors' solutions. Our hope is that readers will come away with a framework to help them make informed choices about tools for building mashups.
Introduction to the Mashup SpaceIn 2005, a new wave of web applications started garnering a lot of attention among technology mashupScrAPIwidgetcommentators and the press. One displayed housing "BI 2.0" SOA RESTlistings on an interactive map, another showed graphical composite apprepresentations of social networks by using photographs JSON RSS "enterprise mashup"of individuals connected with lines, and others showed 1real-time locations of taxicabs and recent crimes. What with people in the technology world, and then it started all these applications had in common, besides being to appear in the context of business in such terms as web apps, was that they were built very quickly by small "enterprise mashups." It seemed to combine a lot of teams, often only one person. How was this possible? different big trends that were becoming extremely The difference between these apps and traditional relevant at the time: the expansion of data available on software development was the developers' reliance the public internet and the increasing trends towards on extant software and services like Google Maps and structured services to access those data, the shift in Craigslist apartment listings. By reusing these large, corporate IT towards service-orientation, and the powerful services, the developers were able to focus explosion of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps such as on the creative part of development where they were Salesforce.com. People in the technology world started adding unique value, not reinventing the wheel. The applying the term "mashup platform" or "mashup builder" development costs and risks were so low that hundreds to all sorts of things from speci?c web applications of individual programmers began to develop fun and to tools designed for non-programmers to build new hobbyist applications that until very recently were applications. While de?nitions and scope may vary, there infeasible to build. does seem to be a common thread: people talking about "mashups" are talking about software technologies which 2These applications became known as "mashups". The make application development radically less expensive, term was inspired by the popular music trend in which so much so as to change the basic value equation driving hobbyists would remix two songs by "mashing" large the decision to develop custom software applications.segments of them together. "Mashup" struck a chord
1 HousingMaps http://www.programmableweb.com/url/62, Flicker Graph http://www.programmableweb.com/url/1, ChicagoCrime.org http://www.programmableweb.com/url/ChicagoCrime.org2 Mashups (music). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_%28music%29
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Some readers with a background in enterprise IT must be wondering, "what is the difference between mashups and composite applications?" Is "mashup" just a
In our opinion, the short answer is, "very little." Composite trendy new word app technology was intended to change the application development lifecycle and cost equation in a fashion similar to mashups. However, we do see two noteworthy for an old idea?
differences in the approaches: Deployment and purposeThe developer audience A composite application is usually something built and Composite application development is relegated deployed inside an organization. An example composite predominantly to the development of enterprise ap?plication might link supply-chain management (SCM) applications by enterprise IT departments. Mashup software ... [download for more]
