WSO2 Mashup Server 1.5.1 - Release Note - 8th August 2008

"Create, deploy, and consume Web services Mashups in the simplest fashion"

The WSO2 Mashup Server is a powerful yet simple and quick way to tailor Web-based information to the personal needs of individuals and organizations.

It is a platform for acquiring data from a variety of sources including Web Services, HTML pages, feeds and data sources, and process and combine it with other data using JavaScript with E4X XML extensions. The result is then exposed as a new Web service with rich metadata and artifacts to simplify the creation of rich user interfaces.

The WSO2 Mashup Server forms the backbone of an ecosystem of community-developed services that will broaden the palette of capabilities for mashups and distributed applications.

WSO2 Mashup Server is released under the Apache License v2.0

Check out the project Home page for additional information.

Features List

• Hosting of mashup services written using JavaScript with E4X XML extension
  • Simple file based deployment model
• JavaScript annotations to configure the deployed services
• Auto generation of metadata and runtime resources for the deployed mashups
  • JavaScript stubs that simplify client access to the mashup service
  • Code templates for developing rich HTML or Google Gadget interfaces
  • TryIt functionality to invoke the mashup service through a web browser
  • WSDL 1.1/WSDL 2.0/XSD documents to describe the mashup service
  • API documentation
• Ability to bundle a custom user interface for the mashups
• Many useful Javascript Host objects that can be used when writing mashups
  • WSRequest: invoke Web services from the mashup services
  • File: File storage/manipulation functionality
  • System: Set of system specific utility functions
  • Session: Ability to share objects across different service invocations
  • Scraper: Extract data from HTML pages and present in XML format
  • APPClient: Atom Publishing Protocol client to retrieve/publish Atom feeds with APP servers
  • Feed: A generic set of host objects to transparently read Atom and RSS feeds
  • Request: Ability get information regarding a request received
• Support for recurring and longer-running tasks
• Support for service lifecycles
• Ability to secure hosted mashups using a set of commonly used security scenarios
• Management console to easily manage the mashups
• Simple sharing of deployed mashups with other WSO2 Mashup Servers
• Mashup sharing community portal (http://mooshup.com) to share and host your mashups

New In 1.5

• Request object
• Ability to secure hosted mashups using a set of commonly used security scenarios
• Ability to call secured services using the WSRequest host object
• Integrated Data Services Support (expose data locked up in DataBases, Excel spreadsheets and CSV files with ease)
• OpenID login support
• Apache Shindig powered, Google compatible, per-user Dashboard and browser based editor support for developing gadgets for hosted mashups.

Defect Fixes In This Release

• E-mail host object fix
• Autogenerated stubs of data services fixed
• Minor usability enhancements

For the full list of defect fixes for this release refer to JIRA

Known Issues

• Management Console was tested only on IE 6/7 & Firefox 1.5/2.0/3.0.
• Inter-service dependencies using the dynamically generated stubs may give deployment time errors depending on the order of deployment. Instead save a copy of the stub locally for the dependent service.
• JSON support lacks try-it support
• Mashup editor will convert &lt; and &gt; characters to < and > while saving the code in the server. This might result in malformed xml. Using these special characters with caution is adviced.
  Refer http://wso2.org/jira/browse/MASHUP-607.
  
• The System Tray Icon does not auto-start when a user logs into Windows Vista. Refer http://wso2.org/jira/browse/MASHUP-1063.
  The workaround is starting the 'System Tray Monitor' manually, using the 'Run as Administrator' option from the Windows 'Start' Menu.

Future Directions

• Improved tooling support.
• An expanded toolkit of generic building-block services.
• Deep registry integration including governance, rollback, dependency analysis, etc.
• Lots more cool stuff.
  

Reporting Problems

Issues can be reported using the public JIRA available on the WSO2 Oxygen Tank.

Contact us

WSO2 Mashup Server developers can be contacted via mailing lists:
For Users : mashup-user@wso2.org
For Developers : mashup-dev@wso2.org
Subscribe to our mailing lists.

Questions can also be raised in the community forum.

Training

WSO2 Inc. offers a variety of professional Training Programs, including training on general Web services as well as WSO2 Mashup Server, WSO2 WSAS, WSO2 ESB, Apache Axis2, Data Services and a number of other products.
For additional support information please visit us here.

Support

WSO2 Inc. offers a variety of development and production support programs, ranging from Web-based support up through normal business hours, to premium 24x7 phone support.
For additional support information please visit us here.

Enjoy the Mashup Server!

- WSO2 Mashup Server Team