Build APIs With Kapow Mashup Server

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    Build APIs With Kapow Mashup Server - Presentation Transcript

    1. Andreas Krohn Product Manager Kapow Technologies MAX 2007 CONNECT. DISCOVER. INSPIRE.
      • Everybody would build fantastic applications using Flex with great functionality and GUIs
      • Building apps that can communicate with all other apps
      • And everybody would live happily ever after
      In a Perfect World
      • Apps need to communicate with other apps, databases and systems
      • Especially true when we are talking about Mashups
        • ” A Mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience”*
        • Building situational applications ad-hoc using the web as a platform
      • Requires APIs
        • Trend towards more and more open APIs
        • Some examples are Google Maps API and Amazon API
      * Source: Wikipedia.org No (useful) Application is an Island
      • The lack of APIs
        • It is hard to get to the data and functionality you want to use in your application
      • No access rights
        • No crossdomain.xml file at all
        • Or a crossdomain.xml file with very limited access rights
      What is Holding us Back?
    2. The Long Tail #Users #Apps Only the top Apps will have an API. Example: Google, Amazon, Salesforce The majority of the Apps will not have an API. Large International Enterpise: ” We have over 6000 internal websites and no APIs”
      • Structured Data
        • Databases
        • Only 15-20% of the data is structured in databases!
      • Unstructured Data
        • Email
        • Excel
        • PDF
        • XML
        • ...and of course HTML
      Data Sources
      • Most systems have an HTML frontend
      • What if HTML was an API?
        • Access all the sites on the internet
        • Access all the sites on your intranet
        • Suddenly there would be a way to access almost any system!
      • Challenges
        • Handle HTML tagsoup
        • JavaScript
        • Handle logins, sessions, cookies
      • Kapow Mashup Server
      HTML
    3. Inside a Mashup/RIA Mashup/RIA Flex Flash AIR ColdFusion REST Kapow Mashup Server Atom RSS API HTML & JS API SQL Users Data Sources WS* WS* DB Web Apps SQL WS* REST RSS
      • Enabling Mashups & RIAs by giving access to HTML
        • Repackage functionality from HTML
        • Access data from HTML
      • Publish data & functionality from HTML as REST, RSS or Atom feeds
        • Also Java API, C# API, Portlets, SOAP WS, write to databases etc
      • Automating what a person can do in a browser
        • Robots
      • 250+ customers
        • Audi, Bank of America, Simply Hired etc
      Kapow Mashup Server
      • Free Mashup Community
        • Download our development tool and get started
      • Build robots and share with the Community
        • See what others have built
      • Create REST services and RSS/Atom feeds from web sites
      • Has a crossdomain.xml file that gives total access to all sites
        • Use openkapow.com as a proxy
      Openkapow.com
      • People Search Demo built in Flex
      • Searching LinkedIn & Spock via Kapow Robots
      • Flex calls these robots as REST services and gets XML back
      • The robots interact with LinkedIn.com and Spock.com directly, not via a predefined API
      Demo Overview Flex App Kapow Mashup Server LinkedIn Spock Robots REST XML
      • Robots built in the RoboMaker IDE
        • Visual development
        • Robot is executed during development
        • Full control over the process flow
        • Easy deployment
      Robots
      • http://service.openkapow.com/adobemax/SpockSearch.xml?name=Andreas+Krohn&resultformat=xml
        • Format
          • XML
          • JSON
          • HTML
          • CSV
      • <?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?>
        • <result>
        • <person>
        • <name>Andreas Krohn</name>
        • <description/>
        • <address>Sweden</address>
        • </person>
          • ...
        • </result>
        • </xml>
      REST Service Request & Response
      • Define HTTPService
        • id = ”spockService”
        • method = ”GET”
        • url = Robot REST Service URL
          • Excluding input parameters
        • resultFormat = ”e4x”
      • Call REST Service using send()
        • spockService.send( {
        • name: search_name.text,
        • format: 'XML'
        • } );
      Call REST Service from Flex
      • <mx:DataGrid dataProvider=&quot;{spockService.lastResult.contact}“ … >
          • <mx:columns>
            • <mx:DataGridColumn headerText=&quot;Name&quot; dataField=&quot;name&quot; />
            • <mx:DataGridColumn headerText=&quot;Address&quot; dataField=&quot;address&quot;/>
            • <mx:DataGridColumn headerText=“Description&quot; dataField=“description&quot;/>
            • ...
      • ” contact” in the dataProvider refers to the RESTOutput.groupName in the robots output XML
      Use the REST Service Result
      • Accessed LinkedIn and Spock without using an official API.
        • Access via their web sites!
        • HTML is an API
      • Easy to access all websites from Flex
        • Great possibilities to build killer apps
      • Lack of APIs and lack of crossdomain.xml files are no longer a problem!
      Demo Summary Flex App Kapow Mashup Server LinkedIn Spock Robots REST XML
      • Access the functionality of a web app without an API
        • Handles multi-page navigation
        • Does it with great stability and robustness
      • Create RSS/Atom feeds, REST services from almost any web site.
      • Advanced JavaScript handling and execution.
      • Handles logins to protected sites using cookies, HTTP & form authentication, HTTPs.
      • Very powerful data extraction and HTML interaction using regular expressions, converters and patterns.
      • Flexible error handling and debugging.
      • Graphical point-and-click development environment with 1-click deployment.
      • Full control over the process flow in a robot, including conditions and loops
      Highlighted Features
    4. FAQ
      • Is it legal to access all those sites?
        • It is a tool that should be used responsibly
        • Often it can add value to the site owner if the data is used in new ways
      • Is it stable and robust?
        • Yes! Robots can be built very robust
        • There are of course tools to monitor robots in production
        • Web sites do not change as much as most people think (at least not so much that it causes any problems for robots)
      • Isn’t this really cool?
      • Start thinking about all the possibilities
      • Download all demo files at:
        • http://demo.openkapow.com/kapowersearch/kapowersearch.zip
      • More informations at
        • Openkapow.com
        • Kapowtech.com
      • Questions?
      The End

    + Andreas KrohnAndreas Krohn, 3 years ago

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