projectzero.org
Zero complexity. Zero overhead. Zero obstacles.
Project Zero
Ant Phillips
antphill@uk.ibm.com
Ant Phillips - Project Zero
Copyright 2008 © IBM Corporation

projectzero.org
Zero complexity. Zero overhead. Zero obstacles.
Introduction
Project Zero is an IBM technology incubator project.
Building a radically simplified platform to enable the productive
development and deployment of rich internet applications.
TM
System language is Java .
Zero runs on a Java Virtual Machine.
TM
Supports Linux, Mac and Windows.
Application languages are PHP and Groovy.
Zero contains a PHP 5 interpreter written in Java TM
The application is the server.
Favours convention over configuration.
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So What Simplifications Are We Aiming For?
Versioning dependencies.
Sharing assets from different languages.
Implementing REST services.
Building a rich user interface.
I want to spend less time sorting out browser incompatibilities!
Accessibility.
Aggregating content.
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Versioning Dependencies
Versioning ensures applications don’t break!
Specific versions can be set (v1.1.34).
Versions upwards from a particular release (v1.0+).
Ranges of acceptable versions (v1.0 – v1.5).
Virtual Directories break an application up into modules.
A module is simply a collection of files packaged together.
Includes a module name, version and author details.
An application declares the modules it depends on.
Files are searched across application and dependent modules.
Applications behave as if the directories are merged.
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Sharing Assets - Events
Zero provides events for one script to call another.
Events are programming language agnostic.
Fired by an application using fire_event().
fire_event('my_event', array(‘data'=>'foobar'));
Event handlers are defined in the Zero configuration file:
/config/handlers += {
\"events\" : my_event,
\"handler\" : test.php
}
Standard Zero life cycle events:
start, stop, request begin/end etc.
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Sharing Assets - Rendering
Zero provides renderers for generating output.
Renderers are programming language agnostic.
View renderer serves up script output:
zput('/request/view', 'hello.php');
render_view();
XML, JSON and ATOM for well known data types:
zput(\"/request/view\", \"JSON\");
zput(\"/request/json/output\", $obj);
render_view();
Error renderer serves up standard error pages.
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Implementing REST Services
Zero provides a really simple way to create REST services.
REST services fit well with test-driven development.
Convention for create/retrieve/update/delete operations (CRUD).
You can also list the members in the collection.
HTTP Method URI Description
GET /people List members
POST /people Create member
GET /people/1 Retrieve member
PUT /people/1 Update member
DELETE /people/1 Delete member
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REST Services in Project Zero
Each REST service is implemented by a script (called a handler).
Scripts live in the directory: <apphome>/app/resources
Services are accessed using a standard URL convention:
/resources/<collection name>[/member[/<path info>]]
HTTP requests mapped to handler methods as follows:
Resource GET PUT POST DELETE
Collection list putCollection create deleteCollection
/people
Member retrieve update postMember delete
/people/1
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Meerkat Demo
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Building A Rich User Interface
Dojo is the preferred Ajax/JavaScript toolkit for Zero.
Open source toolkit to simplify rich web applications.
http://www.dojotoolkit.org
v1.0 released on 5th November 2007.
Addresses key problem with browser compatibility.
Dijit library provides rich set of user interface widgets.
Accessibility built in
Internationalised
Theme 100% customisable
DojoX adds experimental and specialised extensions.
Wire, XML, cryptography, network
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Input controls – buttons, combo box, sliders, text areas.
Layout – accordion, split/stack containers, tabs.
Command – button, menu, toolbar.
User assistance and feedback – progress bar, tooltip, dialog.
Advanced editing and display – editor, tree, colour palette
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Accessibility
Accessibility relies on extracting clues from an HTML document.
Today, semantics are limited to tag elements names.
Almost entirely dependent on tabbing through page contents.
Applications make extensive use of tag elements such as DIVs!
HTML allows content to be used for presentation formatting.
What actions can be performed on a given element?
How to convey state - is the popup menu is collapsed or expanded?
Live regions are problematic in dynamically updating applications!
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Accessible Rich Internet Applications (W3C ARIA)
Aims to address the accessibility of rich internet applications.
A way to reproduce the keyboard functionality of desktop
applications on a web page.
Roles, states and actions are the key additions:
<span tabindex=\"0\" role=\"checkbox“ aria-checked=\"true\"
onkeydown=\"return checkBoxEvent(event);\"
onclick=\"return checkBoxEvent(event);\">
Any checkbox label
</span>
There is also considerable overlap with mobile applications..!
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Overlap Between Accessible and Mobile Applications
Content Disabilities Context Mobile Devices Context
Interaction and navigation User with a motor disability may Device has no mouse, only
requires mouse. not be able to use a mouse. alphanumeric keypad or rocker
switch.
Information conveyed using User who is blind or colour blind Screen has limited colour palette
colour (for example, “required perceives colour incorrectly or not and colour difference is not
material is shown in red”) with at all. presented. Device is used in
no redundancy. poor lighting (for example,
outdoors), so colours are not
clearly perceived.
Large page or large images. User with restricted field of vision Mobile device has small screen
or using screen magnifier gets only (viewport).
small part of page/image at a time.
Many more examples: http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
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Dojo Core Widget Set (Dijit) Accessibility
ARIA specification implemented in all widgets.
Fully keyboard accessible in Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Screen reader accessible in Firefox.
Works in operating system high-contrast mode (system colours).
Works with images off (regular <img> tags).
Currently only auto-detected in Firefox.
Must be in high contrast mode for image-off support in Internet Explorer.
More information available from: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria.
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Aggregating Content - Assemble
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Installing Zero
Get a Java SE 1.5 SDK.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux/download.html
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp
Get the PHP Development Tools (PDT) Eclipse all-in-one.
http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/downloads/?release=R20070917
Install Zero using the Eclipse Update Manager.
http://www.projectzero.org/wiki/bin/view/Download/DownloadPhp
Links and walkthrough on www.projectzero.org.
Getting started: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-pz-intro/
Community, blogs, questions, answers, opinions and thoughts:
http://www.projectzero.org/wiki/bin/view/Community/WebHome
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Thank You!
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Legal Notices
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
Intel and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademark of Intel
Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States
and other countries.
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other
countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or
service marks of others.
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Why Mainframes Are Cool
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What I Thought They Were
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Agile Development?
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No More Green Screen, Now We Have…
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But Things Have Moved On!
Mainframes run Linux amongst many other Operating Systems
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They Certainly Pack A Punch
IBM System z9 runs up to 54 hot swappable processors.
64 bit Power Architecture chips.
Parallel Sysplex allows 32 such systems to be connected
Can be physically separated by up to 100km.
That adds up to 18,660,000,000 core instructions per second.
Oh, and every instruction is executed twice!
And there are the additional processors (cryptography etc).
Not just COBOL! PHP, Java, C/C++ and many others.
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They Are Still Big Iron Though…
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The Big Issue – The Cost Of Energy
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