AD104 - IBM Connections ActivityStream Integration - IBM Connect 2013

AD104 IBM Connections
ActivityStream Integration
Bill Looby
Brian O'Gorman

© 2013 IBM Corporation

Agenda

 What is the Activity Stream ?
─ What do you expect to see and where, and what do you expect not to see ?
 Decide on your user model
─ How do you want to interact with the Activity Stream ?
 Tooling up
─ Use the right tools to get you started
 Authentication and Authorization
─ Who are you and how can we be sure ?
 Putting it all together
─ A simple extension . . .
 Administration and configuration
─ What does an administrator need to know ?
 Posting an event
─ How to POST and how the event is rendered
 Retrieving lists of events
─ How to find the events of interest
2 © 2013 IBM Corporation

Agenda

 Tooling up
3 © 2013 IBM Corporation


What does the Activity Stream look like ?


Why is the Activity Stream important ?

 To the Business . . .
─ To make Social Business work, all systems can participate by providing appropriate
simply-structurd events
─ Once you have these events they can be stored and used in a manner consistent
across all contributing systems
─ Gathering this informataion via an appropriate aggregation engine is a key part of
Social Business technology
─ From this aggregation analytics can be performed including lens and filters on events
─
 To the User it's a bit simpler . . .
─ Everything I need to know and act on in one place !


Agenda

 Tooling up

Do you want to inform ? Here's something
you'll be interested
in
 Inform a user
─ Send a specific notification to a specific user
─ Only that user will see it
─
Here's something that

happened. You can
 Be discoverable find it if you look !
─ Show the event on the public feed
─ Automatically forward to any followers of the 'Actor'
─
Here's something

that happened in
 Inform a Community this community
─ Show the event on the community feed
─ Automatically forward to any followers of the Community


Do you want to interact ?

 A link may be just fine
─ The application sending the event is complex and any user should follow the provided link to
interact with it effectively


 Or you may want to allow simple interactions
─ There are simple interactions that are suitable for inclusion with the event
─ For example : approval, rejection, simple selection, simple commenting, upload, share etc.
─ In each case, this is a simple enough interaction, so you would prefer not to lose your current
browser context, but return quickly to your stream once complete



Do you want to consume ?

 A general list
─ The activity stream can be consumed easily and presented within another application in order to
ensure that any user using that application still sees their current stream.
─ This may be useful where there is a specific application in which users tent to 'live' so that they
are unlikely to be paying attention to their stream otherwise.


 An application specific list
─ A separate application may use Connections simply as a storage mechanism for its own events.
─ It can retrieve events specific to the application for display within the application
─ All of these events are then also available aggregated within Connections


 Any combination
─ Basic filtering is provided to show information specific to an object/actor/community etc.
─ Search-based filtering allows for more specific combinations of criteria


Agenda

 Tooling up


Some Tools – REST Client


Some Tools . . . continued

 When using a REST Client Form based authentication can be used. But FBA
should never be used other than this as it is considerably more difficult to
manage.


 Your browser is also a useful tool for all GET operations – you may want to
install a JSON Feed Reader plugin.


 cURL can be used to do simple command line based requests (you can for
example set up a script to do some autopopulation this way)


Some Tools - Java

 HttpClient
─ A simple http request mechanism from Apache
─ Sends and receives raw requests
─ Highly flexible and configurable


 Abdera (as an aside – used for Atom generation and parsing)
─ An Atom manipulation library
─ Built on top of HttpClient
─ Creates and Parses atom feeds making the main properties available easily
─
 Things to watch out for . . . .
─ Redirects – they autofollow by default, normally you won't need this
─ Authentication – you can set credentials to use on all requests
─ SSL – won't automatically accept, you need to add by default


Some Tools - Java
DefaultHttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();

// register the passed credentials
UsernamePasswordCredentials credentials = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(userName, password);
CredentialsProvider credentialsProvider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
credentialsProvider.setCredentials(
new AuthScope(host, AuthScope.ANY_PORT), credentials);
httpclient.setCredentialsProvider(credentialsProvider);

// register to auto accept SSL certificates and not to check hosts
SSLContext sslcontext = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
sslcontext.init(null, null, null);
SSLSocketFactory socketFactory = new SSLSocketFactory(
new AnyTrustStrategy(), SSLSocketFactory.ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER);

// allow any SSL
SchemeRegistry sr = httpclient.getConnectionManager().getSchemeRegistry();
sr.register(new Scheme("http", 80, PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory()));
sr.register(new Scheme("https", 443, socketFactory));
return httpclient;


Agenda

 Tooling up

Authenticating requests

 APIs that access public data don't require authentication


 Connections to date has generally used Basic Authentication to access non-
public data


 As of IC4, OAuth access is available, and is the recommended authorization
mechanism for Open Social APIs


 OAuth is however designed primarily for for service to service rather than client
applications.







Summary of authentication options

 Anonymous access
─ For public data, some APIs are available at an anonymous URL, where no authentication
challenge is performed or credentials expected.
 Form Based Authentication
─ Authentication used by browser URLs (where the user is redirected to the login page)
─ Ajax applications also use this when accessing APIs in order to take advantage of the available
session information
─ Complex login redirect handing is however required
─ Not recommended or supported for third party applications
 Basic Authentication
─ Involves sending a Base-64 encoded header including the username and password
─ This should always be done over https (to avoid passwords being sent in cleartext)
─ Most HTTP libraries support settings for adding basic authentication headers (as do REST Client
plugins)
 OAuth Authorisation
─ Is an authorisation (rather than authentication) mechanism
─ You can authorise a service to act on your behalf without giving them your credentials


How do I 'invoke' the appropriate authorization mechanism

 Answer . . . use the appropriate URL format !


 <server>/connections/opensocial/rest/activitystreams/@me/@all
─ This is the 'default' fomat
─ It uses form based authentication (so you will get a redirect response if the appropriate session
cookies are not provided for example)
─
 <server>/connections/opensocial/anonymous/rest/activitystreams/@public/@all
─ This is available when querying public data and performs no authentication check
─
 <server>/connections/opensocial/basic/rest/activitystreams/@public/@all
─ This performs the appropriate basic authentication challenge
─
 <server>/connections/opensocial/oauth/rest/activitystreams/@public/@all
─ This performs the appropriate OAuth dance


Agenda

 Tooling up

Take a simple website. . . .


. . . and add some simple code . . .


. . . giving you . . .

 . . . but this is just the start
─ You can enhance the content as it appears in the stream
─ You can provide an embedded experience for the event
─ You can associate the event with a community
─ You can make the event public
─ You can begin to support followers


Agenda

 Tooling up

A development only server

 You can to edit the opensocial-config.xml file in the LotusConnections-config
directory. Simply set the whiteListEnable attribute of gadget-settings to "false".
 Any Gadget can now be placed into the stream, so this is not secure enough for
a production environment. It is however suitable for a development server.
<gadget-settings>

<security whitelistEnabled="false"
featureAdminEnabled="true">
<proxy blockUnidentifiedIntranetBoundRequests="true"/>
<security-tokens containerTokenTTLSec="1800"
containerTokenCheckSec="5"
gadgetTokenTTLSec="2700"
transientErrorRetryIntervalSec="60"
authErrorRetryIntervalSec="300"/>
</security>

 With this setting in place, you can now post any event into the Activity Stream
referencing any Gadget, and the Gadget will be rendered.
 Note : You should be checking the file out to do this, but if you are on a single
node you can edit the file directly and restart the server.

Enabling developers on a production server

 Where a server is required for both production and development the server
admin can enable a development page and a number of hosts who have the
authority to deliver Gadgets.
 You will need to edit the opensocial-config.xml file in the LotusConnections-
config directory
 You should set the enabled attribute of developer to "true". You can then use the
developer page to test Gadgets.
─ http://<myserver>/connections/resources/web/com.ibm.lconn.gadget/test/bootstrap.html
<gadget-settings>
. . .
<developer enabled="true" allowSSOFeature="true"
allowIntranetProxyAccess="true">
<developer-hosts-whitelist allServers="false">

</developer-hosts-whitelist>
</developer>

Agenda

 Tooling up

Posting an event

{
 You can POST any event to the stream
"actor": { of the current user

"id": "@me" ─ /connections/opensocial/rest/activitystreams/
},
 @me/@all
"verb": "post",
"title": "${share}",  The main details are -
"content":"This event is my <b>first
entry</b>", ─ actor : Connections or External Id
"updated": "2012-01-01T12:00:00.000Z", ─ verb : from a set list
"object": { ─ title : Connections will generate if needed
"summary": "First Entry details", ─ content : for display of event details
"objectType": "note", ─ updated : event time
"id": "objectid",
"displayName": "First entry", ─ object : details on the object including title, id
etc.
"url": "http://myurl.com/myid"
} ─ connections : a grab bag of connections
specific properties that add more information
“connections”: {
... ─
} 

} 


Basic Entry – Title, Content, Object Summary

{
"actor": {  Main items displayed in ActivityStream:
"id": "@me"
─ entry.title
},
─ entry.content
"verb": "post",
"title": "[entry.title]",
─ entry.object.summary
"content":"[entry.content]",
"object": {
"summary": "[entry.object.summary]",
"objectType": "note",
"id": "00011",
"displayName": "[entry.object.displayName]",
"url": "http://myurl.com/myid"
}
}

Basic Entry – Title, Content, Object Summary
 If title omitted, will be generated
based on verb
{
"actor": {
"id": "@me"
},
"verb": "post",
"content":"[entry.content]",
"object": {
...
}
}
 If content or object.summary
omitted, nothing displayed
{
"actor": {
"id": "@me"
},
"verb": "post",
"title": "[entry.title]",
"object": {
"summary": "[entry.object.summary]",
...
}
}


HTML Formatting for Title, Content, Object Summary

 No Active Content – ACF run on all fields
 title – Allows anchor tags only
 content, object.summary – Allows following tags
─ <a> <b> <blockquote> <br> <caption> <cite> <code> <col>
─ <colgroup> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <i> <img> <li> <ol> <p>
─ <pre> <q> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table>
─ <tbody> <td> <tfoot> <th> <thead> <tr> <u> <ul>
 Style limitations
─ Images given max-width of 100% (of the item container)
─ Tables given simple 1px border
─ Vertical whitespace (newlines, paragraphs) collapsed


HTML Formatting for Title, Content, Object Summary

 Only 6 lines of content and/or object.summary displayed initially
─ Show More / Show Less links provided


Generator

 Identifies the source of the entry
 Can be used to request filtered feeds
 Can specify details in entry being posted
"generator": {
"id": "briansApp",
"image": {
"url": "http://http://briansApp.com/briansApp.png"
},
"displayName": "Brian's App",
"url": "http://briansApp.com"
}
 The image, if provided, is displayed in stream. Should be 16x16


Generator – registering your application

 Applications can be registered (NewsActivityStreamService.registerApplication())
 Provide following details:
─ appId, displayName, url, secureUrl, imageUrl, secureImageUrl, summary
 Benefits:
─ Post events with just appId for generator
"generator": {
"id": "briansApp"
}
─ ImageUrl or SecureImageUrl choosen appropriately for feed
─ Filter displayed in ActivityStreams in Connections
─


File Item

 Use objectType: “file” for entry that denotes a file
{
"actor": {
"id": "@me"
},
"verb": "post",
"title": "${Actor} has uploaded ${Object} to
<a href='http://slideview.briansApp.com'>SlideView</a>",
"object": {
"summary": "",
"objectType": "file",
"id": "slide001",
"fileUrl": "http://slideview.briansApp.com/AD104.odp",
"displayName": "AD104.odp",
"url": "http://slideview.briansApp.com/viewSlide?deck=AD104.odp"
}
}
 Can also add preview image
"object": {
...
"image": {
"url": "http://slideview.briansApp.com/getThumb?deck=AD104.odp"
}
}


Embedded Experience
 Provide extra detail and embedded functionality for your ActivityStream entry
 Displayed in popup when entry is clicked in the stream


 Defined in
entry.opensocial.embed


 Two types supported:
─ OpenSocial gadget
─ URL*
─
─
─
* Require 4.0 CR2 for URL EE


Embedded Experience – OpenSocial Gadget

 Need to provide gadget and context when posting entry
"opensocial": {
"embed": {
"gadget": "http://briansApp.com/gadgets/slideview.xml",
"context": {
"deck": "AD104.odp"
}
}
}
 gadget – URI to the gadget definition
 context – Anything you want
 Gadget must be registered – via Homepage Administration UI or wsadmin commands
─ Gadgets that are not registered will be ignored, and a generic EE from Connections is used
 Typically, gadgets will use OAuth authentication to load data from application


Embedded Experience – URL

 Provide url when posting entry
"opensocial": {
"embed": {
"url": "http://slideview.briansApp.com/ee/viewSlide?deck=AS104.odp"
}
}
 There is no context supported, but contextual data can be passed in URL
 URL must be whitelisted (via opensocial-config.xml)
─ URLs that are not whitelisted will be ignored, and generic EE from Connections is used


Additonal details . . . Rollup



 In order to address the scenario where a user posts a file and 200 people 'like' it,


filling up their Activity Stream, rollup needs to be performed. This means -
─ Only the latest event on any given object is shown
─ The 2 most recent comments are returned.

 We support the ?rollup=true flag on retrieval for specifying that a rolled up feed is
required.


 In order to provide for rollup, simply add the following (by default, the object id will
be used) -
─
"connections": {
"rollupid": "3d7638dd-b5e1-4d52-a03d-83591996da20"
},


Additonal details . . . Templated titles



 Connections allows for the introduction of two kinds of title template


─ Object substitutions - where a referenced object within the event is substituted into the title.
─ Title template substitutions - using object substitutions, providing a complete title

 Object Substitution - A number of substitution values are supported within a
submitted event.title. These are specified using the ${} marker.
─ ${Actor} - this is converted into appropriately marked up HTML which displays the Actors name and
links to a Business Card corresponding to the Actor
─ ${Object} - for person objects as per Actor above, otherwise the displayName with a link to the url
─ ${Target} - for person objects as per Actor above, otherwise the displayName with a link to the url


 Title Template Substitution
─ ${add}=${Actor} added ${Object}.
─ ${create}=${Actor} created ${Object}.
─ ....


Additonal details . . . Distributing events

{

"to":[
{"objectType":"person",
 "id":"acct:jane@example.org"}  Note : This reflects an outstanding
], proposal to update the existing
"cc":[
{"objectType":"person", deliverTo model from Activity Streams.
"id":"http://example.com/profiles/bob"}
],  An event can be distributed to multiple
"verb":"post", users
"actor":{
"objectType":"person",

"id":"acct:jane@example.org"},
"object":{ 
...

}
}
}


Additonal details . . . Distribution . . . Restrictions


 By default most users do not have the authority to distribute events to another

users stream. If they did then this would mean that any user would have the ability
to spam indiscriminately.

 Although the ability to distribute can be opened up via configuration to any user,
there is some basic distribution allowed for any user.
1) To [UserID] where the user in question is the current user
2) To @me which resolves to the same thing
3) To @public which means the event will appear on everyones discovery tab - but this is only
permitted if the submitting user is also the actor in the event
4) To [CommunityId] where the current user is a member of that community or the community is
public - again this is only permitted if the submitting user is also the actor in the event.

 In order do distribute any event to any user, the distributing user needs to be in the
appropriate J2EE Role.


Agenda

 Tooling up

Details . . . Querying feeds



 My Activity Stream /activitystreams/@me/@all


─ Filtered by Blogs /activitystreams/@me/@all/blogs
─ Filtered by Activities /activitystreams/@me/@all/activities
─ Filtered by Files /activitystreams/@me/@all/files
─ Filtered by [AnyApp] /activitystreams/@me/@all/AnyApp
─
 Single event details /activitystreams/@me/@all/@all/[eventid]


 Object History /activitystreams/@me/@all/@all?filterBy=object &filterOp=equals
&filterValue=[blogid]



Additional details . . . Some special applications . . .




@communities - this covers any events you receive as a result of communities
you are following and so the generator id you will see can be from the submitting
component application and not always 'communities'

 @tags - this covers any events you receive as a result of tags you are following
and so the generator id you will see will be from the submitting component
application and never 'tags'

 @people - this covers any events you receive as a result of people you are
following and so the generator id you will see can be from the submitting
component application and not always 'profiles'

 @status - this covers status updates that may be received from either the
profiles application or the communities application





Additonal details . . . Working with Communities



 Filtering of a users stream based on events they receive as a result of following a


community simply involves using the /@communities application filter

 When retrieving a 'community feed' we treat communities as a 'pseudo-person'
─ /connections/opensocial/rest/activitystreams/<communityid>/@all
─ This provides a list of all events relating to a community independent of who is following
─ This feed also verifies that the community is either public, or that the viewer is a member of the
community (otherwise they would not have rights to view the feed)

 To POST an event to a community, you distribute the event to the community as if
it were a person, by either
─ POSTing to /connections/opensocial/rest/activitystreams/<communityid>/@all
─ Including the community in the distribution list



Additonal details . . . Saved and actionable events



 Actionable Events


─ These are events that are marked as requiring attention either by the user or by the application that
submitted the event (note : the connections UX doesn't expose the ability for a user to mark an
event actionable, but the API does)
─ All actionable events can be retrieved using the URL : /activitystreams/@me/@actions

 Saved Events
─ These are events that are marked by the user as being of sufficient interest to review later
─ All actionable events can be retrieved using the URL : /activitystreams/@me/@saved
─
 Note : Actionable and saved events are not removed during normal event cleanup.



OpenNTF Appathon (Starts Feburary 2013)

 IBM Connections App
Dev - Prizes: $5000
 IBM XPages App Dev -
Prizes: $5000


 Anything leveraging
Connections (social SDK,
OpenSocial, iWidgets,
REST APIs,
customization,
WebSphere, PHP,
XPages, etc.) will be
accepted.

http://appathon.openntf.org
© 2013 IBM Corporation

Legal disclaimer
© IBM Corporation 2013. All Rights Reserved.
The information contained in this publication is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this publication,
it is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice.
IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this publication or any other materials. Nothing contained in this publication is intended to, nor shall have
the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.
References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM operates. Product release dates and/or capabilities referenced
in this presentation may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability in any
way. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other
results.
Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
All references to BriansApp refer to a fictitious company and are used for illustration purposes only.


Related Sessions
 AD105 - Customizing and Extending IBM Connections - Tue 11:15am
 INV305 - The Power of Social Software in the Enterprise - Tue 1:30pm
 AD206 - IBM Domino XPages: Embrace, Extend, Integrate - Tue 1:30pm
 ID105 - You Have My Mail in Your Connections - Tue 3:00pm


 BOF406 - Connections at IBM and at Your Company - Wed 7:00am
 ID308 - Social Content Managemner Solutions for IBM Connections - Wed 10:00am
 AD401 - Developing Integrated Applications with the Social Business Toolkit - Wed 11:15am
 ID307 - Make your Microsoft Stack Social with IBM Connections - Wed 11:15am
 ID302 - What's new in IBM Connections Mobile - Wed 1:30pm
 ID306 - IBM Connections Mobile Server Administration and Security - Wed 3:00pm
 ID309 - Leveraging the Power of IBM Connections and IBM Websphere Portal Wed 3:00pm
 ID304 - IBM Connections 4.0 Deployment and Performance Planning - Wed 4:15pm
 INV211 - The New Social Business Paradigm with OpenSocial - Wed 4:15pm
 SHOW300 - IBM Connections 4 101: Installing & Deploying IBM Connectons Cognos - Wed 4:30pm


 ID305 - Getting the Most Value Out of Metrics in IBM Connections 4 - Thur 10:00am


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