The document discusses an open-source, web-based framework called OpenI that integrates applications with social media and cloud-based services while emphasizing the significance of Graph APIs. It highlights challenges in API management, the evolving app economy, and the need for a unified, flexible API governance system. The proposed OpenI API framework is designed to enhance user experience and interoperability among different cloud-based services, addressing concerns over data fragmentation and security.

1. “Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating
Applications with Social Media Services and Personal
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Cloudlets”
www.openi-ict.eu
A COMMUNITY-BASED, GRAPH API FRAMEWORK
TO INTEGRATE AND ORCHESTRATE CLOUD-BASED-SERVICES
Iosif Alvertis, Michael Petychakis, Fenareti Lampathaki, Dimitrios Askounis
(National Technical University of Athens – NTUA, DSSLab)
Timotheos Kastrinogiannis (Velti SA)
AICCSA Doha, November-11th, 2014

2. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 Me
 PhD Student
 API Developer
 Semantic Web Enthusiast
 Decision Support Systems Lab
 Research in ICT including:
 Future Internet Applications and Systems for Enterprises and
Public Administrations
 Big, Open and Linked Data and Analytics
 APIs, Social Media Publishing and Analytics
 eGovernance and Policy Modeling
 Enterprise and Government Interoperability
 ICT for Manufacturing
 Software Services and Cloud Infrastructures
About me & the Lab

3. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 Problem
 Methodology
 Graph API Framework
 Conclusions
Agenda

4. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
A Surging App Economy
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Source: VisionMobile European
App Economy 2014
Source: Gigaom Research. Sizing the EU app economy 2014

5. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
API Growth & Categories
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

6. 958 million websites
60 trillion
web pages
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Open World Assumption
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

7. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Each API Is Unique
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

8.  ✔
Not Documentation
 ✔
Fragile Systems
 ✔
Different Practices
✔
 Different developing cycles
✔
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Versioning
Problems in a Nutshell

9. THINK IT’S FUN?!
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

10. APIs Market Proliferation
Source: Musser, J. (2012) Open APIs: What's Hot, What's Not?.
http://www.slideshare.net/jmusser/j-musser-apishotnotgluecon2012
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets. Developer Concerns
Data Fragmentation
API Constant
Evolution
>70% Increase in customer/partner reach
50% Increase in number of apps built from API
Source: Hurwitz & Associates 2011

11. Concerns for disruption of
business models
Service Providers
Perspective
Applications as cost centres
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

12. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Lack of data control
Fragmentation in data silos
Users Perspective
Personal data on the cloud

13. API Framework
Security Framework Cloudlet Framework
Mobile SDK
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets. OPENi High-level Approach
OPENi Platform

14. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 Problem
 Methodology
 Graph API Framework
 Conclusions
Agenda

15. • Studying Graph APIs & their repercussions
• Analyzing the API Platforms Market
• Elaborating on the API research questions
I –
Baseline
Analysis
II –
Preparatory
Analysis
III – Iterative
Specifications
IV –
Implementation
Directions
V –
Conclusions
& Key Take-
Aways
• Defining a Graph API Framework
• Debating on the Context concept
• Deciding on the Service Enablers list
• Specifying the OPENi Generic APIs, the Context API and
the Service Enablers APIs under the prism of the OPEN
Graph API
• Matching the OPENi API Framework to CBS methods
• Designing the OPENi API Platform
• Addressing OPENi API governance aspects
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets. Methodological Approach

16. OPENi Landscape of Cloud-based
Services for In-depth Analysis
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
11,969 APIs
(ProgrammableWeb,
2014)
Selection of 221
Cloud-based Services
In-depth analysis of
23 Cloud-based
Services

17. The “OPENi API Framework is the
whole set of different APIs used by
third party developers to build their
applications over an OPENi
platform.”
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets. OPENi API Framework

18. “A Graph API is a RESTful, user-centric, hypermedia API that organizes web
resources under a unified meta-model of Objects, Aggregations of objects and
Connections towards them which are created by users. It is based on a common
dictionary and it includes a minimum set of properties in order to reduce time and cost
of connection and integration with other APIs.”
• Find all the functionalities
• Find all properties for each object
• Find all the connections for each object
Graph API Meta-mode•l Map functionalities to CBS methods
Common Design
Principles &
Guidelines
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets. OPENi Graph API
User-centric Design

19. The OPENi Graph API correlates the three basic parts of an activity: a) who
(actor) performed an action, b) on what (object) the action was performed, and
of course c) what activity (as verb) was taken.
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
OPENi Graph API: What and Why?
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

20. Checkin
Event
RSVP
Status
Activity API
Location API
Photo
Video
Media API
Place
Comments Account
Profiles API
Favorite
Likes
Application
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets. A Snapshot of the APIs
Products - Services
API
Score
Audio
File
Folder-Album

21.  Easy, semi-automatic integration of changes in CBS
 Documentation
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 Flexibility
 Avoid Duplicate effort
 Unified REST Calls
Design Principles

22. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
The Path to a Sustainable Solution
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

23. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

24. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 Problem
 Methodology
 Graph API Framework
 Conclusions
Agenda

25. The OPENi API platform also ensures a unified workflow for the
developers and eventually the users of OPENi-enabled applications
unifying the experience between the various cloud-based services
and the cloudlet.
Overview of the Graph API
Platform
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Handling application
requests, targeted to CBS
or the OPENi Cloudlet
Platform, from OPENi-enabled
applications that
utilize the OPENi API
Framework.
Providing access either to
data stored in the cloudlets
or to references to data
stored in the CBS.
Connecting with the cloud-based
services.
Handling authentication and
authorization aspects.
Identifying the user across
the several CBS profiles
with a unique OPENi
account.

26. Example API: Overview
of Activity API
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

27. API_PATH/users
API_PATH/[USER_ID]
API_PATH/[USER_ID]/objects
API_PATH/[USER_ID]/activities
[USER_ID] -> me
Request that targets the OPENi
user (joins every account)
API_PATH/[ACCOUNT_ID]
API_PATH/[ACCOUNT_ID]/objects
API_PATH/[ACCOUNT_ID]/connections
API_PATH/[OBJECT_ID]
API_PATH/[OBJECT_ID]/connections
Service specific
Object targeted
(account specific)
API_PATH/[AGGREGATION_ID]
API_PATH/[AGGREGATION_ID]/objects
API_PATH/[AGGREGATION_ID]/connections
Aggregation targeted
(account specific)
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Examples of Method Calls
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
‘GET’/
‘POST’/
‘DELETE’
GET API_PATH/[USER_ID]/accounts/ Targeting multiple services

28. “Contextual property (of an object) includes information about why a particular action occurred as
well as the context within which a particular activity was performed.”
OPENi
Context API
Users Habits Driven
Applications
Personalized
Applications
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Context API
User Context Application Context
Mobile Device Context Social Context
User Social/Digital Life
Driven Applications
Users Experience
Driven Applications

29. Data Access
Communication
Management
Application
Interaction
Developer
Interaction
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Platform Basic Layers
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

30. OPENi Ecostystem
Architecture
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.

31. Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 Problem
 Methodology
 Graph API Framework
 Conclusions
Agenda

32.  APIs change through time, making difficult to enable long term support
 Companies change their APIs for various reasons
 Business Model
 Change of Tech Stack
 New partnerships
 No Standards are widely adopted
 No Unique Classification for APIs is feasible because the affordances
change according to the perspective of the stakeholder
 Usage
 Resources
 Developer Perspective
 Not complete documentation makes it really difficult to create generic
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
clients
 Manual Testing
 Experimentation
 Bug Reports
 Systems Crashing
Lessons Learnt

33.  A unifying and interoperable API Framework that harmonizes diverse concepts coming from a
plethora of cloud-based services and the cloudlet.
 An extensible-by-design API Framework which builds on the power of a well-specified Graph
API that uniformly represents objects, aggregations and their connections in a graph.
 A community-oriented API Framework in which developers can contribute their own objects as
long as they conform to the OPENi Graph API guidelines.
 A W3C standards based API Framework that deals with all the API lifecycle of available Cloud
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Based Services.
 A context-aware API Framework that enables OPENi developers to enhance applications’ user
experience.
OPENi Graph API
Innovations

34.  OPENi Graph API
 Export to Hydra JSON-LD Format
 Improve Classification According to:
 Semantics
 Usage
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
 CBS APIs
 Export to Hydra JSON-LD Format
 Classification
 Generic Changes from Community
 Automatic Way to:
 Implement new CBS APIs
 Track Changes on APIs
Next Steps

35. “Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating
Applications with Social Media Services and Personal
Join Us!
Acknowldgement: Photos retrieved from Google Images
Open-Source, Web-Based, Framework for Integrating Applications with Cloud-based
Services and Personal Cloudlets.
Cloudlets”
www.openi-ict.eu
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Michael Petychakis (NTUA, DSSLab)
mpetyx@epu.ntua.gr michaelpetychakis @mpetyx