Mashups: A Java Thing?

I've heard alot of talk about Mashups lately, but I'm a Java guy. I was just wondering, are Mashups a Java-centric concept that addresses some of the shortcomings of Java based wed development, or is this a cross-programming platform concept that is also gaining traction in the Microsoft world and dot net (.NET?) community?

-Cameron McKenzie

Hey Cameron,

Typically, mashups involve SOAP or REST APIs, so they aren't Java-specific. In fact, they can combine resources build in Java, .NET, PHP, etc. Frequently, the "glue" that pulls all of these together for a web-based mashup is actually JavaScript.

However, sometimes we start off with closed applications that don't have an API. We need to use a tool to impose our own interface to get to the data. Recently, I've been using Kapow a lot for this. It creates an API against a closed web site, excel spreadsheet, pdf doc, and other stuff. In Kapow, you can spit out a web service interface, an RSS feed, or -cool part- a native .NET object or a POJO (plain old Java object).

For example, recently I wanted to create an API against our corporate directory. I used Kapow to spit out a POJO that gives me a clean and simple way to add phone # lookups to any of my Java apps (web, swing, or otherwise).

As a Java developer, imagine being able to get to almost any resource (especially, but not limited to, the web-based ones!) inside your company without needing access to the source code! I was able to complete my simple phone lookup work without getting access to their database and even though they had no published interface. Underneath my super-simple Java object Kapow's mashup server was interacting with their web app and providing the functionality I needed. It gets really cool when you start joining multiple web resources together, and still exposing them as that same, simple API.

For my next trick, I decided that when I couldn't find a name in the corporate directory, I would look it up on whitepages.com. I changed my mashup in Kapow to add this additional step and redeployed it to their mashup server. Since the interface on my Java object didn't change, I didn't even need to recompile. Poof! My application was automatically showing the phone numbers of non-employees (contractors and consultants) automatically.

Once you realize what you can do with these things, your mind will explode in a hundred different directions.

Thanks for the thorough response.

Your enthusiasm for the subject is infectious. I'll have to check out this Kapow thing!

-Cameron McKenzie

I am naturally very cynical ;-) I regularly get hit up by vendors with some new product or technology that seems like a re-hash of something I saw a decade ago. It's like, "Don't they realize this has been tried/done before? Are they either a) unaware or b) trying to pull the wool over my eyes?"

Mashups were the first new concept in some time to really get me excited. The idea of composite applications, etc isn't particularly new, but mashups seem to have burst onto the scene just as people were wondering what the payoff of SOA was going to be. And I love the "innovation without permission" angle. Not that I'm saying governance and control aren't important. It's just that after years of failed promises about empowering developers and power-users, we finally seem to be getting somewhere. I think partly it's because the tools have reached a certain level of maturity/capability, but also because users have become more technically savvy as well.

I hope you'll explore mashups and get charged up too!

@Mike - I am on the board of Kapow - thanks for your enthusiasm!

As you have pointed out, mashups are a very useful but still somewhat vague concept. In a way, mashups seem to be a reaction to the difficulty of SOA/ESB etc - an informal way to link web services and user components into useful applications with minimal infrastructure.

For an example of a Kapow mashup that combines SalesForce, LinkedIn and Technorati information with a nice Ajax UI, take a look at this application

http://demo.wavemaker.com/WMAPP_SalesSocial/

To answer your question, I don't think there is anything particularly Java centric about mashups, but it may be that the Java community is embracing lightweight services like REST faster than the .NET world

I loved that example Chris

@vyas - I'm glad you liked it.

I posted a "roundup" on dzone as well that compares 5 free mashup tools:

http://www.dzone.com/links/five_free_mashup_tools_you_should_know_about.html

Awesome Chris. Thanks!