Mashup (web application hybrid)
A mashup, in web development, is a web page or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service displayed in a single graphical interface. For example, a user could combine the addresses and photographs of their library branches with a Google map to create a map mashup. The term implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open application programming interfaces and data sources to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data.
The term mashup originally comes from creating something by combining elements from two or more sources.
The main characteristics of a mashup are combination, visualization, and aggregation. It is important to make existing data more useful, for personal and professional use. To be able to permanently access the data of other services, mashups are generally client applications or hosted online.
In the past years, more and more Web applications have published APIs that enable software developers to easily integrate data and functions the SOA way, instead of building them by themselves. Mashups can be considered to have an active role in the evolution of social software and Web 2.0. Mashup composition tools are usually simple enough to be used by end-users. They generally do not require programming skills and rather support visual wiring of GUI widgets, services and components together. Therefore, these tools contribute to a new vision of the Web, where users are able to contribute.
The term "mashup" is not formally defined by any standard-setting body.
History
The broader context of the history of the Web provides a background for the development of mashups. Under the Web 1.0 model, organizations stored consumer data on portals and updated them regularly. They controlled all the consumer data, and the consumer had to use their products and services to get the information.The advent of Web 2.0 introduced Web standards that were commonly and widely adopted across traditional competitors and which unlocked the consumer data. At the same time, mashups emerged, allowing mixing and matching competitors' APIs to develop new services.
The first mashups used mapping services or photo services to combine these services with data of any kind and therefore to produce visualizations of data.
In the beginning, most mashups were consumer-based, but recently the mashup is to be seen as an interesting concept useful also to enterprises. Business mashups can combine existing internal data with external services to generate new views on the data.
There was also the free Yahoo! Pipes to build mashups for free using the Yahoo! Query Language.
Types of mashup
There are many types of mashup, such as business mashups, consumer mashups, and data mashups. The most common type of mashup is the consumer mashup, aimed at the general public.- Business ''mashups define applications that combine their own resources, application and data, with other external Web services. They focus data into a single presentation and allow for collaborative action among businesses and developers. This works well for an agile development project, which requires collaboration between the developers and customer for defining and implementing the business requirements. Enterprise mashups are secure, visually rich Web applications that expose actionable information from diverse internal and external information sources.
- Consumer mashups combine data from multiple public sources in the browser and organize it through a simple browser user interface. ''
- Data mashups, opposite to the consumer mashups, combine similar types of media and information from multiple sources into a single representation. The combination of all these resources create a new and distinct Web service that was not originally provided by either source.
By API type
Data types
- Indexed data used by metasearch engines
- Cartographic and geographic data: geolocation software, geovisualization
- Feeds, podcasts: news aggregators
Functions
- Data converters: language translators, speech processing, URL shorteners...
- Communication: email, instant messaging, notification...
- Visual data rendering: information visualization, diagrams
- Security related: electronic payment systems, ID identification...
- Editors
Mashup enabler
Mashup enablers have also been described as "the service and tool providers, that make mashups possible".
History
Early mashups were developed manually by enthusiastic programmers. However, as mashups became more popular, companies began creating platforms for building mashups, which allow designers to visually construct mashups by connecting together mashup components.Mashup editors have greatly simplified the creation of mashups, significantly increasing the productivity of mashup developers and even opening mashup development to end-users and non-IT experts. Standard components and connectors enable designers to combine mashup resources in all sorts of complex ways with ease. Mashup platforms, however, have done little to broaden the scope of resources accessible by mashups and have not freed mashups from their reliance on well-structured data and open libraries.
Mashup enablers evolved to address this problem, providing the ability to convert other kinds of data and services into mashable resources.
Web resources
Of course, not all valuable data is located within organizations. In fact, the most valuable information for business intelligence and decision support is often external to the organization. With the emergence of rich web applications and online Web portals, a wide range of business-critical processes are becoming available online. Unfortunately, very few of these data sources syndicate content in RSS format and very few of these services provide publicly accessible APIs. Mashup editors therefore solve this problem by providing enablers or connectors.Mashups versus portals
Mashups and portals are both content aggregation technologies. Portals are an older technology designed as an extension to traditional dynamic Web applications, in which the process of converting data content into marked-up Web pages is split into two phases: generation of markup "fragments" and aggregation of the fragments into pages. Each markup fragment is generated by a "portlet", and the portal combines them into a single Web page. Portlets may be hosted locally on the portal server or remotely on a separate server.Portal technology defines a complete event model covering reads and updates. A request for an aggregate page on a portal is translated into individual read operations on all the portlets that form the page. If a submit button is pressed on any portlet on a portal page, it is translated into an update operation on that portlet alone. The update is then immediately followed by a read on all portlets on the page.
Portal technology is about server-side, presentation-tier aggregation. It cannot be used to drive more robust forms of application integration such as two-phase commit.
Mashups differ from portals in the following respects:
| Portal | Mashup | |
| Classification | Older technology, extension of traditional Web server model using well-defined approach | Uses newer, loosely defined "Web 2.0" techniques |
| Philosophy/approach | Approaches aggregation by splitting role of Web server into two phases: markup generation and aggregation of markup fragments | Uses APIs provided by different content sites to aggregate and reuse the content in another way |
| Content dependencies | Aggregates presentation-oriented markup fragments | Can operate on pure XML content and also on presentation-oriented content |
| Location dependencies | Traditionally, content aggregation takes place on the server | Content aggregation can take place either on the server or on the client |
| Aggregation style | "Salad bar" style: Aggregated content is presented 'side-by-side' without overlaps | "Melting pot" style - Individual content may be combined in any manner, resulting in arbitrarily structured hybrid content |
| Event model | Read and update event models are defined through a specific portlet API | CRUD operations are based on REST architectural principles, but no formal API exists |
| Relevant standards | Portlet behavior is governed by standards JSR 168, JSR 286 and WSRP, although portal page layout and portal functionality are undefined and vendor-specific | Base standards are XML interchanged as REST or Web Services. RSS and Atom are commonly used. More specific mashup standards such as EMML are emerging. |
The portal model has been around longer and has had greater investment and product research. Portal technology is therefore more standardized and mature. Over time, increasing maturity and standardization of mashup technology will likely make it more popular than portal technology because it is more closely associated with Web 2.0 and lately Service-oriented Architectures. New versions of portal products are expected to eventually add mashup support while still supporting legacy portlet applications. Mashup technologies, in contrast, are not expected to provide support for portal standards.