Post on 19-May-2015
Widgets Meetup, London, 13 Oct 2009
Wookies and Widgets
Scott Wilson (University of Bolton)
Scott.bradley.wilson@gmail.com
Twitter: scottbw
Wookie is not a clever acronym
(so if you spell it WOOKIE you’re shouting!)
Apache Wookie (incubating)
• Entered incubator July ‘09
• originally developed in Framework 6 IP– Funded projects tend to build prototypes,
not communities
• http://incubator.apache.org/wookie/
How Wookie Works
• Servlet, runs in Tomcat or Jetty• Provides REST API for applications to
access widgets using a plug-in• Provides JavaScript API objects for
widgets at runtime• Admin UI for installing and managing
W3C Widgets• Server-side storage, and push events
Wookie REST API
• GET /widgets gets the list of widgets installed• POST /widgetinstances instantiates a widget• POST /participants adds a participant to a
widget instance• Lots more at
http://incubator.apache.org/wookie/wookie-rest-api.html
Typical lifecycle
• GET /widgets -> render as a gallery for the user to pick which one to add
• POST /widgetinstances -> create an instance of the widget for the user, returns the URI and widget height/width
• POST /participants -> add user as a participant in the instance
• Create iframe with src, height and width set
Plugins
• LAMS
• Moodle
• Wordpress (needs improving)
• Elgg 1.0 (needs improving)
Widget APIs
<feature name="http://wave.google.com" required="true"/>
• W3C Widget Object (default)• Google Wave Gadget API• Bondi camera API• SCORM CMI API• … anything else!
Shindig integration
• Basic integration, adds Shindig servlet in install
• Wookie generates tokens for shindig opensocial applications
• Wookie handles getPref/setPref using W3C Widget object
• Doesn’t handle Shindig data interface• Needs more work!
Proposed features
• Inter-widget communications (IWC)
• More bondi/DAP APIs
Anatomy of a Widget
• Config.xml <- W3C Widgets P&C Spec
• Icon
• HTML start file
• JavaScript code
• Zip it up, change ext to .wgt, and you’re done
A Silly Example: config.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><widget xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets"
id="http://www.getwookie.org/widgets/tea" version="1.0” height="150” width="125"><name>Tea</name><description>A silly Tea widget</description><icon src="tea.jpg"/><content src="index.htm"/><feature name="http://wave.google.com" required="true"/><author>Scott Wilson</author>
</widget>
A Silly Example: HTML & JS
<html><body onload="document.getElementById(‘name’).innerText=wave.getViewer().getDisplayName()">
<img src="tea.jpg" /> <p style="font-size:9pt">Time for a break, <span id="name">mate</span></p>
</body></html>
Cooler example: webcam<html>
<head><script>
function takePicture(){ var camera = bondi.camera.getCameras()[0]; camera.takePicture(function(x){document.getElementById("picture").src=x;},function(){alert("nope");}); }
</script> </head> <body>
<button onclick="takePicture()">Take Picture</button><img id="picture" src="" width="64" height="64"/>
</body></html>
Future stuff
• Wookie hosting? UK/EU App Store?
• SocialSite integration
• Better Shindig integration
• OpenAjax stuff?
Get involved!
• Send subscribe message to wookie-dev-subscribe@incubator.apache.org
• Submit issue reports, feature requests, patches: http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/WOOKIE