State of the Shindig - February 2008

[Dan Peterson <dp...@google.com>]

Hi all,

The note regarding the Apache Board Reports got me thinking that it would be
an ideal time to touch on the status of Shindig. Since this is essentially
the first thread of this form since inception, I'll include some
pre-Febraury details as well, for historical sake. Please note that this is
generally longer than the February status reports I saw, but I felt it would
be better to over communicate given that we're a bit late to the game with
these reports. Please do correct anything I may have stated inaccurately.

High-level summary: Shindig's Java implementation making rapid progress
since inception in December 2007.

   - All committers have Apache accounts and access to the repository
   - Accepted a couple rounds of "bootstrapping" Java and JS code
   contributions from Google (with appropriate IP licensing)
   - Generally-functional out of the box experience
   - Good progress on (optional) Caja integration for improved security
   - Preliminary website created: http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/
   - Healthy community growing, though committers still Google-heavy
   - JIRA queue moving in full force
   - Majority of progress on the Java server port
   - Emerging PHP port, which many people are excited about


Now, to jump into some more particular areas...

OpenSocial and Gadgets specification compliance (referring to the Java
implementation):

For Gadgets, the compliance with the XML spec is very far along, though
Shindig doesn't yet support icons or preloads, and doesn't correctly handle
all message bundle substitutions. In terms of the core gadgets JavaScript
API, it is also quite far along, though gadgets.util.getFeature is broken.
For the "highly-recommended features," all, with the exception of skins.js,
are implemented in Shindig.

For OpenSocial compliance, Shindig is not as far along. The initial sample
container was a very basic non-standard implementation for quick testing
purposes. However, the sample container is now in the middle of being
modified to use OpenSocial properly. This means that it is being refactored
to speak via very recently created interfaces, to get data stored in a
flatfile as a mock implementation that can easily be swapped out in
favor ofmore sophisticated versions, depending upon deployment needs.
In addition,
there is discussion about some initial infrastructure work for the Gateway
server component, though the OpenSocial RESTful API is under discussion over
on the spec discussion forum.

Usage status:

To facilitate early access for developers, orkut and hi5 are running
Shindig-based
sandbox instances (of the Java server port), and plan to use Shindig for
upcoming production user-facing launches as well. Ning is similarly running
an early instance based on the PHP port. Due to the activity on shindig-dev,
it is very likely there are others in similar positions, so please feel free
to chime in.

What is coming in the near-term (the next several weeks)?

   - Improved support for OpenSocial 0.7, via a well-defined interface
   and a flatfile-backed method for supporting people, activities, and
   persistence (as mentioned above)
   - Rounding out compliance with the Gadgets spec
   - Initial, but *large* "update" patch to the PHP server port
   - Initial infrastructure work for supporting the OpenSocial RESTful
   API
   - Performance improvements to the GadgetServer

What else is going on? Please speak up if you're working on things that
weren't touched on, or if I didn't accurately describe the state
ofsomething that was touched on.

Cheers,
-Dan

P.S. If you're looking to get involved, I'd suggest browsing through JIRA,
and finding an issue that you'd like to take -- please speak up on shindig-dev
when you do so, to avoid duplicate effort. Details documented here:
http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/#tab-support &
http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/#tab-contribute -- Other questions? Just
Ask!

Re: State of the Shindig - February 2008

[Santiago Gala <sa...@gmail.com>]

El vie, 29-02-2008 a las 02:35 -0800, Dan Peterson escribió:
> Hi all,
> 
> The note regarding the Apache Board Reports got me thinking that it would be
> an ideal time to touch on the status of Shindig. Since this is essentially
> the first thread of this form since inception, I'll include some
> pre-Febraury details as well, for historical sake. Please note that this is
> generally longer than the February status reports I saw, but I felt it would
> be better to over communicate given that we're a bit late to the game with
> these reports. Please do correct anything I may have stated inaccurately.

This is a very nice summary, I think. I think even the high level
summary gives more detailed technical information than what the board
probably wants to know, so I guess it should be snipped for a board
report. But it might be good for a first report.

Even if it was not needed for further reporting, I think having a report
sticking "in the wall" for everybody to comment is a very good idea for
the project as a whole.

Regards
Santiago

> 
> High-level summary: Shindig's Java implementation making rapid progress
> since inception in December 2007.
> 
>    - All committers have Apache accounts and access to the repository
>    - Accepted a couple rounds of "bootstrapping" Java and JS code
>    contributions from Google (with appropriate IP licensing)
>    - Generally-functional out of the box experience
>    - Good progress on (optional) Caja integration for improved security
>    - Preliminary website created: http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/
>    - Healthy community growing, though committers still Google-heavy
>    - JIRA queue moving in full force
>    - Majority of progress on the Java server port
>    - Emerging PHP port, which many people are excited about
> 
> 
> Now, to jump into some more particular areas...
> 
> OpenSocial and Gadgets specification compliance (referring to the Java
> implementation):
> 
> For Gadgets, the compliance with the XML spec is very far along, though
> Shindig doesn't yet support icons or preloads, and doesn't correctly handle
> all message bundle substitutions. In terms of the core gadgets JavaScript
> API, it is also quite far along, though gadgets.util.getFeature is broken.
> For the "highly-recommended features," all, with the exception of skins.js,
> are implemented in Shindig.
> 
> For OpenSocial compliance, Shindig is not as far along. The initial sample
> container was a very basic non-standard implementation for quick testing
> purposes. However, the sample container is now in the middle of being
> modified to use OpenSocial properly. This means that it is being refactored
> to speak via very recently created interfaces, to get data stored in a
> flatfile as a mock implementation that can easily be swapped out in
> favor ofmore sophisticated versions, depending upon deployment needs.
> In addition,
> there is discussion about some initial infrastructure work for the Gateway
> server component, though the OpenSocial RESTful API is under discussion over
> on the spec discussion forum.
> 
> Usage status:
> 
> To facilitate early access for developers, orkut and hi5 are running
> Shindig-based
> sandbox instances (of the Java server port), and plan to use Shindig for
> upcoming production user-facing launches as well. Ning is similarly running
> an early instance based on the PHP port. Due to the activity on shindig-dev,
> it is very likely there are others in similar positions, so please feel free
> to chime in.
> 
> What is coming in the near-term (the next several weeks)?
> 
>    - Improved support for OpenSocial 0.7, via a well-defined interface
>    and a flatfile-backed method for supporting people, activities, and
>    persistence (as mentioned above)
>    - Rounding out compliance with the Gadgets spec
>    - Initial, but *large* "update" patch to the PHP server port
>    - Initial infrastructure work for supporting the OpenSocial RESTful
>    API
>    - Performance improvements to the GadgetServer
> 
> What else is going on? Please speak up if you're working on things that
> weren't touched on, or if I didn't accurately describe the state
> ofsomething that was touched on.
> 
> Cheers,
> -Dan
> 
> P.S. If you're looking to get involved, I'd suggest browsing through JIRA,
> and finding an issue that you'd like to take -- please speak up on shindig-dev
> when you do so, to avoid duplicate effort. Details documented here:
> http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/#tab-support &
> http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/#tab-contribute -- Other questions? Just
> Ask!
-- 
Santiago Gala
http://memojo.com/~sgala/blog/