ESME Blog

Currently, ESME just supports OpenID for authentication purposes (Note: we are currently working on other authentication modes). Many corporations, however, don’t yet have OpenID providers available internally. Although there are a variety of OpenId providers externally,  internal security restrictions may hamper easy access to these sites.

I was looking for an easy alternative on an OpenId provider that could be deployed within the firewall.  I found a list of potential candidates and decided to try out a few.  I wanted a very simple provider that was easy to install but still worked with ESME.

I finally found one that was ideal for these requirements: java-based WSO2 Identity Solution (WSO2 IS). I was able to download the software and install it within 20 minutes. It is exceeding easy to install and worked out of the box without having to make any changes.  I installed the solution on my laptop where my test installation of ESME is running.  I was able to register as a new user, receive a OpenID and use this OpenID within ESME in approx. 10 minutes.   

WS02 is also based on the Apache 2.0 license which makes it easy to use in enterprise settings.

If you are trying to get an installation of ESME up and running rapidly, this solution is perfect for you.

In an earlier blog I wrote about database integration for ESME. I’ve just created a prototype for sending messages to ESME via a stored procedure in Oracle. I’ve used PL/SQL to create the stored procedure and implemented the HTTP calls via the UTL_HTTP package.

The prototype is primitive and doesn’t use any input parameters but this would be relatively easy to implement. Just change the login token and you will ready to integrate this code into your own applications.

The code is available on the GoogleCode site.

Bill Fernandez created a long analysis (over 72 pages!) of ESME and its UI design. 

From Wikipedia:

Bill Fernandez is a user interface architect who was Apple Computer’s first employee when they incorporated in 1977. He worked on both the Apple I and Apple II personal computers, and in the 1980s was a member of the Apple Macintosh development team.

The analysis is split into various chapters including:

• The Rationale for ESME
• Conceptual Model
• User Interface Preliminaries

There are long descriptions of various UI components in the next generation user interface of ESME.

If you have comments concerning the new UI, please add them to the esme-dev Google Group.

We’ve already shown how ESME can be integrated to SAP-specific development environments (including ABAP and the NetWeaver Portal). I wanted to expand this integration to other non-SAP platforms.

I’ve just completed a integration with Apache Ant which is “a Java-based build tool”. It is now possible to send messages to ESME that describe the progress of your build steps. This is especially useful when ESME is being in development projects where individual developers can be made aware of the status of various-build related actions. For example, a development team could be informed that a build is broken or if it is successful.

There was already standard actions in ant to send emails but I thought ESME integration might be more useful.

An example build.xml file and the simple Java class that sends ESME messages (based on the ESME java API) are present in the wiki on the Google Code site. 

The same model and code could probably be used for Apache Maven - a software project management and comprehension tool- as well.

Note: This blog doesn’t have any code but focuses on ideas. Later blogs will have code examples.

This morning, I started considering other possibilities to integrate ESME into the enterprise IT environment. Previously, I’ve looked at clients based on development languages (Java, etc.). This time, I would like to discuss a few ideas regarding integration of ESME into database applications.

The basic idea is to use trigger mechanisms to send messages when certain events occur.  For this scenario to work a database must support triggers and support HTTP-based communication. Initially, I looked at Microsoft Access (thought it might be “low-hanging fruit”) but unfortunately, it appears that it doesn’t support triggers.

I then looked at Oracle and found two examples of PL/SQL applications that send twitter messages and another example that reads the twitter message stream.  Both are linked to the OraTweet application and use the PL/SQL package UTL_HTTP to communicate via HTTP. Based on these examples, a simple ESME client for ORACLE  should be easy.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the typical ROI-related arguments about the use of Web 2.0 technology within the enterprise.  One thing that you always hear is the importance of metrics to justify the use of such new technology. I’ve had some dealing with wiki-based metrics and I wanted to try and start an initial list of metrics that might be useful. The following list is very preliminary

• Messages / time period (hour, day, week, etc.)
• Number of links sent (internal vs. external)
• Which are clients are being used
• Number of users time period (hour, day, week, etc.)
• Number of users with 10, 50, 100, 200+ followers
• Number of users following 10, 50, 100, 200+ other users
• Percentage of following/followed ratio (For example, “Are there just a few opinion leaders who have many followers and the majority of users just have a few followers)
• Number of messages that have “retweeted”

Of course, these metrics just refer to information that is inherent in the micro-blogging platform itself.   Finding the ability to associate micro-blogging with more general corporate goals (for example, innovation) is obviously more difficult and requires more thought.

It is important to consider that such metrics are only available when enterprises have complete access to the data that lies at the heart of their micro-blogging platform. If their system is located in the cloud, then such access may be difficult. What is necessary is access to the database that acts as the archive for messages.   Once this access has been achieved, then the creation of tools should be relatively straight-forward. The fact that ESME runs behind your firewall in a database of your choice makes it easy to create such metrics.

I think that providing an application that provides such ESME-specific metrics is a perfect opportunity for a someone.

This is the complete ESME presentation from the RIA Hacker Night in Bangalore.
Mrinal is presenting while other team members in the room and around the world interact with him and the audience.

ESME at DemoJam Bangalore, this time presented from Abesh and Mrinal.

We’ve submitted a proposal to join the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) which

… provides organizational, legal, and financial support for a broad range of open source software projects. The Foundation provides an established framework for intellectual property and financial contributions that simultaneously limits contributors potential legal exposure. .

 We are seeking admission to the ASF via the Apache Incubator which

… is the entry path into The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) for projects and codebases wishing to become part of the Foundation’s efforts. All code donations from external organisations and existing external projects wishing to join Apache enter through the Incubator.

The process to become a “podling” in the Apache Incubator is well described and we are excited to have been provided this opportunity to participate.

The ESME project team is interested in joining the Apache Software Foundation for several reasons:

• To help the project attract contributors and service providers who will feel more comfortable with the licensing coming through a respected, well known and established organization such as Apache.
• To facilitate the growth of a broader community of users. The project currently lacks sufficiently clear direction, leadership, and process; we believe the project will benefit greatly from Incubator mentorship.

Voting on inclusion of ESME in the Incubator will take place in the next few weeks, we’ll keep you informed regarding our progress.

Last week, we received the amazing news that ESME will be participating in the Demo Jam at SAP’s TechEd in Bangalore. This will be the first time that any team has presented at all three Demo Jams.  Abesh Bhattacharjee and Mrinal Wadhwa will be on stage presenting ESME to the crowd. Athavan Raja Durairaj will backstage supporting the two.

Each time ESME has been presented at one of this year’s Demo Jam, “local” team members have presented / supported. This is definitely one of the advantages of having a global team.  

Good luck next week to the ESME team at the Demo Jam.

P.S. We will posting the link to the live Internet video stream once it is available.