Tool - Assisted Mashup Development

W eb mashups 1 are Web applications generated by combining content, presentation, or application functionality from disparate Web sources. They aim to combine these sources to create useful new applications or services. Content and presentation elements typically come in the form of RSS or Atom feeds, various XML formats, or as HTML, ShockWave Flash (SWF), or other graphical elements. Publicly available APIs (in JavaScript, for example) typically provide application functionality. Content, functionality, and presentation are then glued together in disparate ways: via JavaScript in the browser, server-side scripting languages such as Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) or Ruby, or traditional languages such as Java or C#. “Mashup” has become one of the hottest buzzwords in the Web applications area, and many companies and institutions are rushing to provide mashup solutions (or to relabel existing integration solutions as mashup tools). Amidst this frenzy, it’s difficult to distinguish between mashups and traditional integration efforts. This article aims to provide some clarity in regard to