Introduction¶
Apache Shindig, a word meaning party, was originally started by Google in 2007 as a reference container for hosting OpenSocial compatible widgets in any website. Originally a port of Google's iGoogle gadget container, with Brian McCallister's PHP code, Apache Shindig threw off it's egg shell, and showed that Google was serious about making OpenSocial accessible to a larger number of sites. Since December 2007, Apache Shindig is now an Apache project.
Apache Shindig's Objectives¶
Apache Shindig Components¶
Server Side¶
The Java version of Apache Shindig have 3 major server side components:
- Persistent Data Loading Mechanism.
- Gadget Rendering Infrastructure.
- OpenSocial server side implementation.
Components of Apache Shindig Java Server Side container
Client Side¶
The Javascript features are:
- Gadget container (gadget.js), fully OpenSocial gadget compliant.
- OpenSocial container.
- JSON, Restful container and Caja support.
Put It Together: OpenSocial Flow¶
The following is a typical flow to get a list of Friends.
Server Side Flow¶
- Call JsonRpcServlet.
- Get the appropriate handler.
- Get the JSON object from the DB.
- Populate responses into a list.
- Return to the client.
In the case of the REST use, the flow will be:
- Call DataServiceServlet.
- Get the appropriate converter.
- Get the handler.
- Get the JSON object from the DB.
- Return to the client.
Client Side Flow¶
- Create request object.
- Populate request parameters.
- Send the request.
OpenSocial APIs¶
Apache Shindig implements several OpenSocial APIs:
- OpenSocial REST: for server to server communication
- OpenSocial JSON-RPC: for gadget to server communication
- Javascript: for gadgets
For more information on the OpenSocial APIs see the OpenSocial spec.
Resources¶
- Overview of REST Implementation in Apache Shindig - Java Version by Rajdeep Dua.
- Presentation on Shindig Architecture - Java by Rajdeep Dua.