After doing various prototypes of SAP CRM Application mashups with Facebook, Google Maps, Zoominfo, Twitter, Linked-in etc., I have arrived at the following four patterns:
Before I get into it, let me describe a mash-up in simple words. I was to travel to Germany for 5 months on fellowship. I was contacted by different people for different tasks they were specialized in.
- Car rental, someone from Czech contacted and booked a car for the period
- Home, someone from Germany contacted and booked an apartment for me
- Visa Processing, some Lawyer from Germany asked me to upload all documents onto a site and got my work permit visa done for my stay
- Articles relocation, someone from the US contacted me and gave me instructions on what to do to get my 225 Kg of articles imported into Germany
As you can see, my goal was to work in Germany for 5 months and there were multiple 3rd party service providers for SAP, specialized in their areas, who contacted me and made my life easy.
A mash-up in web development points to a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source and makes life easy for a user who needs all content in one application.
There are three entities involved:
- Providers: External websites which provide social networking services like Linked-In or Mapping Services like Google Maps etc.
- Consumer: Application like SAP CRM Application which makes use of the service provided by service providers like Linked-In, Google etc.
- Development/Customer: The one who creates a mash-up
Pattern 1 : Direct HTTP Request
Principles
- No Authentication required to access information from Provider
- Developer/customer can register and get an API Key
- Consumer sends a HTTP request along with API Key to the Provider
- Provider sends the HTTP response
- Consumer receives XML/JASON response Back
- Consumer parses the XML/JASON and makes use of the information
Example(s): Applications reading RSS, reading data from ZoomInfo.com
Provider : www.zoominfo.com
Provider APIs : http://developer.zoominfo.com/documentation
Pattern 2 : Embedded 3rd Party Icons/Scripts
Principles
No Authentication required to access information from Provider
Developer/customer can register and get an API Key
Developer/ ustomer should Insert
Developer should insert 3rd party icons with HTML
tag where feature is required
Developer should bind application information (say CRM Account Name) when building 3rd party icon with
tag
Consumer receives response as map / pop up
Example(s): Application Mashups built using Google Maps, Linked In as Providers
Pattern 3 : Client Stubs + Provider Container
Principles
Authentication Required
REST Client Stubs are available in the internet for technologies like PHP/Java/.Net
Client Stub hides the complexity of HTTP calls and JASON / XML transformation
Use the client stubs, build applications and run the application in the Providers's container
Object Oriented access to server functions
Example(s): Applications on www.facebook.com as a Provider
Pattern 4 : Client Stubs + Consumer Container
Principles
Authentication Required
REST Client Stubs are available in the internet for technologies like PHP/Java/.Net
Client Stub hides the complexity of HTTP calls and JASON / XML transformation
Use the client stubs, build applications and run the application in the Consumer's container
Object Oriented access to server functions
Example(s): Applications built using www.twitter.com as a Provider
SAP & Product Standards
This is the hard topic for which I do not have answers. I leave the questions here for senior management to think and create a strategy:
0. Are our UI frameworks/platforms ready for such mash-ups?
1. Will SAP be able to release a product with great mash-ups with 3rd party providers crossing the hurdles of SAP product standards?
2. Will SAP revise the Product Standards so that applications with such mash-ups can be release?
3. Will SAP want to build all the services like mapping, social networking etc. ground up?
3. Will SAP provide an enterprise mash-up platform where customers/applications can do great mash-ups ?
