Normally when we discuss
mashups, we're talking about browser-based mashups (and usually they involve Google
Maps!). But Proto is a new application for building
"desktop mashups". The desktop/Web hybrid theme is one we've been exploring in recent
months on Read/WriteWeb, so Proto is an interesting twist on this. The site offers a
visual building environment, where you can "combine web services like Yahoo! Maps and
Salesforce.com with desktop apps, like iTunes and Outlook."
Jeb Boniakowski is the co-founder of Proto and he emailed me to tell me more about the service. He calls mashups "situational apps" and his vision for them is "one in which users combine data and services from all over the place (web, desktop, intranet) and publish the results of their work back out to those types of endpoints, for further sharing, reuse, etc."
You don't necessarily need to be a programmer to develop Proto mashups, due to the graphical interface and drag-and-drop functions. A good example of a Proto mashup is this Salesforce.com app - which generates a report "through a series of calls to the Salesforce.com web services and then filtering, aggregating, merging results, and reporting on Proto's side..." Also check out this Post iTunes track to Twitter mashup, and a YouTube mashup.
What's more Proto is currently running a mashup contest, giving away everyone's favorite prize - an iPod - every day for a month. Jeb told me they're giving away 25 - and the chances of winning are high, given that Proto is still under the radar of most people. So mashup developers should get stuck in and send in an entry. Jeb has even suggested an idea based on a recent R/WW post: a custom tool to analyze the differences in the results from the top 100 alternative search engines for a given set of queries. Excellent idea!
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After seeing John's post on this yesterday, I decided to try it out. I'm normally very against anything desktop-based, but I'm going to let this be my download this month.
It took several (4?) hours to understand what was going on, but I managed to put together a Google Spreadsheets -> Chart Wizard (http://www.protosw.com/mods/app/view/334). I'd already done one with AJAX/PlotKit (http://imagine-it.org/google/spreadsheets/makechart.htm), so I thought it'd be a good point of comparison.
It's definitely optimized for table-like output, as spreadsheets offers, and it seems best suited for making graphs/analytics tools right now. I find the various components for filtering their table-like output (called entrysets) were a bit ambiguous in knowing which would accomplish what task. (It took me an hour to figure out how to get a table of the header fields of an entryset).
But granted, I didn't do any of the tutorials, which I'm sure would help in understanding all the components. The example apps/components are the best resource I found. Most of my success came from finding examples that accomplished the subtasks of my module, and copying their input/output/components.
I'm sure that if I wanted to create another Proto App, I could do it much quicker.
However, when it comes down to it, I myself would never use my proto App as it's desktop based. I hope they find it in their heart to create a similar environment for browser apps.
Posted by: Pamela Fox | February 1, 2007 3:50 AM
Didn't IBM coin the term 'situational apps'? I might be wrong.
Posted by: Julian | February 1, 2007 5:24 AM