GSOC-09 Project

Empowering Google Android applications to easily consume business services

Abstract

Nowadays, the mobile systems world is growing as the need of common services consumption from phone is getting more effective. Thus, services-based mobile apps are more of household word as they can easily run on our usual mobile phones. This relatively new approach of systems development and services delivery known as “Service Oriented Architecture” is based on constructional model described by a set of specifications called “Service Component Architecture” SCA.

The Apache Tuscany Project implements the SCA specifications and easier SOA developments by it’s comprehensive infrastructure of components that can be assembled into applications called composites. Tuscany also provides extensions revealed to be useful when binding components with one another using specific protocol (CORBA, JSON, SOA/HTTP). To make a bright and effective use of Tuscany SCA’s opportunities, applications are to be developed on fully featured and OPENED platform so that innovative and reusable solutions and components can be created and reassembled.

The new Google Android Mobile platform provides such features(opensource, extendable, operating system, api, sdk, middleware, adequate tools) and has consequently been targeted to host tuscany and to demonstrate it capabilities under the “tuscany-host-android” subproject. Started last year at GSOC08, the project has been going peacefully along, and great efforts have already been accomplished including porting tuscany SCA(core/runtime + extensions) in a light version onto Android and partially implementing an android store app, which consumes services from an SCA friendly store app.

Project Presentation

Description

The main goal of this project is to implement a use case illustrating the usefulness of business services consumption through a component oriented architecture. More pratically, it would be able setting a fully operational store, component oriented, which will offer services to a mobile application running from an Android phone. The store will offer all classical store features like products catalog organized into categories, shopping cart, dynamic currency conversion, and if possible M-Payment services.

Benefits for the community

  • More conviction for Service Component Architecture
  • Realize opportunity offered by both Tuscany and Android
  • Offer an extensible open source business component that can be singly used in production environnement, or more as a piece in building a greater block.

Personal Aims

My personal aims in applying for this projects are:

  • To publish my ideas and to gain some feed back on these ideas
  • To join a great open source community and work on innovative projects
  • To learn more about Service Component Architecture
  • To increase my experience in SOA and Google Android development

Project Stages

Stage 0: Introductory research and testing

  • Sat, Apr 11, 2009 : Patch for UI changes to Tuscany’s sample’s store (revision 760266 ).
  • Wed, Apr 22, 2009 : Started communicating with mentor.
  • Installed and tested latest Tuscany build
  • Review documentation
  • Upgrade the provided patch in [1] to get the shopping cart service consumed

Stage 1: Store webapp

Stage 2: Android Client

Stage 3: Tests

Development environment

  • Android Debug Bridge, Development Tools and Emulator.
  • I’ll be developing under Windows Vista, and Ubuntu alternatively.
  • IDE: Eclipse. Of course, if the Apache Tuscany Project uses some other tools, i’ll be pleased to use them.

    • References

    [1]: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TUSCANY-2959