Accessing the Cloud
Platforms: how cloud computing is delivered
AJAX, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, consists of multiple technologies and languages used for creating interactive web applications. The interaction of the languages and other tools allow for the retrieval of information from other sources, as opposed to rewriting the repeating information. However these sites are hard to favorite and often they do not show up on the History engine, meaning the back button will not show the previous page.
Web hosting service, often referred to as the “cloud provider”, are organizations that will host your information. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Mosso are examples of cloud providers. Individual companies like microsoft and salesforce, have designed their own infrastructure for cloud interfaces.
***side note- pre-existing libraries can be used to create web applications
Web Applications
When using applications in the cloud, there are many, many choices from which to decided. Finding the right one for your needs comes down to the provider and what they offer. Google is a huge cloud operator and offers many different applications including mail, im, calenders, a customizable homepage, documents, and access from mobile devices.
Web APIs
APIs, application programming interface, is an interface that allows one program to talk to another. In a way, you could see it as translating from one language to another. This is done very often in web design and is commonly used as a way to communicate between different types of servers so that information can be transferred and processed quickly and accurately. An example of this is the verification of credit card information when making an online purchase.
There are a vast number of APIs with numerous purposes. These interfaces exchange data through web services using programming languages like XML, which is used as a standar, so that they can be modified to perform various tasks. SOAP, a standard for any network protocol, UDDI, which functions like a directory, and WSDL, which is used within UDDI for network descriptions, are other standards that can be used.
There are many ways to make your own APIs if you aren’t able to find one that suits your needs. Using Google Data APIs and a website known as Salesforce.com, you have all the tools and information necessary to create many different types of APIs.
One type of API is the GoGrid system that allows individuals to communicate to and control their GoGrid cloud server. The API allows for many different features, such as listing of information and control of data servers, and lets you use multiple programming languages like Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby.
Apex is another often used web service API that supports approximately fifty percent of the APIs on Salesforce. This API allows for complex instructions through a single command and is executed quickly through the JOIN functionality that only Apex’s API uses. There are multiple capacities that are offered by Apex which include Apex Builder, allowing for drag and drop customization, Apex API, the service that allows for data exchange, and Apex Code, a server-side language for Apex that reduces the stress that the server takes from API data calls.
Web Browsers
Browsers tend to be mostly the same, with a few functional differences, so you can use any browser you want. Internet Explorer is the most popular, probably because it is included with Windows, but there are several other options.
Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version (unless you’ve used a computer more recently than the book was published). The biggest change was in its multiple content-rendering modes - both supporting strict interpretation of certain web standards and also supporting behaviors designed to maintain compatibility with existing web sites. The newest rendering mode is forward-looking and preferred by web designers, while the others are around to enable compatibility with sites optimized for earlier browser versions.
Firefox 3 was released in June 2008, offering over 15,000 improvements and 2-3 times faster. The smart location bar, known as the “Awesome Bar,” learns as people use it; the library archives history, bookmarks, and tags; and the new full-page zoom displays any part of a web page, up close and readable in seconds. Built on top of the Gecko 1.9 platform, Firefox 3 is safer, easier-to-use, and uses less memory while its running. There is new malware and phishing protection, and the one-click site ID information allows users to verify the site.
Apple claims that Safari 3.1 is the world’s fastest web browser, as well as being the first browser to support the latest standards needed to deliver Web 2.0 experiences. Safari features include drag-and-drop bookmarks, integrated Find capability that shows the number of matches in a page, and a built-in RSS reader.
Google Chrome was designed to make it easy to search and navigate for content. Features include a combined search and address bar; new tabs show most-visited sites, recent searches, and bookmarks; and each browser tab operates as a separate process. Chrome could be a great tool for cloud computing: it extends the cloud into your organization’s computer, and vice versa, because of the V8 JavaScript engine and built-in Google Gear. It is believed that Chrome will allow desktop and web applications to merge, putting everything into the cloud so that you won’t even have to think about both terms.
**Note: I don’t know all the new features of IE 9, Firefox 4, Safari 5, or Google Chrome. I used the “current” information from the book.
