Think Different

If you have ever had to set up a Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP or Perl installed and running at the same time you know what hassle it can be. If you are new Linux it can be a rather daunting experience just trying to set everything up, nevermind learning scripting languages like PHP, Perl and a database like MySQL or SQL Lite. XAMPP is a single packaged download from Apache Friends which provides all of the pieces of software needed, plus more you probably don't need, to make Apache installations with server-side scripting and a few database options ready to go in a testing or development environment. In this article we will focus on getting XAMPP running on Linux, it will also work on Windows and a version for Sun’s Solaris is also available. For our example we will use a Debian-based Linux distribution, but just about any flavour of Linux will work. To start, you will need to download the XAMPP package for Linux from the SourceForge Web site . The XAMPP includes the following so...

Following the introductory presentation on OpenSocial at the Google Developer Day conference in Sydney, Dan Peterson and John Hjelmstad delved into the workings of Shindig with their presentation "Apache Shindig: Make your social site an OpenSocial container". What is Shindig? Shindig, a project in Apache Software Foundation Incubation is an open source implementation of OpenSocial and gadgets. At present Shindig provides two ports, one in Java and one in PHP, both of which support version 0.7 of OpenSocial. There is work in progress for version 0.8 which will introduce the RESTful API. Some containers using the Java version of Shindig are hi5, iGoogle and orkut. There is a strong open source community behind Shindig, producing some high quality code, with updates occurring as OpenSocial evolves. Shindig Architecture Dan and John showed a diagram similar to the one below to illustrate the structure of Shindig. It is made up of three main components. |> Gadge...

Widgets and gadgets are small applications that run on your desktop or in your web browser which enable you to keep track of things like the weather forecast or share prices. But widgets and gadgets can also be used to add additional functionality to existing applications to create flexible and personalised learning environments. We spoke to Scott Wilson from JISC CETIS and the Institute for Educational Cybernetics at the University of Bolton about the potential for using widgets in educational technologies. Introduction Widget is a funny word. For some people it means a small device at the bottom of a can of Guinness for others it’s a character in Marvel comics. In technology terms desktop widgets (or gadgets) are small programmes that run on your desktop to give you useful information. The Wikipedia definition of a desktop widget is: "a small specialized GUI application that provides some visual information and/or easy access to freque...

What's jQuery? Created by John Resig in early 2006, jQuery is a great library for anyone who works with JavaScript code. Whether you're new to the JavaScript language and want a library to address some of the complexities of Document Object Model (DOM) scripting and Ajax or you're an advanced JavaScript guru and tired of the boring repetition involved with DOM scripting and Ajax, jQuery will suit you well. jQuery helps you keep your code simple and succinct. You no longer have to write a bunch of repetitious loops and DOM scripting library calls. With jQuery, you can get right to the point and express yourself in the fewest possible characters. The jQuery philosophy is certainly unique: It's designed to keep things simple and reusable. When you understand and feel comfortable with the philosophy, you'll start to see just how much jQuery can improve the way you program. Back to top Some simple simplifications Here's a simple example of the impac...

Shindig - an Apache incubator project for OpenSocial and gadgets What is Shindig? Shindig is a new project in the Apache Software Foundation incubator and is an open source implementation of the OpenSocial specification and gadgets specification . The architectural components of Shindig can be broken down as follows: Gadget Container JavaScript -- core JavaScript foundation for general gadget functionality. This JavaScript manages security, communication, UI layout, and feature extensions, such as the OpenSocial API. Gadget Server -- used to render the gadget XML into JavaScript and HTML for the container to expose via the container JavaScript. OpenSocial Container JavaScript -- JavaScript environment that sits on top of the Gadget Container JavaScript and provides OpenSocial specific functionality (profiles, friends, activities, datastore). OpenSocial Data Server -- an implementation of the server interface to container-specifi...