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Ajax Unplugged

Architecture and Tips for Taking Web Applications Offline

J.J. Zhuangjjzhuang@zimbra.com

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Agenda

Who’s Zimbra?Why do we need offline Webapps?What options are there?

Review some “offline” technologiesDemo!Architecture of Zimbra DesktopChallenges for the developerQuestions?

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Why Offline?

Lack of always-on internet accessAlways-on need for information

Travel – Air, Train, Auto, etcISP service interruptions

Client or Server (Data Center)Remote; unconnected land and water

Even a remote officeMore and more data lives in ‘the cloud’

Today’s SaaS require network accessThat’s how a true desktop app works

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Why Offline AJAX?

Performance (client and server)Removes latency from network opsOffloads *even* more work to client CPUAllows server requests to be batched

Same UI both online/offlineSaves $$ training users for one appSaves $$ on software costs of separate offline app

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What solutions are out there today?

The Fancy Caching ApproachFirefox 3 Offline SupportGoogle GearsDojo Offline Toolkit

The Desktop VM ApproachMozilla XUL RunnerAdobe AIR (formerly Apollo)Joyent Slingshot

Roll your ownZimbra Desktop

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Firefox 3 Offline

FeaturesAnywhere Firefox runs (*nix, Win, Mac)Gecko rendering for HTML/JavaScriptWHATWG client-side storage, offline eventsSQLite for offline storage

LicenseMPL - Open Source

AvailabilityAlpha 5

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Google Gears

FeaturesLocalServer - Cache & Serve HTML, JS, CSS, etcDatabase - SQLite with full-text searchWorkerPool - Async resource-intensive tasksWinXP & Mac OS X 10.2+ & LinuxFirefox (Mac/Win/Linux), IE (Win)

LicenseOpen Source - New BSD License

AvailabilityPublic BetaGoogle Reader Offline Several Sample Apps

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Dojo Offline Toolkit

FeaturesBuilt on top of Google GearsExtends Gears with a higher level APIEncryption supportSimple Hashtable storage api

LicenseOpen Source like Dojo (AFL or BSD)

AvailabilityBeta with Dojo 0.9Live Demos - Simple, Moxie (doc editor)

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Mozilla XUL Runner

FeaturesWhere Firefox runs (*nix, Win, Mac)Gecko rendering for HTML/JavaScriptJavaScript access XPCOM objects via XPConnect

LicenseMPL - Open Source

AvailabilityDeveloper PreviewShipping apps today (Google Adwords Editor)

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AIR (formerly Apollo)

FeaturesFileIO, On/Off-line, Windowing, Clipboard, DnD, Local Storage, Network APIsEventually could be delivered via Flash►Or like Flash

WebKit for HTML/JavaScript renderingWinXP SP2+ & Mac OS X 10.4.8+

LicensePlan to contribute rendering changes to WebKitActual runtime free but closed sourceDeveloper tools cost (optional)

AvailabilityPre-release BetaSeveral demo apps (on their wiki)

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Joyent Slingshot

FeaturesRuby on RailsActiveRecord SyncSQLite local storageMac OSX & WinXPSeems to lack OS native support

LicenseOpen Source under GPL v2; Commercial versionFree if using Joyent’s application hosting

AvailabilityOSS Public ReleaseSeveral apps ported

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Demo

See it in action

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Zimbra Offline

FeaturesLinux, Win32 and Mac (Intel)Firefox, Internet Explorer and SafariIdentical AJAX interface to online versionMicro Server for sync, persistence, and search►Derby (Meta Data, User Profile)►Lucene (Full text search)►Jetty (HTTP, JSP)►Filesystem for messages

Support for large datasets multi-GBLicense

Open Source - MPL/ZPLAvailability

Zimbra Desktop Alpha

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Zimbra Desktop Sync Service

Underlying file system

Lucene Index Derby

Meta-data/User profile

Zimbra Message

Store

JDBC

J2SE JRE

Jetty

Zimbra AJAX Toolkit

SOAP/XML (JSON) HTTP

Zimbra Desktop Client

Web browser (Firefox, IE, Safari)

ZimletsZimbra POPIMAP

SOAP/XML HTTP

IMAP (Future)

POP(Future)

Zimbra Micro Server Architecture

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Challenges for the Developer

Selecting *what* to take offlineSecurity risksDoes the user need it?Can they use it offline?

Sync is hardConflict resolutionMulti-user and multi-client

End-User Desktop SupportRisk of increased support/debugging costs

Upgrades and PatchesHave a plan *before* you release

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Thank You! Questions?

More Information:www.zimbra.com/desktopwww.zimbra.com/blogwww.zimbra.com/forums

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Some Related Linkshttp://blog.monstuff.com/archives/000272.htmlhttp://developers.sun.com/javadb/overview/product_tour/readme.jsphttp://labs.adobe.com/technologies/apollo/http://www.sitepen.com/blog/2007/01/02/the-dojo-offline-toolkit/http://codinginparadise.org/projects/dojo_offline/release-02-20-2007/demos/storage/editor.htmlhttp://joyeur.com/2007/03/22/joyent-slingshothttp://blog.magnetk.com/2007/03/22/joyent-slingshot/http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/2007/02/offline-zimbra-with-firefox.htmlhttp://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2007/02/offline_web_app.htmlhttp://ejohn.org/blog/offline-events/http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/XULRunnerhttp://blogs.salesforce.com/features/2006/03/offline_edition.htmlhttp://www.tiddlywiki.com/http://www.zimbra.com/desktop

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Next-Generation Integrated Messaging & Collaboration SolutionMail, Contacts, Calendar, Web Documents, Wiki, VOIP, RSS, Mash-ups, Search, Sharing, Web services, etc.

Customers:8M+ paid mailboxes: enterprises, SMBs, hosting providers, EDU & ISPs1400+ customers

What Makes ZCS Different?Innovation – rich, ubiquitous user experience + cost-effective administrationOpen Source – transparency, community, extensibilityCompatibility – diverse environments & user groups support, investment protection, flexibility, application integration

Partners:

Awards:

Zimbra Snapshot

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Zimbra Sync

Zimbra Collaboration Platform

Standards Clients Outlook 2003, 2007Apple Desktop

iPhone

Standards (Q3 beta)

Blackberry

zSync

BES

J2ME

XHTML

IMAP, POP, iCal, RSS/Atom, CalDAV (beta)

zSync

zSync

iZimbra

iSync MAPI

Disaster Recovery

Zimbra Sync

Pocket PC

5 & 6Palm Symbian

Zimbra Server

Alpha

zSync

Evolution (Beta)

Email - Calendar - Contacts - Tasks