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RSSBus Takes Middleware To the Nth Degree


N Software is latest to try for universal API

By Edward J. Correia
June 15, 2006 — 
Is universal middleware—a system that enables a single API for any and all applications and data sources—really possible?

Gent Hito thinks so. The president and CEO of N Software in May demonstrated to SD Times the first beta of RSSBus, a simple approach to application and data integration that uses Really Simple Syndication 2.0 specifications to “normalize” the APIs of literally any application, system, data source or Web service.

“This lets you create an RSS feed from anything, like a service bus for the masses,” said Hito. “The idea is to make your data available as a single format that anything can read, to build your apps on top of. Then anything can change on the back end without affecting what the customer sees.”

At least one analyst advised caution. “The connectivity part we’ve overcome, but what about the governance piece?” asked Frank Kenney, principal analyst for research, application integration and emerging technologies at Gartner. “I’m sending a name and credit-card number to get it validated. How do I know which policies are being invoked? Can I just push a token through?”

“People tend to think that RSS itself is not secure,” responded Hito. “Sure, news feeds that use RSS are all wide open, but nothing prevents you from applying the same security measures to RSS that you now apply to Web pages,” such as HTTPS and SSL, he said. “You can enable security controls just like on any Web page.”

RSSBus uses the extension methods specified in RSS 2.0 to convert API calls to and from an application or system to the name/value pairs similar to those used by RSS. To RSS and RSSBus, these are known as items. Input values are known to RSSBus as item inputs, and typically contain a URL query string or other standard HTTP mechanism. The resulting outputs are known as item outputs.

Groups of item inputs are stored as operations, and executed by the RSSBus Engine, which is an ASP.NET app running on IIS. The engine creates RSS feeds by serving the item output operations. Since inputs and outputs share the same format, outputs can be consumed by other operations as inputs, creating pipelines. Multiple feeds pipelined from one or more locations to others create workflows.

An XML-based scripting language is provided to manipulate, redirect and combine these feeds for use in applications, portals, Web services or whatever. “Our tool lets developers create those tags on-the-fly,” he said of the templating function that permits embedded script instructions to convert RSS items to HTML, plain text or other formats for presentation.

From UPS to FedEx
The RSSBus Desktop Engine is free and includes dozens of operations for normalizing API calls of Amazon, eBay, FedEx, Google, UPS and numerous credit-card processing companies, as well as for SQL databases, and file, messaging and e-mail systems. An enterprise edition is set for release this summer. Beta versions are available now at Rssbus.com

“Why not simplify today’s complex data systems? A credit-card gateway can be sent a credit-card number, expiration date and amount, and it returns an approval code,” Hito said, citing an example application. “The goal is to allow rich feeds, and RSS is familiar, and it works.”

While Kenney was enthusiastic about the applications for a free, low-end service bus for the greater population, he questioned its value to the enterprise. “The majority of ESBs are implemented as part of a larger suite of technologies,” he said. “While appealing for the buyer that may not be as tech-savvy, the reality is that many of the apps they buy will already have a usable exposable ESB that will be as easy to use as the Microsoft operating system,” he said, adding that Microsoft itself will implement a service bus in Vista, due sometime next year.

But an enterprise looking for a backbone for its SOA is “going to look at ESBs from established vendors like Progress, TIBCO and webMethods.”


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