eclayer.com

There are some big changes under way in eclayer. For the past year eclayer has been providing each web-site with their own private file and database storage on the users computer. Now we are adding private file and database storage on USB keys. Sounds interesting? Well it is! We are also adding support for encrypted file and database storage on USB keys.

This little feature opens up some very interesting opportunities. Any web-site will be able to securely store your identity information on your USB key. Eclayer already has all of the mechanisms to manage mashing permissions. When you combine our existing features with secure USB storage you end up with a completely portable secure identity management system that does not require the user to reveal their various login details to an identity management agency.

The user carries their full set of web identities in their pocket. Just plug the USB key into any computer, enter your key password and connect. The user is not compromised if they lose their USB key. The encrypted data is totally inaccessible to anyone else.

Still sound interesting ? Keep watching …

Mashups are rapidly becoming an accepted means for combining services and content on the web. Most of the hype surrounding mashups tends to revolve around Google Maps, however, there are many other applications of mashups that we use all of the time. Most companies that ship goods these days provide a mashup that lets you track the progress of your shipment with UPS / FedEx, etc. Salesforce.com provide mashups like the fundit.com button that seamlessly carries your order / contract details to fundit.com and completes the transaction for you.

In my view, the humble mashup is really a horizontal bridge that connects vertical web applications. When you take this view of a mashup you can begin to appreciate the strategic importance of the mashup bridge. The success of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model is fueling the explosion in new web-services and applications. As more and more specialized vertical applications find their way into our web-browsers the importance of horizontal bridges connecting these applications will grow.

Today, mashups are implemented primarily on the server-side. In other words, the web-site you are browsing has performed the mashup behind the scenes and presents the result of the mashup to your browser. This technique is effective within a pure internet environment where all of the sources of content reside out on the web. Most organizations, however, have vast pools of data and web applications within their intranets. Commercial rationale dictates that the horizontal bridges must support connections between vertical applications on private intranets and the public web.

Thats where the eclayer AJAX bridge comes in. Unlike server side bridges, the eclayer AJAX bridge lives in the users web browser. This is the ideal location for the commercial bridge between vertical applications. From this vantage point, applications running in the browser can use the AJAX bridge to seamlessly connect internet and intranet web applications and content. Eclayer itself comprises five specialized web-servers that run on the users computer. The same AJAX bridges that connect internet with intranet also connect with a rich set of services on the local computer, including the SQLite relational database, the ImageMagick image manipulation API, file services on the users computer, and web-event management.

If you haven’t crossed an AJAX bridge yet, you will soon. The unstoppable advance of SaaS and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) means that AJAX bridges will soon underpin most of the applications you use.

Some of our users have just discovered that you can use eclayer as a zero-configuration local web-server. I’m a bit surprised by their enthusiasm. It seems like a rather small feature to me. The reason they like it so much is that when developing AJAX applications you really need to have the page served to the browser by a web-server.

Eclayer incorporates a web-server (five of them to be exact) that can serve files directly from your computer. It has a much smaller footprint than other web-servers, but does not permit you to invoke any CGI applications or scripts for security reasons. I had just assumed that developers would always want local access to a full blown web-server so consequently have not been highlighting this capability.

If you want to use this feature, simply copy your html files into the My Documents\Eclayer\www.yourdomain.com directory on your computer. Then to access the files simply enter http://www.yourdomain.com/eclayer/file/yourindexfile.html in your browser and you are all set. All references in your files must be relative. You must also have a 15Euro annual eclayer subscription to use this.

If you have not yet purchased your subscription you are welcome to try it out using the www.eclayer.com domain. Copy your html, image and javascript files to My Documents\Eclayer\www.eclayer.com and then enter http://www.eclayer.com/eclayer/file/yourindexfile.html in your browser.

Try it out - and let me know what you think (be nice!).

Many of you will have already have experience using the tinyMCE html editor from Moxiecode Systems AB. Its written entirely in Javascript and is feature rich. Its used in many web applications including Mambo and Wordpress.

Now you can use tinyMCE directly with eclayer to save and retrieve content directly from your computer. You can find a sample page here showing tinyMCE working with eclayer. You must have eclayer installed on your computer to use the functionality on the sample page.

Eclayer works by turning your computer into a virtual component of the web-site that you are browsing. Eclayer allocates the web-site a directory with the same name as the web-site. The directory is allocated in the users My Documents\Eclayer directory. The site is free to create, maintain and delete content within this directory, but cannot create or access content outside of this directory.

In our example, the serving web-site is www.eclayer.com. This means that the documents that we create with our tinyMCE demo will be saved in the users My Documents\Eclayer\www.eclayer.com directory. In fact, the tinyMCE demo saves its data in the My Documents\Eclayer\www.eclayer.com\Examples\tinyMCE.

We have used the eclayer.js javascript library which is freely available at http://www.eclayer.com/api/eclayer.js. This library wraps most of the functionality within eclayer in a convenient javascript wrapper. The primary interface to eclayer is with AJAX. However, with the eclayer.js javascript library the developer does not have to deal directly with AJAX. There are no compatibility issues to deal with. Both eclayer and tinyMCE sit comfortably on the same page. Integration couldn’t be easier. Take a look at the source code behind the demo and see for yourself.

The documentation for the eclayer.js javascript library is available here.

I wasn’t planning on writing this article for another week or so. But events have conspired to hurry me along. I was all set for launching eclayer at the end of next week. Somehow the word leaked out that eclayer is available for download (and that in particular that bebo.com and myspace.com users would see big performance improvements simply by installing it on their computer). So instead of the nice ordered countdown to release we have been scrambling to deal with the unfolding events.

I choose the title for this blog entry because I think it fits very well with what eclayer is all about. Eclayer is the next evolutionary step for the development of the web.

Before eclayer, a web-page in your browser could do little more than display information for you and ask you for information. This information had to be shuttled back and forth between your browser and the web-site that the page belonged to. And we have all come to know how slow that can be. The browser would allow the web-site to store and retrieve tiny files on your computer called cookies. Web-sites routinely use these cookies to keep track of who you are.

Why have plain cookies when you can have eclayer. Eclayer combines the power of five specialized web-servers on your own computer. Web-pages can work directly with these web-servers to store and retrieve documents on your computer, to create and work with databases, and to create and manipulate images. In a sense, eclayer puts the internet onto your computer. In simple terms, it makes your computer look like part of the web-site that is running in your browser.

Eclayer provides a unique platform to enable web-applications to achieve new levels of complexity and power at incredible speeds without the need to shuttle your private data back and forth across the internet. Eclayer enabled web-sites can even continue working even when you have no connection to the web.

Oh yes, and it does make many sites go much much faster. Enjoy the internet on your computer now!