Mashup2010

cipi

Computer Platform Research Center - CIPI

Always-on Distributed Spreadsheet Mashups

Pierpaolo Baglietto (1), Fabrizio Cosso (2), Martino Fornasa (1), Simone Mangiante (1), Massimo Maresca (1), Andrea Parodi (2), Michele

Stecca (1)

(1) Computer Platform Research Center (CIPI) - University of Padova, University of Genova, Italy

(2) M3S S.r.l. - Genova, Italy

[email protected]

Mashups’10Ayia Napa, Cyprus, Dec. 1st 2010

cipi


1. Introduction2. Requirements3. Platform architecture and operating principles4. Hierarchical Enterprise Spreadsheet Mashup5. Platform implementation6. Discussion7. Conclusion

2

Agenda

2

cipi


Mashups are composite applications that allow to merge different functionalities, data sources, user interfaces, etc.

Mashups are usually defined as lightweight tools. According to the classification provided by Fischer et al. (2009), it is possible to identify some paradigms aiming at supporting the easy creation of composite services:

• Wiring paradigm (e.g., JackBe Presto, Yahoo Pipes!, etc.)• Spreadsheet-based frameworks (e.g. SpreadATOR, IBM A1, etc.)• Programming by demonstration (e.g., Dapper)• Automatic creation of Mashups (e.g., MaxMash)

In this paper we propose to improve the current generation of Spreadsheet-based Mashup tool by adding two new features:

The Distributed Spreadsheet Composition functionality, and The Always-on functionality (i.e., the Spreadsheet Mashup is updated

even if one or more components are offline)

3

Introduction (1/2)

3

CIPI’s research activities

cipi


About our prototype based on the Wiring paradigm… It aims at combining data and services regardless the specific

technologies used for their implementation (e.g., RSS Feed, Rest WS, SOAP WS, etc.)

We re-use the Service Creation Environment developed during the FP6 project called OPUCE (Open Platform for User-Centric Creation and Execution)

We developed a platform for the execution of Event Driven Mashups (i.e., each basic block may generate one or more events during its execution)

We implemented different versions of the execution platform based on different technologies (Web Services, Java Message Service – JMS, and Plain JAVA code over Virtualized environments)

4

Introduction (2/2)

4

cipi


1. Introduction2. Requirements3. Platform architecture and operating principles4. Hierarchical Enterprise Spreadsheet Mashup5. The Car Dealers case study6. Platform implementation7. Discussion8. Conclusion

5

Agenda

5

cipi


Here is a list of 4 requirements that we identified for the usage of Mashup tools in the Enterprises

1. Support of lightweight creation of Situational Applications Spreadsheets are well known tools;

2. Support of reuse of already existing data Spreadsheets are widely used to store enterprise data;

3. Compliance with the distributed and hierarchical structure of enterprises different units of the same company may be geographically distributed;

4. Support of automatic updates and Always-on distributed Composite Spreadsheets synchronize the linked spreadsheets automatically even when one or more components of the distributed spreadsheet are offline.

6

Requirements for Mashup tools

6

cipi



7

Agenda

7

cipi


Components of the platform: A centralized server-side Composition Platform supports the

execution of spreadsheet data exportation and importation, manages user accounts, and synchronizes data across dependent spreadsheet;

A Client Plug-in integrated in the end-user spreadsheet application. It interacts with the composition platform by means of messages exchange and allows the user to import/export data through a graphical UI.

Spreadsheet types: Importer: it imports data from other Spreadsheets; Exporter: it exports data to other Spreadsheets; Intermediate: it is both an importer and an exporter at the same time,

and at least one exported cell is a function of an imported cell (via direct inclusion or formulas).

8

Platform architecture and operating principles (1/2)

8

cipi


Operating principles:

The exporter contribution update is periodically performed by each exporter Plug-in towards the platform;

The importer spreadsheet update is periodically performed by the importer Plug-in. The Plug-in periodically polls the platform for new contributions or updates;

The data propagation function works as follows:• When a client Plug-in realizes that the spreadsheet is intermediate it

uploads the entire spreadsheet on the platform. Every time an intermediate spreadsheet is updated the Plug-in performs a new upload.

• When an intermediate spreadsheet is offline, the platform runs a local spreadsheet engine in order to recalculate the exported ranges based on fresh import ranges.

9

Platform architecture and operating principles (2/2)

9

cipi



10

Agenda

10

cipi


The main concepts in HESMs are: Master Organizational Unit (MOU) Contributing Organizational Units (COU) Space Master Spreadsheet Chain of spaces

11

Hierarchical Enterprise Spreadsheet Mashup – HESM (1/3)

11

Unit 1

“A” Contributing Org. Unit 1 (A-COU1)“A” Master spreadsheet

A-COU1 range

A-COU2 range

“A” Master Organizational Unit (A-MOU)

“A” space

Unit 2 spreadsheet

A-COU1 range

Unit 3 spreadsheet

A-COU2 range

“A” Contributing Org. Unit 2 (A-COU2)

Composition Platform

A-COU1 range A-COU2 range“A” space

Unit 3 Unit 2Unit 1 spreadsheet

B-COU1 range

“B” space“A” space

Unit 1 Unit 3

Unit 1 spreadsheet

A-COU1 range

A-COU2 range

“A” Master Organizational Unit (A-MOU)

Unit 3 spreadsheet

A-COA2 range

“A” Contributing Org. Unit 2 (A-COA2)

Composition Platform

A-COU1 range

A-COU2 range

“A” space

“B” Contributing Org. Unit 1 (B-COU1)

B-COU1 range

Unit 4

Unit 4 spreadsheet

B-COU2 range

“B” Contributing Org. Unit 2 (B-COU2)

Unit 5

“B” Master spreadsheet

B-COU2 range

“B” Master Organizational Unit (B-MOU)

B-COU1 range

B-COU2 range

“B” space

Unit 1 spreadsheet

Unit 5 spreadsheet

“A” Master spreadsheet

cipi


Case Study: the Car Dealers Example The company is organized in an hierarchical way:

Car Dealers – CDs interact with costumers A set of CDs located in a certain area are managed by the same Area

Sales Manager - ASM A set of ASMs located in a certain region are managed by the same

Regional Sales Manager – RSM

There are different relationships among actors: CDs keep track of their sales in their own spreadsheets CDs are the COUs of the spreadsheet owned by the related ASM (i.e.,

the MOU of this relationship) ASMs keep track of the regional sales in their own spreadsheets ASMs are the COUs of the spreadsheet owned by the related RMS

(i.e., the MOU of this relationship)

12


12

cipi


Case Study: the Car Dealers Example (Screenshots)

13


13

cipi



14

Agenda

14

cipi


The Client Plug-in must be installed on nodes running the MS Excel software

The Plug-in and the Composition Platform communicates by means of SOAP-based APIs

The DB stores the importations, exportations, and the dependencies among spreadsheets

The Excel Server component runs the intermediate spreadsheets when needed (i.e., an update in the exporting file occurred)

The importing spreadsheets poll the Composition Server to retrieve updated data

15

Platform implementation (1/2)

15

Excel ServerPlug-in ClientExcel Mashup

Server

Database

Composition platform

cipi


Sequence Diagram for an exportation involving an intermediate spreadsheet

16

Platform implementation (2/2)

16

cipi



17

Agenda

17

cipi


Other Spreadsheet-based Mashup tools focus on the integration of different data sources into Spreadsheets

On the contrary we focus on the distributed and always-on composition of spreadsheets

Our approach can be seen as complementary with respect to the platforms that import different data sources and convert them to spreadsheet cells

The proposed solution aims at modeling the hierarchical structure of enterprises as shown in the Car Dealer case study

The proposed solution may take advantage of the emerging Cloud Computing paradigm in two different ways:

In a Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS scenario, the Composition Platform might run on a Virtual Machine deployed “in-the-cloud” (e.g., it might be an Amazon Machine Image – AMI deployed on the Amazon EC2 Cloud)

In a Software as a Service – SaaS scenario, the Composition Platform might rely on the Google Spreadsheet APIs which allow to manipulate spreadsheets stored “in-the-cloud”

18

Discussion

18

cipi



19

Agenda

19

cipi


We designed a spreadsheet Mashup tool which allow to: Create distributed spreadsheet composition Update the spreadsheet composition automatically even if one or more

components are offline (Always-on feature) Reflect the hierarchical structure of enterprises where actors working at

different levels contribute to the creation of aggregated information

We implemented a prototype of the system presenting the following features: The client Plug-in is implemented to run on the Microsoft Office system The Client/Server communication architecture is based on SOAP messages

exchange It manages the automatic update of complex spreadsheet composition

through the execution of intermediate spreadsheets

Future works Security Versioning Spreadsheet Mashups “in-the-cloud”

20

Conclusion

20

cipi


2121

Thank you for your attention

Mashup2010

Technology

intermediate spreadsheet

spreadsheet types

entire spreadsheet

spreadsheetbased frameworks

local spreadsheet engine

execution platform

data sources

importexport data