Merapi is the bridge between Web and Desktop software
Merapi, a project run by the team at Roundarch Labs, has been a long time in the making, but on July 14th, 2008 the initial Merapi Alpha release candidate was distributed to the Merapi Alpha community of users.
On Wednesday, May 20th, Merapi is officially Open Source! After almost a year of heavy development, we have finally released Merapi's Java-to-AIR bridge framework as Open Source, and are hosting the project on Google Code.
Merapi is a technology that can be used as a messaging bridge between applications that run in the Adobe Flash player or Adobe AIR and applications written in Java.
This is really exciting to the Java, Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR development communities and everyone on the Merapi team is excited as can be to start working with this larger community group to uncover bugs, add features and shape the concept of Merapi into the backbone of killer applications across the globe. Since the initial release, the community has provided a lot of feedback to the Merapi team, and the industry has started to take notice of what we are doing, and what Merapi can be used for.
While we are working hard to improve the core functionality and developer experience when using Merapi, members of the Merapi project team are constantly out an about at conferences, user groups, talking to developers, analysts and members of the "Web" media about what we are doing and about how Merapi can be used to create fundamental changes in the way we design and develop software applications.
For more information about Merapi, how you can use it, how it is being used, and what it means for the future of Web and Desktop software development, we suggest you check out the information posted on this Web site, by searching Google, reading through the Merapi Project forums, or by checking out some of the Merapi project member's own personal Web sites: Adam Flater (founder, architect) - adamflater.net, Dave Meeker (chief project instigator) - whatanexperience.org, or these other blogs/postings.
To learn more about Roundarch, check out our old (and soon to be re-launched) Web site - roundarch.com.
We will soon be re-designing this Web site, and encourage you to still sign up and create an account. Doing so will allow us to provide you with updates on Merapi and other next-generation technologies developed/supported by Roundarch Labs. To sign up as a member of the Merapi Project Web site. Once we receive your request, we will approve your account and you will get an automated email with your account credentials and other information.
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How to Get Merapi Code
So, you've read all about it and want to jump in and become part of the future of the Web, huh?
We have spent the last year working on Merapi, talking to users, developers, software companies and others in the community to get feedback on how Merapi should work, how it might be used and what people really want out of a next-generation technology such as this. With the generous support of
Roundarch, Merapi has made it out of the private alpha stage and we've released Merapi as Open Source.
To help simplify things, we have decided to host the Merapi source code, examples and message boards on the Google Code Web site. You can access the project files, etc. at the following URLS:
We will be updating the Merapi Project Web site (this Web site) in the coming weeks, and encourage you to still sign up for an account so that we can notify you of updates to the project and keep you up to date on the latest news related to Merapi, RIA development and the future of Web & Desktop integration.
Don't be shy. We'd love to have you participate.
Once we receive your submission, we will review it and approve your account.
Why Merapi was Created
Merapi was created to extend the capabilities of applications built on the Adobe AIR™ platform.
Adobe AIR™ has been recognized a revolutionary step forward in "next generation" software design and development.
With AIR's launch, the massive community of Flash, Flex and AJAX Web developers were provided the ability to build desktop applications using the tools and technologies with which they are already familiar. Using the Adobe AIR™ API, their "Web" applications can become integrated with the user's desktop operating system.
AIR is a framework that does most of the hard work for you. It enables applications to run locally, connect to Internet services, store data locally, and access information stored on the usre's file system. It's great, and the team that founded the Merapi project are huge proponents of the Adobe AIR™ platform, as well as Flash, Flex and other Adobe technologies.
We are passionate software designers and developers, with a primary goal of pushing the possibilities of user experiences.
In order to provide the best user experiences, we often find ourselves in a postion to try and push the limits on available technologies. When coming up with ideas about cool applications that could be build on the Adobe AIR™ platform, some of the most innovative concepts for "Rich, Connected" desktop applications were even outside the capabilities that AIR™ was able to provide.
One of the biggest benefits of Rich applications developed using Adobe technologies is the ability to provide killer user interfaces and what we consider to be "next generation" user experiences. Professionally, most of the members of the Merapi Project team do this every day for clients.
While AIR™ is a huge jump by itself, we found ourselves asking:
- Could we connect an AIR™ application to a wii remote?
- Could we use AIR™ to talk to a phone plugged in via USB?
- What if we wanted to do TWAIN Capturing of Video or Images from a camera or scanner?
- Could we control robots with an AIR™ application?
- What about sending MIDI signals to instruments over a network using an AIR™ application?
- Could I build a social-networking AIR™ application that controlled hardware devices?
Adobe AIR™ doesn't allow for these things natively. We realize that Adobe might do this in the future, and make Merapi obsolete. While it would represent an end to the value our open source project, it would be for the best! It would mean that we could build bigger, badder, and bolder desktop applications using Flex, Flex Data Services, LiveCycle, and other Adobe products... and we'd be able to do so without having to "build the bridge" to the OS, which is what we've done with Merapi.
Building a Bridge between Adobe AIR and Java (OS)
Merapi is a Java™ application, intended to run on a user's (client) computer. Merapi connects other Java™ applications on the user's computer to Adobe AIR™ applications that the user has installed.
It isn't magic. You have to develop your Adobe AIR™ application in a way that allows it to connect to Merapi. Merapi acts as a "middle man", passing objects between your AIR™ application and your Java™ application.
Using Merapi, Adobe AIR™ applications can "talk" to other software that the user has installed on their computer. In addition, Merapi allows AIR™ applications to serve as a user interface to just about anything that a Java™ application can do on a user's computer.
How Merapi Works
Merapi is a framework that bridges an AIR application with a Java application, both running on the desktop. This communication is accomplished through a class that exists in Java and ActionScript called merapi.Bridge.
The simplest way to interact from AIR to Java is by sending and receiving messages though the bridge.
Sending a message from ActionScript:
var message : Message = new Message();
message.data = "Hello from Merapi Flex.";
message.type = "Reply";
Bridge.instance.sendMessage( message );
Sending a message from Java:
Bridge bridge = Bridge.getInstance();
Message message = new Message();
message.setData("Hello from Merapi Java.");
bridge.sendMessage(message);
Receiving a message in Flex:
id="bridge" result="handleResult(event)" />
private function handleResult( event : ResultEvent ) : void
{
var message : IMessage = event.result as IMessage;
Receiving a message in Java:
Bridge.getInstance().registerMessageHandler("Reply", messageHandlerInstance );
public void handleMessage( IMessage message )
{
System.out.println( message.getData() );
}
More advanced features are available in the framework for creating proxy objects in ActionScript or Java that automatically cause a mirrored instantiations and invocations on the corresponding side of the bridge. This functionality is essentially an abstraction of the basic messaging framework described above.
Understanding more about Java is great. A good amount of knowledge can be shared between Flex/ActionScript 3.0 and Java. I’ve worked with Java in the past, compiled some applications, read the tutorials and some books, helped build a Java based LMS and also worked with Adobe on writing a simple Java socket server, but I wanted more of a thorough understanding of the language. The University of California at San Diego offers a great series of programming and software development courses. These classes are really affordable so I decided to take a Java II course. It’s been seven weeks and so far the experience has been awesome. The end goal is to become more familiar with the core Java language. My hope is that this will enable me to have greater confidence when working on Flex and BlazeDS projects. (A really cool stack I’ve been playing with recently is Flex/Cairngorm, the new Spring/BlazeDS integration and Hibernate/MySQL. Eventually I want to get this running on Glassfish. Something else I’ve been looking into.)
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