Kaazing Open Gateway is an open source solution that provides full-duplex communication from the browser to any TCP-based back-end service (for example, JMS, JMX, IMAP, Jabber, and so on), enabling developers to code directly against back-end services, using "pure" JavaScript without having to implement complex server-side procedures to bridge various protocols to the browser over HTTP. Developers can also take advantage of Web Sockets using technologies such as Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight.

Note: Support for Adobe Flex is currently only available through Kaazing's commercial Kaazing Enterprise Gateway offering.

The Kaazing Open Gateway open source community is sponsored by Kaazing Corp.

The HTML 5 specification and, more specifically, its Communication section defines Web sockets and Server-sent events, which makes full-duplex, direct TCP communication a reality for browsers. This section of the HTML 5 specification is drawing a lot of attention. The first public draft of the HTML 5 specification was published by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in January 2008, and browser vendors are already targeting certain features in the specification.

The idea of putting a full-duplex channel into the specification is not new; the TCPConnection API and protocol were initially drafted over two years ago. With recent development, in which Kaazing Corporation played a contributing role, the HTML 5 Communication section has been solidified and is now nearly complete with few, or no, additions planned. This makes it easy for browser vendors to implement native support for the Communication section of the specification, despite the full HTML 5 proposal remaining in draft form.

The two significant areas in the HTML 5 specification that impact real-time Web development are:

• Server-sent events
• Web sockets

HTML5 WebSockets really are not that much different from a good old fashion TCP socket connection. The primary difference is that a WebSocket, unlike a traditional TCP connection, is text-based and framed allowing to be tunneled easily over HTTP. With the equivalent of a TCP connection, the browser now has the ability to connect to any service available on the Web, making full-duplex communications between the client-browser and server a reality. This means that whether you are developing applications with JavaScript, or Adobe Flex you can leverage the same set of APIs to connect to your services.

One shortcoming of HTML 5 is that few modern browsers provide native implementations of the standard. Fortunately, Kaazing Open Gateway and its client-libraries provide an emulation layer for HTML 5, enabling the most antiquated of browsers to take advantage of WebSockets.

We realize that all this might seem a bit complicated. Relax. Its easy. All you need to know is one simple interface:

[Constructor(in DOMString url)]
interface WebSocket {
  readonly attribute DOMString URL;

  // ready state
  const unsigned short CONNECTING = 0;
  const unsigned short OPEN = 1;
  const unsigned short CLOSED = 2;
  readonly attribute int readyState;

  // networking
  attribute EventListener onopen;

  attribute EventListener onmessage;
  attribute EventListener onclosed;
  void postMessage(in DOMString data);
  void disconnect();
};

Beyond a few simple methods, gateway configuration simply requires that you point Kaazing Open Gateway at the service you intend to expose to the web. Check out our online tutorials to see how easy it is to connect to a JMS services via JavaScript and Adobe Flex.

Scale More, Spend Less

Comet- or push-style applications don't have to put a drain on your hardware budget. With the right architecture, Comet- or push-style applications can deliver amazing performance and support tens of thousands of users on commodity hardware.

Stop Polling And Start Streaming

Polling and Long-polling have long been popular methods of delivering pseudo real-time updates to end-users. Stop pushing your servers to the limit with needless requests and start delivering content to your users more quickly, and more efficiently.

Protect Your Investments With Standards

Comet- and AJAX-style development techniques introduced the concept of real-time updates and asynchronous programming to the Web, which in turn has enabled the amazing variety of RIA and Web 2.0 applications available today. However, neither Comet nor AJAX accomplishes this feat in such a way that is easily reproduced. In short, Comet and AJAX are non-standard requiring developers to re-work the wheel at the start of each project.

Luckily, Kaazing Open Gateway provides an enterprise grade implementation of the communications section of the HTML 5 specification, which defines a set of standards, namely Web Sockets and Server-sent Events, for interacting with remote services. By building on standards today, your development teams will take the guess work out of building the communications backbone for your company's RIAs and more importantly your efforts today will be future-proofed for tomorrow.

Extend Your Reach

Exposing data-services from behind the corporate firewall to the Web is time intensive and requires custom development, which is expensive. Kaazing Open Gateway provides a simple alternative that allows existing services to connect to the browser directly, eliminating the need to rely heavy weight middleware solutions to stream data to Web-based clients. With Kaazing Open Gateway you will shorten your time to mark and cut development costs along the way.

Integrate Anywhere

The flexibility of Kaazing Open Gateway's developer APIs allows any existing protocol to be adapt for use on the Web. Kaazing Open Gateway ships with a number of protocol implementations, including protocols such as STOMP, which allows seamless integration with popular implementations of JMS such as Apache ActiveMQ.

The ability to adapt any protocol to the Web, means that no services' reach is limited by your company's firewall.

Consolidate

Let's face it, RIA development today touches a number of technologies, most notably JavaScript/DHTML, Adobe Flash/Flex, and MS Silverlight. Each of these respective client-side technologies must do one common task: communicate with your enterprise services. So, why maintain multiple channels to do so? With Kaazing Enterprise Gateway all of your RIAs can leverage a single API to communicate with your services.