Zembly
Encyclopedia
Zembly was a browser-based development environment from Sun Microsystems
that enabled social programming
of applications for Facebook
, Meebo
, OpenSocial
, iPhone web applications, and other social platforms, as well as web widgets. Users of zembly interacted with one another via zembly's social networking features to engage in co-development of applications for these platforms.
In addition to the development environment, the zembly platform, provided the ability to consume Web APIs (RESTful web services) in zembly applications as well as externally using the open source zembly client library (with language bindings for Java
and JavaFx
). This functionality provided a consistent programming model across various API providers.
Zembly combined features from traditional IDE
s (such as a rich scripting editor) with wiki- and social-networking-based technologies to attempt to innovate on the application development paradigm for smaller-sized applications. Applications created at zembly were automatically and transparently deployed, hosted, and scaled on its underlying cloud computing
infrastructure.
's cloud computing organization, with the hosting of the website and developer applications provided by Network.com's compute cloud. It was built on a stack consisting largely of Sun technologies, including Solaris 10, Java
, the GlassFish
application server, and MySQL
. The software stack ran on a horizontally scaled cluster of Sun Fire
T2000 ("Niagara") and X4500 ("Thumper") servers. In addition, zembly used Apache
and memcached
. Zembly had also incorporated (and contributed to) Mozilla Bespin
.
Some Zembly developers have expressed frustration about Zembly abandoning them without even open-sourcing their code.
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
that enabled social programming
of applications for Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Meebo
Meebo
Meebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and...
, OpenSocial
OpenSocial
OpenSocial is a set of common application programming interfaces for web-based social network applications, developed by Google along with MySpace and a number of other social networks.It was released November 1, 2007....
, iPhone web applications, and other social platforms, as well as web widgets. Users of zembly interacted with one another via zembly's social networking features to engage in co-development of applications for these platforms.
In addition to the development environment, the zembly platform, provided the ability to consume Web APIs (RESTful web services) in zembly applications as well as externally using the open source zembly client library (with language bindings for Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
and JavaFx
JavaFX
JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications that can run across a wide variety of connected devices....
). This functionality provided a consistent programming model across various API providers.
Zembly combined features from traditional IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
s (such as a rich scripting editor) with wiki- and social-networking-based technologies to attempt to innovate on the application development paradigm for smaller-sized applications. Applications created at zembly were automatically and transparently deployed, hosted, and scaled on its underlying cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
infrastructure.
Architecture
Zembly was run as a product within Sun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
's cloud computing organization, with the hosting of the website and developer applications provided by Network.com's compute cloud. It was built on a stack consisting largely of Sun technologies, including Solaris 10, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, the GlassFish
GlassFish
GlassFish is an open source application server project started by Sun Microsystems for the Java EE platform and now sponsored by Oracle Corporation. The supported version is called Oracle GlassFish Server...
application server, and MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
. The software stack ran on a horizontally scaled cluster of Sun Fire
Sun Fire
The Sun Fire server brand is a series of server computers introduced in 2001 by Sun Microsystems . The Sun Fire branding coincided with the introduction of the UltraSPARC III processor, superseding the UltraSPARC II-based Sun Enterprise series...
T2000 ("Niagara") and X4500 ("Thumper") servers. In addition, zembly used Apache
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
and memcached
Memcached
In computing, memcached is a general-purpose distributed memory caching system that was originally developed by Danga Interactive for LiveJournal, but is now used by many other sites. It is often used to speed up dynamic database-driven websites by caching data and objects in RAM to reduce the...
. Zembly had also incorporated (and contributed to) Mozilla Bespin
Mozilla Bespin
Mozilla Skywriter was a Mozilla Labs project aiming to create an open, extensible, and interoperable web-based framework for code editing.As of January 2011, it has been merged into Ajax.org's Ace and Cloud9 IDE projects.- Name :...
.
Closure
In November 2009 zembly announced that the site would be closed on 2009-11-30 and that "once the site is shutdown, all your applications and services on zembly will be unavailable".Some Zembly developers have expressed frustration about Zembly abandoning them without even open-sourcing their code.
Further reading
- Anderson, Gail; Anderson, Paul; Fast, Todd; Webster, Chris (December 29, 2008). Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-714431-0. . Assemble the Social Web with zembly.