DreamFace Interactions

A major feature introduced in Build #102, together with new repository options and richer Persona profiles and preferences management, is a dynamic DataSource component called Providers.

While DataSources are mostly used to wrapup static sources of data for DreamFace Interactive mashups, for instance a given RSS feed or the result set of a query against a corporate database, Providers encapsulate dynamic control of such sources. A generic RSS feed reader, for instance, is now a Provider in the DreamFace Interactive Framework. (Actually RSS/Atom feed readers being so ubiquitous in social Web applications, a full-fledged RSS/Atom Provider is already provided in Build #102.) Another example is a POP3 Provider, also provided in Build #102, to access email.

A Provider runs on the DreamFace Interactive Framework proxy which intermediates access to DataSources. It operates in a triple context:

• The WebProgram Context which unfolds with its ongoing execution;
• The Persona Context which is now augmented with Preferences (e.g. on DataViews and Screens)
• The DataViewParameters of the DataView originally calling the Provider for data to be displayed and interacted upon.

Providers leverage information contained in this generalized context to return the appropriate data to the calling DataView. For instance, the POP3 Provider uses the user name and pasword in the Preferences Context to login to a mail server.

A programmer can readily add new Providers to the prebuilt components in the DreamFace Interactive Framework simply by dropping an appropriate Java class in the proxy directory. Extending the Framework with specific or generic dynamic data sources has never been so easy!