Creating Mashups in Wires

Add a Mashup or Mashable as an Information Source

Add a Web Information Source with DirectInvoke

Add a Mashup or Mashable in a Loop

Preview Results

Stop Running a Block

Add Actions or Other Blocks

Select Fields or Paths for Block Properties with the Path Selector

Use MashZone NextGen Global or User Attributes in Block Properties

Changing Mashup Input Parameter Names

Add If/Else Conditions

Add HTTP Headers to a Mashup

Advanced Properties: Controlling Blocks

Connect Mashup Blocks

Advanced Updates with the Output Block

Symbols to Escape in Block Properties

Date and Time Formats, Math and Sorting in Wires

You create mashups in Wires using blocks in a canvas that represent the data sources and actions to apply to data. You connect blocks with wires to determine how mashup processing should proceed.

1. Select DATA SOURCES > Wires in the MashZone NextGen Hub main menu.

Wires opens with a canvas containing an

Output block. This required block represents the results of the mashup.

2. Drag blocks from the menus into the design canvas for the information sources and actions to create the mashup result. See:

Add a Mashup or Mashable as an Information Source,Add a Mashup or Mashable in a Loop or Add a Web Information Source with DirectInvoke for instructions on adding information sources.

Add Actions or Other Blocks for links to all the built-in actions to select, combine or transform information.

Select Fields or Paths for Block Properties with the Path Selector to provide dynamic values, if needed.

Preview Resultsat any step in the mashup or for the mashup itself.

It is a good practice to run each block to preview results asyou build your mashup. You can also Stop Running a Blockif problems occur with preview.

You can also change block labels to make your mashup more readable. Simply double-click in the label and make your change.

3. Connect Mashup Blocks to determine how information is processed.

4. Once you have the result you want, connect that block to the

Output block. If needed, you can Quickly Set All Inputs for the Mashup, Change the Mashup Result Character Encoding or Add HTTP Headers to a Mashup from

Output.

5. Click Save and:

a. Enter a Name for the mashup.

MashZone NextGen uses the mashup name to assign a unique identifier to the mashup. Mashup names can contain characters from the character sets supported by theMashZone NextGen repository, numbers, spaces, tabs, line ends and these common symbols: _ ~ - * ' .

b. Enter or select optional information including:

A description of the purpose of this mashup.

The name of the information provider to assign to this mashup.

Tags for this mashup.

A category for this mashup.

c. Click OK.

When you save a mashup, Wires automatically turns the mashup status to ON unless either:

One or more blocks are not fully configured.

Results from the final action are not connected to the Output block.

You can use the On|Off button in Wires to manually manage the mashup’s status.

When the mashup status is OFF, you can continue editing and refining the mashup. But no one can add views, take snapshots, create apps or use the your mashup in a workspace until the status is ON, also sometimes called publishing the mashup.

Once the mashup is on, you or MashZone NextGen administrators must do the following to allow other users to work with it or allow it to be used in apps or workspaces:

Add views for this mashup in the mashup's artifact page. See Open the Mashup Artifact Page to Create Apps, Add Views or Take Snapshots for more information.

Assign permissions to determine who can use this mashup. See Grant Permission to Run Mashables, Mashups and Apps for more information.