This is the panel where the operators, services and renderers can be dragged and dropped to it. All of them have the same structure when are dropped to this panel. They are represented in the panel as a form with some fields, this is the input of the operator. Submitting the form, the result of the operator is shown in the below part of the form (output displayer). In the next figure is shown the form that the user has to complete to display the data into a map of Google Maps.

Panel configuration of the Google Maps renderer

The dialog panel also has a element that represent the output, in this case is called “googlemapsmaker”. This output element has the property that can be dragged and dropped in any input field of other operator, service or renderer depending of the case. The output of this element is combined with the input of other ones and thus the different elements pass the information to one to another making possible to build the mashup. This panel has a tool bar, which performs actions over the process. A process is the configuration of a mashup in which is developed the flow of the mashup from the data information providers (services) to the renders.

Actions panel tool bar

The tool bar has the following buttons:

• New: pressing this button a new process is created.
• Open: this option opens a process from local disk.
• Save: for saving a process to local disk.

Publish menu

• Publish: in this menu appears the exportation next exportation options.
  • Publish as JavaScript
  • Publish as HTML
  • Publish as Google Gadget
  • Publish as Netvibes Gadget

The tool provides exportation to Google Gadget and Netvibes Gadget, the full code needed for the mashup is provided by the application. This is the result when the mashup is displayed in Netvibes Web Page.

A mashup developed with the application in Netvibes site

• Test: the mashup is directly tested in a external window of the web browser when the user press this button.

Input parameters

MyCocktail allows to take input parameters to interact with the mashup, these parameters will be retrieved from URL when the mashup is exported. This can be useful if the user want to change the data source of the mashups without change the way in which the mashup is displayed. For instance, these parameter can be used to filter the data source, to make a search or to configure some aspect of the mashup. Below the toolbar is the name of the actual process, if it is not saved the name is “(new process)” and below there is a panel with the list of input parameters defined in the process. The input parameters are parameters which can be used in the forms of the operators and when the mashup is exported this parameters are retrieved from the URL of the page in which they are inserted. The addition of a parameter is possible through the button “Add New Param” (see next illustration).

MyCocktail – “Add New Param” button

Once the user has pressed this button a dialog appears to define the parameter name, the data type and its default value.

Panel to introduce an input parameter

As said before, when the mashup is inserted in a page, the parameters are taken from the URL. Taking account the example of the last illustration, to pass an argument to the mashup should be done in this way: http://mypage?projectName=MyProject: if the page where is inserted the mashup is “http//mypage”, the value for projectName parameter will be “MyProject” and if any URL parameter with this name is specified the parameter takes the default value. When the mashup is exported as Netvibes Gadget the value of the parameter should be filled from the parameters of the widget. In the next sample (Illustration 9) is shown a mashup created with MyCocktail in Netvibes web site, pressing “Edit” in the top right of the widget appears a small form to fill the parameters of the widget. This configuration has been set by MyCocktail when the mashup was exported taking into account the input parameters of the mashup.

Mashup created with MyCocktail in Netvibes web site