[INUG-Users] An open source web based user interface for Netcool

[Berkay Mollamustafaoglu]

Greetings,

Over the years we've worked on creating web based user interfaces for
various management products. Web UIs (read ajax, RIA, flash/flex, etc.) have
come a long way last couple of years, making it possible to create rich user
interfaces using native browser capabilities. We have been experimenting
with different technologies/toolkits and learning what works and what does
not along the way. If you have worked on creating/using custom UIs for
management tools like Netcool, you may be familiar with the challenges
involved!

We had dipped our toes into creating a web based UI for Netcool in the past,
by modifying one of products called RapidInsight, to see what can be done.
Some parts worked well, others did not. The latest reincarnation of
RapidInsight is a complete rewrite, developed as an open source project.
It's our attempt to develop a better solution, taking advantage of what
we've learned as well as the collective know-how and experience of the
practitioners in this field.

There has been several threads in the past on alternative web based UIs for
Netcool. There seems to be number of people who are not satisfied with the
available options, and most people don't want to develop and maintain custom
applications themselves, unless they have to. I hope that open source
RapidInsight project can provide an alternative where the collective
experience of the community can be harvested to develop solutions for the
community and lift some of the burden of developing a custom solutions
in-house. At the very least, it can serve as good reference for people who
may develop their own solutions as the source code is available and includes
solutions to number of commonly faced obstacles.

Some RapidInsight highlights:
- server side is java/groovy (sorry Jacob! :) with no external dependencies
other than JRE.
- client is javascript (ajax), though upcoming dynamic charts/maps support
will make use of flash (Cross browser chart/graph support with ajax is still
not good enough)
- events are searchable via google like search keywords. UI is designed to
make it easy to create and save searches (filters) by clicking on available
links etc.
- works well large number of events (100K+)
- the data (events etc.) from the server is exposed as simple web service
(XML/JSON over HTTP) which makes it possible to develop alternative clients
in any language and integrate with other applications, portals, etc.
- read-write UI. Users can take actions on events, execute scripts on the
server, etc.
- it can be used to access historical events as well as active events, since
events are not stored in memory.

Latest RapidInsight release is tagged as v0.6 and we're looking for feedback
before we push for the 1.0 release. Anyone who'd like to participate in the
project is more than welcome.

Further information can be found at the project website
http://www.ifountain.org/confluence/display/RI4NC/RapidInsight+for+Netcool
A short screencast is available to take a peek at what's available as of now
(via the above link). There is also a live demo (with bogus data) if you
want to play around with the UI yourself.

Please feel free to get in touch directly for any questions/comments etc.


Regards,
Berkay Mollamustafaoglu
http://www.ifountain.com
Mobile: + 1 703 349 0538
mberkay on yahoo, google and skype