Playing around with the SSGD API (Part 1: Introduction)

Sun Secure Global Desktop has a Web based Application Programming Interface (API). This API can be used to interact with the SSGD server from within a browser (by creating for instance JSP-files) or by creating a piece of java code to communicate with the SSGD server over http(s).

This opens up a lot of extra possibilities besides the already feature rich SSGD webtop, the web based Administration GUI and the other default options (like the Integrated Mode, Automatic Client Login). A few examples of features to be created using the API:

• A search page in the webtop; Let the user search for applications based on application name. might be handy if the user is presented with lots of applications.
• Remote Administration; Create applications objects from other systems (like Sun Identity Manager), create delegated administration.
• Create a webtop alike alternative without using a browser; With some java programming it is possible to re-create something with the same options as the webtop without use of a browser.
• Create a SSGD Health check; Most external hardware Load Balancer are able to check a specific webpage to verify the correct workings of the website besides the mostly used 'HTTP 200 OK' / Default HTTP check. The new health check can for instance perform the 'Tarantella status' command to enhance the health check by verifying the SSGD server is working normally.

It is my intention to explain how to work with the SSGD API in the next couple of blog posts. For the readers who do not want to wait and start playing with the API take a look at the Sun Wiki: Web Services Home Page.

Part 2 of this blog post serie will be about the API-test pages which are installed during the installation of Sun Secure Global Desktop.