Grau DataSpace 2.2

I think it is time to write something about the current edition of GDS 2.2. A lot has been changed since my last post. Version 2.2 comes with a new design of the web UI. I think it is much easier to use than the first edition.

We removed the toolbar and moved the complete functionality into conext menues. A quota bar shows the available disk space.

An inline preview is created for many common file formats.

We added the possibility to define roles, global and private groups of users by a data space admin. Desktop sync clients are available for Windows, Linux and MacOSX. They are based on the CMIS protocol which gives us interoperability options with SharePoint, IBM Connections and major DMS systems.

The native clients for iOS and Android are also using the CMIS interface.

All our clients are released under an Open Source license to be able to modify them and adapt them to special requirements. The source is available on GitHub (http://github.com/opendataspace) 

GRAU DataSpace goes mobile with HTML5

The ownCloud gateway of GDS works well now with all existing clients (Android, iOS, desktop). The chunked upload feature took some time to implement as we had to implement a session management of our own to stay WebDAV compliant in the backend. Hope that the mirall client will support chunking in a compatible way.

The current development focus of the team are some admin APIs and admin frontends for the GDS. We are thinking of implementing a JSON based CLI aswell.

The CMIS gateway gets a reimplementation based on the JSON APIs of the backend. I hope to see more CMIS ready clients in the near future.

Mobile users might be interested in our upcoming Sencha Touch based mobile clients. The client works on all HTML5 enabled smart phones and tablets. We implemented a preview functionality for about 50 different file format. You can browse the content without downloading the file.

Here you get an impression of the HTML5 touch client:

First impressions of the new GDS2 webgui

Here you see the first screenshots of the new GUI of GDS2. It is based on extjs from (www.sencha.com) using the JSON API of the GDS.

GDS2 gets connected via OwnCloud Clients

The GDS2 gateway for ownCloud is making progress. We can connect the Android version of ownCloud sucessfully to our GDS2 backend. The client works well. OwnCloud uses WebDAV for all its operations. The initialization starts with a http-get request (http:///status.php) which gets filtered by our gateway before the WebDAV module gets connected. The gateway is a stand alone module and should work well with other WebDAV servers.

UPDATE (27.2.13): the iPhone client works also now. The XML parser obviously does not support name spaces. Perhaps one of the ownCloud developers knows why. We are fixing this problem in the gateway.

 The desktop clients connects as well. The content type problem was fixed in the GDS2 gateway. It was not necessary to patch any client.

 Now we will have to do some intensive tests to get ready for our demonstration at CeBIT. Visit us at booth F16 (214) in hall 6.

WebDAV Interoperability

Even the future of the WebDAV standard might be quite unclear it is still used be several hosters and cloud software stacks like ownCloud, SSP Data Space or GRAU DATA SPACE. Many clients have interoperability problems with some servers. Therefore I will test several clients with the new GDS2 and report about interoperability problems.

At first I checked the sever with the litmus interoperability suite. Here you see the results:

The GDS2 WebDAV implementation passed 12 of 16 test. Please let me know your experiences with your favourite WebDAV server. Current Windows clients (Win7) and MacOSX are reported to work without any problems.

I am a Linux user, so I will put my focus on Linux clients:

Nautilus

Nautilus (3.4.2 - gvfs 1.14) connects without any problem to the GDS2. There are obviously some problems with UTF-8 as the litmus test already told us:

Dolphin

Dolphin also connects without problems. It obviously has no problems with the UTF-8 implementation of GDS2 but it does not display the modification date of the files on the server:

Libre Office 4

The brand new libreoffce version 4 includes a webdav and a CMIS client implementation. Browsing the server worked as expected:

Storing an existing file works, creating a new one produces an error:

BBBJAM / GDS2 / WebDAV / ownCloud

Blackberry is back! Definitely! More than 1000 developers are joining the event. here in Amsterdam. I met George Staikos, the guy behind the most compliant browser on this planet. Gary Klassen,the inventor of the famous Blackberry Messenger (BBM), was joining the social event. We had a fruitful discussion on bringing more open source to the BB10 platform.

During the conference I got a new video from the developers of GRAU DATA SPACE 2 web GUI:

Nicolas Vivien helped us yesterday night to debug the current WebDAV implementation of GDS2. You can browse the GDS2 with PlayCloud now. Julian Reschke gave me a link to Litmus, a useful WebDAV compliance suite. Hope I can publish some results of several WebDAV compliance tests soon.

The developer of the ownCloud gateway reported that he is able to connect with the Android client successfully to the GDS2 backend.

New slide deck for GDS2 - Blackberry client

Over the weekend I prepared two new slide decks describing the new architecture of GDS2. You find them on slideshare:

• GRAU DATA SPACE 2 - english
• GRAU DATA SPACE 2 - german

I had some discussions with Nicolas Vivien. He is the guy behind PlayCloud, a cloud connected file manager for the Playbook and the BB10 platform. He supports already several cloud services.  GDS2 provides a JSON API for accessing the complete functionality of the backend. I hope he has the time to implement a GDS2 connector.

Another option is Ekkes app for BB10. It currently supports only the API of SSPs Secure Data Space. It it licensed under an Apache license. Hope we find someone who adds a JSON backend for GDS2.

We have a liftoff... and a video...

The implementation of the new GUI of the GDS2 has started! We are using extjs (www.sencha.com) on the client side, calling the GDS2 native JSON API on the server side. Hope you like our new layout:

On the right sight you see our preview pane. We will be able to display more than 50 different file formats.

Yesterday the guys from BoxCryptor fixed an interoperability issue in their clients. You will be able to encrypt your files before upload in the next release.

The owncloud interoperability gateway is making some progress also. 

The first release of GDS2 will be available at CeBIT in March.

UPDATE: Video says more than a picture...

Cloud attached GDS2

The new GDS2 architecture allows a distributed setup and an master/master replication between several locations.

Small companies might consider a cloud attached setup to get a certain level of redundancy of their data. Another reason might be to get better access performance and a higher security level via a centralized data center. The centralized instance might work as distribution hub for several distributed site. Deutsche Wolke offers this kind of services in the bunker data center of COMback.

UPDATE: After some brainstorming in Stuttgart last week, we are planning to shrink the footprint of the GDS2 core to fit into an ARM based appliance. The result will be a Data Space in a Box. The replication feature helps us to attach this box to the cloud or to other branch offices. Please contact me if you are interested in bundling the GDS2 with your hardware.

Distributed Data Space (GDS2)

The new core of the GRAU DATA SPACE (GDS2) is able to synchronize several distributed instances by master/master replication based on https. The versioning capability for each object guaranties that no data gets lots during the sync process.

A distributed data space might be interesting for organizations with several sites or partner companies who are interested in sharing data. Local desktop clients can be connected to the GDS2 by CIFS. Smaller sites do not have the need of an local windows file sever or NAS anymore. All other access methods (web, mobile, synced desktop) of the GDS will be available in this distributed setup as well.

Each object of the new GDS2 will have a minimum set of attributes which makes it possible to identify the object globaly:

• UUID of the object (RFC 4122)
• Hash (SHA-1)
• Creation time stamp
• Last modified time stamp
• UUID of the creator
• UUID of the user who did the last modification

With this minimal meta data set it should be possible to distribute the objects via CDNs. Further useful attributes might be:

• Origin URL (if the object comes from a website or file server)
• Geo location of creation (for photos)
• UUID of parent object (for folder structures)

GDS2 with FSA integration

GRAU DATA developed a software called file server archiver (FSA). The FSA automatically analyzes data from files servers according to predefined parameters. Inactive and/or seldom-used files are then automatically transferred to any desired NAS storage or archive system or object stores. The user can access the relocated data whenever desired. FSA software completes the concept of hierarchical storage management in heterogeneous networks.

With the new architecture we will integrate the FSA functionality with GDS2. The user will be able to view/access/recall all files which are replicated from a file server to the object store in the web gui of GDS2. The integration between FSA and the core of GDS2 will be achieved by an ESB which get a message when the FSA has written an object to the object store. GDS2 will update the meta data and handle the file like an internal object. The user now can decide whether the object will be restored on the original file server location or he can access it through the GDS2 clients (web, desktop, mobile).

With this solution we will be to eliminate the need of a file server backup. The user can access multiple versions of the original file. The costs for the backup infrastructure will be reduced (software and administration).

GDS2 (GRAU DATA SPACE 2)

GRAU DATA is working on a next generation data space product which will provide a lot of new features:

• more interactive web gui based on extjs
• focus on CMIS 1.1, including JSON API
• more scalability by separating metadata from (file) objects
• adding more backend storage options (object store, relational data bases, CIFS)
• fulltext search
• versioning
• server to server replication

The new architecture will look like this:

 
GRAU also thinks about an interoperability gateway for ownCloud clients. OwnCloud uses a WebDAV based portocol (with a simple extension at connect time) which should be quite easy to support.

GRAU DATA has opened a new group on Facebook to stay in contact with the user community. Feel free to join! (www.facebook.com/groups/graudata)