FAQ

Page Status: Beta

Participating in the Bungee Connect Beta Program

I want to try out Bungee Connect. How do I do this?
When will Bungee Connect be out of Beta?
Do I require training before I can use Bungee Connect?

Learning More about Bungee Connect

I'm already using Bungee Connect and would like more information on how to get the most out of it. How do I do this?
How does Bungee Connect stack up against alternatives?
It's not on my machine? I am concerned about not controlling the environment.
What do I give up or exchange because Bungee Connect is 100% hosted, and requires No Fee for developers?
How much does Bungee Connect cost?
What technology enables Bungee Connect to be so interactive?

Creating Highly-Interactive User Experiences Via Bungee-Powered Applications

How do you work and co-exist with my existing tools?
Do I have to compile or upload applications built with Bungee?
Bungee Connect has a proprietary language—why should I spend time learning it?
Can I extend Bungee Connect and add new functionality?
How can I extend Bungee Pulse controls with my own Ajax controls?
Can I use different or prior versions of Bungee Connect software (i.e., the development environment and the library of components, and applications)?
Will my application break if you make updates to Bungee Connect?
If there are different versions of a Bungee Connect release, how can I make sure that my components that I have developed and placed in Bungee Share will work in the future?
Will my project be corrupted if I am developing an application as you roll out a new release?
What protection do you provide to runtime data and application corruption?
What about "off-line"?

Interacting with Web Services

What types of services can I use in a Bungee-powered application (SOAP, REST, XML, etc)?
What services can be used in Bungee Connect? I have created my own service, can I use it with Bungee Connect?
What if the service requires authentication or an API key, do I need to register with the service provider?
Some web services charge for access, either in transactions or some other method. Who pays the service provider?
Can I create a service from a Bungee-powered application?
Is there native support for JSON in Bungee?
I'd like Bungee Developers to use my (or my company's) web service. Do you have a listing somewhere?
My business (or I) has web services we'd like to use in the applications built using Bungee Connect. Do I need to register with you?

Collaborating with Your Development Team Members

Can I work with other members of my team using Bungee?
Can I install Bungee Connect behind the firewall for my development team?
What mechanisms do you provide to help developers with revision control and regression prevention?

Reusing Components via the Bungee Share

Can I publish applications or components to Bungee Share?
How is the integrity of Bungee Share confirmed and ensured (i.e., virus)?

Testing a Bungee-Powered Application

What testing/debugging support does Bungee Connect provide?
I think I found a bug in Bungee Connect. How do I report the bug?
I'd like to suggest some improvements? How do I do this?

Deploying Bungee-Powered Applications at Bungee Connect

Can I make my Bungee-powered application "live" during the Beta phase, and is there a fee for doing so?
Once I've deployed my Bungee-powered application, how can my users get to my application?
Will my end-users have to install anything to run my Bungee-powered application?
What about search engine indexing, can my app's content be indexed by Google and other search engines?
What about analytics within my application—how do I add this functionality?
What up-time assurance do you provide? What SLA levels do you provide for developers?
What about performance and geographical coverage?
What about peak scalability or Application/Site surges?
How can I estimate what my Bungee Utility bill could be?
Can limits be put on a Bungee-powered Application to contain or help contain a Bungee Utility bill?
Who pays for a deployed application?
Can I charge users for access to my Bungee-powered application?

Accessing Technical Support for Bungee Connect

What support do you provide for application development?
What support do you provide for deployed applications?

Understanding the Security of Bungee Connect

How secure is Bungee?
What about my data? Is it secure? Is it private while I/we work?
What about security and privacy of company, transaction, and customer info?

Exporting from or Leaving Bungee Connect

What about exporting my work to another system? I don't want to be locked in.
Who owns the IP for applications I build on Bungee?
What if Bungee Labs goes bankrupt?
How do I cut and run?

Finding Answers Beyond this FAQ

My question hasn't been answered here. How can I get an answer to a question I have?

Participating in the Bungee Connect Beta Program

 

Q: I want to try out Bungee Connect. How do I do this?


A: At this time, we are providing an Early-Access Bungee Connect Beta program. Details are provided at www.bungeeconnect.com.

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Q: When will Bungee Connect be out of Beta?


A: Our Early-Access Beta program started in late May 2007.

At first, we invited as many developers to participate as we could handle on an interaction level—we wanted to make sure that our ability to provide a timely response to feedback was not outpaced by our desire to expand the total number of individual developers that participate in the program. Once all those that pre-registered for the program have been given the opportunity to get up and running on Bungee Connect, we plan to open the beta program to anyone that registers through bungeeconnect.com.

We plan to inform our Developer Community approximately four (4) weeks in advance of when we plan to update our datacenters with the General Availability version of Bungee Connect. This will most likely occur in the second half of 2008.

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Q: Do I require training before I can use Bungee Connect?


A: Once you have a login account to Bungee Connect, you can start using Bungee Connect right away. Once logged in, we recommend you work the tutorials and video content in "Getting Started with Bungee Connect" to quickly and easily developing and make live, rich web applications.

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Learning More about Bungee Connect

 

Q: I'm already using Bungee Connect and would like more information on how to get the most out of it. How do I do this?

 

  1. Once logged in, we recommend you work the tutorials and video content in "Getting Started with Bungee Connect" to quickly and easily developing and make live, rich web applications.
  2. Go to the Bungee Developers' forum where you can interact with our engineers and fellow Bungee Developers.
  3. Visit the Bungee Connect Developer Network (BCDN) page for latest updates on events, new learning content and developer news.


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Q: How does Bungee Connect stack up against alternatives?


A: There are several ways to define competition. We define it as any reasonable alternative a potential customer (developer) could and would consider. To our knowledge, there is no direct alternative to Bungee Connect for providing a professional-class, end-to-end environment for creating, managing, updating, and delivering rich web service based applications.

Looking at alternatives developers could consider, several categories of alternatives exists:

  1. Traditional professional-class IDE's, Commercially licensed or Open Source
  2. Extensible Vertical Application API's and Toolkits
  3. Ajax Interaction Frameworks and Toolkits
  4. Postpone developing a rich, interactive web application, and stay with static web-pages and limited dynamic content


None of the above address the collective major complexities of, i) web service access and integration, ii) automated web applications state management, iii) automation of integrated multi-browser Ajax interactivity, and iv) instant deployment and end-user delivery. All require additional technologies and providers to create an entire functioning solution that addresses the full lifecycle of rich web applications.

When compared with alternatives from each category above, Bungee Connect provides a highly competitive core capability set.

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Q: It's not on my machine? I am concerned about not controlling the environment.


A: Bungee Connect is a 100% web-based application environment. The benefits, leverage, and efficiencies for developers come from the on-demand, multi-tenant, hosted infrastructure and, in the future, the live Bungee Share. Each developer needs to evaluate the trade-offs of level of control, customization, and capability against the logistics, costs, focus, expertise, and time required under the different alternatives, including on-premise software. We believe that for most rich, highly interactive web-based and web services-based applications, the benefits of using Bungee Connect are very substantial.

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Q: What do I give up or exchange because Bungee Connect is 100% hosted, and requires No Fee for developers?


A: Use of Bungee Connect to develop software components and applications is provided to Bungee Developers at no fee. Anyone who registers and agrees to the Bungee Labs Developer License Agreement may use Bungee Connect for no fee.

Each developer has individual control of how public or private his/her work is. For example, by including other developers in a "DesignGroup," software developed within that DesignGroup is accessible among its members via Bungee's check-in/check-out control capability.

In the future, developers may choose to contribute ("publish") components and applications to the Bungee Share. Bungee Share components and applications are accessible, usable, and modifiable by registered developers.

Once a Bungee-powered application is completed and ready for End-User use, the application deployment registration process is initiated within Bungee. This process defines the financial billing relationship between Bungee and the application deployer.

In reality, developers give up isolation based on geographical separation, since members of a DesignGroup are not limited by physical locality. Developers also give up the need to install and maintain on-premise development systems and application hosting infrastructure and the fixed costs that these incur, independent of the level of actual end user application uptake and use.

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Q: How much does Bungee Connect cost?


A: Bungee Labs collects no fees during the entire development process—developers can freely access, develop, test, and even conduct on-line focus groups and beta programs for Bungee-powered applications.

Bungee Labs collects fees when Bungee-powered applications are unrestricted or commercially used. These fees, billed monthly, are based on highly instrumented infrastructure and utility computations that combine computing, storage and network interaction. The aggregate utility rate is expected to be US$1 per computer-network-interaction-hour. For example, typical commercial business applications are expected to consume between one and five interaction hours per user per month, depending on usage and each application's run-time combination of web service access, application processing, and browser interactivity.

All application utility billing by Bungee Labs starts when a Bungee-powered application is used by an End-User after deployment, and billing stops at the time when a Bungee-powered application is "removed" from End-User use.

A Bungee-CPU-Network-Interaction-Hour is an aggregated consumption measurement unit combining CPU time used, network bandwidth, transport time use and Pulse interaction commands transmitted between the End-User browser and Bungee Grid.

Each interaction between the End-User browser and Bungee Grid is monitored and logged. No personal or private information is logged through this process. The specific type of information logged on a system interaction basis can be found here.

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Q: What up-time assurance do you provide? What SLA levels do you provide for developers?


A: Bungee is a "Early-Access Beta" level service environment. So far, we have experienced high availability of our services; >99%. Currently, Bungee Labs does not provide a specifically quantified Service Level Agreement. We designed and implemented Bungee Connect with 24/7/365 availability as a top priority and business imperative. Additionally, we selected well known established business partners who have significant experience and success in providing high quality and high availability hosting, storage, and network connectivity.

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Q: What about performance and geographical coverage?


A: Bungee Labs is first focused in North America and Western Europe. In these regions, Bungee operates three datacenters (New York, Denver, and London), which host Bungee as well as all Bungee-powered applications. These hosting centers are co-located within secure high-performance application and network hosting centers operated by ViaWest and Level 3 affiliates.

To ensure high performance and high availability network delivery performance, we have established a business relationship with Akamai under Akamai's Web Application Acceleration capability that ensures: a) efficient edge caching of Bungee's Pulse software and graphical images used by Bungee-powered applications and sites and b) efficient transport of Bungee's Pulse network traffic between the network edge and Bungee's datacenters, and c) efficient, reliable, and secure transport of web service information requested and updated by Bungee-powered applications between web service sources and Bungee datacenters.

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Q: What about peak scalability or Application/Site surges?


A: Bungee Labs is first focused in North America and Western Europe. In these regions, Bungee Labs operates in three datacenters (New York, Denver, and London), which host Bungee Connect as well as all Bungee-powered applications. These hosting centers are co-located within secure high-performance application and network hosting centers operated by ViaWest and Level 3 affiliates.

Additionally, we have entered into a beta-test agreement with Amazon to evaluate and test Amazon's Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) to extend Bungee Grid. Our intended plan is to use Amazon EC2 when Bungee Grid (within its three operating datacenters) reaches set load thresholds and then use Amazon EC2 servers to provide needed on-demand computing resources for traffic spikes and sustained surges.

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Q: How can I estimate what my Bungee Utility bill could be?


A: Bungee Connect provides a deployed application console within the Staging tab of Bungee Builder. This console provides specifically authorized individuals with control over, and access to, information about their deployed Bungee-powered applications, including, but not limited to: total application sessions to date, current running application sessions, peak concurrent sessions to date, unique users to date, and total Bungee Units to date. This information should assist deployers of Bungee-powered applications to estimate the usage and expected billing from Bungee for the current billing period. We envision improving the information and control console provided in the Staging tab within Bungee Builder based on our roadmap for GA, and direct input from developers.

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Q: Can limits be put on a Bungee-powered Application to contain or help contain a Bungee Utility bill?


A: Bungee Connect will provide a deployed application console within the Staging tab of Bungee Builder. This console provides specifically authorized individuals with access to information and control over their deployed Bungee-powered applications including, but not limited to: publish new application, update/replace application version, add application version, remove application version, suspend application access, and resume application access.

In the future, via the application console with the Staging tab, email notifications to authorized individuals may be enabled when selected monitored information reaches specified thresholds. The combination of monitored information, event notification, and application publishing and access control provides application publishers with basic controls that resultantly may contain and help manage Bungee Utility Billing implications. We envision improving the information and control console provided in the Staging tab based on our roadmap, as well as direct input from developers.

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Creating Highly-Interactive User Experiences Via Bungee-Powered Applications

 

Q: What technology enables Bungee Connect to be so interactive?


A: Bungee Connect is very interactive due to the combination of Bungee Grid and [htt[://www.bungeeconnect.com/?bl_link=pulse Bungee Pulse]. The interactive Bungee Pulse coordination system is the combination of a very thin client-side Ajax implementation, a comprehensive server-side sub-system within Bungee Grid runtime servers, and an intelligent interaction protocol that enables continuous application state management and fluid interactivity with IE, Firefox and Safari (Webkit). Pulse optimizes both client interaction requests and server responses. Bungee Labs has invested significant engineering to optimizing network efficiency as well as interactive performance within the browser.

Q: How do you work and co-exist with my existing tools?


A:With Bungee Connect, you would continue to use your existing tools to create SOAP and REST-based web services and other backend software systems. Bungee Connect is used to access your web services and many others, create application logic, define and assemble user interfaces, connect interactivity controls, and deliver your completed web application to end-users.

On the infrastructure side, software development tools used to develop back-end web services and transaction processing are completely complementary and compatible with the Bungee Connect environment.

On the client-side, within the web browser, Bungee-powered pages and inline frames are as universally accessible as the web itself and can co-exist with pages and inline frames created with other tools.

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Q: Do I have to compile or upload applications built with Bungee?


A: No. Bungee Connect is an "always live" hosted environment. There is no compile time step, and all development, test-runs, and application deployment for end-users occurs on Bungee Grid without the need to upload or download any software.

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Q: Bungee Connect has a proprietary language—why should I spend time learning it?


A: Bungee Logic, is an Object Oriented languages with native connectivity to a rich library of runtime capabilities designed specifically for interactive web-based applications. Bungee Logic is a language akin to C#, and not more difficult.

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Q: Can I extend Bungee Connect and add new functionality?


A: Bungee Connect is by nature extensible. All application development components, including TypeLibs, Forms and Cords, are all modifiable, extensible and re-usable. The nature of Bungee Share and developer contributions to Bungee Share will provide a substantial extension mechanism.

The Bungee Connect run-time system, Bungee Grid, is not currently modifiable by all Bungee Developers. We are evaluating generalized extensibility mechanisms for the web-services, storage, programming language, and Ajax subsystems within Bungee.

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Q: How can I extend Bungee Pulse controls with my own Ajax controls?


A: At this time, developers within the Bungee Community can not directly add their own Ajax controls to Bungee Pulse.

Developers can however include 3rd party Ajax “widgets” within Bungee Connect’s HTML Control. Interaction between these 3rd party embedded widgets and their server-side components are independent of Bungee Pulse, yet visually coordinated via Bungee's HTML Control.

Bungee Pulse is implemented via an extensible architecture for both client and server sides. Bungee Connect uses this architecture to add more than 40 Ajax controls.

Bungee Labs intends to publish the Bungee Pulse architecture and interfaces in future, enabling third-party Ajax controls to be added and certified as full citizens within Bungee Connect.

A separate announcement and community communications will be made when this capability is available. Developers with supplementary Ajax controls who may wish to have them integrated within Bungee Connect should contact Bungee Labs at [email protected].

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Q: Can I use different or prior versions of Bungee Connect software (i.e., the development environment and the library of components, and applications)?


A: Yes. Bungee Connect is an evolving web application environment and will be updated frequently with minor revisions and updates. Additionally, from time to time, major revisions to Bungee Connect (i.e., Bungee Builder, Bungee Grid and Bungee Pulse) will occur. Such releases will be accessible in parallel with the prior version (likely no more than two versions) and developers may elect which version of Bungee Connect to use.
When a developer chooses to contribute ("publish") software components to the Bungee Share for access by other developers, the published components may be copied and modified then re-published by others to Bungee Share, either as a revision of its predecessor or as a new component. All versions of a published object are accessible by developers.

Bungee-powered applications are deployed and may be transparently updated, as well as versioned. The authorized application administrator determines whether changes will be a simple update that replaces its predecessor, or a new version that exists in parallel, providing more than one version for End-User use.

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Q: Will my application break if you make updates to Bungee Connect?


A: Your applications should not break. In the cases where significant changes are made causing run-time incompatibility between applications, Bungee Connect will run multiple versions so that prior deployed applications continue to run within the environment matching the time at which they were deployed. Updating the application within the new version and redeploying would be necessary in the case where incompatibility is introduced. Our goal would be to minimize such events.

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Q: If there are different versions of a Bungee Connect release, how can I make sure that my components that I have developed and placed in Bungee Share will work in the future?


A: Our goal is to ensure backward compatibility so that existing components and applications continue to be valid. In the case where a incompatibility is unavoidable, Bungee will provide ample notice and detailed instruction on how to minimize the impact and how to revise components and applications so that properly operate in a specific, imminent new release of Bungee Connect.

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Q: Will my project be corrupted if I am developing an application as you roll out a new release?


A: It is certainly our goal that this not happen.

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Q: What protection do you provide to runtime data and application corruption?


A: There are primarily four types of data or application corruption that can occur in a software system: system malfunction, human error, application error, and/or a virus. Bungee Labs makes hourly incremental backups and stores those backups in a secure offsite location. Should a corruption or loss occur, Bungee Labs can restore an application or development environment, and its data, to a prior time-specific state.

Bungee Labs has strict internal processes to secure access to the Bungee Grid infrastructure. Additionally, automated internal checks are being developed to detect corruptions in real-time, should they occur in the system. Upon detection of a potential corruption, whatever the cause, alerts will be triggered in Bungee Connect's Network Operations Center so that Bungee Labs and the developer can take immediate action.

Bungee Labs has conducted and will continue to conduct regular third party security audits of Bungee Connect. The results from these audits, as well as proactive security measures, should mitigate the impact of any intentional attacks against the Bungee Connect Grid, or any attempts to compromise the security or privacy of Bungee Developers and Bungee-powered application end-users.

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Q: What about "off-line"?


A: All Bungee-powered applications, including Bungee Builder itself, must be used online. Bungee Connect is optimized for developing browser and web service based applications that interact (both read and write) with live real-time web service data repositories and backend systems. These applications are inherently online and multi-user and are the focus of Bungee Labs.

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Interacting with Web Services

 

Q: What types of services can I use in a Bungee-powered application (SOAP, REST, XML, etc.)?


A: Bungee Connect has native and highly automated support for SOAP-based web services. You can also use XML-based web services like REST, gDATA, and others by retrieving the XML and parsing the results. You can expect more automated support of REST and other XML services in the future.

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Q: What services can be used in Bungee Connect? I have created my own service, can I use it with Bungee Connect?


A: With Bungee Connect you can use both public and private web services. The service end point must be accessible by our datacenters. You can browse a sample list of services available to the Bungee community. You may also add your company's web service to the list available in our wiki.

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Q: What if the service requires authentication or an API key, do I need to register with the service provider?

 
A: Just as you would with any other development tool, it is upon you to establish a relationship with a service provider to gain access or an API key.

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Q: Some web services charge for access, according to transactions or some other method. Who pays the service provider?

 
A: Through the design of the application, the developer can decide who will bear the service charges. A developer/company, may pay for all service charges incurred through application use by using their own service credentials when the application is deployed. Or a developer may require an end-user to enter their own service credentials into the application at run-time, requiring the end-user to pay for the service charges.

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Q: Can I create a web service API (SOAP or REST) “service” from a Bungee-powered application that is hosted by Bungee Connect?


A: At this time, no. You may see this functionality in future releases.

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Q: I'd like Bungee Developers to use my (or my company's) web service. Do you have a listing somewhere?


A: Yes, you may add your company's web service to the list available in our wiki.

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Q: My business (or I) has web services we'd like to use in the applications built using Bungee Connect. Do I need to register with you?


A: No. Any SOAP or REST-based web service can be integrated into Bungee-powered applications using Bungee Connect.

At this time, no. You may see this functionality in future releases. Developers can however use data store / service as a web service API proxy to your Bungee-powered application if –

  1. You have access to a data store / service that can itself expose a new SOAP / REST web service API that you may define (e.g. data model, read/write permissions, etc) and;
  2. The data store / service you have access to is programmable through SOAP or REST based web service APIs that can be accessed via a Bungee-powered application.


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Q: Is there native support for JSON in Bungee?


A: Currently, JSON is not supported in Bungee Connect, however we are considering support for this in the future.

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Collaborating with Your Development Team Members

 

Q: Can I work with other members of my team using Bungee?


A: Yes. The Bungee DesignGroup enables developers to invite other developers to DesignGroups. Each developer may create and/or join many DesignGroups. There is no policy limit for the number of DesignGroups a developer may belong to or create.

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Q: Can I install Bungee Connect behind the firewall for my development team?

A: Bungee Connect is a hosted service only. Both the Bungee Connect application development environment and end-user accessible Bungee-powered applications are firewall friendly since both are driven via Pulse communication over HTTP and HTTPS.

 

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Q: What mechanisms do you provide to help developers with revision control and regression prevention?


A: Currently, the check-out and check-in mechanisms employed by Bungee Connect ensure that the object you have checked-out will not be modified by anyone else until your changes are checked-in. In Bungee Builder there is a visual cue to developers when a solution, project, page, or class is checked out by another developer. There is also an indication as to who has the file checked out.

Although timeframes and phasing have not been announced at this time, potential roadmap items for future releases within the domain of revision control might include:

  • Atomic Commits
  • Depot Permissions
  • Change Lists with comments
  • File level Revision with comments
  • Line by Line Change Tracking
  • Tracking un-committed changes

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Reusing Components via the Bungee Share

 

Q: Can I publish applications or components to Bungee Share?


A: Yes, both, when the Bungee Share is made available. We expect this within several months. At that time, applications may be published to the Bungee Share to enable others to deploy them for themselves and thus have the billing relationship for that deployed instance of a published Bungee-power application. Components may be published to the Bungee Share to enable other developers to access, review, use, and modify them. Modified component may also be re-published to the Bungee Share.

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Q: How is the integrity of Bungee Share confirmed and ensured (i.e., virus)?


A: At this time, Bungee Share is not accessible. We intend to make Bungee Share available prior to General Availability (GA). At that time, Bungee Share components may be examined, and even modified, at the code level before use in another Bungee-powered component or application. Currently, contributed ("published") Bungee Share components are not reviewed or validated by Bungee Labs.

Bungee Labs intends to enhance Community interaction, management, and communication via online capabilities including, reviews and ratings of contributed components to assist developers in evaluating which Bungee Share components are most applicable for the developer's intended use.

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Testing a Bungee-Powered Application

 

Q: What testing/debugging support does Bungee Connect provide?


A: Bungee Builder provides interactive ability to test run (simulate) an application or application components contained in Forms and Cords. Additionally, a Bungee-powered utility, the Code Inspector, is available to provide a comprehensive view into Bungee Logic source code, form hierarchy, and control binding. At this time, a traditional step/watch debugger is not integrated into Bungee Builder. This type of functionality is actively being investigated as part of our short-term road-map. Once available in a pre-release manner, a separate communication will be provided to the Bungee Developer Community.

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Q: I think I found a bug in Bungee Connect. How do I report the bug?


A: If you are a developer on the Early-Access Bungee Connect Beta Program, you may report the bug in the forum at http://forums.bungeeconnect.com/bl/board?board.id=features.

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Q: I'd like to suggest some improvement? How do I do this?


A: If you are a developer on the Early-Access Bungee Connect Beta Program, you may make suggestions in the forum at http://forums.bungeeconnect.com/bl/board?board.id=features.

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Deploying Bungee-Powered Applications at Bungee Connect

 

Q: Can I make my Bungee-powered application "live" during the Beta phase, and is there a fee for doing so?


A: Yes, you can make the applications live that you develop using Bungee Connect during the Beta phase, and during the Beta phase it is free to deploy your apps to a live url.

By deploying your application for no fee to http: or https://www.bungeegridtestdeploy.com or to your own custom URL; you can immediately deliver your application to users around the world over the web and not worry about setting up a billing profile with Bungee Labs. To help protect system resources and enable a greater number of users to deploy their applications for no fee, there are resource thresholds imposed on applications that are deployed for no fee. Areas where limitations may apply include:

  • Session Count
  • Concurrency
  • Bungee Unit Count
  • Data Delivered
  • Storage

Commercially deployed applications may become available during the Beta period. When this occurs we will provide all registered developers notice of this and this availability will not affect existing "test" deployed applications.

See the "Hello Bungee Connect" tutorial to understand how to deploy a Bungee application.

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Q: Once I've deployed my Bungee-powered application, how can my users get to my application?


There are a number of ways you can connect your users to your Bungee-powered applications. When you deploy your application and make it live (either for testing with your beta users or the "real deal") the application is given a Bungee-provisioned URL. Once you have this URL, you can do any of the following:

  1. Embed your Bungee-powered application into your existing webpage(s) so the app appears as part of your website, and/or
  2. Map your domain name/IP address or virtual directory to a Bungee-powered application. So for example, if your user typed in www.yourdomain.com the user would be served your Bungee app (see this blog post for details).


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Q: Will my end-users have to install anything to run my Bungee-powered application?


A: No. Bungee-powered applications use Bungee Pulse with Internet Explorer, Firefox and the new development release of Safari (Webkit). The interactive Bungee Pulse coordination system is the combination of a very thin client-side Ajax implementation, a comprehensive server-side sub-system within Bungee Grid runtime servers, and an intelligent interaction protocol that enables continuous application state management and fluid interactivity with IE, Firefox and Safari (Webkit)—and requires no installation by the developer, deployer or end-user.

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Q: What about search engine indexing, can my app's content be indexed by Google and other search engines?


A: Bungee-powered applications are rich and highly interactive web applications, not static web-pages. Rich Interactive Applications (RIAs) present a unique challenge for traditional html indexing engines and even Search Engine Optimization (SEO) thinking in general. RIAs are dynamic by their nature and their content is rarely static. Capturing a snapshot of a user's session with your application and making it available to search engines is impractical and in most cases not desired for security and privacy reasons. If you actually intend for application data and content to be indexed in the context of the application, this can be accomplished by inserting html content into the application in strategic locations. The approach to take depends on your search engine goals.

If your goal is simply to drive traffic to your application via SEO then you would be best served by creating a search engine optimized traditional HTML "entry page" which will be fully and traditionally indexed for your Bungee-powered applications.

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Q: What about analytics within my application—how do I add this functionality?


A: Bungee Connect provides many key metrics about how your applications are being used, including: total application sessions, unique user sessions, current running sessions, peak and current sessions and other data.

At this time, Bungee Connect does not expose interfaces for direct instrumentation of applications for analytics.

We do intend to publish these interfaces in the future so application analytics, application logging, and third-party analytics systems may be integrated into Bungee-powered applications. When we make these interfaces and capability available, we will make a separate announcement and communicate the details to Bungee Connect users.

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Q: Who pays for a deployed application?


A: The individual/company who deploys the application is responsible for the deployment charges. This individual may be different than the developer(s) who actually built the application. A developer can deploy the application themselves, bearing the charges, or they can require their client or end user create their own deployment and bear the charges themselves.

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Q:  Can I charge users for access to my Bungee-powered application?


A: Yes. As the creator an application you have the freedom to choose how, and if, you may charge end users for access to your application. Common pricing models include flat-rate monthly subscriptions or transaction charges but you can choose any model best suited for your business.

 

Accessing Technical Support for Bungee Connect

 

Q: What support do you provide for application development?


A: The Bungee Developer Forum is your best resource for getting answers to questions, problems and issues you may have regarding developing and deploying Bungee-Powered Applications. Our forum is monitored by both Bungee Labs staff and our most knowledgeable customers. It provides developers a place to read and post messages, comments, questions, and answers.

New developers will benefit from reviewing the online documentation and tutorials. While these resources may not answer every question about developing and deploying with Bungee Labs, they do offer rich information and lessons about behaviors unique to Bungee Connect.

If you still have questions, search the forum. Many times someone else has already asked the same question, or reported the same problem. These posts will usually be followed with a detailed explanation of the question or problem and the answer or solution to it. Other times Bungee Labs may respond with a short answer to something we have covered previously. The Bungee Developer Forum is monitored throughout the business day and evening. In most cases, you shouldn't need to wait long to receive a response to your questions.

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Q: What support do you provide for deployed applications?


A: End-user support for Bungee-powered applications developed and deployed through Bungee Connect is the responsibility of the deploying developer or organization.

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Understanding the Security of Bungee Connect

 

Q: How secure is Bungee?


A: Bungee Connect provides industry standard security capability and provisions. Each of the major components of Bungee Connect ensures secure processes and communication with: i) other Bungee Connect components, ii) third-party web services, and iii) end-users using Bungee-powered applications accessed via web browsers.

Bungee Grid operates within professionally designed and managed datacenter standards ensuring physical and storage security as well as perimeter network security. Within Bungee Grid datacenters, each Bungee Grid cluster of servers is secured and protected via advanced multi-level breach prevention and detection mechanisms. Within a Bungee Grid cluster, inter-server communication is 128-bit encrypted.

Bungee Pulse provides the transport mechanism between an end-user's browser and Bungee Grid clusters. Bungee Pulse includes a fixed payload of JavaScript which is not dynamic at runtime, thus ensuring no foreign JavaScript is introduced during application execution. Additionally, Bungee Pulse's unique protocol implementation utilizing XML for bi-directional messages insulates against direct injection or intentional intrusion into either browser clients or servers within Bungee Grid clusters. Bungee-powered applications, including Bungee Builder can be utilized over HTTPS as a configuration option to ensure that Bungee Pulse's bi-directional communication is encrypted.

Access to third-party SOAP and REST services are brokered only through Bungee Grid and not through the end-user browser. Bungee Grid operates and respects the security provisions employed by each web service provider. Data is only decrypted within the secure perimeter of a Bungee Grid cluster and only transmitted to and from an end-user's browser via Bungee Pulse over HTTPS if the Bungee-powered application is so configured.

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Q: What about my data? Is it secure? Is it private while I/we work?


A: Yes. Developer data is private and secure. Application data is also private and secure.

Developers within the same DesignGroup share information and software. Care should be taken before inviting other developers to any DesignGroup.

Bungee-powered applications also have the capability to establish who has authorized access to the application and its different types of data. Care should be taken while designing the segregation of data into the appropriate access and authorization levels.

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Q: What about security and privacy of company, transaction, and customer info?


A: Information transported by Bungee Connect for read or write is over HTTPS. Data stored in Bungee's hosting centers are secure and only accessible via authorized developers and end-users of a specific Bungee-powered application.

Should an application developer (or the company employing the developer) require security of application data and other stored information (e.g., customer records, product information, transactions, statistics, and billing) be under the direct control of the developer/company, Bungee recommends that such information be stored at the company (or its authorized agent) and accessed for read/write via secure and authenticated web services via SOAP or REST over secure HTTPS connections.

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Exporting from or Leaving Bungee Connect

 

Q: What about exporting my work to another system? I don't want to be locked in.


A: Today, via a Bungee-powered utility called Code Inspector, components and applications written in Bungee Logic can be exported in a clear text format via copy/paste so the syntax of software components may be more straightforwardly re-written or transcoded into another software development framework. With the current version of our Early-Access Beta, exporting components or applications for runtimes other than Bungee's is explicitly not enabled. This capability is being seriously and currently investigated as part of our active development to enhance the capability of Bungee Builder.

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Q: Who owns the IP for applications I build on Bungee?


A: Software created in Bungee Logic, and user interfaces created using Bungee Builder by a developer are the property of that developer. The developer has the necessary controls within Bungee Connect to keep those components and embedded intellectual property as private as the developer requires. By inviting other developers to a DesignGroup or Posting software component to Bungee Share, the developer is then choosing to make his/her components available under license to other developers using Bungee. The license terms for use within Bungee Connect are defined in the Bungee Labs Developer License Agreement and the Bungee Labs Software Publishing Agreement.

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Q: What if Bungee Labs goes bankrupt?


A: Bungee Labs is working on several approaches to ensure continuity for deployed applications and active developers in the highly unlikely event that Bungee Labs ceases to be an operating entity. These approaches include, but are not limited to, escrow of runtime images and source-code of our Bungee Connect systems and federated licensing of the Bungee Connect with operators of alternative hosting and network operations infrastructure. We expect to have these types of provisions available on or before Bungee Connect is GA (Generally Available).

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Q: How do I cut and run?


A: Bungee Labs has no mandatory minimum commitment period. A developer may register and may also un-register at anytime from the Preferences Tab within Bungee Builder.

Applications deployed on Bungee Connect may be removed ("undeployed") from End-User use by the original authorized deployer at anytime. All application utility billing by Bungee Labs starts when a Bungee-powered application is used by an End-User after deployment, and billing stops at the time when a Bungee-powered application is "removed" from End-User use.

Application data stored via Bungee Connect is and remains the property of the application publisher. Bungee Labs does its best to help application publishers to ensure such data is retained, secured, and accessible for transfer by the authorized application deployer to other storage infrastructures.

In the future, we intend to provide a basic web service access (i.e., SOAP or REST) mechanism to the Bungee Application Datasource so that it may be accessed by other authorized applications, including data transfer applications.

Software components contributed ("published") to Bungee Share will remain in Bungee Share and remain accessible to other Bungee Developers.

Today, via a Bungee-powered utility, Code Inspector, components and applications written in Bungee Logic can be exported in a clear text format via copy/paste, so the syntax of software components may be more straightforwardly re-written or transcoded into another software development framework.

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Finding Answers Beyond this FAQ

 

Q: My question hasn't been answered here. How can I get an answer to a question I have?


A: If your question isn't answered here, please go to the Bungee Forum and ask it there, where you will get a quick reply from the team at Bungee Labs.

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