Hosting the Visualization API

[Christopher Sansone]

Hello,

I work at a commercial software company, and we are interested in
integrating these excellent visualization tools into our product.
However, to avoid a number of risks, we would like to host a copy of the
API ourselves. Unfortunately, I cannot find a link to download the API,
so it makes me question whether this is technically or legally possible.

From a technical standpoint, it seems like they are simply a series of
static Javascript files (and maybe some images)... in theory, these
should be able to be hosted anywhere. From a use standpoint, the
<script> tag in our code would simply have to point to our own server as
opposed to Google's.

I reviewed the license, but it seemed a little vague in this area. The
spirit of the license is that we can use the component set in any type
of software, but we cannot modify, create derivative works, and/or
resell it. We would fully comply with all of this... we just want the
responsibility of hosting it ourselves for users of our products to
eliminate some significant risks.

What risks? For starters, Google may release a new version that
introduces some new bugs or incompatibilities with our product. Like
any other component set I've ever used, we would prefer to download a
copy, integrate and deploy it, and when new versions are available, we
have the option of using it or not, run regression tests prior to
release, and do so on our own schedule. Also, it requires Google's
servers to be available, which introduces another point of failure into
our software. And, the terms of use state that Google can pull the plug
on it any time they want -- this is not unprecedented: they recently
ceased supporting an XML API to their search engine. Anyone that
interfaced with it had to somehow find out about it, migrate their code
to a completely different data format, and do so within Google's time frame.

So, is the API available for download? If not, why not? Is it a
technical and/or legal issue? The terms of use mention the possibility
of a separate license from Google -- if hosting the API ourselves is not
possible otherwise, what is the next step to obtaining a license?

Thanks in advance. I seem to be the only one with these concerns, which
I find hard to believe... doesn't anyone else feel the same way I do?

Cheers,
Christopher

[David Thulson]

I am using the visualization tools for an academic demo and I would
also really appreciate being able to get a local copy of the tools.
That way, if the internet connection at a conference goes down, our
demo could continue running. So, I share your concerns and I would
also be interested in some more info...

David Thulson


On Sep 24, 11:18 am, Christopher Sansone <chrissans...@rocketmail.com>
wrote:

[chriss...@rocketmail.com]

Bumping this thread. Does anyone at Google monitor this group? Does
anyone know a better way of contacting them for a question like this?

Thanks,
Christopher

[trollswagen]

You can use a javascript debugger like Firebug to see where the
scripts are being loaded from. Then you can copy the script locations
and download them to your local server.

[chriss...@rocketmail.com]

Thanks for the response, trollswagen. I understand that there's
nothing stopping me from being able to download the source of the
entire API from a technical standpoint (though it may require a number
of changes if the URLs are not relative). Really, the question is
whether or not we are allowed to do it legally. They have not
released it under an open source license such as Mozilla, BSD, LGPL,
etc. The fact that they don't have the package available for download
(or a link to the CVS / SVN) concerns me. The license is somewhat
unclear, and I want to make sure that we are permitted to do it before
investing in development.

Thanks again!

Cheers,
Christopher

[Ashwath Murthy]

Bumping this again. Any answers to this? I'm faced with a similar
situation..

On Oct 2, 5:31 am, "chrissans...@rocketmail.com"

<chrissans...@rocketmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the response, trollswagen.  I understand that there's

> nothing stopping me from being able todownloadthe source of the

[The Viz (Google)]

Hi,

Our TOS and Program Policy do not allow download of the client-side
API or the visualizations. You need to use the API as it was meant to
be used - over the cloud.

We just released (today) the wire protocol to allow anyone to create
server-side implementations of data sources that connect to
Visualization compliant visualizations, charts, etc. However, you may
not download the visualizations onto your servers.

You raise several concerns relating to SaaS, Google platforms and
Google Visualization API and I'll try to address these:

Google believes in the web as the new computing platform. We believe
that SaaS can be provided reliably, efficiently, affordably and with
many added benefits to users, be they private or commercial /
businesses. By chance, I writing this today after having attended
Dreamforce - Salesforce.com's annual conference - this morning, where
thousands of commercial businesses (from SMBs to Fortune500
companies), all basing critical components of their business on SaaS,
met and discussed how to further this model even more. This is not the
proper place to take this general discussion further - but you get my
point - the tools we provide are for the cloud.

Google Platforms for SaaS are mature and continue to improve literally
on a daily basis. As you may know, this has become a significant
offering at Google and considerable resources are placed into making
these systems, services and APIs robust, scalable and dependable.
Recently, for example, the GMail team announced four-nines up-time for
GMail on Google Apps and Google provides SLAs for the premium version
of Google Apps.

As for backward and "forward" compatibility - I can share with you
that we are working towards guaranteeing long-term support for all our
APIs. I cannot disclose details yet, but I can share with you that it
will be multi-year support. You can safely assume that our current
protocol version will be supported for a long time.

You will certainly be able to continue using older versions of the
client for quite a while prior to upgrading to newer versions and you
do have to worry about us puling the plug on the API. We currently do
not support versioning for the visualizations themselves, but we will
place this as a feature request on our list and see if it makes sense.

As for availability of Google's servers - I've commented on that
generally above. We have high availability, we are working to make it
even better and premium versions enjoy even higher availability. Most
companies' IT department's server availability is not as high as what
Google provides. In any case this is a strategic decision you have to
make, as did all the companies running on Salesforce. Amazon's
platform, Google's AppEngine, etc.

[v-jacko]

Hi Vizguy,
first let me just say I fully the google "mindset" - being able to
plonk a few lines of script in a web page and have you guys do all the
hard work works for me.

Second - I think (hope?) you might have missed a NOT in here.....
"...you do have to worry about us puling the plug on the API."

Now that I've smoozed you, let me just put a plug in for greater
flexibility/customisablity/options in the visualisations.

[The Viz (Google)]

yes indeed - good catch - you do NOT have to worry about us pulling
the plug on the API :-)

Yep, we agree, more options in the Google visualizations make sense.
It's on our TODO list.

[Smutzski]

We have the same problem as the topicstarter. We want to use the
Google Visualization API in a application that's running on a computer
that's not connected to the internet.
Is it possible to use the Google Visualization API when you're not
connected to the internet?
As your story told, it's not possible.

But will it be possible in the future??

[The Viz (Google)]

Hi,

The short term answer is 'no, it is not possible at this time'.
Longer term, we are looking into this request. The Visualization API
is based on our general support of the Web as the platform (i.e.: web
access is needed as the basic use-case for use of the API), but just
like we provide Gears for offline work when needed, we will look into
providing similar support for this API as well.

Thanks,

On Nov 7, 12:53 pm, Smutzski <ellent...@live.nl> wrote:
> We have the same problem as the topicstarter. We want to use the
> Google Visualization API in a application that's running on a computer
> that's not connected to the internet.
> Is it possible to use the Google Visualization API when you're not
> connected to the internet?
> As your story told, it's not possible.
>
> But will it be possible in the future??
>
> On Nov 4, 5:59 am, "The Viz (Google)" <the...@google.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
>
> > Our TOS and Program Policy do not allow download of the client-side
> > API or the visualizations. You need to use the API as it was meant to
> > be used - over thecloud.
>
> > We just released (today) the wire protocol to allow anyone to create
> > server-side implementations of data sources that connect to
> > Visualization compliant visualizations, charts, etc. However, you may
> > not download the visualizations onto your servers.
>

> > You raise several concerns relating toSaaS, Google platforms and

> > Google Visualization API and I'll try to address these:
>
> > Google believes in the web as the new computing platform. We believe

> > thatSaaScan be provided reliably, efficiently, affordably and with

> > many added benefits to users, be they private or commercial /
> > businesses. By chance, I writing this today after having attended

> > Dreamforce -Salesforce.com's annual conference - this morning, where

> > thousands of commercial businesses (from SMBs to Fortune500
> > companies), all basing critical components of their business onSaaS,
> > met and discussed how to further this model even more. This is not the
> > proper place to take this general discussion further - but you get my
> > point - the tools we provide are for thecloud.
>

> > Google Platforms forSaaSare mature and continue to improve literally

> > on a daily basis. As you may know, this has become a significant
> > offering at Google and considerable resources are placed into making
> > these systems, services and APIs robust, scalable and dependable.
> > Recently, for example, the GMail team announced four-nines up-time for
> > GMail on Google Apps and Google provides SLAs for the premium version
> > of Google Apps.
>
> > As for backward and "forward" compatibility - I can share with you
> > that we are working towards guaranteeing long-term support for all our
> > APIs. I cannot disclose details yet, but I can share with you that it
> > will be multi-year support. You can safely assume that our current
> > protocol version will be supported for a long time.
>
> > You will certainly be able to continue using older versions of the
> > client for quite a while prior to upgrading to newer versions and you
> > do have to worry about us puling the plug on the API. We currently do
> > not support versioning for the visualizations themselves, but we will
> > place this as a feature request on our list and see if it makes sense.
>
> > As for availability of Google's servers - I've commented on that
> > generally above. We have high availability, we are working to make it
> > even better and premium versions enjoy even higher availability. Most
> > companies' IT department's server availability is not as high as what
> > Google provides. In any case this is a strategic decision you have to

> > make, as did all the companies running onSalesforce. Amazon's