A few weeks ago we described our framework for making the standard RFID network (EPC Network) part of the Web of Things.
We are happy to announce that the framework was accepted to be part of the leading Open Source RFID infrastructure (Fosstrak) and is available on the Fosstrak forge.
In order to foster adoption we created two useful resources, in the user and developer guide you’ll find a detailed description of the API and install procedure (basically 4 clicks if you already have a running Tomcat instance).
Additionally, an introduction video details the features of the framework and showcases an application (an RFID Business Intelligence Dashboard that you can test live on our Google App Engine Instance).
Beyond the software, the fact that the EPCIS Webadapter offers a RESTful API for a service that is currently offered through a WS-* (WSDL + SOAP) interface makes it an interesting case-study. Indeed, we lack (we as a community, since this was one of the conclusions of WoT 2010) a better understanding (and proving?) what the benefits of RESTful architectures are when compared, from a developer point of view, to other systems such as WS-* or Big Web Services.
Thus, if you do use the EPCIS Webadapter, please let us know what your experience was in this online form, your feedback is very valuable!. We already got some early insights from another study, but that is going to be the matter of a next post and paper 🙂
