Mashup

Mashup can be defined as web page which is used to create new web services by using and combining the data or functionality of two or more services. Mashups are generally client applications, which allows the permanent access to the data of other services. 

Mashup tools d'not require programming skills rather support GUI widgets, which makes them easy to be used by the end users. Depending on the location where data is used and re-formated mashups can be classified into following types,

• Web-based mashups, these use the user's web browsers to use and re-format data
• Server-based mashups, these use and re-format the data on remote server, the result will be sent to the user's web browsers.

Web protocols like SOAP and REST leads to the development of mashup as they allow clients to interact with the remote services without knowing their implementation. Mashup uses screen scraping technology in order obtain the data specially from public sectors.

Mashup applications architecture has three different components

• Content provider
• Mashup site
• Client's web browser

Data pollution is the major problem faced by the mashup developers as they support data to be entered by the user, it leads to inconsistent and incorrect data entry and access. Data acquisition using screen scapping may also lead to problem as it requires reverse engineering in order to interpret how the source site represent the data.