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= Miscellaneous Developers' Topics  =
At this developers session, we will hear updates about several issues relating to
developing GENI aggregates and standardizing aggregate behavior. Specific topics are expected to include the status of the Aggregate Manager API and RSpecs, VLAN stitching implementation status, and common Clearinghouse APIs. This session will begin conversations that will be continued at the several [wiki:GEC17Agenda/DevWorkingSessions Developers Working Sessions] and the [wiki:GEC17Agenda/CodingSprintTutoring Coding Sprint] session.

== Schedule ==

Sunday, 1:30pm - 3pm

== Session Leaders ==
{{{
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<table  cellspacing=0  style="border:2px solid gray;">

<tr align='center'>
<td> <a href="http://www.geni.net/?page_id=1931"><img src="http://www.geni.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/helsinger_aaron_IMG_1112_edit_170web.jpg" height='120px'/></a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.geni.net/?page_id=1927"><img src="http://www.geni.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/mitchell_tom_IMG_0758_edit-web.jpg" height='120px'/></a></td>
</tr>
<tr align='center'  style="border:1px solid gray;">
<td  style="border:1px solid gray;">Aaron Helsinger<br/>GPO</td>
<td style="border:1px solid gray;">Tom Mitchell<br/>GPO</td>
</tr>
</table>
}}}

== Agenda / Details ==

 * '''Introduction'''. Overview of the track of GEC17 Developer Sessions.

 * '''AM API and RSpec topics'''. State of current AM API implementations and proposed extensions. 

 * '''OpenID and AuthN with GENI Portal'''. How to use OpenID to use the GENI Portal to authenticate tools, and  how OpenID works within the GENI Portal.

 * '''Tool Integration Wish-list'''. A discussion of capabilities that could be provided by GENI services to make the development of future experimenter-focused tools more efficient.


== Pre-Requisites ==

None

== Background Reading ==
 * AM API
  * [wiki:GAPI_AM_API_V3 AM API v3 Specification]
  * [wiki:GAPI_AM_API_DRAFT Adopted and Draft AM API v4 Changes]
 * RSpecs
  * [wiki:GeniRspec Design Notes]
  * [attachment:wiki:GEC11RSpec:ComputeOntology-071411.pdf Compute Ontology]
 * [http://trac.gpolab.bbn.com/gcf/ Omni]
 * [wiki:GeniNetworkStitching Network Stitching Design Notes]

== Session Summary ==
At the Miscellaneous Developer Topics Session, we heard from Aaron
Helsinger and Tom Mitchell on the status of several efforts, and then
had an open discussion on things that tool developers would like to
see from aggregates and clearinghouses.

Marshall Brinn opened the session with an overview of the GEC 17 developer track and themes. See [attachment:"GEC17 Developer Track Introduction.pptx" Marshall's slides] for more information.

Aaron presented the status of the [wiki:GAPI_AM_API_V3 Aggregate Manager API v3] implementation, with a plea for more progress from aggregate developers, particularly to support [wiki:GAPI_AM_API_DRAFT#ChangeSetC:Update Update()]. He also presented the status of [wiki:GAPI_AM_API_V3/CommonConcepts#RSpecdatatype RSpecs] and [gcfw:Omni].
See [attachment:MiscDevTopics-GEC17-AHelsinger.pdf Aaron's slides] for more information.

Tom Mitchell discussed how to integrate tools into the larger GENI infrastructure, particularly through the use of [http://openid.net/ OpenID] for single sign-on. Tom divided the spectrum of GENI tools into three categories (embedded, hosted, and desktop) and described how each can be integrated into the GENI infrastructure. He then discussed how hosted tools can leverage single sign on via the GENI Portal using OpenID. See [attachment:TMitchell-Integration-OpenID.pdf Tom's slides] for more information.

Marshall Brinn introduced the question of what support tool developers would
like from aggregates and clearinghouses in order to support GENI
experimenters. We then had an open discussion, where several requests
and suggestions were made. See [attachment:"Tool Integration Wish-list 07212013.pptx" Marshall's slides] for more information.

In general, tools would like a way to know when something changes in a
slice - the slivers in the slice, expiration times, etc. A callback
function was suggested instead of requiring polling. Alternatively,
GENI could identify the authoritative source(s) of all kinds of
information and ensure those sources have API methods for querying
state.

Other requests included:
 - Common libraries, particularly for handling authentication and authorization in GENI
 - Standards among tools, for things like how long to cache state
 - Improved documentation