I just got a copy of Parallels 5.0 Beta today, and finally, Aero with Win7 x64!  Beautiful!  For some reason it also seems faster; perhaps not using an svga adapter and doing better with the hardware makes it snappier.

I was asked today about 3D capabilities for Silverlight.  Silverlight does not have 3D capabilities built in, but that does not mean that you can not do 3D in Silverlight; it's just that you have to do it yourself or use some other 3D libraries.

Before I get to those libraries, I first want to mention that SL 3.0 has added the ability for perspective 3D.  This really is not true 3D, just the ability to rotate visuals to make them appear to be 3d.  This is good for placing visuals onto 3D surfaces, but doesn't help you out with 3D modeling and rendering.  A good example of SL perspective 3D is available at http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Perspective-3D-in-Silverlight-3.aspx. 

Now, there are however other open source projects available for doing 3D in Silverlight:

• Balder (http://www.codeplex.com/Balder)

I have not used Balder, but it looks quite capable.  The demos for it look quite good:

• http://www.ingebrigtsen.info/post/2009/06/22/Balder-Silverlight-3-2b2b.aspx
• http://www.ingebrigtsen.info/post/2009/04/23/Revitalizing-Balder.aspx

• Kit3d (http://www.codeplex.com/Kit3D)

I have used Kit3d several times, and to find it very useful.  An interesting thing about Kit3d (and aXelerateSL3D) are that they are implementations of parts of the System.Windows.Media.Media3D namespace used in WPF, so the code you put together in these two will be somewhat compatible with WPF.

• aXelerateSL3D (http://www.codeplex.com/aXelerateSL3D)

aXelerateSL3D is the latest that I have used, and I needed to use it due to deficiencies in the Kit3D library.  Off the top of my head I can't remember what that differences are otherwise I would explain them.

In my previous posts I've explained getting Presto up and running on a mac.  At this point you are able to use Presto to create your own mashups.  This is of course useful, but the platform also comes with a # of sample services and mashups, as well as scripts for installing 50 mashups from the programmable web site (programmableweb.com).  The following are instructions on installing these samples.

First, run registerSamples.sh in the prestocli directory.  You'll see output similar to the following.  Be patient as it will take a few minutes to complete.



Upon completion, you will see services in their dashboard...



Now install the sample mashups...



And you will see the mashups in the dashboard:



And finally, install the programmable web apis, which are available here...  Download the zip file, expand it into your prestocli directory (not a sub directory because the script depends upon a script in the presto root directory), and run registerProgrammableWeb.sh...



There were a few errors during my install.  I haven't diagnosed them, but things seemed to work well enough.

Ready to get mashing!

I'll follow up with actual examples of building mashups, as well as with using the mashup studio.

In my previous post I showed how to install Presto on Snow Leopard.  This post will show how to run Presto.  To run presto, you need to start two processes.  First of these is the repository, which is the database that Presto uses.  Presto comes with HSQLDB as part of the application, but also has support for Oracle and MySQL.  For this post, we will use HSQLDB as it is quite easy to configure and run.

To start HSQLB, from the presto install directory change to the prestoRepository/HSQLDB directory.  In that directory you will see the following files:



Something that I've noticed that is different from the Jack.Be installation notes is that you must run ./setupDB.SH, otherwise things wont work.  Then to start HSQLDB, simply type "./server.sh &".  I prefer using the "&" to have it run in the background and return control of the terminal to me:



The repository is now running.  The next step is to start the presto application.  To do this we need to change to the "mashupServer" folder off the root of the presto installation and execute "./startPresto.sh" to run presto.  If everything goes well you will see the following:



Presto is now running.  To access Presto, navigate to http://localhost:8080/presto in your browser and you will be presented a form letting you know that you need to enter your license key:



Select upgrade and enter your key, accept the terms:



Press apply and you will be shown license information and asked to confirm...



Press "go home", and you are brought to the Presto login screen:



Now login with admin/adminadmin and you are brought to the dashboard:



You are now ready to start building mashups.

In my next post, I'll show how to install some sample mashups and start building your own mashups.

Today I got back into working with Jack.Be's Presto mashup server.  I have installed this before, but many months ago and had to relearn the process.  It's a little odd on the mac because Java is already installed, but JAVA_HOME is not set.

First, get the presto server download, unzip it and put it somewhere on your computer.  On my system I put it in /users/mike/dev/presto.  Your directory should look similar to the following:



The next step is to install presto.  This is done by executing the command ./setup.sh.  When this happens you will be asked a number of questions, most of which you can simply accept the defaults.  However, the first one is most important due to the java configuration on the mac:



The key is to specify the /Library/Java/Home folder, which is actually a symbolic link to the actual location of the java installation. 

You'll then be asked a lot of questions about ports, all of which you can just accept the defaults (in most cases).  You'll get output similar to the following:



You are now installed.  In my next post, I'll show how to run Presto.