Adobe Labs
 
 

cap bottom

JamJar Frequently Asked Questions


What is JamJar?
JamJar is a demonstration of a rich internet application built on Flex 2. It provides a graphical, private, persistent, and customizable canvas for small groups to easily exchange digital content.
back to top
What was JamJar designed to do?

JamJar was designed for individuals who coordinator group activities. These coordinators need to exchange purposeful information with their groups but do not have access to enterprise collaboration solutions:

  • Consultants
  • Small offices
  • Non-profits
  • Professional orgs.
  • Real estate agents
  • Sport teams
  • Structured clubs and affiliations

JamJar allows group coordinators to easily accomplish tasks, such as the following:

  • Plan events
  • Centralize information
  • Exchange ideas
  • Manage projects
  • Establish customer portals
  • Provide access to files
back to top
How does someone access/use JamJar?
JamJar can be accessed by anyone while the service is available on Adobe Labs. Users will be required to have an Adobe ID and customers who do not already have an Adobe ID can obtain one during the initial JamJar sign-in process. JamJar allows users to create spaces up to 20 MB and 20 participants. Since this is an experimental service, it may be closed after a certain period of time. Prior to closure Adobe will send out an email a couple of weeks in advance so that users will have the opportunity to save their content. As stated in the Terms of Use, JamJar is offered in English and intended for use in the United States.
back to top
Can the public use JamJar as a collaboration tool?
Yes. JamJar can be accessed by anyone with an Adobe ID (the same ID that is used by the Adobe Store and other services). Use of the service is free, funded by advertising. There are limits to how much any individual can use the service (see below) and bear in mind that this is an experimental technology that is subject to change. Please review the Terms of Use for a better understanding of use of this new technology.
back to top
How many people can I invite to a space?
With each JamJar space you can interact with up to 20 participants. Additionally, each registered user can decide to make one space a ‘public’ space which allows for open access to the space. When a space has been designated as ‘public’, it will have a space URL that can be posted to provide access to many individuals without inviting each and every person to that space. The checkbox for switching a space to a public space is in Connections Pod > Space Info.
back to top
How much content can I upload in a space?
Each JamJar space can hold up to 20 MB of content.
back to top
How does JamJar compare to social networking sites, such as MySpace.com?
JamJar provides a private, persistent, and personizable canvas for sharing, interacting, and ultimately “accomplishing more with the people you know.” MySpace is about broadcasting yourself to “people you don’t know yet.”
back to top
How does JamJar compare to blogs?
JamJar takes blogging’s ease of web publishing and expands it to encompass richer interactivity and greater personalization to easily exchange digital content such as photos, documents, notes and discussion threads.
back to top
How does JamJar compare to wikis?
JamJar takes wiki’s persistence and collaborative editing offering and provides an easier way to edit and interact with the shared content and participants.
back to top
Are JamJar spaces really private?
JamJar was built so that by default the content of your JamJar spaces will not be searchable by internet search engines and can only be accessed by people that have been invited to the space. All password exchanges and file transfers that occur between a web browser and the JamJar servers are conducted over a secure line using industry standard SSL encryption.
back to top
If JamJar is secure, why does Firefox report that some content could be viewed by others?
JamJar is a secure web service that establishes an industry standard SSL connection for every session, including the log on process. The advertisements from Google are displayed in a separate frame within the browser window and these ads are not conveyed through a secure connection. Firefox detects this mixed environment and posts the correct alert notification.
back to top
How long can I keep shared content in my space?
Although JamJar is a technology demonstration, the JamJar team will strive to maintain the content of your space while the service is available on Adobe Labs. We intend to provide email communication with JamJar’s users when we become aware of changes that may result in your content being removed. Please be advised that you should always retain personal copies of all the content that is shared on a JamJar space to protect against unforeseen failures or changes to the environment.
back to top
Is JamJar available for sale?
No. There are no plans to make JamJar a consumer-focused collaboration service from Adobe.
back to top
Why are there ads in JamJar?
The Google Ads in JamJar allow Adobe to offer the service for free. Revenues generated from the ads help to pay for the server costs required to keep JamJar running. The content of the ads are driven by submitting the space title and space description as keywords to the Google ad engine. No other content is searched.
back to top
Is Adobe planning to sell ads on JamJar?
No, Adobe has no plans to offer custom ad placement for JamJar.
back to top
Can I get technical support for JamJar?
JamJar is a technology demonstration and no direct technical support is provided. However, there are a number of forums available from the Adobe Labs site, as well as, in-product information under the Help menu.
back to top
Can I use JamJar if I live outside of the United States?
Per the Terms of Use, the use of JamJar is intended for use in the United States. A valid Adobe ID, allows for access to JamJar from anywhere on the internet.
back to top
Are there other language versions available other than English?
At this time JamJar is only provided in English only.
back to top
How does JamJar fit into the Adobe product portfolio?
JamJar’s focus is to demonstrate a technology that is an example of a new way of creating web-based rich Internet application (RIA) services. It is intended to be a showcase for our large developer and designer community to show one of the many applications that can be built on the Adobe Engagement Platform.
back to top
What is the Adobe Engagement Platform?
With PDF, Flash and HTML technology at its core, the Adobe Engagement Platform dramatically improves how businesses and developers attract customers, maintain their attention and build sustaining relationships. The Adobe Engagement Platform consists of a universal client driven by the Flash Player and Adobe Reader, a programming model anchored with Adobe Flex 2, services delivered by Adobe LiveCycle, Adobe ColdFusion and Adobe Breeze, and components and tools to create, manage and deliver highly effective and engaging applications. The Adobe Engagement Platform builds on existing infrastructure, standards and skills to integrate complex content and technologies without sacrificing scale or cost-effectiveness.
back to top
What aspects of the Adobe Engagement Platform were utilized to build JamJar?
JamJar is a demonstration of a rich internet application built on the Adobe Engagement Platform, including the Flex 2, Flash Player and PDF technologies. Flex is the overall technology infrastructure for the application, which is viewed via Flash Player, and PDF provides the thumbnail preview capabilities in a JamJar space.
back to top
What is Flex 2?
Adobe Flex 2 delivers an integrated set of tools and technology enabling developers to build and deploy scalable rich Internet applications. Flex provides a modern, standards-based language supporting common design patterns and includes a client runtime, programming model, development environment, and advanced data services. For more information, visit the Flex 2 site on Adobe.com
back to top
How did JamJar leverage the new capabilities of Flex 2?

Flex 2 provided a framework that made developing and debugging complex rich Internet applications easier and faster.  The JamJar team was able to port its service that was based on Flex 1.5/ActionScript 2 to Flex 2 technologies in only 6 weeks.  We also saw significant end-user performance improvements when we ported over to Flex 2.  More specifically, here are some Flex 2 capabilities that the JamJar development team leveraged.

  • It was very easy to mix standard Flex UI components with JamJar’s custom UI components. The JamJar "fly out" pods are an example of a UI extension that the JamJar team built.

  • Data synchronization and persistence is all done with Flex data services. This greatly simplified the JamJar design because FDS provides all the tools needed to declare the data model and mechanisms for storing, sharing, and syncing.  It's an extensible architecture so the JamJar team was able to easily integrate back-end services such as the special handling of images (resolution reduction for improved performance) and the file storage and management system.

  • The new ActionScript 3 is a "breath of fresh air" for developers familiar with more structured languages such as Java and C++. It contains basics such as type-checking that are common in other languages but were missing in ActionScript 2.  ActionScript started out as a way of adding "fun" widgets to a movie but, with ActionScript 3, has matured into a language for writing sophisticated application logic.

back to top
What Flex 2 technologies does JamJar use?
JamJar uses both the Adobe Flex 2 UI framework as well as Flex Data Services (FDS). Within FDS, RPC services, the Flex Data Management Service, and Flex Message Service are used to talk to our persistence tier as well as our J2EE server app. More information can be found within the Adobe JamJar: Using Flex 2 to Build a Collaborative Environment Application white paper PDF.
back to top
Can I build widgets for JamJar?
Although the widget architecture was designed with third-party extensibility in mind, we currently do not have a fully-developed 3rd party JamJar Widget SDK, nor do we have a process to test and deploy 3rd party widgets. We may add this capability in the future if developers show enough interest.
back to top

Technologies

Showcase Gallery


MAX 2008