JSAMP v1.3-1 released; please consider upgrading

[Mark Taylor]

[posted to apps & apps-samp lists - apologies for duplication]

Hi all,

I have just released JSAMP v1.3-1.  You can find it in the usual place:

   http://software.astrogrid.org/doc/jsamp/

The most important change is that when the Hub is started, the Web Profile 
now runs by default.

The other significant thing is that the Web Profile now has a new
security measure: by default only certain named MTypes
(currently [samp.app.*, samp.msg.progress, bibcode.*, coord.*, image.*,
spectrum.*, table.*, voresource.*]) can be sent from a web client;
others are blocked by the hub.
The intention of this is that by restricting messages sent to ones
with known, harmless, semantics, hostile web clients are less likely
to be able to do bad things.  This restriction can be switched off
by explicit user action.  This measure is experimental and may be
modified or withdrawn at some point in the future (opinions/feedback
welcome). The full story on security measures can be found in the 
"Profiles" section of the docs.  (There are a few other minor changes
at this version which can be seen in the "Change Log" section).

The conclusion from discussions at Pune was that web application
deployers would like science users to be able to use Web SAMP
capabilities now, which means they need to be running Web Profile
capable hubs.  The most effective way to make this happen is for
those desktop applications which bundle a hub to configure it
to run the Web Profile by default.  For this reason, developers of
applications which bundle a JSAMP hub are encouraged to upgrade
to the current version in the near future.

I will be starting the ball rolling by releasing a TOPCAT which
runs JSAMP 1.3-1, and hence the Web Profile by default, shortly.
To get an idea of how widely the Web Profile is going to be
available to users, I would be interested to hear from other 
developers of VO apps, either directly or on list, if/when they 
plan to do the same.

Any feedback, bug reports, requests for help, etc related to 
the new JSAMP version are welcome as always,

Mark

--
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/