The Ozone Widget Framework (OWF) is an open-source web-based framework for composing and integrating lightweight web applications, known as "widgets", into a customisable desktop-like interface called a "webtop". Developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), it enables decentralised data communication between widgets within a browser, allowing users to assemble tools for tasks like real-time analytics, cyber-situational awareness, and operational planning without sending data back to servers. OWF supports inter-widget communication via intents and channels.
OWF's code was hosted on GitHub by the Ozone Platform team and released as Government Open Source Software (GOSS). The framework evolved from NSA's Secure Widget Integration Framework (SWIF), incorporating mandatory access control (MAC) for multi-level security.
Assemble widgets into dashboards or tabbed layouts for personalised workflows.
Enable inter-widget communication via publish-subscribe channels and intents, allowing data sharing (e.g., a contact list sending addresses to a map widget).
Integrate with APIs like the Common Map Widget API (CMAPI) for standardised map-data interactions.
Development and community
Development focuses on widget creation, with guides for integrating existing apps and adding components like descriptor URLs. The Ozone Platform maintains repositories for OWF, the OZONE Marketplace (a widget search engine), and OZONE Synapse (a data-caching layer).
Community support includes Google Groups for LDAP configuration and announcements, with pull requests encouraged via GitHub. Refactoring efforts in 2013 aimed at OSGi backend and Ext JS removal for scalability.