uportal 3: sneak previewja-sig winter conference 2005 uportal 3 sneak preview eric dalquist, peter...

uPortal 3: Sneak Preview JA-SIG Winter Conference 2005

uPortal 3sneak preview

Eric Dalquist, Peter Kharchenko

Unicon Inc.


Outline

• Project goals

• Architecture overview– Flexibility through configuration

• Demonstration– uPortal2 UI support

• Features– What’s currently there

• Release targets and timelines– More features to come


Project goals

• Long-term goals for the framework– configuration flexibility

• rendering mechanisms• HTTP parameter generation/processing

mechanisms• data layer implementations

– code maintenance in a long run• isolated, individually configured groups of

components• transparent, sparse coupling


Project goals

• Goals for the initial release– Spring framework

• Dependency injection• Unified configuration

– JSR168 support– Complete WSRP integration– uPortal2 backwards-compatibility– Modular support for subprojects: GAP,

PersonDir – Shedding custom code: ACEGI, Hibernate


Outline

• Project goals

• Architecture overview– Flexibility through configuration

• Demonstration– uPortal2 UI support

• Features– What’s currently there

• Release targets and timelines– More features to come


Architecture overview: portal contexts

• What is a Portal Context ?– Defines all aspects of a traditional portal

instance• Parameter syntax• Design, navigation, profiles• Portlet selections, session scopes

– Multiple, concurrent contexts can be used• Example contexts

– uPortal2 clone– static frame showing a single portlet– service context for AJAX callback

uPor

tal c

onte

xt


Architecture overview: context resolvers

• Alternative context resolution strategies– user information

• authentication state• user affiliation (groups), attributes (permissions)

– user agent information (browser)– internal states, session (i.e. down for maintenance)

• Servlet Path resolver– switch contexts by going to

a specific servlet path– http://host/uPortal/context/...

AJA

X c

allb

acks

…

Context Resolver

uPor

tal2

look

alik

e

Sin

gle

port

let


output

Architecture overview: rendering

• Rendering is compiled by components– Rendering trees– Linear pipelines

• Rendering component– Creates or modifies content– Determines viable rendering path– Multiple component types

• SAX components– XSLT transformer filter

• String components– Portlet content injector

– Built to accommodate other component types


Architecture overview: Spring configuration

…

<property name=“pipelineElements”>

<ref bean=“layoutSource”/>

<ref bean=“transientLayoutInjector”/>

<ref bean=“structureTransfromationFilter”/>

<ref bean=“themeTransformationFilter”/>

<ref bean=“sax2StringCachingFilter”/>

<ref bean=“renderingInitiationFilter”/>

<ref bean=“portletIncorporationFilter”/>

<ref bean=“servletResponseWriter”/>

</property>

…

User layout

Structure and theme

Caching/Serialization

Portlet rendering

uPortal2 lookalike context rendering pipeline configuration


output

Architecture overview: render caching

• Some components cache content– ICacheFilter interface– Independent of the content type (SAX, String)

• Cache manager– Determines available cache entry points– Checks entry point validity– Chooses optimal entry point– Replays cache


Architecture overview: URL parameter syntax

• URL construction and request parameter processing is programmatic and modular– URLs are generated by implementations, not by hand– Framework components come with their own URL

constructors and parameter processors

<property name=“urlConstructorProviders”>

<ref bean=“transientLayoutUrlConstructor”/>

<ref bean=“portletErrorHandlerUrlConstructor”/>

</property>

<property name=“processors”>

<ref bean=“transientLayoutParameterProcessor”/>

<ref bean=“portletErrorHandlerParameterProcessor”/>

</property>

Constructors

Processors


Architecture overview: URL construction

• URL construction in Java code– Construct URLs by calling methods on command

interfaces– Portlet error handler URL example:

– Portlets can access framework URL syntax• Outside of JSR168• Used by uPortal3 management portlets

IPortletErrorCommands c = portalUrl.getUrlConstructor (name);

c.restartBrokenPortlet (portletWindowId);

portalUrl.toString ();


Architecture overview: URL construction

• URL construction in XSLT stylesheets– Using extension elements

<portal:url>

<rendering:parameter source=“theme” name=“skinName” value=“matrix”/>

<rendering:attribute source="structure" name=“minimized" value=“true" select="//folder[@type='someType']"/>

</portal:url>

<portlet:renderUrl>

<portlet:parameter name="parameterName" value="parameter value"/>

<portlet:portletMode windowId="anotherId" mode="view"/>

</portlet:renderUrl>

portlet

framework


Architecture overview: Examples of URL syntax features

• uPortal2 syntax support– Layout management, Channel/Folder attributes, etc.

• Encode navigational state– Chemistry Tab: http://host/uPortal/Chemistry101/– Mail portlet: http://host/uPortal/portlet/mail

• Encode user spaces– Users’ tab: http://host/uPortal/~peter/blogPage/


Architecture overview: controllers

• User– Keeps track of the current user– Distributes authentication events– ACEGI implementation

• Persistence– Coordinates persistence for a context

• Locale manager– Maintains and resolves multiple sources of locale

preference


Architecture overview: portlet handling

• PortletWindowManager– Coordinates portlet render/action requests– Rendering models

• Linear• Multithreaded

– Error handler

• Portlet Domain Objects– Deployment (as distributed)– Definition (published)– Entity (subscribed)– Window (placed in the layout)


Architecture overview: portlet registries

Database

DAO’s

Registries

DAO Implementations e.g. Spring JDBC

Caching

uPortal Framework

Domain objects

Domain objectsTransfer objects

DomainObject

Factories


WSRP

• Consumer Support– Similar to uPortal 2.4– Confirmed integration to the Sakai framework

• Producer Support– Any portlet can be exposed– Re-use configured instances– uPortal as a service provider


Porltets

• Specification Compliance– Complete JSR-168 specification compliance– Ease of extension for custom features

• Management– Better use of portlet deployment data– Administrators need less detailed portlet

knowledge

• Future compatibility– JSR-286 on the horizon– Significantly less effort for integration with uPortal3


Object Caching

• uPortal2 has no explicit caches– Caches are hidden in the framework– Difficult to configured

• One cache per object type• Reduces long term references

– Lowers the possibility of memory leaks long term– Less complicated framework code

• Performance tuning for your environment– Fine grained controls provide flexibility


Object Caching

• Cache Configuration

<bean id="portletDefinitionRegistry" class=“...PortletDefinitionRegistryImpl"> <property name="cache"> <ref bean="/caches/portletDefinitionCache"/> </property></bean>

registries Context

<bean id="portletDefinitionCache" class="...EhcacheAdapter"> <property name="ehcache"> <bean parent="baseEhCacheBean"> <property name="maxElementsInMemory"> <value>32</value> </property> </bean> </property></bean>

caches Context


uPortal 2 Compatibility

• Full uPortal 2 stylesheet support is available– Structure and theme style compatibility– URL Syntax– Stylesheet Definition Files (SDFs)– Support provided by uPortal3 API implementations

• Simple User Layout Management– Port of the basic uPortal 2 layout manager– Provides layout customization for uPortal 3– Template user support


uPortal 2 Compatibility - TODO

• IChannel Support– We need community feedback– What APIs do your channels use?– IBM’s API Scanner:

• http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/aus

• DLM Integration– Targeted as the default layout manager

• Database Upgrade Tools– Layout customizations– User preferences


Hibernate

• Standard persistence mechanism for uPortal3– All DAOs will use Hibernate for persistence

• Greatly reduced persistence code– No SQL to maintain– Simplifies adding persisted data– Integrated schema update tools

• Provides greater range of database support


Unit Testing

• New design is easier to test– Smaller components are more specialized

• Long term stability– Tests provide assurance during customization

• Greater initial coverage– Majority of the code is covered by tests


Services

• Sub-Project Development– Break out uPortal independent services– Provides functionality to more than just uPortal

• Current Sub-Projects– Groups and Permissions– Person Directory


Release Strategy

• Milestone 3– Released December 2nd– Group management portlet ported– User locale preference framework– uPortal 2 stylesheet support– uPortal 3 Rendering context– Service integration

• Person Directory• Groups Framework

December January February March April May


Release Strategy

• Alpha– Target: End of February 2006– Implementation cleanup– Permissions framework integration– Service integration testing– Portlet support verification



Release Strategy

• Beta– Target: End of March 2006– Ready to Rock!– Complete ‘Portlet Only’ portal– Usable by new adopters for evaluation and

planning



Release Strategy

• Release Candidates & 3.0 Final– Need community involvement!– IChannel support– Database migration tools– Distributed Layout Management


Architecture overview: rendering attributes

• Rendering attributes – “rendering preferences”– Information associated with layout elements– Defined by users, transforms, components– uPortal2 example: column width

• Generalized in uPortal3– Providers: determine appropriate attribute sources

• By folderId, portletWindowId, element name, etc.

– Values: handle persistence, scoping– Injectors: insert rendering attribute information

• XSLT params, <parameter/> elements, etc.

– Multiple attribute scopes: transforms, layouts, portlets


Architecture overview: rendering attributes

• Simple rendering attribute provider example– Recognizes <folder/> elements by @ID attribute– Stores attribute values for that user in a DB– Outputs default values for missing attributes– Configured to inject attributes as <parameter/> elements

• Hierarchical rendering attribute provider– Recognizes <folder/> elements by @ID attribute

• Outputs attribute values defined by the user– Recognizes <folder/> by @fragmentId attribute

• Outputs attribute values defined by the fragment author

uportal 3: sneak previewja-sig winter conference 2005 uportal 3 sneak preview eric dalquist, peter...

Documents

pipeline configuration

project goals goals

output architecture

uportal2 lookalike context

project goals longterm

sparse coupling slide

single portlet service

sneak preview eric dalquist