11/14/00Copyright © Yale University1 uPortal: A Java Based Portal Framework A Project of JA-SIG ( Presented by: Susan Bramhall,

11/14/00 Copyright © Yale University 1

uPortal: A Java Based Portal Framework

A Project of JA-SIG (http://www.ja-sig.org/)

Presented by:

Susan Bramhall, Yale University


This Presentation• Covers current uPortal implementation (1.0)• Framework

– Current look and feel – Customization, personalization, – Authentication – Publish and Subscribe

• Content– Channels available– Custom channels


What it looks like

Channel

Header ColumnTab

Footer

ChannelControls


What is underneath• Java Server Pages, Java Servlets• XML based layout definition• XML / XSL ==> HTML tables (version 1)• XML to target different devices (version 2)• Relational Database• Open source and free to higher ed.• Well defined channel interface

(IXMLChannel)


Flexible Authentication Infrastructure

• Security API

• Security service provider interface (SPI)– MD5 hashed password as example– Need to supply your own (

Yale netid example)– Other examples such as Kerberos and

LDAP are under construction


Current Channels

• Weather– Parameter of Location

• Applets– Parameter of URL for applet

• HTML Page / Inline Frame– Parameter of URI for content


More Interesting Channels

• Bookmarks

• RSS - an example of XML in use– Simple XML Format (tags)– You supply the content– Guide at http://my.netscape.com/publish/

• myUBC webmail channel


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE rss PUBLIC "-//Netscape Communications//DTD RSS 0.91//EN" "http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-0.91.dtd">

<rss version="0.91">…</rss>

Start and end of rss document


<channel><title>ITS General Announcements</title><link>

http://www.yale.edu/its/announce/index.htm</link><description>

Announcements from ITS to all computer users at Yale

</description><language>en-us</language><copyright>Yale University 2000</copyright><pubDate>Fri, 28 Jul 2000</pubDate><lastBuildDate>Fri, 28 Jul 2000</lastBuildDate>

…</channel>

Channel Element


<item><title>Meeting Maker Upgrade</title>

<link>http://www.yale.edu/its/mm.htm

</link><description>

ITS will upgrade to Meeting Maker 6 in August.

</description></item>

One or more Item Elements


Publicly Available RSS examples

• moreover - top stories, science, stocks, programming etc

• www.xmltree.com- many many rss sources


Internal RSS examples• ITS messages - content generated at

run time

• Yale Herald - content generated by weekly process

• Static RSS channels– Search Yale Directory– Search Yale Web


Custom channel example

• Yale Courses Channel– Java class which implements

IXMLChannel• Selects courses for this student from SIS

(Banner)• Retrieves additional information from courses

LDAP server - including URL's• Creates XML/DOM representing list of courses

– Uses XSL to format channel output


Other Sites• See uPortal website at

http://www.mis2.udel.edu/ja-sig/portal.html

• MyUBC: University of British Columbia– IMAP mail channel– Applets for Student Services

• Delaware, Princeton, IBS


uPortal is a project of Ja-sig• Open Source (see uPortal website)

• Free, sharable portal for institutions of higher-education

• Participants include Boston College, Cornell, Princeton, University of Delaware, University of British Columbia,Yale, Interactive Business Solutions and others

• Version 2 planned for March 2001

• Workshop Wednesday 1:00 - 5:00


Get InvolvedCheck out the uPortal Developers Reference

at one of the demo sites


Questions?

Presentation available online athttp://www.yale.edu/tp/webdevshare/ppframe.htm

Documents

11/14/00Copyright © Yale University1 uPortal: A Java Based Portal Framework A Project of JA-SIG ( Presented by: Susan Bramhall,