UPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 uPortal 3.0.0 What's New? Eric Dalquist University of Wisconsin - Madison

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008

uPortal 3.0.0What's New?

Eric Dalquist

University of Wisconsin - Madison


Roadmap Review

• How did we get here?–uPortal 2 is a solid base–Identified areas for improvement–Focused on major changes

• Where are we going?–All those not-quite major changes–Planning semi-annual releases

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008Positioning & Preparation

• Positioning is the common theme–The standard goal was to position 3.0

as a future-proof portal framework

• Planning for future development–Re-factoring may not be uPortal wide

but the 'hard' bits are done for 3.0


Core Changes

• Theme & Skin• Project Structure• Build System• Spring Configuration• Portlet Container• Caching Framework• Import/Export Tools• CAS Authentication


New Theme & Skin

• Clean XHTML & CSS markup• Easier to Skin

–More CSS Hooks–Generic Document Structure

• Modifiable Theme XSL–Multiple Well-Scoped Files–Internally Well Documented–Red/Yellow/Green Ratings–Forward looking maintenance


New Theme & Skin

• Simple Directory Structure–Separate Structure & Theme–Meaningful Directory Names

• Flexible Skin Directories–Allows for shared files–Skins are assumed to be theme

specific

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008Revised Content

• Better initial project impression

• Targeted layout content

• Demonstration of portal capabilities

• See Gary Thompson's presentation for more theme & skin information


New Build System & Project Structure

• Maven Standard Directory Layout• All Maven projects look similar• Reduces learning curve across

projects• Reduces build management

overhead


New Build System

• Maven 2 at the core–Dependency Management–Compiling, Testing, Packaging

• Ant Utilities–Deployment–uPortal Tools

• Database Setup• User Management• Import/Export Command Line


New Build System

• Targets moved into Maven–all, compile, compiletests, dist,

javadoc, runtests–Helpful error messages are included

• Targets renamed–deploy => deploy-war–pubchan => crn-import

• Retains 2.6 Functionality

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008•Spring Configuration

• Single ApplicationContext Instance• Multiple Context Files

–Keeps the context files focused• Seamless integration across

command-line and web-app usage• Makes extensions less intrusive

–Extend or implement don't modify!


Spring Configuration

• What has moved?–Core and Portlet related factories–Service configuration

• How does it work?–Spring Context is the master–Most factories are context backed

• What's next?–Continue the factory hunt

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008•Portlet Container

• Upgraded to Pluto 1.1–Significant reduction of portal code

• Pluto provides many services

• Complete Re-Integration–Added portletisms into uPortal–Portlets are the new public API–Resolved IChannel mismatches

• Positioned for JSR-286 (Portlet 2.0)

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008•JPA & Hibernate

• Using J2EE 5.0 Annotations• Reduction in custom DAO code• Database abstraction

–Multiple supported databases• Integrated caching layer• Simplifies application code

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008•Caching Framework

• Uses Spring-Modules for abstraction–Supports multiple caching frameworks

• Clustering Support!• Single cache manager

–Shared between multiple frameworks–Single configuration location

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008•JMX

• Monitoring & Management• JDBC & LDAP Connections

–View pool health and performance• Cache Statistics & Management

–Gather performance statistics–Help with portal tuning direction

• Hibernate Statistics–Watch database performance


JMX


Import / Export

• All (almost) data in entity files• Minimal data.xml

–430 lines, down from 5800 in 2.6• Supports Import of 2.6 Entities• Much easier to modify, maintain and

migrate

• See Andrew Wills' presentations for more information

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008•Bundling CAS

• A CAS 3.1 Server is bundled–Authenticates via the Portal DB

• Same uPortal Security system–Doesn't preclude existing

configurations• Promote CAS for SSO with uPortal• CAS Proxy support for Portlets

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008Reducing Custom Code

• Avoid re-inventing those wheels• Use well vetted FOSS libraries

–Free & Open Source Software• Focus on the interesting problems• Simplifies long-term maintenance• Reduces needs for uPortal specific

documentation–Switch to Spring-LDAP is an example


3.1 and Beyond

• Many interesting opportunities–Fluid Reorderer Integration–Stand-Alone Groups and Permissions–Spring-Security (aka Acegi)–Refactoring DAOs to use JPA–Implement portlet based admin tools–Refactored rendering pipeline


Thank You!

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to uPortal 3.0!

Documents

UPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 uPortal 3.0.0 What's New? Eric Dalquist University of Wisconsin - Madison