uPortal and JA-SIG
Java in Administration Special Interest Group
http://www.ja-sig.org
JA-SIG Focus
Java
in “Administration”
Share Experience and Code
Develop Common Direction
Promote Java in Higher
Education
Leverage Higher-ed w/ Vendors
Bill Joy’s Law
JA-SIG Participants
Princeton
 UBC
 Delaware
 Florida State
 Cornell
 UCSD
 Boston
 Georgetown

 Brown
 Yale
 Hawaii
 Columbia
U
Washington
 Minnesota
 UT Austin
 …all but two
CSG
 …more
JA-SIG Activities
Conferences
– Twice
Annually
Clearinghouse – Code
Sharing
uPortal – Collaborative
Development Project
Conferences
 1--December
1999; Orlando, FL
 2--July 2000, Monterey; CA
 3--February 4-6, 2001; Destin, FL
 4--June, 2001; La Jolla, CA
 5--December, 2001; Destin, FL
 Note: uPortal/Java Split June,
2002
 SUN Sponsorship
Clearinghouse
Members
Only
Announcement of Code to
Share
Conditions for Sharing
Matchmaker, not Repository
Institutions and Vendors
Java is the Common Ground
uPortal
 Free
Higher-Ed Portal, no Ads
 Open Source, Open Standards
 J2EE, XML, SQL, componentbased
 Transformation Technology
 Collaborative Effort
 uPortal
– Channel Framework
– Channel Content
uPortal
 UBC,
Yale, Princeton, Delaware,
Cal Poly, IBS, im&m, Columbia
 Boston, Brown, Georgetown,
Cornell, Washington
 Version 1.0 – Monterey - July
 Version 1.5 – Destin – February
 Version 2.0 – Destin – Last
Month
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uPortal Interfaces
 Database
 Authentication
 Authorization
 Directory
services
 User preferences
– Profiles, structure, themes,
skins
 Channel
information
– Availability, behavior,
What is a Channel?
 Displays
content
– XML feeds
»Rich Site Summary (RSS)
»Web services
– Legacy systems
 Interactive
applications
– Bookmarks
– Email, chat, backpack
 Everything’s
a Channel
What’s a Channel?
 My
Grades
 My Assignment Grades
 My Transfer Credit
 My Student Loans
 My Favorite NFL Scores
 My IMAP mail
 Publish and Subscribe
The Meteor channel
Flexible Layouts
 Structures
– Tab / column
– Tree / column
 Themes
– Multi-column
– Multi-row
 Skins
– ‘The Matrix’, ‘Smell the Java’
Tab / Column Layout
Tree / Column Layout
Content
Transformation
XML
XHTML: Web Browser
XSLT
Processor
HTML: PDA
Stylesheet
WML: Cell Phone
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51
52
Architectural
Features
 Flexible
Layouts
 Publish and Subscribe
 Extensive user customization
 Robust Channel Capabilities
 Channel services
 Inter-channel communications
 Normalized database schema
 Profiles (multiple device
management)
In progress
Performance
Optimization
Scalability Testing
User Interface Usability
User Identification
More Channel Content!
Channel
Development
boards – UBC
 Calendar – IBS
 IMAP Email – UBC
 Announcements – Columbia, Cal
Poly
 ExLibris – Delaware, Nottingham
 Jive – Virginia
 Jabber - Delaware
 Bulletin
Live
 British
Columbia
 Princeton
 Cal Poly
 Denison
 Hawaii
 Cornell
 Rutgers
 Loyola
Chicago
 UC Irvine
Engaged


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Athabasca
Laurentian
Delaware
Yale
Memorial U of
Newfoundland
Cal Poly
Columbia
Villanova
Nottingham UK
Ringling
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Iowa State
U New Mexico
Illinois State
Kansas Medical
UC Irvine
U Tennessee
Boston College
Stanford Medical
REUNA Chile
Manchester CC
Mass VES
Evaluation

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
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Lehigh
NH EAS
Mass BHE
RPI
Maryland
Wayne State
UCLA
NC State
U Arizona
ETA Zurich
Lutheran Seminary
Stockton NJ
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Temple
Plymouth State
UCSD
Georgetown
Miami Ohio
Northeastern
Syracuse
Spring Arbor
U Central Florida
Loyola MD
CSU Hayward
Eastern Michigan
Investment
and Support
Mellon
Foundation
Sun Microsystems
Interactive Business Solutions (IBS)
instructional media and magic
(im&m)
Participating Institutions
Participating Vendors
Mellon
Foundation Award
 First
of Three Years
 Ready-for-Primetime Release
– Project Manager
– Developers (UI and Architecture)
 Package
as Turn-key Product
– Technical Writer
 Sustainable
Support Model
– Vendor Relations
Vendor
Participation
 Sun
 CampusPipeline
 WebCT
 InfiNet
 Prometheus
 Blackboard
 Datatel
Other Activity
 Mass
VES K12
 i2 WebISO
 OKI
 Meteor
 RSmart
 Mass BHE
 SFA, INS, other govt agencies
New
Common Ground
Interoperability…
XML
Loosely
Coupled
Business Messages
Web Services
– XML, SOAP, UDDI, WSDL
We
need to talk…
The portal as an example of institutional UI to distributed data.
uPortal
Free
Open
Source
Active Higher Ed Community
Architecture for Future
Attracting Support
Gaining Influence
More Information
 http://www.jasig.org
– Organization
– Conferences
– Clearinghouse
– uPortal Project
» uPortal CVS
carlj@udel.edu