Web Portal Project
CS 526 Class
Project
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-Lee,
Austin
-Narayan, Sujeeth
-Viswanathan, Arun
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Agenda
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Part 1 – Portals Introduction
Part 2 – uPortal Introduction
Part 3 – uPortal Architecture
Part 4 – Channels
Part 5 – Individual Explorations
Part 6 - Conclusion
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Motivation
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Yes!! Portal jobs in market!!
Middleware Technologies – Portlets,
WebServices, XML, CSS,…
CU-Boulder has implemented. UCCS
too..
Bigger team size, different experiences
and more learning
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What is a Portal ?
Portals wrap an organization’s documents and applications in a single
web interface that provides distributed access, cross-platform usability,
personalization, management, and security features.
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List of Portal Features
• Categorization of content (taxonomy)
• Content management & aggregation
• Personalization
• Robust application integration
• Development tools
• Mobile/wireless support
• Single Sign-On
• Security
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Available Portals
Open Source Portals with Java
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eXo
JetSpeed – Apache
WebSphere Portal – IBM
uPortal - JASIG
Open Source Portals with Microsoft Technologies
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DotNetNuke
Rainbow
Others
PHPNuke, Microsoft Share Point, Oracle Portal, Peoplesoft Portal,..
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Portals Survey
Survey by: http://portlets.blogspot.com
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Part 2 – uPortal Introduction
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What is uPortal ?
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Developed under JA-SIG (Java in Administration Special
Interest Group) by institutions of higher-education including
Princeton, Yale, and University of Delaware
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An open source, open standards effort built upon Java, XML,
XSL, JSP, J2EE, and JDBC
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More of a framework for building custom portals than a proper
portal
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uPortal extended - SAKAI
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Developed by Universities – MIT, Stanford, Indiana
and O.K.I
SAKAI = Collaboration & Learning Environment
Includes :
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Course Management System
Research collaboration system
Tool Portability Profile Tool – standard for future educational
application
SEPP – Sakai Education Partners Program
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uPortal Sample Screen
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Part 3 - uPortal Architecture
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Architecture
Java Servlet
Engine
Apache
Servlet
Connector
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uPortal
Framework
Java
Channels
Web Browser
Web Portal
External
Web
Resources
DB
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System Requirements
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Microsoft Windows
Solaris
Linux
Mac OS X
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Software Requirements
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Sun JDK 1.3 or above
Ant 1.5.3 or above (Java build tool)
Servlet Container/Engine compatible
with Servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 API
(Tomcat 3.3.2)
JDBC Compliant Database (Hypersonic
SQL)
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Browser Compatibility
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Netscape 4 and above
Internet Explorer 4 and above
Mozilla 5 and above
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J2EE
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The portal architecture can take
advantage of the J2EE services provided
by the Web Container.
Can use JMS, JTA as available
Can handle Applets, Servlets, JSP
pages
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Custom Channel Creation
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Custom channels are written in Java:
CHelloWorld.java
CHelloWorld.ssl (stylesheet)
normal_explorer.xsl
normal_netscape.xsl
about.xsl (optional)
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Portlet
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Packaged channel
Requires compiled java class(es)
Portlet library (lib/portlet-api-1.0.1.jar)
Web descriptor (portlet.xml)
When finished, package into a JAR file,
then rename to .war
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Pushed Fragments
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A channel forced on a group of users
Fragment owner has access to modify
settings of a fragment
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Part 4 - Channels
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Channel Types
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Custom
Applet
Image
Inline Frame
Portlet
RSS
Web Proxy
WSRP Consumer
XML Transformation
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Channels - Demo
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Individual Explorations
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System Info
OS: Fedora Core 3 (2.6.11 kernel)
 Processor/Memory: Pentium 4, 256 MB
 Browser: Mozilla Firefox v1.0.3
 uPortal Quick Start v2.4.2
 JDK v1.4.2 & v1.5.0
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Configuration
Download zip file
 Extract
 Set JAVA_HOME, PATH env variables
 Start up HSQL server and Tomcat server
 On browser, http://localhost:8080/uPortal
 Login as admin, developer, demo,
student, faculty, staff
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My Channel
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A campus news channel (RSS)
• current happenings
• discussion forums
• student comments
Weather channel ( WSRP)
 Usage-tracking functionality
(implement?!)
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Individual Explorations
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PayPal Channel - Demo
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MySQL caveat
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Documentation refers to older version of
MySQL and JDBC connector
Current version (MySQL 4.1.11 and
MySQL-JDBC-Connector 3.1.8) uses
different naming schemes when you
modify dbloader.xml, names and
versions must be exact! (see
JdbcExample1.java)
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Individual Explorations
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Classifieds Channel
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Goals:
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Enable users to have a separate classifieds channel
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It could be either push-fragment or user subscription
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Classifieds publish time frame
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Customizable by user
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Only Titles and Link (View)
Title and Details (View)
Subscribe to interested Categories – Cars , Rental
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Classifieds - Roles
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Admin
Channel Admin
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Content Manager
Time Frame Manager
Request User
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Fill in the content details and time period
General Users
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Subscribe to the channel
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Classifieds Channel - Design
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Built using XML and Portlets
XML Schema used :
<Classifieds>
<Classified>
<Title></Title>
<Details></Details>
<Link></Link>
</Classified>
</Classifieds>
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Design (Continue)
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Portlet JSR -168
Use IPersonal Interface by uPortal for
user Identification
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Part 6 - Conclusion
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Lessons Learnt
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uPortal documentation refers to old versions, and/or is
incomplete
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JDK 1.4 or higher....but JDK 1.5.0?
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RSS Portlet example fails to render with 1.5.0
CLASSPATH is also necessary when using the JDBC database connector JAR
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Environment variable setting
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Set them once-and-for-all
Running uPortal
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First time, start both servers as root user
Subsequent startup, no need to be root
Not mentioned in README!!
Modify ant.bat (or ant.sh) with fixed path of Ant folder.
Use ‘ant deploy’ in uportal folder to recompile java for your JDK!
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References
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www.uportal.org
www.sakaiproject.org
www.cuconnect.colorado.edu
www.portlets.blogspot.com
www.w3c.org
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http://people.emich.edu/kmanickam/uportal_2_0_1
/channel_2_0_1.htm
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www.mysql.com
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Questions ??
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