uPortal: One door to Portal Nirvana

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uPortalOne door to Portal Nirvana

• Kirk M. Anne

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What is uPortal?

• A framework for producing a portal
• NOT turn key
• Based on Java and XML/XSLT
• Developed by a consortium of higher education
  institutions and industry leaders
• Columbia, Cornell, Syracuse, Yale, U of
  Delaware,UC Irvine, UNM, Princeton, imm, IBS,
  Sun, SCT
• Available on a number of platforms
• Windows, Solaris, Linux and MacOS X
• http//www.ja-sig.org/uportal

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Its free, right?

• You get what you pay for
• Requires knowledge in
• Java programming (especially J2EE)
• XML/XSLT
• Java Server Pages (JSP)
• Servlets
• SQL/JDBC
• Enterprise Java Beans (EJB)
• Project Management

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uPortal Roles

• The Administrator
• Installs the software
• Monitors capacity and performance
• The Implementor
• Designs look and feel
• Manages categories and default layouts
• The Developer
• Creates content for channels
• The Subscriber
• Subscribes to the content

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The Administrator

• The first steps

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Impress your boss and friends!

• There are two ways to install uPortal
• The quick way
• Download one file
• http//mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportaldist/uPor
  tal_2-1-2-quick-start.zip
• Type four commands
• unzip uPortal_2-1-2-quick-start.zip
• cd uPortal_2-1-2-quick-start
• ./ant.sh hsql
• ./ant.sh tomcatstart
• Voilà! You have a portal!
• The hard way
• Necessary if you want to move it into production
• Boy was I fooled

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Steps for install

• Install RedHat 8.0 with everything (easy)
• Install Java SDK 1.4.1 (easy)
• Install Tomcat 4.1.18 (relatively easy)
• Install Ant 1.5.3 (mostly easy)
• Install uPortal 2.1.2 (a little harder)

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Installing RedHat 8.0

• Not the latest but has all the parts
• PostgreSQL relational database system
• Apache web server
• OpenLDAP directory server
• Necessary libraries for everything

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Install Java SDK 1.4.1

• Download from Sun
• Install as instructed

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Install Tomcat 4.1.18

• A little more complex
• Compile from scratch or do by packages
• RPM packages at http//www.jpackage.org
• You can use other Java systems like JBoss

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Install Ant 1.5.3

• Again relatively simple
• Compile from source
• RPM packages at http//www.jpackage.org

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Install uPortal 2.1.2

• Download the distribution package
• Set up portal repository database
• Edit build.properties
• Edit properties/PersonDirs.xml
• Edit properties/rdbm.properties
• Edit properties/dbloader.xml
• Edit properties/ldap.properties
• Edit properties/portal.properties
• Edit properties/securities.properties
• Edit properties/groups/compositGroupServices.xml
• Edit properties/groups/LDAPGroupStoreConfig.xml

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Install uPortal 2.1.2 (continued)

• ant db
• ant deploy
• /etc/init.d/tomcat4 start
• And finally Voilà!
• A more permanent and stable solution

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The rest of theAdministrators job

• Backing up the databases and files
• Monitoring performance
• Installing additional components as needed
• Skills
• DBA for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle
• UNIX system administration
• LDAP
• Shell scripting
• Java
• XML

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The Implementor

• Time to customize

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Now that the softwares installed

• Start Portal Project Mangement
• Collect prioritize project requirements
• Determine which features are higher priority
• Document requirements and obtain signoffs
• Develop an iterative release schedule
• Implement a change control system
• Roll it out slowly after a LOT of testing
• Find the team that can put it together

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Take the first step

• There are seven default perspectives logins
• demo/demo
• student/student
• faculty/faculty
• staff/staff
• developer/developer
• admin/admin
• guest/Have to set the password
• ant md5passwd -Dusernameguest
• Once logged in, you can edit the default layout

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Tabs and Channels

• After logging in, you can edit
• Tabs
• The major parts
• Columns
• Areas to put channels
• Channels
• Windows to other services

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57 channels and nothings on?

• Numerous ways to bring content in
• Java Applet
• Image
• Inline HTML frame
• Remote Channel Proxy
• Rich Site Summary (RSS)
• Web Proxy
• XML Transformation
• Custom

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Preferences

• Under the Preferences menu
• Create/Modify/Delete tabs
• Create/Modify/Delete columns
• Add/Move/Delete channels

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The Developer

• Content is king!

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The Developer

• Most of the channel types cover required content
  options
• The Developer is needed for adding content
• Creating channels of information
• New applications if necessary
• Middleware to connect to legacy systems

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The Subscriber

• The last person in the chain

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Subscribers

• Can redesign their pages
• Add channels, remove channels
• Personalize their experience
• If you let them

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Demo Time