Portlets in uPortal

Presenter Info:

Ken Weinerkweiner@unicon.net310.414.6760 x216

“Portlets in uPortal”

Portlets in uPortal

Overview

• Portlet Specification• Jakarta Pluto• Portlets in uPortal 2.3• Portlets vs. Channels• Portlet Development• uPortal Portlet Roadmap

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Specification

Portlets in uPortal

JSR 168: Portlet Specification

• Java Community Processhttp://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=168

• Led by Sun and IBM• 1.0 Final Release Oct 27, 2003• Interoperability between Portlets/Portals• Set of APIs addressing areas of aggregation,

personalization, presentation and security.

Portlets in uPortal

Future of Portlet Specification

• Portlet filters• Inter-portlet event-style communication• Portlets produce and influence markup

outside of the portlet fragment

Portlets in uPortal

Jakarta Pluto

Portlets in uPortal

Apache Portals Project

• Pluto– Portlet Container– Reference implementation of JSR 168

• WSRP4J– Reference implementation of Oasis WSRP Spec– Producer/consumer interfaces– Consumer Portlet proxy

• Jetspeed-2– Enterprise portal– JSR-168 compliant

http://portals.apache.org/

Portlets in uPortal

Jakarta Pluto

• Status– Apache Incubator

– Apache Portals

• Contents– Portlet API (JSR 168)– Portlet Container– Portal Driver– Test Suite Portlet

http://portals.apache.org/pluto/

Portlets in uPortal

Portlets

Pluto Component Relationships

Portlet API

Portlet Container

Portal

javax.portlet

org.apache.pluto.core.impl

org.apache.plutoorg.apache.pluto.omorg.apache.pluto.services

org.apache.pluto.portalImpl Pluto Portal Driver

Portlet Portlet

Portlet Portlet

org.jasig.portal.container uPortal

Implements

Implements

Live in

Use

Portlets in uPortal

Pluto Object Model

• Servlet org.apache.pluto.om.servlet

– Web application, servlet definition

• Portlet org.apache.pluto.om.portlet

– Portlet application definition, portlet definition

• Entity org.apache.pluto.om.entity

– Portlet application entity, portlet entity

• Window org.apache.pluto.om.window

– Portlet window

• Common org.apache.pluto.om.common

– Names, descriptions, preferences, etc.

Portlets in uPortal

Pluto Services

• Information provider service– Static information provider

• Portlet definition registry

– Dynamic information provider• Portlet Modes, Portlet Window States, etc.

• Factory manager service– Obtains an implementation through a factory

• Log service– Defines a logging facility

Portlets in uPortal

Portlets in uPortal 2.3

Portlets in uPortal

Pluto

Portlet Application

Portlet Adapter

uPortal

Portlet Portlet

WebProxy

Channel

PortletAdapter Channel

CustomChannel

PortletAdapterChannel

Portlet Application

Portlet Portlet

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Adapter

• Java class name– org.jasig.portal.channels.portlet.CPortletAdapter

• IMultithreadedCharacterChannel– Produces character output rather than XML

• IMultithreadedPrivileged– Has access to

HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse

• IMultithreadedCacheable– Utilizes uPortal content caching

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet File Structure

• All resources are packaged into a web application archive (WAR)

• web.xml– Specifies web application

resources

• portlet.xml– Specifies portlet

resources

Portlets in uPortal

Deploying Portlets

• Deployer toolorg.jasig.portal.container.deploy.Deployer– Required for Pluto container– Rewrites web.xml

• Inserts servlet definitions which wrap portlets

• Ant target– Deploy one Portlet or all Portlets (in lib/portlets directory)ant deployPortletApp -DportletApp=C:/TEMP/myPortlet.war ant deployPortletApp –DportletApp=all

Portlets in uPortal

Publishing Portlets: Getting Portlet GUID

• Identify Portlet Definition– Need to know the

Portlet Definition GUID

• Portlet Preferences– Zero or more name-value

pairs can be specified– Overrides Preferences

specified in portlet.xml

testsuite.war

portlet.xml

testsuite.TestPortlet1

<portlet-name>TestPortlet1

</portlet-name>

Portlets in uPortal

Publishing Portlets: Channel Type

Portlets in uPortal

Publishing Portlets: Portlet Definition and Prefs

Enter zero or more portlet preference name-value pairs.

Enter Portlet Definition GUID

Portlets in uPortal

Sample Portlets in uPortal: Test Suite

Test Suite Portlet– Distributed with Pluto– Tests

• Render Request

• Render Response

• Portlet Session

• Portlet Context

• Portlet URL

• Portlet modes

• Portlet window states

• Resource loading

• Portlet actions

• Preferences persistence

Portlets in uPortal

Sample Portlets in uPortal: RSS Portlet

RSS Portlet– Available at POST– Written by

Plumtree Software– Displays RSS content– User can choose content

with drop-down– User can edit the list of

RSS source URLs– Supports RSS 1.0 and

2.0

Portlets in uPortal

Sample Portlets in uPortal: Google Portlet

Google Portlet– Available at POST– Written by

Plumtree Software– Allows search with

Google Web APIs– Communicates with

Google Web Service using SOAP

– Requires license key configuration

Portlets in uPortal

User Information

• Available as of uPortal 2.3.2• Map user info in Portlet Application’s portlet.xml

<user-attribute>    <description>User Given Name</description>    <name>user.name.given</name></user-attribute>

• Configure uPortal’s PersonDirs.xml <attribute>

    <name>FIRST_NAME</name>    <alias>user.name.given</alias></attribute>

• Add code to Portlet Map userInfo = (Map)request.getAttribute(PortletRequest.USER_INFO);

String givenName = (String)userInfo.get("user.name.given");String lastName = (String)userInfo.get("user.name.last");

Portlets in uPortal

P3P User Information Attributes

• Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0• W3C

– http://www.w3c.org/TR/P3P

• Same attribute names used in WSRP• Examples:

– user.gender– user.name.given– user.home-info.postal.city– user.business-info.postal.name

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Modes

• Portal must support…– view

• Display current state of Portlet

• Mandatory for Portlet

– edit• Allows user to customize Portlet

• Optional for Portlet

– help• Provide help information about Portlet

• Optional for Portlet

• Declaration in portlet.xml <supports>

<mime-type>text/html</mime-type> <portlet-mode>help</portlet-mode></supports>

Portlets in uPortal

Custom Portlet Modes

• Custom Portlet Mode examples– about– config– edit_defaults– preview

• Not implemented yet• Declaration in portlet.xml

<portlet-app> <custom-portlet-mode> <name>config</name> <description>Admin functions</description> </custom-portlet-mode>

</portlet-app>

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Window States

• Portal must support…– normal

• Portlet may be sharing page with other Portlets• Portlet should restrict size of rendered output

– maximized• Only Portlet being rendered on the portal page• Portlet may generate richer content

– minimized• Portlet should render minimal out put or no

output at all

Portlets in uPortal

Custom Portlet Window States

• Custom Portlet Mode examples– detach– half-page

• Not implemented yet• Declaration in portlet.xml

<portlet-app> <custom-window-state> <name>half-page</name> <description>1/2 a page</description> </custom-window-state>

</portlet-app>

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Caching

• uPortal caches all Portlet content the same way• A Portlet screen is cached until the Portlet needs

to change state…– User clicks on a link or button within Portlet– User clicks on a button within the Portlet control bar,

i.e. Edit, Help, About, etc.– Portlet is focused or unfocused, i.e. the Portlet

alternates between being and not being the root of the layout

– PortletEvent is sent to the Portlet

• Optional expiration caching mechanism not implemented. See PLT.18 of Portlet Spec.

Portlets in uPortal

Servlet Container Requirements

• Servlet Specification 2.3 or higher

• Cross context capability– In Tomcat…

<Context path="/uPortal“ docBase="uPortal“

crossContext="true"></Context>

• Avoid Tomcat 5.0.19– Tomcat Bug 27309 – NPE in

ApplicationHttpRequest.java

Portlets in uPortal

Portlets vs. Channels

Portlets in uPortal

Channel Interfaces

• IChannel• IMultithreadedChannel

• IPrivilegedChannel• IMultithreadedPrivileged

• ICacheable• IMultithreadedCacheable

org.jasig.portal…

Portlets in uPortal

IChannel Interface

package org.jasig.portal;

public interface IChannel {

public void setStaticData (ChannelStaticData sd);

public void setRuntimeData(ChannelRuntimeData rd);

public void receiveEvent(PortalEvent ev);

public ChannelRuntimeProperties getRuntimeProperties();

public void renderXML (DocumentHandler out);

}

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Interface

package javax.portlet;

public interface Portlet {

public void init(PortletConfig config);

public void render(RenderRequest request, RenderResponse response);

public void processAction(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response);

public void destroy();

}

Portlets in uPortal

Channel Base Classes

• BaseChannel– Start by overriding renderXML()

• BaseMultithreadedChannel– Maintains an internal state table which can be

unlocked with the unique ID. The state contains the channel static data, runtime data, and a HashMap (analogous to an HttpServletSession object)

org.jasig.portal…

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Base Class

• GenericPortlet– Dispatches request according to the Portlet Mode– Override doView(), doEdit(), or doHelp()

javax.portlet…

Portlets in uPortal

Channel Base Action URLs

• Get base action URL from ChannelRuntimeData• Pass as XSLT parameter to transformation

xslt.setStylesheetParameter(“baseActionURL”,

runtimeData.getBaseActionURL());

• Append request parameter name/value pairs

<a href=“{$baseActionURL}?n1=p1&amp;n2=p2”>Go to page 1

</a>

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet URLs

• Redner URLs– RenderResponse.createRenderURL()

• Action URLs– RenderResponse.createActionURL()

• Example PortletURL url = response.createActionURL();url.setParameter(“n1”, “v1”);url.setParameter(“n2”, “v2”);url.setWindowState(WindowState.MAXIMIZED);writer.print(“<form method=\”post\”

action=\”” + url.toString() + “\”>”);

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal CSS Classes

Portlets in uPortal

OASIS WSRP CSS Classes

• Fontsportlet-font, portlet-font-dim

• Messagesportlet-msg-status, portlet-msg-info, portlet-msg-error, etc.

• Sectionsportlet-section-header, portlet-section-body, portlet-section-alternate, etc.

• Tablesportlet-table-header, portlet-table-body, portlet-table-selected, etc.

• Formsportlet-form-label, portlet-form-input-field, portlet-form-button, etc.

• Menusportlet-menu, portlet-menu-item, portlet-menu-caption, etc.

Portlets in uPortal

OASIS WSRP CSS Style Example

Favorite color

Other color:

Blue Green Red Pink

Submit

.portlet-form-label

.portlet-form-field-label

.portlet-form-button

.portlet-form-input-field

.portlet-form-field

Portlets in uPortal

Channel File Uploading

• Form must contain enctype attribute: enctype="multipart/form-data"

• Input element:<input type="file" name="uploadfile"/>

• Channel access to file:MultipartDataSource fileSource =

((MultipartDataSource[]) runtimeData.getObjectParameterValues ("uploadfile"))[0];

• MultipartDataSource methodsInputStream getInputStream()

returns the actual file stream to save to disk/rdbms

String getContentType()returns the mime type of the file

String getName()returns the uploaded file’s name

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet File Uploading

• Form must contain enctype attribute: enctype="multipart/form-data"

• Input element:<input type="file" name="uploadfile"/>

• Portlet access to filerequest.getParameter("uploadfile");

Portlets in uPortal

Channel File Downloading

• Acquire resource URL in channel and pass to stylesheet:runtimeData.getBaseWorkerURL (UPFileSpec.FILE_DOWNLOAD_WORKER, true)

• Use of resource URL in stylesheet:

<!-- resource URL parameter --> <xsl:param name="resourceURL">default</xsl:param>

<!–- use resource URL to form link to file --> <a href="{$resourceURL}?filename=NAME_OF_FILE"> Filename

</a>

Portlets in uPortal

Channel File Downloading

• Channel must implement org.jasig.portal.IMimeResponse

• Portal’s download worker will call the following IMimeResponse methods in the following sequence:

1) Call the channel’s setRuntimeData() method. Channel can retrieve any parameters appended to the resource URL (ie: filename=NAME_OF_FILE)

2) Call the getHeaders() from IMimeResponse

3) Call the getContentType() from IMimeResponse

4) Call the getInputStream() from IMimeResponse

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet File Downloading

• No general solution yet• Might be able to use separate servlet• Portlet and Servlet can communicate via an

application-scoped session attribute

Portlets in uPortal

Channel ARchives (CAR)

• Packaging and deployment of channel code and resources

• WEB-INF/cars directory .car files• Car resource worker

– org.jasig.portal.car.CarResourceWorker

CAR file is a zip containingchannel sources, stylesheets, and

resources such as images

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet WAR

• All resources are packaged into a web application archive (WAR)

• web.xml– Specifies web application

resources

• portlet.xml– Specifies portlet

resources

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Development

Portlets in uPortal

Pluto Eclipse Plugin

• Facilitates writing and deployment of JSR 168 Portlets in Pluto

• Wizards• Context menu actions• 1.0.0 alpha 2 release

October 25, 2003• http://sourceforge.net/

projects/plutoeclipse

Portlets in uPortal

Spring PortletMVC

• Framework for Portlet Development– Analogous to Spring Web MVC

• Flexible with respect to view technology– JSP– JSTL– XML/XSLT

etc.

• Introduced to Spring Framework byRutgers University– Bill Thompson– Dmitriy Kopylenko (“Dima”)

• Currently in Spring CVS “sandbox”• Release planned for September 2004 Spring 1.1

Portlets in uPortal

Portlet Open Source Trading Site (POST)

• A Portlet “Clearinghouse”• Founded Sept 2003 by

Plumtree, Documentum, BEA, and Sun

• Sections for JSR 168 and WSRP portlets

• Not very popular yet– 5 Portlets available– 7 people on mailing list

http://portlet-opensrc.sourceforge.net/

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0

Framework

uPortal 2.3

Pluto

uPortal Portlet Roadmap

• uPortal 2.3– Support Portlets

(JSR 168) via Portlet adapter

• uPortal 3.0– Portlets become

native portal component

– Support Channels via Channel adapter

Portlet Portlet

Pluto

Portlet Portlet

Adapter

Chan Chan

Portlet

Framework

PortletChan Chan

Adapter

Chan Chan

Portlets in uPortal

New in uPortal 2.3

JSR 168 Portlet support Implementation of Pluto Portlet ContainerLayout fragment managerPulled layout fragmentsEnhanced content subscriberPerson attributes groups store (PAGS)Multi-valued person attributes supportJust-in-time XSLT localization

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 2.4

• Complete WSRP implementation– Apache Portals WSRP4J

• New RSS Channel– Easily supports multiple RSS versions

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0 Overview

• Terminology and paradigm change: Channels replaced by Portlets

• Componentization of framework• Modular rendering pipeline• Clean separation of business logic and

persistence layer• Full support for uPortal 2.x Channels• Upgrade tools

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal Domain Objects

• Portlet Application DeploymentPortlet Deployment– Information from portlet.xml file

• Portlet Application DefinitionPortlet Definition– Deployment + Preferences

• Portlet Application EntityPortlet Entity– Definition + Preferences

• Portlet Window– Instances of Portlet Entity painted on screen– Carries Portlet Window State

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0 Data Access

• Data Access Objects (DAO)• Transfer Objects• Spring JDBC

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0 Registries

• Communicate with DAO layer• Utilize caching services• Utilize domain object factories

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0 Domain Object Architecture

Database

DAO’s

Registries

DAO Implementations e.g. Spring JDBC

Caching

uPortal Framework

Domain objects

Domain objectsTransfer objects

DomainObject

Factories

Portlets in uPortal

uPortal 3.0 Rendering Architecture

Con

text

X

Con

text

A

…

Context Resolver

Def

ault

Con

text

Parameterprocessing

Ren

derin

g pi

pelin

e

Layoutgenerator

Transformer

…

Transformer

Filter

Serializer

Selects a context toprocess the incomingrequestParses request URL and

initiates actions on:•Portlets•Rendering pipeline elementsGenerates initial user layout•Aggregated layouts•Simple layouts

Chain of transformers andfilters compiles presentationmarkup.

Portlets in uPortal

Useful URL’s

• JSR 168– http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=168

• Apache Portals– http://portals.apache.org/

• Jakarta Pluto– http://portals.apache.org/pluto/

• Portlets in uPortal– http://www.uportal.org/implementors/portlets/

workingWithPortlets.html• Portlet Open Source Trading Site (POST)

– http://portlet-opensrc.sourceforge.net/

Portlets in uPortal

Speaker: Ken WeinerPresentation Title: Portlets in uPortalDate: 6/22/2004Time: 10:15 AM – 11:15 AMRoom: Westminster Ballroom II

Speaker Evaluation Info:

The End

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