Portals for Bioinformatics
Nick SharmanmyGrid project manager
30 June 2004www.mygrid.org.uk
Outline
• What is a portal?
• Portal frameworks
• Portal toolkits
• Standards
• myGrid portal development
• Conclusions
What is a portal?Examples• www.netscape.com
• www.yahoo.com
• portal.acm.org
What is a portal?Characteristics• Aggregation
– resources from different providers
• Common context– navigation– Branding
• Personalization– resources tailored to users
• Single sign-on– common access to all resources
Outline
• What is a portal?
• Portal frameworks
• Portal toolkits
• Standards
• myGrid portal development
• Conclusions
Portal frameworksExamples• Apache Jetspeed – Java
– resources are portlets
• uPortal – Java– resources are channels
• CMFPortlets – Zope-based– resources are portlets
Portal frameworksProperties• Separate generic from
specific
• Generic capabilities– Aggregation– Page management– Authentication & authorization– Presentation– Implementation
• Specific capabilities– User-defined– Component interface
Portlet Container
InterfaceInterfaceInterface
Portlet PortletPortlet
Outline
• What is a portal?
• Portal frameworks
• Portal toolkits
• Standards
• myGrid portal development
• Conclusions
Portal toolkitsProperties• Specialized to application areas
– education– research– commerce– …
• Provide:– Portal framework– Customizable portlets– Utilities
Portlet Container
InterfaceInterfaceInterface
Portlet PortletPortlet
Portal toolkitsExamples• CHEF (chefproject.org)
– collaborating groups in education & research– framework: Jetspeed 1
• OGCE (www.collab-ogce.org) – Grid service provision– framework: CHEF
• CourseWork (coursework.stanford.edu/) – education– framework: Oracle/own
Outline
• What is a portal?
• Portal frameworks
• Portal toolkits
• Standards
• myGrid portal development
• Conclusions
StandardsThe alternatives• JSR-168: Java Portlet Specification
– Java Community Process– Built on Servlet specification
• WSRP: Web Service for Remote Portals– OASIS– Portlets are Web Services– Standard port type & messages
StandardsThe architectures
Portlet Container
InterfaceInterfaceInterface
Portal
WSRPWSRPWSRPS
OA
P
SO
AP
SO
AP
StandardsCo-existence• WSRP
Implementation independence
Load sharing Dynamic discovery Network hop Most web services have
programmatic interfaces
• Portlet specification Local control Low call overhead? Fixed configuration Limited load sharing
CustomProxy
WSRPProxy
Portlet Container
InterfaceInterfaceInterface
CustomWSRP
SO
AP
SO
AP
StandardsImplementation• JSR-168
– Frameworks• Apache Pluto (reference implementation)• Apache Jetspeed 2• uPortal• OracleAS Portal
– Toolkits• SAKAI: uPortal + CHEF (www.sakaiproject.org)
• WSRP– Frameworks
• OracleAS Portal
Outline
• What is a portal?
• Portal frameworks
• Portal toolkits
• Standards
• myGrid portal development
• Conclusions
myGrid portal developmentContext and approach• Thesis
– Biologists familiar with web sites– myGrid is middleware
• Antithesis– Middleware is for programs, not people– General-purpose client apps are complex
• Synthesis– Application-specific portals– myGrid portal toolkit
myGrid portal developmentPortal toolkit for bioinformaticians• Target application
– Williams-Bueren Syndrome– Fixed set of workflows
• Extra myGrid portlets– Configurable– Workflow enactment– Workflow scheduling– Completion notification– Results browsing
• Based on CHEF & Jetspeed-1– Portlets for team collaboration:
Outline
• What is a portal?
• Portal frameworks
• Portal toolkits
• Standards
• myGrid portal development
• Conclusions
Conclusions
• Portals are an attractive way of presenting e-science resources to a community
• Portal frameworks & toolkits make portal construction practical
• Portal standards allow unanticipated integrations