A new framework to build Science Gateways based on EnginFrame and Liferay Riccardo Rotondo (riccardo.rotondo@ct.infn.it) INFN Catania – Italy The Second International Conference of Parallel, Distributed, Grid and Cloud Computing for Engineering 12-15 April 2011 Ajaccio – Corsica - France

Outline Grid access technologies Science Gateway The e-Collaboration environment The old paradigm Decomposing the architecture The new “brick” approach Use Cases: The DECIDE Application Portal The INDICATE e-Culture Science Gateway Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Grid Interface Evolution The way users access Grid resources has continuously evolved towards simplicity and transparency: Command Line Globus and gLite CLI Used by the enthusiastic and early adopter scientists GUI applications gEclipse, Grid2Win Good to expand the communities but difficult to maintain Web Interface GENIUS, P-GRADE Easier for new users but monolithic Science Gateways CLI gEclipse Grid2Win GENIUS Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Science Gateway A framework of tools that allows scientists to run applications with little concern for where the computation actually takes place. This is similar to cloud computing in which applications run as Web services on remote resources in a manner that is not visible to the end user. However, a science gateway is usually more than a collection of applications. Gateways often let users store, manage, catalogue, and share large data collections or rapidly evolving novel applications they cannot find anywhere else. Training and education are also a significant part of some Science Gateways Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Liferay (www.liferay.com) Highly-configurable, scalable, open source portal framework; Compatible with JSR 168/286 standards and based on modern web 2.0 technologies; Liferay services planned to be used: Portal; CMS & WCM; Collaboration and “social” software Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Grid Access – Portlets as bricks Portlets can interact with the Grid e-Infrastructure Different approaches are available: Execute the Command Line behind the portal; Using API where available: Must be in Java or other languages supported by Liferay; Call REST services from Javascript code in the browser; Additional layers between Liferay and the Grid can be necessary for some services; Each portlet can follow its own communication method. Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

First step… … towards the e-collaboration environment Genius and EnginFrame worked together on an gLite User Iterface to offer grid services. Front-end and back-end tightly coupled. Services customized for every single case and not designed for general use. Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Decomposing the architecture 2. Verify ACL 4. Grid Credential Exchange 1. Log In 6. Results 3. Grid Services Request 5. Grid Services Saga and Jsaga will let the support of more than one middleware. gLibrary is tool developed by INFN to easily create, organize, access digital assets on gLite based infrastrucutres. Clouds underline as the security and the implementations of the services have been decoupled from the front-end represented by the liferay portal. 7. Download data Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

The DECIDE Project Objectives (www.eu-decide.eu) Provide the Neuroscientific and Medical community with a dedicated production quality e-Infrastructure; Deploy a secure and user-friendly service for the early diagnosis and research on Alzheimer Disease and forms of dementia. Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

The DECIDE Science Gateway http://applications.eu-decide.eu Riccardo Rotondo Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

The INDICATE Project (www.indicate-project.eu) Enable the Digital Cultural Heritage Community to access to two different e-Infrastructure repositories: the archive of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage present in Mediterranean Area; the Federico De Roberto literary works. Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

The INDICATE e-Culture Science Gateway (1/3) http://www.indicate-project.eu http://indicate-gw.consorzio-cometa.it Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

The INDICATE e-Culture Science Gateway (2/3) Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

The INDICATE e-Culture Science Gateway (3/3) Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Conclusions and outlook Using different frameworks it is possible to build a Science Gateway able to interact with Grid Services; Liferay is the most used framework and offers an easy, customizable and user friendly interface; Thanks to robot certificates and X.509 standard the level of security is kept high and the resources safe; The new “bricks” developed are being used in two projects belonging from two distinct scientific domains. Future Work: While the role of Liferay as “front-end” is clear, the interactions of the tools behind are still under development; Test the new Science Gateway in a production environment: The goal of DECIDE is to provide a production service. Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011

Acknowledgments Roberto Barbera1,2 (roberto.barbera@ct.infn.it) Giuseppe La Rocca2 (giuseppe.larocca@ct.infn.it) Marco Fargetta3 (marco.fargetta@ct.infn.it) Antonio Calanducci3 (antonio.calanducci@ct.infn.it) Alberto Falzone4 (alberto.falzone@nice-software.com) Paolo Maggi4 (paolo.maggi@nice-software.com) Nicola Venuti4 (nicola.venuti@nice-software.com) 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Catania - Italy 2. Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Division of Catania – Italy 3. Consorzio COMETA Catania – Italy 4. NICE srl - Italy Riccardo Rotondo Pareng '11 - Ajaccio, France - April 14, 2011