Kuali Rice Overview April 2008 Aaron Godert © 2008 Aaron Godert. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

What is Kuali Rice? Kuali: a humble kitchen wok; Malaysian origins Rice: it is what it is Sits on the bottom of a dish Not a very tasty meal by itself Better with some substance on top KFS - Beef KRA - Chicken KS - Seafood Rice is the foundation to a hearty software product

The Goals for Rice The board vision for Kuali is a plug and play module by module approach to software Kuali started as financials, but has evolved into a suite of administrative software (KFS, KRA, KS) A lot of functionality in Kuali systems Keeping the Kuali code base as small as possible without impacting quality is key Highly productive development environment For Kuali projects For non-Kuali projects Rice inherited goals from board for good reason Rice needs to support this suite with a consistent and cohesive foundation Certainly a lot of functionality in the Kuali systems and Rice needs to do it’s part to eliminate redundant code; get a lot of re-use, and while keeping the code base as small as possilbe w/out sacrificing quality Rice should provide a highly productive development environment - solves common architectural problems - both Kuali and non-Kuali apps

Rice Goals Cont. A common and consistent architecture Allow developers to understand other rice enabled projects Infrastructure would not need to be reinvented on each project - focus on functionality! Rice team can focus on IT standards, like SOA, that will benefit the entire Kuali software suite Adoption of other Kuali modules feasible Generic enough for non-Kuali applications 1.) Expanding on the last point… a.) switching from project to project; KRA dev knows how to implement KFS 2.) Generic enough - institutional needs outside of Kuali

Rice is Middleware Made up of several, possibly standalone and swappable, middleware components Applications become a “Rice Client Application” by easily integrating with this middleware Interaction with other Rice enabled applications becomes seamless 1.) middleware components - workflow, notification, service bus, ADF… talk about later 2.) leveraging rice and it’s services - deems your app as a “rice client” 3.) Interaction - services in KFS can be called easily by KRA; all rice clients share a single workflow component (re-use of routing rules, action list, etc)

How We Got Here Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW) existed in production at Indiana University Kuali Finanical System (KFS) started development and had an architecture team Morphed into the Kuali Nervous System (KNS) team Achieve technical consistency across all aspects of KFS KFS --> KNS --> KEW 1.) KEW at IU - HR, etc - called Eden Workflow, then OneStart Workflow 2.) KFS discussions: mid-to-late 2004; IU ideas before that; actual partners joined in early 2004 and started work architecture team for about 2-3 months; then development started 3.) In the early days of KFS, we had KFS using KNS using OneStart (renamed to KEW at some point)

Along Came KRA Kuali Research Administration (KRA) needed to integrate with KFS Align our core to support sharing services across Kuali apps in a loosely coupled fashion All Kuali products should be technically consistent under the hood For end user functionality For different development methodologies 1.) KRA idea a little more than a year ago - maybe a bit earlier; knew it was going to happen maybe about a year ago, few months after that, we recognized the need to re-use a lot of the good stuff we built for KFS 2.) KRA and KFS needed to access services in eachother 3.) circle back around to board and architecture team - consistency A suite of admin apps with technical consistency under the hood (what a novel idea) - UI - end user Various development practices existed and we wanted some consistency there too; patterns in Rice could help to ensure consistent practices; metrics for better planning

Thinking Outside of the Wok Most administrative applications have a common need for middleware services Workflow ESB Notification Avoid design and code duplication Consolidate configuration 1.) Mentioned “non-Kuali” apps before 2.) Thinking “Hey, what we’ve got in KNS is general enough that it can be a should be taken the few extra steps to allow for non-Kuali app development too.”

Rice Was Born!

Rice Modules (Products) KEW Kuali Enterprise Workflow KNS Kuali Nervous System KSB Kuali Service Bus KEN Kuali Enterprise Notification KIM Kuali Identity Management KOM Kuali Organization Management We should take a look at the history of each of these products before talking in more detail how they apply to Rice 1.) Time to learn some acronyms 2.) Represents all of the products KEW - central workflow configuration for business applications; re-usable routing rules, single “action list” KNS - ADF integration layer - allows for easy integration with other “service” products in Rice - standard application patterns for quick integration KSB - sharing services between applications in an SOA fashion; remote, local, discovery KEN - communication broker integrating with KEW action list for communication with end users; preferences for delivery of messages KIM - common IdM services and maintenance of entities used by those services - person, groups, roles, permissions, etc

The History of KEW Kuali Enterprise Workflow existed at Indiana University as a stand alone integration project before Kuali began Provided common engine to drive business processes electronically When Kuali came along, the IU workflow engine became Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW) Title : Often pronounced as the English letter Q. 1) Projects that have used workflow at IU include human resources, purchasing, time keeping, research, and more. 2) We wanted to move away from paper based approaches 3) Every department, every school and dean, had a different way to do things, so the engine needed to be flexible enough to accommodate for this

The History of KNS KFS spent a large amount of development time up front, using the best talent from each of the partner institutions Came up with a foundation on which to build KFS - the Kuali Nervous System It focused on a unified approach to development of functionality A standard way to use workflow, perform CRUD operations, handle business transactions KNS extracted into Rice as a module 1.) 5 - 6 months up front; 12 - 15 people (ninjas); many from architecture group 2.) Used concrete use cases and requirements from IU’s FIS system to build the re-usable KNS component

The History of the KSB Other Kuali projects came along: i.e. KRA They needed to be able to seamlessly “talk” to other Kuali services/applications in real time Reducing the need for offline batch Increasing business process agility The KSB was born to satisfy simple needs KRA not only wanted the good features of the KNS, but also to leverage services in KFS without need for old-school batch feeds

The History of KEN Cornell University recognized the need for a more general notification system that could work alongside of a workflow “to-do” list Started development of the notification system at Cornell Recognized the synergy in leveraging KEW Realized that Kuali applications also wanted an advanced model for end user communication The concept of Kuali Enterprise Notification was born One place to get all enterprise / university wide messages -- guaranteed.

The (short) History of KIM KFS has its own user tables that are specific to financial data Also has groups, roles, permissions KEW has its own users, groups, roles, permissions When KEN was built, it piggy-backed on KEW’s users, groups, and roles 1.) Really new we needed this a while ago; but never really acted on it 2.) One day over the summer, we were kind of like, we need to just do this b/c it’s needed by everyone

The (short) History of KIM Cont. KRA came along with similar needs as KFS KS is also gearing up and shows similar needs with additional requirements Recognized the potential for re-use and the need for context specific IdM data Most importantly, we recognized the need for consistent service interfaces across projects The concept of Kuali Identity Management was born In fact, will probably be the most consistently leveraged Rice module

The (short) History of KOM KOM will address the unit hierarchy/org chart needs of KFS/KRA/KS Came out of functional integration committee

Why Does a Project Need Rice? KNS and KEW enhance developer productivity and enforce standards KSB provides an SOA approach for cross project interoperability KEN enhances the user experience while fulfilling a general need for notification across all rice enabled applications KIM provides consistent IdM across your projects KOM provides consistent Org mgmt across your projects 4) Now that we’ve seen where the components originated from…

The Rice Interactive Diagram Available at http://rice.kuali.org Click anywhere on the diagram to begin Click on any component for details Gives a feel for how different applications can be rice-enabled * Makes applications available on the bus -- Can be java apps, Kuali apps, or even legacy apps * Allows applications to discover common services on the bus (Identity Management, Workflow, Notification, other Kuali applications) * Use components like the KNS for common look and feel * Connect a single web service that has nothing to do with Kuali yet provides a useful service at your institution

Rice Deployment Architectures Stand-alone: a central hub and spoke model Good if you just want to support one Rice server Centralized services and features Best for non-Java clients Embedded: a decentralized, federated approach Fast for developers because services are local Distributes load; technically a clustered model Provides distributed transactions (via JTA) Hybrid: best of both

Kuali Rice - Current Status Public release 0.9.2 available at http://rice.kuali.org --> Download KRA is using 0.9.3 KFS 2.2 release using 0.9.2.1 Active development is 0.9.3 Well tested Rice is being used in KFS; released with KFS 2.2 Both unit (JUnit) and functionally tested Continuous Integration Let's take a closer look at each of these pieces in more detail

KSB Overview - The Goals Enable applications and services deployed on the bus to interact with other applications and services Provide (a)synchronous communication Provide flexible security Provide Quality of Service (QoS) Keep it simple (light weight)

KSB Overview Cont. A common registry of services Lists all services on the bus and how they can be connected Through simple Spring configuration, Java based services can be “exported” from a rice enabled application as SOAP or HttpRemoted services Common resource loading - access services remotely or locally Other “Rice Clients” can connect to any of the services on the KSB

Explain - Connectors : Allows any application, not just Kuali apps, to connect to the bus for services - Exporters : An easy way for rice-enabled apps to put services on the bus - Bridges : A way for non-Kuali services to use the KSB to export their services and get the QoS provided by KSB Mention - Security : Hit key points. More details in a few slides - Transformation : messages can be changed on the way in and on the way out of the bus. This makes it so that all types of message can play. - Backbone : more to come

KSB Communication Models Synchronous = P2P : waits for a response Asynchronous = messaging : fire and forget : possible callback Queues = single service retrieved from redundant set of services; only one invoked Topics = all services retrieved from redundant set of services; all invoked

KSB Security Bus level : option to digitally sign, encrypt Service level security through Acegi Service level, method level User proxying through standard security models (i.e. CAS, Kerberos) Security context passed along (user, authn token, roles) Services can call authn/authz authority to validate context 1) Example: KRA asks for service A from the KSB. Service A need to talk to Service B and C. A talking to B and C can optionally use bus security to ensure authentication. Authorization is then up to the services.

KSB is Simple and Light Weight Evaluated ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, Mule a year and a half ago Reliability issues then, better now though For simple needs (SOAP and Spring HttpRemoting), the messaging components of KEW sufficed in combination with XFire and Spring Kuali Student has greater needs from an ESB (WSDL first, process orchestration, etc) Are looking to KS ESB team for the direction to go

KNS Overview Provides reusable code, shared services, integration layer, and a development strategy Provides a common look and feel through screen drawing framework A document (business process) centric model with workflow as a core concept

Understanding the KNS Paradigm CHART_T Chart (POJO) Data Dictionary ORM Mapping Lookups and Inquiries Maintenance Documents Transactional Documents Workflow (KEW)

Transactional Documents These are data-entry centric documents or “transactions” that model the business processes Examples include: Proposal Development, Journal Entry, Payment Reimbursement Built on a case by case basis using the Kuali Rice tag libraries (encompass snippets of UI behavior): Notes and attachments Workflow route log (audit log) Integrated with workflow

Maintenance Documents They do not need to be built case by case - just one JSP that draws them all These are the CRUD documents - an easy way to maintain support tables in a Kuali database C: Create new table records R: Read or query table records U: Update existing table records D: Delete existing table records Examples include: Budget rates Project codes

Inquiries A way to drill down and get more read-only information about a table record

Inquiry Screenshot

Inquiry Example Configuration <title>Travel Account Inquiry</title> <inquirySections> <inquirySection title="Travel Account"> <inquiryFields> <field attributeName="number" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="name" /> <field attributeName="accountType" /> <field attributeName="foId" forceInquiry="true" /> </inquiryFields> </inquirySection> </inquirySections> </inquiry>

Lookups A way to search for data by a set of criteria Results of lookups can be returned to other lookups or documents

Lookup Screenshot

Lookup Example <lookup> <title>Travel Account Lookup</title> <instructions>Look up Inst.</instructions> <defaultSort sortAscending="true"> <sortAttributes> <sortAttribute attributeName="number" /> </sortAttributes> </defaultSort>

Lookup Example Cont. <lookupFields> <lookupField attributeName="number" required="false" /> <lookupField attributeName="name" required="false" /> <lookupField attributeName="accountType" required="false" /> <lookupField attributeName="foId" required="false" forceLookup="true" /> </lookupFields> <resultFields> <field attributeName="number" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="name" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="accountType" forceInquiry="true" /> <field attributeName="foId" forceInquiry="true" /> </resultFields> </lookup>

Other KNS Features Data Dictionary Question component Notes and attachments Pluggable business rules Pluggable authorizations System parameters Extended/custom attributes

KEW Overview Facilitates routing and approval of business processes throughout an organization Provides re-usable routing rule creation which defines how business processes should be routed Bind business data to users/groups that must approve Provides hooks for client applications to handle workflow lifecycle events of business processes End users interact with central workflow GUIs for all client applications 2a) Only a fiscal officer is allowed to approve certain documents fiscal office is just a user that in that role, and a rule is just a criteria that checks if the user matches FO

Document Search Screen Shot

Action List Screen Shot

Route Log Screen Shot

KEN Overview Works with the action list to provide a single place for all university related communications Workflow items come from KEW Non-workflow items from KEN Non-workflow example items Overdue library book A concert on campus Graduation checklists for seniors

KEN Overview Cont. Provides a secure and controlled environment for notifying the masses Eliminate sifting through email Communication broker which provides any combination of action list, text messages, email, etc. Controlled by user preferences Audit trail for all messages just as in KEW

KEN: Sending Notifications S2S: A developer can send notifications by: Calling the sendNotification() service on the KSB Invoking the service via a SOAP WS (exposed by the KSB) Manual: A user can send notifications using a provided workflow enabled form

KEN Screenshot: My Notifications

KEN Screenshot: Notification Details

KIM Overview Just gearing up Keep it simple to start Goals: Clean and consistent service interfaces used by all Kuali apps; generic enough for non-Kuali apps Leverage KNS to provide a reference implementation for services; workflow enabled management application Flexibility for dynamic attributes associated with IdM entities (persons, groups, roles, etc) Pluggable support for Internet2 products (Grouper, etc)

KIM Overview Cont. Basic concepts Namespace (i.e. Application, any generic context) Person - different default “sponsored” attributes for each namespace context; core shared attributes as well Group - simply groups users; arbitrary data associated with them

KIM Overview Cont. Permissions - ability to perform actions Roles - cross context capabilities; aggregates permissions (i.e. fiscal officer, dean, etc) Qualified Roles - specific to a context fiscal officer for organization XYZ dean for the College of ABC administrators for the College of ABC <-- this one’s a group

KOM Overview Basic concepts Context - scopes the trees Organization - XYZ Department, College of ABC, University of EFG Organization Category - University, College, Department, Club, etc Parent/Child Organization

What’s Next? Looking to the Future… Rice components will piggy back on each other KEW and KEN will use KNS to draw screens, etc. Standards JPA for data persistence (move to Hibernate) Easier configuration and turnkey upgrades Light weight service interfaces (WSDL, XSD) Open source ESB foundation for KSB #1 PRIORITY - supporting other Kuali apps

About the website The main Rice web site Documentation is a weakness http://rice.kuali.org Sign up for our public mailing list Access to our wiki: roadmap, project plans, documentation, etc Documentation is a weakness The documentation and downloads will be in place by July 1, 2007.

That’s it! Q & A