CREE: HEIRPORT lite Welcome screen: The initial page provides a general introduction to the portlet – the purpose of the CREE project and links to the various partner websites. This page could also be used to provide information regarding the status of the portlet – perhaps using an RSS include to notify users of new targets / database maintenance etc. sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Edit mode: The Edit mode enables users to select which target databases will be queried. Various display properties can also be chosen. Selections made here will be persistent – making use of user preferences. sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Search mode: This screen is displayed when the user performs a new search. The HEIRPORT framework is based upon the CIMI profile allowing for searches based on: What, Where, When, Who, Title, Location by coordinate etc. However, for the purpose of this demonstrator, the portlet has been restricted to a simple What, Where and When search sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Targets mode: After the user has submitted a query, the portlet returns to a screen displaying a summary for each of the selected targets. If the target database is down or produces errors, this screen will display the appropriate error message etc. At this point, the user can decide to fetch the records from a particular target. The amount of records returned is based upon settings chosen in the user preferences screen. The information displayed on this screen is persistent throughout the session - until a new search is performed. sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Record Results: The results screen displays a list of results fetched from the selected target. The amount of results per page is based upon user preferences. Simple paging links are also included. At this point, the user can select several records and choose to add them to the notepad using the ‘update notepad’ button. Alternatively, the user can choose to view more detailed information for a particular record by clicking the ‘full record’ button. sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Record Details: The record details screen provides more information for the particular record. The information here is based upon whatever details the target database contains for that record. Thus, certain records may be sparse whilst others may contain rich information across a number of different fields. The fields are largely based upon the Dublin Core metadata standard. Again, this record information can be added to the notepad by clicking the ‘update notepad’ button. sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Notepad mode: The notepad acts in much the same way as a typical web-based shopping cart system. That is, the user can add and remove records as he/she sees fit. It is here that the usefulness of the portlet is apparent: Aggregation of information from various searches across different datasets. The ability to export the contents of the notepad in a number of different formats. sj_waller 2005

CREE: HEIRPORT lite Development issues: Further work: Throughout the development of the portlet, several technical hurdles arose: XSLT functionality required the Xalan.jar package to be included with the portlet (or at least under the Tomcat). The best use of the session object and various multi-user issues such as synchronizing code etc. Not really a portlet issue – more of a Java servlet development issue that needed to be understood. The speed of the host HEIRPORT service was always an issue. No matter how the portlet is designed, it is still reliant on the external server and subsequent target database systems. This portlet demonstrates potential functionality in a development environment – however, sufficient load testing and resource analysis has not yet been carried out. Further work: More work on the notepad mode: To enable the export data feature. To separate notepad results into the different target sources. The ability to search by field? To investigate the potential of the ‘Portlet Application’: The creation of a second portlet based upon a simple call to ArcIMS to display a map based upon given coordinates. This map could be requested from the initial HEIRPORT lite portlet. A distribution of various selected records from the notepad could be plotted upon this map. sj_waller 2005