uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 uPortal What's New? Eric Dalquist University of Wisconsin - Madison

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Roadmap Review How did we get here? –uPortal 2 is a solid base –Identified areas for improvement –Focused on major changes Where are we going? –All those not-quite major changes –Planning semi-annual releases

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Positioning & Preparation Positioning is the common theme –The standard goal was to position 3.0 as a future-proof portal framework Planning for future development –Re-factoring may not be uPortal wide but the 'hard' bits are done for 3.0

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Core Changes Theme & Skin Project Structure Build System Spring Configuration Portlet Container Caching Framework Import/Export Tools CAS Authentication

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 New Theme & Skin Clean XHTML & CSS markup Easier to Skin –More CSS Hooks –Generic Document Structure Modifiable Theme XSL –Multiple Well-Scoped Files –Internally Well Documented –Red/Yellow/Green Ratings –Forward looking maintenance

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 New Theme & Skin Simple Directory Structure –Separate Structure & Theme –Meaningful Directory Names Flexible Skin Directories –Allows for shared files –Skins are assumed to be theme specific

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Revised Content Better initial project impression Targeted layout content Demonstration of portal capabilities See Gary Thompson's presentation for more theme & skin information

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 New Build System & Project Structure Maven Standard Directory Layout All Maven projects look similar Reduces learning curve across projects Reduces build management overhead

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 New Build System Maven 2 at the core –Dependency Management –Compiling, Testing, Packaging Ant Utilities –Deployment –uPortal Tools Database Setup User Management Import/Export Command Line

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 New Build System Targets moved into Maven –all, compile, compiletests, dist, javadoc, runtests –Helpful error messages are included Targets renamed –deploy => deploy-war –pubchan => crn-import Retains 2.6 Functionality

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Spring Configuration Single ApplicationContext Instance Multiple Context Files –Keeps the context files focused Seamless integration across command-line and web-app usage Makes extensions less intrusive –Extend or implement don't modify!

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Spring Configuration What has moved? –Core and Portlet related factories –Service configuration How does it work? –Spring Context is the master –Most factories are context backed What's next? –Continue the factory hunt

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Portlet Container Upgraded to Pluto 1.1 –Significant reduction of portal code Pluto provides many services Complete Re-Integration –Added portletisms into uPortal –Portlets are the new public API –Resolved IChannel mismatches Positioned for JSR-286 (Portlet 2.0)‏

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 JPA & Hibernate Using J2EE 5.0 Annotations Reduction in custom DAO code Database abstraction –Multiple supported databases Integrated caching layer Simplifies application code

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Caching Framework Uses Spring-Modules for abstraction –Supports multiple caching frameworks Clustering Support! Single cache manager –Shared between multiple frameworks –Single configuration location

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 JMX Monitoring & Management JDBC & LDAP Connections –View pool health and performance Cache Statistics & Management –Gather performance statistics –Help with portal tuning direction Hibernate Statistics –Watch database performance

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 JMX

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Import / Export All (almost) data in entity files Minimal data.xml –430 lines, down from 5800 in 2.6 Supports Import of 2.6 Entities Much easier to modify, maintain and migrate See Andrew Wills' presentations for more information

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Bundling CAS A CAS 3.1 Server is bundled –Authenticates via the Portal DB Same uPortal Security system –Doesn't preclude existing configurations Promote CAS for SSO with uPortal CAS Proxy support for Portlets

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Reducing Custom Code Avoid re-inventing those wheels Use well vetted FOSS libraries –Free & Open Source Software Focus on the interesting problems Simplifies long-term maintenance Reduces needs for uPortal specific documentation –Switch to Spring-LDAP is an example

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring and Beyond Many interesting opportunities –Fluid Reorderer Integration –Stand-Alone Groups and Permissions –Spring-Security (aka Acegi)‏ –Refactoring DAOs to use JPA –Implement portlet based admin tools –Refactored rendering pipeline

uPortal 3 – What's New? JA-SIG Conference, Spring 2008 Thank You! Many thanks to everyone who contributed to uPortal 3.0!