1. JA-SIG and uPortal Presented by Justin Tilton at
The Washington Post, Washington, DC
Thursday, 19 February 2004, Washington, DC

2. Publisher’s Note
This presentation was given to an executive committee of the Washington Post. Three “firms” were asked to describe their portal software. SAP, BEA, and uPortal gave two-part presentations: To a technical review committee and to executive management.
The Washington Post used uPortal software in one of their applications. It was implemented August uPortal was integrated with the Post’s authentication software to provide single signon for the implemented application. One of management’s key issues was extending single signon to all applications for all users. Depending upon the application, to the public, business partners, and staff and associates.
One of the issues expected for open source software is long-term responsive support. JA-SIG asked business partner Unicon, Inc. to join in this presentation describing available commercial support for uPortal.

3. JA-SIG Java In Administration Special Interest Group
National and regional conferences
Clearing house
Collaborative projects

4. The vision
Facilitate the transition to new Web technologies, especially Java and Web Services, through training and collaboration.
Develop software, important to higher education, that can be shared.
Improve productivity in higher education.

5. Goals
The JA-SIG's goals are to: Nurture communication of best practices, new technologies, and innovative methodologies and projects related to Java and Web Services.
Increase peer review, collaboration, and group discussion related to institution-developed Java administrative applications
Broaden Java technology cross-fertilization between firms and schools on both a functional and geographic basis
Mission statement, 2002

6. Activities The JA-SIG membership is engaged in three activities.
Sponsorship of a twice-annual conference in the U.S. and one in the U.K.
JA-SIG Clearinghouse - a place on the Web to facilitate the sharing of Java and XML components.
Development of a free, open source, open standard portal for higher education: uPortal.

7. Some JA-SIG members Boston College Princeton U British Columbia
Delaware
Nagoya
Cornell
Denison
El Camino Community
Lehigh
Illinois State
Cal Poly SLO
Rutgers
Roanoke College
Yale
Texas Tech
Columbia
New Mexico
Virginia Tech
Kansas
Hawaii
Hull
Nottingham
+ ~300 more…

8. What is uPortal? Enterprise portal
Framework for presenting aggregated content (channels)
Personalization
Role-based access control and layouts
Open source, collaborative effort
Java web application

9. Why uPortal? Features important to higher education Open standards
Internationalization
Decentralized control of publishing and related parts of the user layout
Layout based on role, accessibility, and user preferences
Anonymous authorization for access
Open standards

10. Higher Education Most of these features apply to Higher Education
uPortal is bridging the gap between corporate portals and the needs of Higher Education Institutions

11. Why open standards? Sharing: Interoperability (component architecture)
Risk Management: Ability to change software if needed
Architecture: Choice of components

12. Mentoring Area Affiliation Internationalization (XLIFF)
Oracle Corporation
Layout (XSLT)
Software A.G.,
Remote portlet (WSRP)
IBM Corporation
Integration
SAP A.G., HR-XML and IFX Forums
Learning systems
Airbus, Boeing
Security
NIST, NSA
Performance
Wells Fargo

13. Business relationships
Firm
Area
iAssessment
K-12 teacher assessment
Unicon, Inc.
Academus learning system and uPortal technical support
SCT Corporation
Higher education administrative suite
the r*smart group
Electronic portfolio

14. Commercial and open source
Departmental Content Management (HyperContent, Columbia University)
Unicon Academus
Learning System (Academus, Unicon, Inc.)
uPortal
PeopleSoft Integration (PeopleSoft Adapters, Unicon/IBS)
Virtual Research Environment (Sakai CHEF, University of Michigan)

15. Commercial and open source
Departmental Content Management (HyperContent, Columbia University)
SCT Luminus
Enterprise Content Management (Documentum, EMC Corporation)
uPortal
Banner Integration (Banner Adapters, SCT)
Learning System (Sakai, Stanford University)

16. Types of portals Personalized display uPortal 2.0 framework
Integration
uPortal Web Services + Adapters
Enterprise
uPortal Web Services
Enterprise Process
uPortal Sakai workflow

17. Multiple target devices

18. Current Work: Accessibility

19. Current Work: Accessibility

20. Industry Recognition

21. The future Continue deployment Industry-based technical support
Cooperative development of commercial products by business partners
Further development of the portal itself
Sakai Project
Coordinated development of products using uPortal (e.g. Sakai partners)

22. The End
Justin E. Tilton

23. Supplementary Material Follows These slides are for reference only; they were not included in the presentation.

24. Some uPortal Sites

25. Yale University

26. Illinois State University

27. University of Delaware

28. University of British Columbia

29. CalPoly San Luis Obispo

30. Columbia University

31. Cornell University

32. Denison University

33. Instructional media + magic

34. Interactive Business Solutions

35. Ringling School of Art and Design

36. Red Universitaria Nacional

37. Universidad de Lima

38. University of California, Irvine

39. What is a Channel? Displays content Interactive applications XML feeds
Rich Site Summary (RSS)
Web services
Legacy systems
Interactive applications
, Calendar, Briefcase, News, Survey, Search, Announcements, Classifieds, Discussion Forums, Address Book, Chat, Bookmarks
The Meteor Project
eTranscript

40. RSS news feed channel

41. RSS Channel

42. RSS version 1.0 channel

43. Streaming Audio and Video
RSS version 1.0 channel
In-line HTML
Streaming Audio and Video

44. Architecture of uPortal

45. User Layout
User Layout is an abstract structure defining the overall content available to the user
userLayout is a tree structure consisting of “folders” and “channels”, the later always being the leaf nodes

46. User Layout

47. Structure Transformation
Channel
Column
Tab
User Layout

48. Theme Transformation

49. Compiling the Presentation
userLayout
Structure transformation
XSLT
structuredLayout
setRuntimeData()
XSLT
Theme transformation
Channels
renderXML()
HTML, WML VoiceML...

50. Content Transformation
XML
XSLT
Processor
XHTML: Web Browser
HTML: PDA
Stylesheet
WML: Cell Phone

51. Flexible Layouts Structures Themes Skins Tab / column Tree / column
Multi-column
Multi-row
Skins
Matrix, Java

52. Tab / Column Layout

53. Tree / Column Layout

54. Skins

55. Skin: im+m

56. Skin: VSAC

57. Skin: matrix

58. User Preferences Swappable layout and preference management modules
Profile management module
Tab-column specific prefs. module
Skin selection

59. User Preferences

60. Publish/Subscribe Channel publishing document
Channel parameters
Default values
Modification permissions
Descriptions
Publish/Subscribe steps
Step sequence
Instructions, help
A complex channel with multiple XSL views

61. Channel Types

62. Channel Settings

63. Channel Controls

64. Channel Rewiew

65. Aggregated Layouts The Governing Body - The State, County, District
The Institutions – Universities, Colleges, Schools…
The Schools – School of Medicine, School of…
The Departments – Sociology, Psychology…
The Faculty – as related to student users
The Campus Services – Library, Financial Aid…
The Users – Student, Faculty, Staff…

66. Using the Tab & Column visual metaphor
The Governing Body
Policies
Has information about:
Members
Meetings
Bylaws
Events
Policies
Budgets
Directories
Services
Directory
Services
Members
Meetings
Events
Using the Tab & Column visual metaphor

67. The Institutional System
The System
Has information about:
Campuses
Academic Programs
Research
Libraries
News
Campus Info
Programs
Research
Libraries
Search All Libraries
News

68. The Institution Has information for: Content such as:
Prospective Students
Current Students
Faculty
Staff
Visitors
Content such as:
Admissions information
eTranscripts
Online gradebook
Policies and procedures
Campus events
Institution
About
Admissions
Academics
Research
Events
Calendar
Directions/ Campus Map
Online gradebook

69. A School in the institution
Has information about:
Admissions
Programs
Calendar
Faculty & Research
Career Management
School of …
Programs
Academic Calendar
Admissions
Faculty
Research News
Directions/ Campus Map

70. A department Has information about: Faculty Info Program Information
Bios, Office Hours
Program Information
Career Tracks
Seminars
Calendar
Department of …
Faculty Info
Programs
Careers
Alumni Endorsements
Seminars
Calendar
Directions/ Campus Map

71. A Faculty Member by Class
Has information about:
General Information
Bio, Hours, Contact
Syllabus
Shared Files
Student Reviews
Threaded discussions
Group Chats
Enrolled Students List
Opt-in Past Enrolled
Professor …
General Info
Syllabus
Virtual HD
Enrolled Students
Course Reviews
Past Enrolled
Group Chats

72. Campus Services Has information about: Libraries Financial Aid Housing
Health Services
Legal Services
School Paper
Book Store
Career Services
Clubs
Commons
Financial Aid
Current Aid
Grant Search
Scholarships
Counseling
Health Services
Legal Services
School Newspaper
Book Store
Career Center

73. The User Wants to subscribe to: Weather News Arts & Entertainment
Traffic
Online Games
Groups
Calendar
Online Invitation
Instant Message
myTabs
Weather
Instant Message
Traffic
Calendar
Groups
Theater Search
Game
Driving Directions

74. What is Aggregated Layout?
The experience constructed for the end user by the implementers/administrators of the portal combined with the end user's customized content
A system for constructing, managing, and administering grouped content, such that the presence and level of visibility of this content is guaranteed to appear in a users layout
A system to allow users to self select grouped content to appear in their layout

75. A snapshot of the hierarchy
Governing Body
Institutions
Schools
Departments
Faculty
User

76. The content path to the user
Governing Body
Institutions
Schools
Departments
Faculty
User

77. Aggregation of content
A users layout being constructed from pre-defined fragments

78. Subscribable Groupings
Health & Legal Services Column
User adding content that has been grouped by content administrators
Tab by Faculty and course
Departmental Calendar and Events Column

79. Some terms… Pushed Content Pulled Content Propagate
The prearranged incorporation and updating of content in a user's uPortal Layout
Pulled Content
Self selected incorporation of content (including content fragments) into a users personal layout
Propagate
Spread or extend to users of the system

80. Fragment Construction
Jan Tanner has Content Fragment Administrator privileges and she wants to start constructing fragments.

81. Fragment Construction
After selecting a fragment type, she adds content and sets restrictions

82. Fragment Construction
Priority range determines the mobility of the content, and initial value is used to determine the position of content in the layout

83. Fragment Construction

84. Fragment Construction
The restrictions below describe rules for content mobility

85. Fragment Subscription
If a user is a member of a group allowed to subscribe to a fragment, then that fragment will appear during user preferences - subscription

86. Web services as an architecture

87. A Web service is XML business messages
using ebXML/SOAP compliant data transport
rendered using XSL transformations
for a remotely authenticated user

88. Web services architecture is
XML “tagged” data content
eXtensible Markup Language
ebXML/SOAP data transport
Simple Object Access Protocol
XSL transformations for presentation
eXtensible stylesheet language
and now
UDDI/WSDL directory services
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration, and Web Services Description Language

89. Award Letter, the Meteor Channel, & e-Transcript as examples of Web services

90. Award Letter
A component of the SAM (Student Aid Management) System by Sigma Systems in Denver Colorado
PURPOSE
It is a method of communicating to students information about the financial aid they are being offered based upon their eligibility.
It is a method of communicating from the students their intentions regarding the aid they have been offered.

91. The Process FAFSA (on the web) Institution determines eligibility
Grants, Scholarships, Loans
Institution gathers documents for aid
FA Officers counsel students
Institution & Students tracks aid status
Institution offers aid (Award Letter)
Students accept or deny offered aid
Institution stores students choices and the process continues to disbursement

92. FAFSA

93. Tracking documents

94. Logging in

95. Institution's summary

96. On-line Award Notification

97. Details

98. Offer Summary at Institution

99. On-Line Award Letter

100. Meteor in a nutshell…
UDDI
Lender
XML

101. Diagram of Meteor Concept
Web Services
HTML
Meteor
XML
Student Access Provider Data Provider

102. As implemented ... Web Services Meteor Secure HTML Secure XML Standard
Browser
uPortal
Meteor
SOAP
Meteor
SOAP
Database

103. Data from multiple sources, locations

104. Meteor Channel in the uPortal

105. The Meteor channel

106. e-Transcript: User Login

107. Get Student List

108. Select Student from List

109. Select Transcript View

110. Or Build Custom View

111. Get Transcript