1. Portals, Desktop Applications and Distributed Services for e-Research
Sakai VRE Demonstrator – progress July’05
Portals, Desktop Applications and Distributed Services for e-Research
- Updated vision -
Rob Crouchley and Rob Allan
With thanks to Chuck Severance

2. The original Vision

3. Personal Learning/Research Environment
PLREs and All That!
Vision following the JISC-CETIS workshop in Oxford presented by Chuck Severance
Personal Learning/Research Environment
Requirements
VLE
VRE IE
If we focus on what the user wants to see, it all becomes a single “desktop”
The Personal Learning/ Research Environment (PLRE) effectively adds a “productivity” layer to the VLE/VRE/IE space which unifies the look/feel/usability across the multiple sources of information

4. Someday the PLRE will not be just a browser
Desktop Apps have:
Better user experience
Increased productivity
But:
More complex to build
Difficult to keep up with changing technology
a. pure HTML Web page
b. Web page based, but with browser enhancements
c. browser extension
d. dedicated desktop network client
e. extensible desktop application platform
f. common desktop application

5. E-Research Framework Choices
Portal Software:
uPortal, GridSphere, Liferay, StringBeans, Jetspeed2, JBOSS, eXo Platform
We are evaluating these in a collaboration with Jason Novotny and will produce a technical report
JSR-168 portlets have been demonstrated to be portable between frameworks
.NET not yet evaluated
Digital Repository Software:
Fedora, Dspace, Plone
Collaborative Software:
Sakai, Sharepoint, NaradaBroker, Lotus Notes, OpenOffice ?
Web Services and loose coupling are helping us to realise the vision.
Say you are starting an E-Research project, what software should you use?

6. Linking Sakai to the Desktop
Work by Chuck Severance (Michigan) using Visual Basic. July 2005.

7. Consuming Web Services
Text Field to enter WSDL location
Buttons to Analyse and Add WS
Drop Down Menu for Services & Operations
JTree for adding WS, with user interaction
Display Message content for WS Operation Call
Work by Asif Akram (Daresbury) using Swing. June 2005.

9. Dynamic Swing Form created for testing WS
Prototype can handle very complex and composite data types

10. Adding Different WS and SOAP Message
Different WS added and populated drop down menu
Contents of SOAP Method Call

11. Extending the Authentication Framework
Add Francisco’s Shibboleth picture.

12. New Vision Common Services Common Services JSR-168, WSRP
Portlet
Portlet
Portlet
SOAP, WSDL, UDDI
Service
Service
Service
Common Services
Common Services

13. Same view from Sakai! Portal Non-Sakai Tool Non-Sakai Non-Java Tools
WSRP
WSRP
WSRP
WSRP
HTTP
HTTP
HTTP
Sakai
Sakai
Sakai
tool
tool
tool
tool
tool
tool

14. So what tools are we working with?
Grid Tools
Grid Job monitor
MDS LDAP Browser
Grid Proxy Manager
Grid Job Submission
Grid FTP
InfoPortal
Grid Markets Tools
Negociation Client
Payment Service Client
Data Management Tools
SRB
OGSA-DAI
Service Registry
UDDI publish
UDDI discovery
Dynamic WSDL Interface
Support Tools
Certificate Upload
Desktop FTP
Sakai Collaboration Tools
Schedule
Resources
Web Content
Chat
Discussion
New Sakai Tools
LDQ Upload
Whiteboard
CopperCore
IRC
Wiki
CREE Information Management Tools
JAFER
GetRef
HEIRPORT
Google