1. uPortal: A framework for the Personalization of Library Services John Fereira: Programmer/Analyst Cornell University Mann Library

2. uPortal: What is it? Enterprise/Institutional portal, a JA-SIG project Framework for presenting aggregated content Personalization (both content and layout) Role based access control Open Source, collaborative effort http://uportal.cornell.edu

3. Portal vs. Gateway Gateway: A collection of resources organized for the end-user by subject, often searchable Portal: A collection of resources and applications with a customizable layout, often performed by the end user

4. Personalized layout Tab/Column Tree/Column Deck of cards (for WML devices) Channel controls

5. Tab/Column layouts

6. Channel Controls Help Info Edit Focus Minimize Detach Remove

7. Personalized Content Channel Admin: uPortal administrator dictates what content users may see User Preferences: allows users to select what content they want to see Skins: allows users to select how content appears

8. User Preferences

9. Skins

10. User Profiles uPortal uses user-agent HTTP header variable to select profile Each profile may use a different layout Browser profile may use tab-column layout WML (web phone) may use deck-of-cards layout

11. Channel Admin uPortal Administrator “publishes” channels Admin selects a group for each channel added to the portal (Applications, news, documentation, etc) Access to channels is granted to “roles” Student, Faculty, Staff, guest, are all roles.

12. Channel Admin: Setting roles

13. Channel Types Inline Frame channel Image channel RSS channel Web Proxy channel Applet channel XML Transformation Custom channel Remote channel

14. RSS channel Rich Site Summary (developed at Netscape) Simple to implement Look and Feel hard coded by specification Good for links to external resources Can be static or dynamically generated Ideal for syndicated content Links open outside the portal in new window

15. Rss channel example

16. Web Proxy Channel Well formed html or xml Uses built in uPortal styles (xslt, css) Supports form processing Clicked links can open in channel or in separate window Can not use embedded javascript Allows passing of authentication information and other attributes to channel Good balance of flexibility and complexity

17. Web Proxy example

18. Custom Channel Most complex, most powerful Complete java application which outputs XML Requires one or more XSLT stylesheets for display Implements uPortal interfaces uPortal itself is a collection of Custom channels (login/logout, layout, preferences)

19. Custom Channel

20. Remote Channel Implemented using SOAP (Jakarta Axis) Allows publishing of channels defined in another uPortal instance Remote channel can be a web service Provides means of integrating Institutional portal with library portal

21. So Where is the Metadata? PersonDirs: map standard EduPerson attributes to local names in directory or database HTTP Header Info (user-agent, for example) Request Info (Remote User) uP database: User layout, profile, skins

22. PersonAttributes

23. Channel Admin: Passing Attributes Specified IPerson attributes to be passed to channel defined when channel is published For example: Netid, email address, Full name, cornellEduType (affiliation)

24. uP Database Tables:

25. From Login to a Personalized Layout 1.User connects to web site 2.CUWebAuth intercepts request 3.CUWebLogin or Sidecar performs Authentication 4.uPortal starts with Remote User set 5.Person Attributes obtained through LDAP directory 6.uPortal checks if user has a layout 7. yes: render layout 8. no: created initial layout using “group” default 9.Channels rendered with PersonAttributes, Environment provided 10.Channel code does something depending on attributes (load data from a database using user id)

26. Getting uPortal uPortal Web Site http://mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportal/download.html –uPortal-Only (2.1.5) Latest is 2.2 »Needs configuration –Quick-start (2.1.5) Latest is 2.2 »Contains web container, db, ant

27. The End JA-SIG uportal http://www.uportal.org Cornell uPortal http://uportal.cornell.edu http://uportal.cornell.edu University of Kansas Medical Center http://my.kumc.edu http://my.kumc.edu