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Using uPortal Distributed Layout Manager

Using uPortal Distributed Layout Manager. Susan Bramhall Yale University ITS June 6, 2006. Who am I?. Yale University Portal Implementer Occasional contributor to uPortal Early adopter of Distributed Layout Manager Grandmother. What Will I cover?. The layout manager’s job

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Using uPortal Distributed Layout Manager

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  1. Using uPortal Distributed Layout Manager Susan Bramhall Yale University ITS June 6, 2006

  2. Who am I? • Yale University Portal Implementer • Occasional contributor to uPortal • Early adopter of Distributed Layout Manager • Grandmother

  3. What Will I cover? • The layout manager’s job • Distributed Layout Manager basics • How to create layout fragments using uPortal users and groups • How user content changes and managed content changes interact • Moving from SLM to DLM

  4. Before I begin • Mark Boyd’s excellent documentation is on the uPortal wiki: http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/pjQ • Or

  5. What does the user see? • We want to • Push content to users based on who they are • But, allow users to choose what they see • How? • By working with the layout manager

  6. folder type=“root” folder (tab) folder (tab) folder (tab) folder (column) folder (column) folder (column) folder (column) folder (column) channel channel channel channel channel channel channel The Layout An xml tree of generic folders and channels

  7. The Layout Manager’s Job To direct the show the Layout Manager must • Know where to start • Have rules to follow to include the right content and exclude everything else • And where each segment goes

  8. Of Fragments and Templates • A template is a starting point for personal layout • A fragment is a living segment of pushed content

  9. Publish, Subscribe, , Pull • Publishing is what an administrator does • Subscribing is what a user does • Administrators can also PUSH content • Pull = Subscribe

  10. Concepts • Fragments and Templates • Publish and Subscribe • Push and Pull • Audience • Precedence and Restrictions

  11. Which Layout Manager? • Simple Layout Manager (SLM) • uPortal 1.0 to present • Aggregated Layout Manager (ALM) • uPortal 2.0 to present • Distributed Layout Manager (DLM) • uPortal 2.5 to present

  12. Simple Layout Manager • uPortal 1.0 – 2.5 but no longer default • Based on completely templates • Allows personal layout for each user • But personalized layout is a copy • New content in template is lost on users who have customized

  13. SLM Example:

  14. Aggregated Layout Manager • uPortal 2.0 – now • Will NOT be the future default • Based on fragments (think tab) and templates • Can push fragments • Can subscribe to whole fragments • Allows personal layout for each user but fragments are read only

  15. ALM as Distributed:

  16. ALM major overhaul:

  17. Distributed Layout Manager • Default in uPortal 2.6 • Templates and Fragments • Fragments can be modified • Cannot subscribe to a fragment (yet) • Allows personal layout for each user and user changes are merged with changes to fragments • Incremental change to SLM

  18. DLM as it appears in uPortal Head

  19. Student User in DLM

  20. Steps to Pushing DLM Fragment • Define the fragment in dlm.xml • Login as the fragment owner and set up the layout

  21. Define the Fragments • dlm.xml configuration • Each Fragment definition includes • An owner • Precedence • Audience

  22. Audience • Everyone needs the right audience! • Built-in evaluators • Boolean expressions • Extensible API

  23. Defining the audience • Built in Audience Evaluators • GuestUserEvaluatorFactory • AllUsersEvaluatorFactory • GroupMembershipEvaluatorFactory • PersonEvaluatorFactory • Or implement Evaluator interface

  24. What do we know about the user?

  25. User Attributes • IPerson is the basic user object • Attributes come from jdbc or ldap • Or any other source you invent

  26. PersonEvaluatorAudience • Tabs based on Person attributes • PersonDirectory Flexibility

  27. compositeGroupServices.xml • Starts with Local groups from uPortal database • Includes comments for • LDAP group service (beware) • File System group service • Person Attribute Group service (PAGS)

  28. GroupMembershipEvaluator Audience • Fragment based on Group

  29. Boolean Expressions <dlm:fragment name='News' ownerID='news-lo' precedence='80'> <dlm:audience evaluatorFactory= ‘...GroupMembershipEvaluatorFactory‘> <paren mode="AND"> <attribute mode='memberOf' name='Students'/> <paren mode="NOT"> <attribute mode='memberOf' name='Faculty'/> </paren> </paren> </dlm:audience> </dlm:fragment>

  30. Precedence and Restrictions • Precedence attribute in dlm.xml determines order • Restrictions determined by layout owner • End result is pushed content merged with personal changes

  31. Create Fragment Content • Login to the Fragment owner account

  32. And edit as usual • Extra controls are available

  33. How It Works • At start up dlm.xml is parsed and each fragment is read in and cached • When the user logs in • Each fragment is evaluated and included or not • Saved personal layout and directives are read • Layout is built by merging • Changes are saved to personal layout • Changes to fragments are incorporated on interval

  34. The Future

  35. Conversion to DLM • What Yale did (ugh) • The gory details are here: http://tp.its.yale.edu/confluence/x/zAE • What the future holds

  36. Yale Conversion Color coded the preferences channel so users can distinguish pushed from personal

  37. Yale Conversion • Renamed Tabs in saved layouts – very ugly • Pushed layout instructions to those who had customized (Thank you DLM) • It was kind of ugly but it worked

  38. A Better Future • New tool to migrate user layouts between layout managers • This is possible because elements have unique identifiers which do not change when they are moved or copied • The tool will also be useful for migrating to uPortal 3

  39. Comparing Customized Layouts Template Layout Customized User Layout Moved C3 Added C7 Deleted C2

  40. Comparison Results <layout-diff> <owner>dalquist</owner> <changes> <add node=“C7” parent=“T1” previous-sibling=“C1”/> <move node=“C3” parent=“T2” previous-sibling=“C4/> <delete node=“C2”/> </changes> </layout-diff>

  41. How It Works • The template layout needs to be re-created using the new Layout Manager first • The source template layout and destination template layout are compared • Layout Manager APIs are used to compare each users layout to the template layout

  42. Future Becoming Reality • At this point the tool is only a concept, Rutgers has plans to create the tool, no firm date yet • The tools design works with any layout manager implementation • Could also be used for layout migration between portal installs or versions of the portal (uP2 to uP3)

  43. Questions?

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