KRA Developers Bootcamp

1. KRA Developers Bootcamp Terry Durkin - IU (Development Manager/Lead Developer) Bryan Hutchinson - Cornell (Development Manager/Lead Developer)

2. About KRA • Six partner schools • Cornell, Indiana, Michigan State, MIT, Arizona, CSU • Based on a MITs Coeus • Full Featured Research Admin suite • 12+ years of development work • Still going! • Consortium model

3. More About KRA • First Release - July 2008 • Proposal Development • Budget • Grants.gov S2S • Second Release - 2009 • Awards • IRB/Human Participants • … • Beyond • Functional Parity with Coeus

4. How Bootcamp Works • High-level Overview of Concepts • Discussion based on slides • Exercises • Sample Application mimicking KRA functionality • Ask questions any time! • Be engaged - You will get out what you put in!

5. Day 1 - Documents and BOs • Kuali is “Document based” • Two Types of Documents • Transactional Documents • Maintenance Documents

6. Transactional Documents • Represent a business function • Apply for funds (by creating a proposal) • Manage Human Participants (by creating a protocol, amendment, etc…) • Complex rules and approval process • Lots of data • Potentially long living • Focus on Transactional Documents later in the week

7. Maintenance Documents • Manage (create/alter) Reference Data • What is “reference data” • In DB terms, it’s a table used by the entire system as a FK from other tables • People, Organizations, Units, Sponsors, etc… • What else would be reference data? • Simple documents to perform CRUD operations

8. Business Objects • Business Objects (BOs) are Java Beans • Properties • Getters/Setters • Two categories • Reference Data (CRUD via Maint Docs) • Those used in Transactional Documents (Document Composition) • Map to a single table in the DB

9. Database • Kuali uses OJB as an ORM tool • OJB - ObJectRelationalBridge • ORM - Object-Relational Mapping • Configure • Write Java Code (not SQL) • Related data elements are stored together • Model complex database relationships

10. Using OJB • OJB Repository XML • Class Descriptor • Define the Java Class and the Table Name • Field Descriptor • Java Property Name • Column Name • JDBC Type • Conversion (boolean to char, custom datatypes, etc…) • Primary Key • Optimistic Locking

11. OJB - Getting more advanced • Model Relationships • Collection Descriptor • Reference Descriptor • More on these later in the week.

12. Data Dictionary (DD) • Controls the behavior of Bos • Defined in XML - <BO Class Name>.xml • Inquiries • Lookups • Attributes - Properties of the BO • UI Controls - Lookups, Maint Docs, Trans Docs • Size & Shape Validation • Required-ness

13. OJB - repository.xml • Reference Descriptor • Relationships to Reference data • 1:1 (Proposal:Sponsor) • Not saved/deleted when the related object is saved • Collection Descriptor • Relationships where a parent can have many children • 1:M (Proposal:Investigators; Investigator:Unit) • “Reverse Foreign Key” • Save with the Parent

14. Maintenance Docs • How we manage Reference Bos • XML based: <BO Class Name>MaintenanceDocument.xml • BO Class • Maintainable Class - API for customization • Business Rules - API to perform validation • Document Authorizer - Customize AuthZ for a doc • Document Type - Reference to KEW • Maintainable Section(s) and Item(s) - what and how attributes are presented • Attributes, Locking Key, Default Existence Checks…

15. Values Finders • User to present a list of options in the UI • Drop-down • Radio Group • Queries the database and returns a list of valid values • PersistableBusinessObjectsCaluesFinder • 80% - BO Class, Key/Label Attributes Names • Custom Values Finders • 20% - Extend KeyValuesBase, Implement KeyValuesFinder • XML (DD) and Code (Class file)

16. Transactional Documents • Composed of a Document class and multiple BOs • Document Composition BOs have a reference to the Document class/table (FK Relationship) • Transactional Document classes are special BOs • Super BOs with additional behavior

17. Transactional Document • Similar to Maint Doc DD files • Add Attributes (since these are BOs) • No lookups (we use KEW for Doc Search) • No Inquiries • Similar to other OJB mappings • Lots of relationships defined • Other mappings should not refer back to the Document class

18. Web stuff in Kuali/KRA • Struts • Pseudo MVC • Forms, Actions, Mappings • Struts in Kuali • Heavily customized • Addresses common Struts anti-patterns • Simplifies development • Single Action Mapping

19. Struts Action Classes Object Hierarchy for KRA: -KraTransactionalDocument ----KualiTransactionalDocumentBase ------KualiDocumentActionBase --------KualiAction ----------DispatchAction

20. Struts Form Classes • Document is placed in the Form • POJO Form Base handles type conversion • Object Hierarchy for KRA: -ProposalDevelopmentForm ----KualiTransactionalDocumentFormBase ------KualiDocumentFormBase --------KualiForm ----------PojoFormBase ------------ActionForm (Struts base form)

21. Building the UI • JSPs/Custom Tags • JSTL and JSP Expression Language • Preferable to Struts tags when possible • Kuali Rice Tags • page.tag and documentPage.tag • tab.tag • documentControls.tag

22. KRA Custom Tags • Build complex JSPs • Maintainability • Methodology is approximate, but in general: • 1 JSP per page • 1 .tag per panel on the page

23. HTMLControlAttribute.tag • <kul:htmlControlAttribute /> • Replaces struts <html:xxx /> • Uses Data Dictionary entries to determine: • Type of control (text, drop-down, etc) • Length • Max Length • DD Attributes

24. Lists of Data • Old stuff • OJB, BOs, DD, etc • New stuff • Document changes • Special getter • Deletion Aware Lists • Action Form - Methods for add/delete • JSP/tag - Accessing properties of a list

25. Services and DAOs • Services are where Business Logic occurs • Perform a calculation; Save a Document • Services are defined as Interfaces and Implemented as classes • Spring manages the resolution of Interface to actual code - Spring Beans XML • Accessing Services • Dependency Injection • Service Locator (KraServiceLocator) • Data Access Objects - DAOs • Similar to Services, but have knowledge of the data model

26. Rules and Events • Events - A way to evaluate a rule when an action occurs • Automatically invoked via frameworks (Save, Route, etc…) • Custom events (add or delete a BO from a list)

27. Rules • Beyond size & shape validation from the DD • DocumentRuleBase - Customize save/route/etc… rules • Custom Rules - Implemented in Rules classes; Validate pretty much anything about the document; Return true/false

28. Error Messages • Give context to errors • Display error messages on the appropriate panel • Highlight fields that have errors • Generated from DD • Generated from Rules classes

29. Audit Errors • Similar to Error Messages • Allows users to continue working on their document and defer validation until ready • Errors and Warnings • Provides a link to where the error is occurring

30. Document Authorizer • Determine the level of access that a user has to the document • Read Only • Full Access • Somewhere in between • Document Actions • What actions can a user take on a document • Implemented in JSPs via <kul:documentControls /> • Who can initiate a document