web-based virtual research environments (vre): supporting collaboration in e-science xiaobo yang,...
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Web-based Virtual Research Environments (VRE): Supporting
Collaboration in e-Science
Xiaobo Yang, Rob Allan
CCLRC e-Science CentreDaresbury Laboratory, Warrington, UK
WSS’06, 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Overview
• Demand on Virtual Research Environments (VRE)
• Sakai VRE Portal Demonstrator Project• Extensions of Sakai for VRE• Concluding remarks
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Demand for VRE
• Why VRE is required in research?– Researchers are facing increasingly more and more complex
challenges– Integration of resources and collaboration is essential in research– VRE aims at supporting research activities to improve efficiency
and productivity
• M. Fraser– “VRE is best viewed as a framework into which tools, services and
resources can be plugged”– Pluggable
• Our understanding– VRE is a flexible service-oriented platform which is used to support
all kinds of research activities including administrative tasks to meet dynamically changing requirements of research in all disciplines
– Key: efficient collaboration, service-oriented
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Sakai VRE Portal Demonstrator Project
• Sakai VRE Portal Demonstrator Project– A UK JISC funded project making use of Sakai to build up a
general-purpose VRE system
• What is Sakai?– A collaboration and learning environment targeting higher
education market originated by University of Michigan, et al.– Java-based, open-source, free to use– Sakai provides a set of collaboration tools, e.g., chat, discussion– A world-wide scope Sakai community has been built up for
deployment, development, etc. – see Sakai map on the next slide
• From CLE to VRE– CLE: collaborative learning environments, for supporting learning– VRE: virtual research environments, for supporting research
Both for supporting collaboration Both for supporting collaboration ►►CLE can be extended to VRECLE can be extended to VREBoth for supporting collaboration Both for supporting collaboration ►►CLE can be extended to VRECLE can be extended to VRE
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Sakai Map
• Screenshot taken on 18th December 2006 from http://www.sakaiproject.org/
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Sakai-based VRE Architecture
• Pluggable– New tools can be plugged in the framework– Tools can act as hosts of external tools -> possible to support
emerging and new standards
Sakai VRE
Sakai framework
Sakai tool Sakai tool
Sakai tool
External tool
External tool
Sakai tool Sakai tool
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Extensions of Sakai for VRE
• Sakai provides a set of useful tools/services, but that’s not enough for a VRE system
• Our extensions– Groupware integration– Grid tool integration– Document management
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Groupware Integration
• Groupware integration– Accessing Microsoft Exchange server through WebDAV
• Calendars are widely used to arrange events for example to book meetings
• Microsoft Exchange server has been widely deployed• Sakai has its own calendar tool• Users do not want more than one calendar application• Answer: access Microsoft Exchange server through WebDAV
– Import calendar events from Microsoft Exchange server to Sakai– When a Sakai calendar event is created, synchronise to Microsoft
Exchange server– Email integration
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Import Calendar Events from Microsoft Exchange Server
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Grid Tool Integration
• Grid aims at providing computing and data power on demand– A technique can be utilised for supporting research
• Requirement of integration of Grid tools in Sakai– We hope to provide the power of grid in our VRE system to
researchers– A set of grid portlets including proxy manager, job submission, file
transfer, etc. has been developed for the UK National Grid Service (NGS) Portal so that NGS can be accessed transparently
– Re-use rather than re-development– Unfortunately Sakai does not support the Java Portlet
Specification 1.0 - JSR 168 (work is now going on for integration of Pluto in Sakai in USA)
We do NOT want to do it again!We do NOT want to do it again!
►►This can be done through WSRPThis can be done through WSRP
We do NOT want to do it again!We do NOT want to do it again!
►►This can be done through WSRPThis can be done through WSRP
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
What is WSRP?
• WSRP ( Web Services for Remote Portlets )– An OASIS standard to solve the interoperability issue between
portal frameworks– Defines presentation-based and interactive web services
PortalsWSRPServicesPortalsPortals
WebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClientsWebClients
PortalsPortalsPortalsPortalsPortalsWSRP
ServicesPortalsPortalsWSRPServices
e.g.
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Why WSRP?
• Portlets can now be re-utilised without even re-deployment– WSRP producer is responsible for publishing portlets– WSRP consumer can then be used to consume them– Portlet vendors are responsible for maintenance/upgrade of
portlets
• In our case– NGS Portal acts as WSRP producer– Sakai acts as WSRP consumer
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
BatchJobMonitor Portlet Running in Sakai through WSRP
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Document Management
• Idea comes from our experience in organising workshops– We want a tool to help us manage papers/reviews
• Document Management System (DMS)– Admin
• Set up conference/workshop site, PC members, topics, etc.• Auto-allocate papers to reviewers• Email service
– Author• Submit/update/delete paper(s), check review(s) and result(s)
– Reviewer• Download papers allocated• Submit reviews
• DMS tool can be used together with Sakai’s collaborative tools like announcement, chat, etc. to form a fully functional conference tool
Presenter Name
Facility NameWSS’06 18th December 2006, Hong Kong
Concluding Remarks
• VRE systems aim at supporting all kinds of research activities in multiple disciplines to meet today’s more and more complex challenges
• E-Learning systems can be converted to e-Research systems with proper extensions
• The following extensions have been applied to Sakai:– Integration of groupware for accessing Microsoft Exchange
server through WebDAV;– Integration of grid tools through WSRP so that existing (grid)
portlets can be used inside Sakai– document management to help organise
conference/workshop
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