uPortal: A framework for the Personalization of Library Services

John Fereira:

Programmer/Analyst

Cornell University Mann Library

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

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

Personalized layout

• Tab/Column• Tree/Column• Deck of cards (for WML devices)• Channel controls

Tab/Column layouts

Channel Controls

• Help• Info• Edit• Focus• Minimize• Detach• Remove

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

User Preferences

Skins

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

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.

Channel Admin: Setting roles

Channel Types

• Inline Frame channel• Image channel• RSS channel• Web Proxy channel• Applet channel• XML Transformation• Custom channel• Remote channel

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

Rss channel example

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

Web Proxy example

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)

Custom Channel

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

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

PersonAttributes

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)

uP Database

Tables:

From Login to a Personalized Layout

1. User connects to web site2. CUWebAuth intercepts request3. CUWebLogin or Sidecar performs Authentication4. uPortal starts with Remote User set5. Person Attributes obtained through LDAP directory6. uPortal checks if user has a layout7. yes: render layout8. no: created initial layout using “group” default9. Channels rendered with PersonAttributes,

Environment provided10. Channel code does something depending on

attributes (load data from a database using user id)

Getting uPortal

uPortal Web Sitehttp://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

The End

• JA-SIG uportal

http://www.uportal.org

• Cornell uPortal http://

uportal.cornell.edu

• University of Kansas Medical Center

http://my.kumc.edu