© 2014 IBM Corporation

AD404: Develop Engaging and High Performance Portal Themes That Power Exceptional Digital Experiences

Stephan Hesmer, Web 2.0 and Theme Architect, IBM

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IBM’s statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at IBM’s sole discretion.

Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.

The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion

Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon many factors, including considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user’s job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.

Please Note

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Agenda

Overview

– Introduction, What is in the box, Theme Optimization

WebSphere Portal 8.0 Theme Framework

– Basics– Static Template Details– Request flow– Theme Optimization– Debugging, Pitfalls & Tips– Portlet Integration

WebSphere Portal V.next - Theme improvements

– Simpler and easier to use– Dynamic Content Spot Debugging– Theme Analyzer improvements

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What is a theme ?

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Theme artifacts– Navigation– Search bar– User Information– Footer– Static Resources

What is a theme ?And what are the elements ?

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Theme artifacts– Navigation– Search bar– User Information– Footer– Static Resources

Skin artifacts– Shown “around” a portlet or piece of

content on the page

What is a theme ?And what are the elements ?

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Theme artifacts– Navigation– Search bar– User Information– Footer– Static Resources

Skin artifacts– Shown “around” a portlet or piece of

content on the page Layout of the page

– 2 columns in this case

What is a theme ?And what are the elements ?

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Portal 8 Themes

Ships with one Theme - called Theme 8.0– replaces all previously shipped out of the box themes

Key Features

– Theme Optimization (Modularization)– Portlet and iWidget support

● Gadgets can be used through catalog download– Dynamic and static files

● Static templates: theme, skin, layouts, with webDAV editing– Dynamic-content provides means to inject server-side logic into static templates without

inserting code– Dojo 1.7.x in the box, allowing any arbitrary other framework as well such as jQuery

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What is theme optimization?

Theme optimization provides a framework that...

– minimizes download size ● Control the capabilities that are needed for a certain scenario

– minimizes the number of requests ● Resource aggregation

– Improves theme performance

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How does theme optimization work?

Theme optimization uses modules and profiles

By applying these concepts it is possible to

– Turn on and off an arbitrary number of features for certain pages

– Ability to pull in theme resources only when needed or desired

– Develop modules independent of each other

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Theme Optimization Performance

Response time of new theme showing 3 theme profiles

– full contains more features than the 7.0 Theme (kitchen sink)

– lightweight contains only what is minimum needed to render a page in view mode

– standard which is lightweight+dojo_base

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Theme Basics

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Theme Resources

Static Resources– Javascript, CSS, Markup– Templates for page rendering

Dynamic Resources– Rendered through JSPs– Fills in areas in the webpage

Dynamic Content Spot References (Optional)– Allows for indirection of the JSP

with the static template

Header / Navigation

Page Layout

Footer

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Theme Resources

Static Resources– Javascript, CSS, Markup– Templates for page rendering

Dynamic Resources– Rendered through JSPs– Fills in areas in the webpage

Dynamic Content Spot References (Optional)– Allows for indirection of the JSP

with the static template

Header / Navigation

Page Layout

Footer

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Theme Resources

Static Resources– Javascript, CSS, Markup– Templates for page rendering

Dynamic Resources– Rendered through JSPs– Fills in areas in the webpage

Dynamic Content Spot References (Optional)– Allows for indirection of the JSP

with the static template

Header / Navigation

Page Layout

Footer

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WebDAV for static files What used to be in one Theme WAR file is split into dynamic and static content

– Dynamic content stays in the WAR file, e.g. JSPs– Static content such as HTML, JavaScript, CSS, images is stored in WebDAV

Allows for separation of concern...– ...such as tighter access control on dynamic content as it can bring down your server

and usually on WAS admins have access to the WAR file WebDAV server (Portal) acts like a generic file server

– Mount shared folders over HTTP that behave much like other network file systems – Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop can mount WebDAV for direct editing

WebDAV entry points– http://<host>:<port>/wps/mycontenthandler/dav/fs-type1

● Themes, skins, layout templates, common-resources– http://<host>:<port>/wps/mycontenthandler/dav/themelist/– http://<host>:<port>/wps/mycontenthandler/dav/skinlist/

● Create and define new themes and skins using these entry points

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Static Templates

Static templates are stored in WebDAV Themes

– theme.html in /fs-type1/themes/<theme-name>/ Skins

– skin.html in /fs-type1/themes/Portal8.0/skins/<skin-name>/ Layouts

– layout.html in /fs-type1/themes/Portal8.0/layout-templates/<layout-name>/

When editing using OOB templates, remember they are localized!– You must edit the localized template to see changes– Localized templates example:

● /fs-type1/themes/Portal8.0/nls/theme_en.html

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Theme Templates (theme.html)

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Layouts (layout.html)

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Layouts – 3 Column Center Layout

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Layouts – Location of files

Configure which layouts to show in the palette or add your own in layouts.json within WebDAV

Add your own layout templates or change existing ones in the layout-templates folder of WebDAV

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Skins (skin.html)

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Dynamic Content Spots

Dynamic spots– Microformat defined in theme.html and other static files– <a rel=”dynamic-content' href='<URI>'/>– Parsed at runtime, href resolved and response streamed out

Dynamic spot registry– WAS environment provider holds dynamic content spot mappings– Examples:

● <a rel=”dynamic-content' href='res:/MyTheme/banner_nav.jsp'/>● <a rel=”dynamic-content” href=”dyn-cs:id:bannerNav”/>

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theme_en.htmlWebSphere Application ServerResource Environment Provider

Theme Web App<PortalServer>/theme/wp.theme.themes/default80/installedApps/

DefaultTheme80.ear/DefaultTheme80.war/themes/html/dynamicSpots

Dynamic Content Spots

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Rendering, involved components and flow

Portal Theme WAR

WebDAV

Theme WARPortal

EL Beans, Model API, ...

Default.jspRequest

theme.html various dynamiccontent spots JSPs

fetch informationfrom modelssuch asnavigation nodes

Portlet WAR

include portlets

WebDAV

layout.html

WebDAV

skin.html

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Advanced Theme Topics

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Theme Expression Logic (EL) Bean

${wp.selectionModel.selected} = selected node

${wp.metadata[wp.selectionModel.selected]['someKey']} = access page meta data

${wp.rep['WP GlobalThemeConfig']} = REP access

${wp.identification[node]} = retrieve node object id

${wp.themeList.current.metadata['someKey']} = access theme meta data

${wp.ac[node].hasPermission[someRole]} = access permissions

Includes very simple access to:– Portal models– meta data– resource environment providers (REP)

More Information:– http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/Portal_EL_Beans

Common examples:

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Theme Optimization - Modularization Maximize performance by removing

unused features

Modularization of Portal CSS, JavaScript, and configuration/markup code enables safe removal of features without touching code

CSS and JavaScript for included features are combined at runtime to reduce requests and download size

Customers can use the modularization framework to add your own features to the theme in a performant, maintainable fashion

Note: Demo UI, not realIt provides a case study of how to select modules to execute for a given page/theme.

CSS JS markup

CSS JS markup

CSS JS markup

CSS JS markup

Tagging / Rating

Drag and Drop

Analytics

CSS JS markup

Page Editing

Widget Support

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Theme Optimization - Terminology

Modules– Component defining a single feature that contributes various artifacts to the page

● Javascript, CSS, markup– Can be reused across multiple themes

● Global (System-wide) vs. Scoped (Theme specific)

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Examples

System Module - plugin.xml

Theme Module - theme.json

Prereqs

Contributions

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Theme Optimization - Terminology Modules

– Component defining a single feature that contributes various artifacts to the page● Javascript, CSS, markup

– Can be reused across multiple themes● Global (System-wide) vs. Scoped (Theme specific)

Profiles– Set of modules that are scoped to a theme or page.

● JSON file Contributions

– Formalization of the single markup fragment that a module may inject into the complete page.

Capabilities– Contributed as part of individual modules– Previously defined as theme metadata

● For example: The Dojo Module defines the capability “dojo”

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Development / Adding custom JavaScript and CSS Development time

– Switch portal into development modeSet the resourceaggregation.development.mode property to true within the WP ConfigService resource environment provider to disable caching of modules and profiles

– Turn on remote debuggingEnable the following tracing with the Portal Admin Trace Portlet: com.ibm.wps.resourceaggregator.CombinerDataSource.RemoteDebug=allThis will cause the uncompressed JavaScript, CSS,... to be loaded as individual requests

– Use theme scoped modules defined through JSON in WebDAV to load your JavaScript and CSS

● Note: theme scoped modules cannot include complete URIs but have to be relative to WebDAV / the static content root. Example:

– Invalid: dav:fs-type1/themes/Portal8.0/profiles/profile_full.json– Valid: profiles/profile_full.json

– Add the new module to your profile

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Development / Adding custom JavaScript and CSS

Production– Still need to minify your JavaScript and compact your CSS– If desired create a system module using the plugin.xml syntax to define your module

● Define a production and debug version of your JavaScript– It is still recommended to create sprites for your images and use those– No aggregation step required anymore. Automatically taken care for you!

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Theme Optimization - Flow

1) WebDAV: Profile file location2) WebDAV: Theme module folder, Every

JSON file is picked up and parsed for theme modules.

3) Content of the deferred profile4) Location in the theme.html where all

aggregated head resources are injected5) Location in the theme.html where all

aggregated config resources are injected

WebDAV Profile

Theme template1

2

3

4

5

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Live Demo – Theme Optimization

Various Profiles Adding our own module Adding our own profile

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Theme Optimization - Deferred Modules/Profile

The module framework allows a profile to specify whether or not it wants to make a particular module deferred.

By default a module is loaded during the initial page load, but modules that are specified as deferred modules will be loaded after page load triggered through JavaScript:

Only a subset of contributions can be loaded deferred:– CSS– JavaScript code– non-head contributed markup

profile.json

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Example from 7.0.0.2How does the Edit Mode work with Deferred Profile

1) Edit Icon is embedded into the page by using this dynamic spot

2) Definition of the dynamic spot based on a module condition

3) only if the module is loaded into the page (here: referenced in the profile) the dynamic spot is activated

if the module isremoved from the

profile, the icon shownin step (1) will disappear

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Portlet Dependencies on Modules

Often portlets depend on certain features/capabilities to be available in the page such as Dojo or jQuery

With the concept of portlet dependencies in v8 a portlet developer can define which of those are required so that the portlet will only be rendered if all requirements have been fulfilled

The enduser is notified with an in-place message in case the prereqs are not fulfilled. The message contains details about what is missing

Dependencies can only be set on capabilities, not modules

A dependency is defined with a preference pair.– Preference 1 defining the capability name

● capability.<sequence-number>.id = <the capability name>– Preference 2 defining the capability value

● capability.<sequence-number>.minValue = <the capability value>

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Portlet Dependencies on Modules

Below example lets the system know that the portlet can only be rendered when at least Dojo 1.7 and OneUI 3.0.1 is available on the page

If it is not on the page an error message is rendered letting the user know what capabilities are missing.

<portlet-preferences> <preference> <name>capability.1.id</name> <value>dojo</value> </preference><preference> <name>capability.1.minValue</name> <value>1.7</value> </preference><preference> <name>capability.2.id</name> <value>oneUI</value> </preference><preference> <name>capability.2.minValue</name> <value>3.0.1</value> </preference><preference> <name>capabilities.selfManaged</name> <value>false</value> </preference> </portlet-preferences>

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Common Theme Pitfalls

A few important things to help you along the way...

What profile is being used on the current page?– (a) The following trace will log very little and tell you the profile for a given page id:

com.ibm.wps.resourceaggregator.profile.ProfileHelper=Finer – (b) Use the Theme Analyzer to look up the page– (c) Add the following scriplet to your JSPs and it will output the currently used profile URI

<c:set var="themeID" value="${wp.themeList.current.objectID}" /><c:set var="navNode" value="${wp.selectionModel.selected}" /><%com.ibm.portal.ObjectID themeID = (com.ibm.portal.ObjectID)pageContext.getAttribute("themeID");com.ibm.portal.navigation.NavigationNode navNode = (NavigationNode) pageContext.getAttribute("navNode");

javax.naming.Context ctx = new javax.naming.InitialContext();com.ibm.portal.resourceaggregator.profile.PortalProfileListHome home = (PortalProfileListHome) ctx.lookup( com.ibm.portal.resourceaggregator.profile.PortalProfileListHome.JNDI_NAME);if (home != null) { com.ibm.portal.resourceaggregator.profile.ProfileList model = home.getProfileList(themeID, request, response); com.ibm.portal.resourceaggregator.profile.Profile profile = model.getProfile(navNode); %>Current Profile: <%=profile.getURI().toString()%><%}%>

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Common Theme Pitfalls

Make sure that your contributions folder and profiles folder...– do not contain any non-json files and sub directories and– do not contain any files other than JSON files as the system will search for all files

regardless of the suffix. So if you have a file named myModule.json.bak it will still be picked up!

– Those files are ignores with the latest Fixpack

When switching the static content from WebDAV to be WAR based, be sure to use the war: schema and not the res: schema

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Common Theme Pitfalls

In case your theme doesn't seem to work at all anymore and you see Javascript errors in the console, then– most likely there is one JS error that interrupts processing of the one Javascript layer

that is returned from the resource aggregator.– Because the system is now returning just one big JS file in one request, the browser

will stop processing the remainder of the file in case of a Javascript error that is not catched or handled.

– In this case please turn on remote debugging to have all files served up individually– This will allow you not only to most likely revive your theme but also– allow you you to see the Javascript file that caused the error and therefore identify the

module that caused the issue.

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Theme Optimization Portlet

Allows to look at all aspects of the theme framework including pages, profiles, modules, etc.

Allows to display rich validation report which analyzes the theme for well known issues

Allows for easier development and troubleshooting

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Future: Theme Analyzer Validation Report

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Future: Theme Analyzer Development Tools

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Future: Dynamic Content Spot Debugging

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Future: Dynamic Content Spot Debugging (Movie)

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Future: Simple Modules

Quick and simple way to define a new module through folders and files.

Simply create a new folder, drop a file in it and be done.

Readme files within all well-defined folders of WebDAV provide inline help right where you need it.

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Live Demo – Future Theme Improvements

Theme Analyzer– Control Center– Validation Reports– Size Charts

Simple Modules Dynamic Content Spot Debugging And many more...

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Engage Online

SocialBiz User Group socialbizug.org– Join the epicenter of Notes and Collaboration user groups

Follow us on Twitter– @IBMConnect and @IBMSocialBiz

LinkedIn http://bit.ly/SBComm– Participate in the IBM Social Business group on LinkedIn:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/IBMSocialBiz– Like IBM Social Business on Facebook

Social Business Insights blog ibm.com/blogs/socialbusiness– Read and engage with our bloggers

Engage Online

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Access Connect Online to complete your session surveys using any:– Web or mobile browser – Connect Online kiosk onsite

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