overview of distributed layout manager presented by: u mark boyd, sungard sct u marlin benson,...

Overview of Distributed Layout Manager

Presented by:

Mark Boyd, SunGard SCT

Marlin Benson, SunGard SCT

Todd Trann, University of Saskatchewan

Definition of Distributed Layout Manager

The Distributed Layout Manager gives a Fragment Owner the capability of pushing content to users.

A Fragment is simply a collection of content that can be placed on a tab.

The Fragment Owner is someone who has rights to add content to a fragment.

A Fragment Audience is the set of users that the fragment will be pushed out to.

The DLM feature also allows a fragment owner to restrict actions available individual users in the fragment audience with respect to the fragment content.

Standard Layout

Student Layoutdemo Layout

defines

defaultTemplateUser

Student Layout

snapshot

Integrated Layout

demo Layout

defaultTemplateUser

News Fragment

defines

news-lo

Student Integrated Layout

snapshotdynamic update

How do I Install and run DLM?

DLM is now located in uPortal version 2.5 Activate DLM by performing the following steps:

1. Stop the web server.

2. Change properties in portal.properties

org.jasig.portal.layout.UserLayoutStoreFactory.implementation =org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.RDBMDistributedLayoutStore

org.jasig.portal.layout.UserLayoutManagerFactory.coreImplementation =org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.DistributedLayoutManager

3. Update Database table UP_USER_PROFILE

UPDATE UP_USER_PROFILE SET STRUCTURE_SS_ID = 4, THEME_SS_ID = 3 WHERE THEME_SS_ID = 11;

4. Start the web server

DLM.XML

Fragments, Fragment Owners, and Fragment Audiences are defined in the file dlm.xml.

The top level element in dlm.xml is the <managedLayoutFragments> element.

<managedLayoutFragments xmlns:dlm="http://org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.config">

The only two supported child elements for the <managedLayoutFragments> element are <property> and <fragment>

<property> Element

The <property> child element of the top level managedLayoutFragments element requires two attributes, ‘name’ and ‘value’.

There are currently only two properties supported by DLM

<dlm:property name='defaultLayoutOwner' value='fragmentTemplate'/> <dlm:property name=

'org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.RDBMDistributedLayoutStore.fragment_cache_refresh' value="5"/>

<fragment> element

The <fragment> child element of the top level managedLayoutFragments element is used to define a fragment.

<dlm:fragment name='Guests' ownerID='guest-lo' precedence='10'>

<dlm:audience evaluatorFactory='org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.providers.GuestUserEvaluatorFactory'/>

</dlm:fragment>

<fragment> element




</dlm:fragment>

- ant md5passwd -Dusername=guest-lo

<fragment> element




</dlm:fragment>

DLM’s Concept of Precedence

The precedence value is relative only.

User layout elements have a precedence of zero.

Layout owner can lock a tab as not moveable.

A tab with a higher precedence value can override a locked tab in a more valuable real estate location.

Real estate values (tabs, columns, and channels).

<audience> element

The <audience> child element of the <fragment> element is used to define a fragment audience.



</dlm:fragment>

Simple Default Evaluator Factories

Default evaluator factories are found in the org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.providers package:

The GuestUserEvaluatorFactory <dlm:fragment name='Guests' ownerID='guest-lo' precedence='10'> <dlm:audience evaluatorFactory= 'org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.providers.GuestUserEvaluatorFactory'/> </dlm:fragment>

The AllUsersEvaluatorFactory<dlm:fragment name='AllUsers' ownerID='allusers-lo' precedence='50'> <dlm:audience

evaluatorFactory= 'org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.providers.AllUsersEvaluatorFactory'/> </dlm:fragment>

PersonEvaluatorFactory

This factory produces an evaluator that supports complex grants of the fragment that are made based on attributes found in the passed-in IPerson object.

<paren> ELEMENT

Attribute: mode (optional).

Possible values are: OR (default), AND, or NOT.

<attribute> ELEMENT

Attributes: name (required), mode (required), and value (optional).

Possible values for mode are: exists, equals, contains, startsWith, and endsWith.

The Entertainment Fragment

<dlm:fragment name='Entertainment' ownerID='ent-lo' precedence='100'>

<dlm:audience evaluatorFactory='org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.providers.PersonEvaluatorFactory'>

<paren mode="NOT">

<attribute name="username" mode='equals' value='guest'/>

</paren>

</dlm:audience>

</dlm:fragment>

GroupMembershipEvaluatorFactory

This factory returns an evaluator that can evaluate group memberships.

The syntax semantics are identical to PersonEvaluatorFactory except for the <attribute> element.

mode = ‘memberOf’

name = <valid group in uPortal>

The News Fragment

<dlm:fragment name='News' ownerID='news-lo' precedence='80'>



<dlm:audience evaluatorFactory='org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.providers.GroupMembershipEvaluatorFactory'>

<paren mode="AND">

<attribute mode='memberOf' name='Students'/>

<paren mode="NOT">

<attribute mode='memberOf' name='Faculty'/>

</paren>

</paren>

</dlm:audience>

</dlm:fragment>

Custom Evaluator Factories

Implement the org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.EvaluatorFactory interface.

public Evaluator getEvaluator( org.w3c.dom.Node audience ) throws Exception;

Implement the org.jasig.portal.layout.dlm.Evaluator interface.

public boolean isApplicable( IPerson p );

Future direction of DLM.

Summary of Potentially Restricted Activities within DLM

Tabs

1. Move Tab

2. Edit Properties (name)

3. Add columns

4. Delete tab Columns

1. Move column

2. Edit Properties (width)

3. Add channels

4. Delete column Channels

1. Move channel

2. Delete channel

Future Direction of DLM

University of Saskatchewan

U of S Layout Design Approach

Original committee design (2003):

different home tabs for each role; plus

additional tabs conditionally merged in; plus

a set of tabs for all users

A Look at Some Default Layouts

Live demo during JA-SIG, static slides for the presentation archive

The screenshots will show, in this order:

employee default layout

faculty default layout

student default layout

Employee Layout

Faculty Layout

Student Layout

Roles and Grants (support docs)

Portion of U of S dlm.xml

<dlm:fragment name='Alumni' ownerID='alumni-lo' precedence='100'> <dlm:role>alumni</dlm:role> <dlm:audience

evaluatorFactory='com.pipeline.uportal.dlm.provider.CPPersonEvaluatorFactory'> <paren mode="AND"> <attribute name='role' mode='equals' value='alumni'/> <paren mode="NOT"> <attribute name='role' mode='equals' value='student'/> </paren> <paren mode="NOT"> <attribute name='role' mode='equals' value='faculty'/> </paren> <paren mode="NOT"> <attribute name='role' mode='equals' value='employee'/> </paren> <paren mode="NOT"> <attribute name='role' mode='equals' value='eligibletoregister'/> </paren> <paren mode="NOT"> <attribute name='role' mode='equals' value='advisor'/> </paren> </paren> </dlm:audience> </dlm:fragment>

Lessons learned

wrong approach was taken with regards to home tab

users are traumatized when their home tab changes are discarded

we need to stop regarding user's home tab as "web pages", it is very personal space

maintaining multiple home tabs is time-consuming

- looking forward to "smart tabs" (my term) with Luminis 4 / uPortal 2.5

overview of distributed layout manager presented by: u mark boyd, sungard sct u marlin benson,...

Documents