Transcript PowerPoint - Cornell University

Developing the NSDL
User Portal
Dean Krafft, Cornell University
[email protected]
Developing a User Portal:
An NSDL Case Study
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Quick Overview of Public SourceForge
The NSDL Communications Portal
uPortal and the NSDL.org portal project
Environment: Java, XSLT, and Tomcat
Coding Tools: Eclipse, XMLSpy, Ant, JUnit
Process Tools: CVS, Tasks, Trackers, and
Wikis
 Experiences
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Public SourceForge
 Supports Open Source projects at
http://sourceforge.net
 Originally OS tools (CVS, GNU Mailman,
Chora) with PHP “glue”.
 Provides: Projects, User registration, File
Releases, Tasks, Trackers (Bugs, Features,
Patches), Docs, News, Mail Lists, CVS
Repositories, Web space
 versus Enterprise: All code is open to view
and must be open source licensed
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NSDL Communications Portal
 Enterprise SourceForge: customized
 Multiple workspaces supporting
collaboration and code development
 Local additions: Wikis for collaboration,
controlled read access to CVS
repositories
 General use of web space, mailing lists,
trackers, document mgr, CVS
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Portals and User Interface
workspace
 Wiki documentation of system
requirements – collaborative updating
 Task lists: short term to-do for
development process
 Trackers: Bugs and modification
requests
 CVS: Primary store for code –
collaborative revision control system
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Portal Technology for NSDL.org
 uPortal (http://http://mis105.mis.udel.edu/jasig/uportal/)
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Open source from the JA-SIG consortium
Java and XSLT customizable framework
Channel Architecture (portlets)
Uses Apache Tomcat as Servlet engine
 NSDL.org: Primary user interface to NSDL.
Supports news, help, search, browse, exhibits
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Java/XSLT Web development
 Java code takes input, interacts with
DB, and creates small XML document
representing unique content in output
 XSL Transform “renders” the XML into
XHTML targeted for specific browser
 Same XML can drive many XSLTs
 Separates “business logic” in Java from
“display specifics” in XSL transforms
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Java/XSLT pluses and minuses
 Enforces “separation of concerns”
 Enables using different levels of
developer for different aspects of project
 Simplifies retargeting portal to different
browser, device, or look&feel
 Use of XML enables automated
processing and testing
 Downside: It’s slower
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Multiplatform Environment
 Develop on Windows, deploy on Linux
 Apache, Tomcat, Ant, Java, XSLT,
uPortal – all run on both
 Identical Ant build.xml files (and
everything else) on both platforms
 Only a few path names changed
(build.properties)
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Coding Tools: Eclipse
 Open source Java IDE – IBM originally,
now http://www.eclipse.org
 Provides real-time error flagging
 Excellent CVS integration and synch.
 Direct support for JUnit tests
 Good support for Ant build files (2.1 has
better)
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Coding Tools: Ant
 XML-based Java automated build
system (written in Java)
 Supports multiple targets: compile,
deploy, db, test (think “Make” for Java)
 Supports direct CVS interaction and
fully automated testing with JUnit
 Other plug-ins available:
http://ant.apache.org
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Coding Tools: JUnit/HTTPUnit
 eXtreme Programming (XP) – test first, last,
and always
 JUnit: Unit testing for Java classes
 Builds a suite of tests, piece by piece
 XSLT test: Run transform against known
input, then validate output against schema
 HTTPUnit: HTTP-level request/response
testing for running portal.
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Coding Tools: XMLSpy
 XSLT is a non-procedural “stylesheet”
language for transforming the structure
of XML documents
 XMLSpy supports development and test
execution of XSL Transforms
 Allows creation of XML samples and
schema for Java output
 Supports validating output of XSL
transform against XHTML DTD
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Process Tools
 CVS – Version control, differencing,
good cross-platform Open Source sol’n.
 Tasks – Important for distributed project,
optional for small, local group
 Trackers – Critical for tracking bugs,
modification requests, etc.
 Wiki – Nice collaborative environment
for discussion/requirements. There are
alternatives (BSCW, Groove, email).
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Experiences
 Java & XSLT worked extremely well as
a web development approach –
separating concerns and skills
 Eclipse IDE is an excellent
Java/Ant/JUnit/CVS environment
 XP paradigm of continuous build & test
worked very well – builds confidence
 SourceForge tools helpful but not
essential – but we were local
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