Rendering Syndicated Library Content in an Institutional Portal: Integrating

MyLibrary into uPortal

John Fereira: Cornell University

Eric Lease Morgan: University Libraries of Notre Dame

This presentation describes two applications, uPortal and MyLibrary, as well as demonstrates how these applications can be used together to facilitate user-driven, focused, and personalized interfaces to information resources such as library materials.

Introduction

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• Java web application

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

Customizable layout

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

Tab/Column layouts

Channel Controls

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

Channel Types

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

Inline Frame Channel

• Loads a basic web page• Does not support Netscape 4.x, IE 4

and earlier• Clicked links output remains in the

channel

Inline frame example

Image channel

• Displays an image• Optional caption• Clicking on the image loads a URL

which replaces uPortal page

Image channel example

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• Look and feel restricted by specification• 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

Applet Channel

• Limited use• Requires knowledge in Java to create

Applet• Good for demonstration purposes

Applet example

Simple XML transformation

• Requires a URL to XML output (static or dynamic)

• Requires an XSLT stylesheet• Portal renders output

XML transformation 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

Personalization

• Single Sign-on authentication/authorization configurable credentials passed on to channels• Role based channels Groups and permissions Assigned at channel publishing time• Personalization by end user

Layout, content, appearance

Preferences

Skins

Links

• JA-SIG uportal http://mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportal/

• Cornell uPortal http://guest.uportal.cornell.edu

• University of Kansas Medical Center http://my.kumc.edu

• Illinois State uPortal tour

http://www.ilstu.edu/icampus/index.html

Getting uPortal

uPortal Web Sitehttp://mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportal/download.html

–uPortal-Only (2.1.3)»Needs configuration

–Quick-start (2.1.3)»Contains web container, db

What is MyLibrary?

• A database-driven website application for libraries

• A user-driven, customizable interface to library collections and services

• Open source software written in Perl

A brief history

• Focus group interviews in 1997-98

• Version 1.0 and made open source in 1998

• Presently at version 2.63 and developed primarily at the University Libraries of Notre Dame

Features

• Creates and maintains lists of Internet resources based on name/title, URL, scope note, format, and “discipline”

• Recommends different resources using a tiered approach

• Customizable by the hosting library as well as the end-user

• Creates reports in various formats such as HTML, tab-delimited files, and XML streams

XML streams and uPortal

Using the “RESTful” Web Service technique of communication, uPortal is able to aggregate content syndicated from MyLibrary.

uPortal requests a URL from MyLibrary and MyLibrary returns an XML/RSS stream of content.

Demonstration

[Psst, Eric, do the demonstration here!]

MyLibrary version 3.0

•No loss of functionality•OOP Perl code•Better database

normalization•No more limitations to Piles

A, B, C, D, & E•Hopefully more extensible

The End

•uPortal

http://mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportal/

•MyLibrary

http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/