Introduction to the Light Portal Framework

An ajax and java based open source portal framework
Feb 3, 2009 by Jianmin Liu

Abstract

Light Portal is an Ajax and Java based Open Source Portal and Social Collaboration Software which can be seamless plugged in to any Java Web Application or as an independent Portal Server.

Why supports Plug in?

Light Portal framework is designed for both as an independent Portal application and plugged in to any existing Java EE Web Application. On the current status, there are too many existing Java EE web applications, it's very hard to integrate existing applications with most portal product. So Light Portal could be one of your options to integrate existing web applications with a portal product.

Why Ajax?

The reasons why Light Portal framework chose Ajax are:

● Performance is good. As we all know, Ajax use asyn way to communicate with server. It's a real benefit when one page contain many portlets, each portlet use ajax individually communicate with server/third party resources, it doesn't need to refresh whole page.

● Ajax also means rich user interface, Light Portal can support more interactive an rich user interface by adopting ajax.

Benefits of Light Portal framework

● Ajax and Java based Portal framework .

● Support JSR 168 Portlet API programming model .

● Built in with social network functions, includes user profile, connections, groups, plus over 50 portlets pre-bundled.

● Can be seamless plugged in to any Java EE Web Application or as an independent web application.

● Integrated with Spring Portlet MVC, MyFaces, WebWork 2.

● Supports turn on and turn off feature.

● Supports multiple mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera mini etc.

● Supports Personalized pages for all users, end users can easily add, edit or delete page or sub page.

● Supports Portal Role based Authorization.

● Supports Internationalizaiton (i18n).

●Contains multiple pre-built themes and UI window appearances, also supports customization.

● Portlet supports VIEW,EDIT and HELP mode, also supports custom portlet modes.

● Portlet's Window states include NORMAL, MINIMIZED, MAXIMIZED, also supports custom portlet window state.

● Portlet's Window supports functions include minimize, maximize, close, refresh, auto refresh, drag and drop.

● Portlet can be configured to refresh other Portlets within the same page .

Light Portal Screenshots

Technologies and Frameworks used by Light Portal framework

Light Portal Framework isn't created from scratch, it is build based on many other open source frameworks. From Ajax part, Light used Prototype frameworks. On the Java part, Light used Jdk1.5, Servelt, Portlet, Rome, Castor, Spring, Hibernate technologies or frameworks.

Prototype is a JavaScript framework that aims to ease development of dynamic web applications.
Rome is an open source (Apache license) set of Atom/RSS Java utilities that make it easy to work in Java with most syndication formats.
Castor is an Open Source data binding framework for Java. It provides Java-to-XML binding.
Spring is a leading full-stack Java/J2EE application framework.
Hibernate is an object/relational persistence and query service for Java.

Setup Light Portal framework

See more details at Getting Started.

Configuration Light Portal framework

Security configuration

Developers can configure Portal security using portal-security.xml. The following xml is a sample of portal-security.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<portal-security xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="portal-security.xsd">
   <application>
        <defaultLocale>en</defaultLocale>
        <allowChangeLocale>true</allowChangeLocale>
        <reCreateTable>false</reCreateTable>
    </application>
    <role>
        <name>role_guest</name>
        <allowLookAndFeel>false</allowLookAndFeel>
        <allowLayout>false</allowLayout>
        <allowAddTab>false</allowAddTab>
        <allowAddContent>false</allowAddContent>
        <allowSignIn>true</allowSignIn>
        <allowTurnOff>false</allowTurnOff>
        <title></title>
        <theme>theme4</theme>
        <users>
            <user>
                <name>[email protected]</name>
                <password>default</password>
                <firstName>default</firstName>
                <middleName></middleName>
                <lastName></lastName>
                <email>[email protected]</email>
            </user>
        </users>
    </role>
    <role>
        <name>role_user</name>
        <allowLookAndFeel>true</allowLookAndFeel>
        <allowLayout>true</allowLayout>
        <allowAddTab>true</allowAddTab>
        <allowAddContent>true</allowAddContent>
        <allowSignIn>true</allowSignIn>
        <allowTurnOff>false</allowTurnOff>
        <title>Member's Portal</title>
        <theme>theme5</theme>
        <users>
            <user>
                <name>[email protected]</name>
                <password>admin</password>
                <firstName>admin</firstName>
                <middleName></middleName>
                <lastName></lastName>
                <email>[email protected]</email>
            </user>
        </users>
    </role>
    <role>
        <name>role_admin</name>
        <allowLookAndFeel>true</allowLookAndFeel>
        <allowLayout>true</allowLayout>
        <allowAddTab>true</allowAddTab>
        <allowAddContent>true</allowAddContent>
        <allowSignIn>true</allowSignIn>
        <allowTurnOff>false</allowTurnOff>
        <title>Admin's Portal</title>
        <theme>theme5</theme>
        <users>
            <user>
                <name>[email protected]</name>
                <password>admin</password>
                <firstName>admin</firstName>
                <middleName></middleName>
                <lastName></lastName>
                <email>[email protected]</email>
            </user>
        </users>
    </role>
</portal-security>

Light Portal use role_guest as the default role and [email protected] as default user, any user who didn't sign in will use user [email protected]'s authorization. User who signed in aready will use role_user's authorization. Developers can add new roles and initial users also.

Portlet configuration

Developers have to configure both portlet.xml and portlet-config.xml, portlet.xml is the JSR standard configuration file, portlet-config.xml is used by Light framework to configure portlet instance's UI's function and parameter, and the path 's prefix name should be same as portlet name configured in portlet.xml.

    <portlet>
        <name>searchPortlet</name>
        <path>/searchPortlet.lp</path>
        <title>portlet.title.search</title>
        <icon>/light/images/search.gif</icon>
        <url/>
        <tag>portlet.tag.title.search</tag>
        <language>all</language>
        <refreshMode>true</refreshMode>
        <editMode>true</editMode>
        <helpMode>false</helpMode>
        <configMode>true</configMode>
        <autoRefreshed>false</autoRefreshed>
        <periodTime>0</periodTime>
        <allowJS>true</allowJS>
        <pageRefreshed>false</pageRefreshed>
    </portlet>
    <portlet>
        <name>cnnTopStories</name>
        <path>/rssPortlet.lp</path>
        <title>CNN - Top Stories</title>
        <icon>http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/logo/cnn.logo.rss.gif</icon>
        <url>http://www.cnn.com/?section=cnn_topstories</url>
        <tag>portlet.tag.title.news</tag>
        <subTag>portlet.tag.title.popular</subTag>
        <refreshMode>true</refreshMode>
        <editMode>true</editMode>
        <helpMode>false</helpMode>
        <configMode>true</configMode>
        <autoRefreshed>false</autoRefreshed>
        <periodTime>0</periodTime>
        <allowJS>false</allowJS>
        <pageRefreshed>false</pageRefreshed>
        <showNumber>6</showNumber>
        <parameter>
            <name>feed</name>
            <value>http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_topstories.rss</value>
        </parameter>
    </portlet>

Portal layout Configuration

Developers can configure Portal layout using portal-layout.xml. The following xml is a sample of portal-layout.xml.

<portalUser role="role_guest">
        <portalTab>
            <title>tab.title.home</title>
            <defaulted>true</defaulted>
            <closeable>false</closeable>
            <editable>false</editable>
            <moveable>false</moveable>
            <allowAddContent>false</allowAddContent>
            <widths>700,300</widths>
            <between>10</between>
            <portletWindow>PortletWindow2</portletWindow>
            <portlets>
                <portlet>
                    <name>infoPortlet</name>
                    <column>0</column>
                    <row>0</row>
                    <notCloseable>true</notCloseable>
                    <noEditMode>true</noEditMode>
                    <noConfigMode>true</noConfigMode>
                </portlet>

                <portlet>
                    <name>userPortlet</name>
                    <column>1</column>
                    <row>0</row>
                    <notCloseable>true</notCloseable>
                    <noEditMode>true</noEditMode>
                    <noConfigMode>true</noConfigMode>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>peopleDirectoryPortlet</name>
                    <column>1</column>
                    <row>1</row>
                    <notCloseable>true</notCloseable>
                    <noEditMode>true</noEditMode>
                    <noConfigMode>true</noConfigMode>
                </portlet>
            </portlets>
        </portalTab>
    </portalUser>

    <portalUser role="role_user">
       <portalTab>
            <title>tab.title.personal</title>
            <defaulted>true</defaulted>
            <closeable>false</closeable>
            <editable>true</editable>
            <moveable>true</moveable>
            <allowAddContent>true</allowAddContent>
            <widths>280,420,300</widths>
            <between>10</between>
            <portletWindow>PortletWindow2</portletWindow>
            <portlets>
                <portlet>
                    <name>profilePortlet</name>
                    <column>0</column>
                    <row>0</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>myMessagePortlet</name>
                    <column>0</column>
                    <row>1</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>friendsPortlet</name>
                    <column>0</column>
                    <row>2</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>calendarPortlet</name>
                    <column>1</column>
                    <row>0</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>blogPortlet</name>
                    <column>1</column>
                    <row>1</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>todoListPortlet</name>
                    <column>1</column>
                    <row>2</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>myPicturePortlet</name>
                    <column>2</column>
                    <row>0</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>notePortlet</name>
                    <column>2</column>
                    <row>1</row>
                </portlet>
                <portlet>
                    <name>bookmarkPortlet</name>
                    <column>2</column>
                    <row>2</row>
                </portlet>
            </portlets>
        </portalTab>
    </portalUser>
    <portalUser role="role_admin">
        <portalTab>
               ......
        </portalTab>
    </portalUser>

Personalized Look and Feel

Currently Light Portal framework supports many options to personalize look and feel, if you want to change it, click the options menu on the top right corner. The options portlet window will show on the top of regular page, you can configure the followings:

    ● General setting, such as text font, text color, transparent backgroud etc.
    ● Theme, Light Portal includes 8 built-in themes, developers can also add more customized themes.
    ● Manage Page, such as edit title, configure page friendly URL, privacy setting etc.

Add Page/Sub Page

Light portal support multiple pages/sub pages, you can click "Add Page" Icon on the right side of your page header to add your own page. After you add a new page, System will create a empty page, it contains 3 columns by default, you can add contents in this page by click "Add Contents" mueu. You can change its title or other properies by click "Options/Manage Page" menu.

Add contents

Light Portal support to be added contents easily. You can click Add content menu, first you choose which column you want to add at, then select one of pre-registered portlets or add your favourite RSS feed. When you want add your favourite RSS feed, you can click "Add My Feed" then input your Feed URL or import from OPML file.

Sign In/Sign Up

This function is for an independent application, if you want to integrate Light Portal with existing Java EE web application, please see this document.

If you want to be able to access your personalized Light Portal page from any computer and also a public url for your profile, you can sign in (need sign up first) with your user id and a password.

Personalized Page

After sign up, system will create a default personalized page, end user can add/delete contents based on personal interests and also add more pages.

Public profile

By default, every user has same layout for user's public profile, but user can configure any personalized page to be public profile page, user can also hide personal information by setting privacy.

My Account

users can maintain personal information throught "my account" menu, such as change display name, change password, basic informaiton, personal interests, privacy setting etc.

About the author

Jianmin Liu is the founder and core developer of Light Portal project. He is a Sun Certified Enterprise Architect and holds several other certifications from Sun and Microsoft whose areas of interests include Web Application architecture design and development with new technologies. He works at Seattle, WA currently, you can contact him at [email protected] or http://www.lightportal.org/space/liujianmin.