System and method for XML data representation of portlets

[0001] This application claims priority from ENHANCED PORTALS FLAGSTAFF RELEASE, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/386,487, Inventors: Phil Griffin, et al., filed on Oct. 24, 2001, and which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] This application is related to the following co-pending applications which are each hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PORTAL RENDERING, Inventors: Phil Griffin, et al., filed on ______; SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RULE-BASED ENTITLEMENTS, U.S. application Ser. No. ______, Inventors: Phil Griffin, et al., filed on ______.

[0003] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

[0004] The present invention disclosure relates to persisting portlet configuration information, and in particular, representing portlet configuration information as an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document.

[0005] A portal is a point of access to data and applications that provides a unified and personalized view of information and resources. Typically, a portal is implemented as one or more pages on a website. In addition to web content, portals provide the ability to display portletsself-contained applications or content. A portlet has configuration information associated with it that determines how the portlet's graphical user interface (GUI) is rendered and to what extent a user can interact with the GUI. Generally speaking, such configuration information can be stored in a proprietary database accessible only by a Web server or specialized tools. However, this can limit a user's ability to modify and distribute such data. What is needed is a standard way to represent portlet configuration information so that a portlet can be manipulated and rendered by non propriety tools.

[0006] FIG. 1 is an exemplary portal GUI in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0007] FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of a portlet GUI in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0008] FIG. 3 is diagram of a system in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0009] FIG. 4 is diagram of a portal rendering system and method in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0010] FIG. 5 is diagram of a portlet rendering system and method in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0011] FIG. 6 is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) portlet document in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0012] FIG. 7 is an XML Schema Definition (XSD) in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0013] The invention is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to an or one embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at least one.

[0014] FIG. 1 is an exemplary portal GUI in accordance to one embodiment. In one embodiment, by way of illustration, a portal can be implemented as one or more pages on a website. Such pages can be implemented using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), or other programming languages, so as to be render-able by a commercial web browser. One such browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer, available from Microsoft, Corp. of Redmond, Wash. Portal pages can integrate many elements, such as live data feeds, static information and multimedia presentations. Portal page selection tabs 100-104 can each be selected by a user to render a different page within the portal. Portal pages can be thought of as panels or panes that are swapped into and out of a display region of the available portal real estate. If the stocks tab 100 were selected, for example, the corresponding portal page would be rendered. By way of a non limiting example, selection of a portal element can be accomplished with an input device such as a mouse, a motion detector, a voice command, a hand or eye gesture, etc. Although tabs 100-104 in FIG. 1 are displayed horizontally, in another embodiment the tabs could be displayed vertically or using some other scheme. In yet another embodiment, tabs 100-104 could be rendered as buttons or as other kinds of interactive controls. A portal page can also include other elements, such as a header 112 and a footer 114 that can serve to provide additional information or act as a unifying graphical element.

[0015] A portal page can include portlets. In one embodiment, a portlet is an application that can manage its own GUI within the portal GUI. In one embodiment, a portlet is implemented as a JavaServer Page (JSP). JSP's are part of the Java standard available from Sun Microsystems, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. In FIG. 1, by way of a non limiting example, there are three portlets: American Stock Exchange 106, New York Stock Exchange 108 and London Stock Exchange 110. Each portlet could display information such as stock prices updated in real time for each exchange. A user might be able to configure such portlets to display only stocks of interest. In another embodiment, the user could select a given stock displayed in portlet 106, 108 or 110 and receive more detailed information, such as the price history, price to earnings ratio, etc. Likewise, selection of the bonds tab 102 could render a bonds page having portlets for displaying bond information.

[0016] FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of a portlet GUI in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment by way of example, a portlet can have a title bar 204 and associated title bar icon 202. The title bar 204 can be used to identify the portlet or the portlet's content. A portlet can also have display areas: banner area 206, header area 208, content area 210, and footer area 212. The banner, header and footer areas can be used to display status messages, graphics or can be used to render user-selectable GUI controls such as buttons, drop down menus, etc. The content area 210 is where a portlet renders its content. Help icon 200 can be used to display help information when selected.

[0017] In one embodiment, a portal page such as in FIG. 1 can be described with a layout (hereinafter referred to as a template). A template can specify the location of elements on a portal page. A template can include one or more placeholders which define regions of the template wherein a portlet can render itself, or wherein other static or dynamic content can be rendered. A given placeholder can host more than one portlet. In such a case, the template area occupied by the placeholder could be shared amongst the portlets in a number of ways, including but not limited to stacking portlets on top of one another (not shown). In another embodiment, a template can be implemented as a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) table and created with conventional HTML editors. Each cell in a such a table can represent a placeholder. Placeholders can be dynamically bound to portlet GUI's during portal page rendering. In one embodiment, this can be accomplished by inserting directives to initiate portlet execution, such as JSP tag library calls, in the HTML table cells representing placeholders.

[0018] FIG. 3 is diagram of a system in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. Although this diagram depicts objects as functionally separate, such depiction is merely for illustrative purposes. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the objects portrayed in FIG. 3 can be arbitrarily combined or divided into separate software, firmware or hardware components. Furthermore, it will also be apparent to those skilled in the art that such objects, irregardless of how they are combined or divided, can execute on the same computer or can be arbitrarily distributed among different computers connected by a network.

[0019] In one embodiment, by way of illustration, client 300 can render a portal by delegating the work to a hierarchy of JSP's wherein one JSP renders parts of its GUI by invoking other JSP's. Client 300 can be a web browser, for example. However, client 300 may be any software, firmware or hardware capable of communicating with server 302. In one embodiment, server 302 can be any web server having a Java run-time environment and support for JSP, such as the BEA WebLogic Server, available from BEA Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif.

[0020] JSP's separate GUI functionality on a client from application logic executing on a server, thereby enabling users to easily change a GUI without having to alter underlying application logic. Generally speaking, a JSP includes a page file that contains traditional HTML and Java, but has a .jsp file name extension rather than .html. The .jsp extension indicates to server 302 that the file contains embedded directives to invoke special JSP processing within server 302. For example, consider the following JSP page:

	<%page importjava.util.* %>
	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
	<TITLE>JSP Date Example</TITLE>
	</HEAD>
	<CENTER>
	<H2>Today's Date is:</H2>
	<% new Date() %>
	</CENTER>
	</BODY>
	</HTML>

[0021] Embedded in the HTML code above are statements expressly for processing by a JSP engine (not shown) in server 302. For example, the scriplet code fragment new Date ( ) is delimited by the special symbols <% and %>. When the JSP page is invoked by client 300, it will be processed and executed on server 302 by the JSP engine, whereas the HTML code will be processed and executed on client 300. The above scriplet creates a new instance of the Date class on server 302 and returns the current date as a string to client 300, which is then displayed by client 300:

[0022] Today's Date is:

[0023] Tues July 05 13:34:33 PDT 2002

[0024] In one embodiment, when client 300 invokes a JSP page, web server 302 compiles the page into a servlet and spawns it as a running process. A servlet is a process deployed in a web server. Any dynamic output of the servlet is sent back to client 300 as a response. Processing of JSP code within the web server may also result in the inclusion (and invocation) of other JSP files via the <jsp:include> or similar directive.

[0025] FIG. 4 is diagram of a portal rendering system and method in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment by way of illustration, each box in the diagram having a file name therein represents a JSP page. The arrows beneath the boxes represent execution flow from one JSP page to another via JSP include directives. index.jsp 400 is the entry point for the portal web page. It forwards the web page request to the main portal JSP page, portal.jsp 402. portal.jsp 402 is responsible for rendering the portal and its contents. As such, it must acquire various information needed for this endeavor. In one embodiment, portal.jsp 402 retrieves such information via calls to a tag library esp.tld which can be part of controller 304. esp.tld includes JSP tags for communicating with portal manager 306. Portal manager 306 is responsible for retrieving and persisting information pertaining to portal skins, portal templates and portlets. In one embodiment, the portal manager can be implemented as a stateless session Enterprise Java Bean (EJB). Persistence manager 308 is responsible for persisting this information and providing it to portal manager 306. Persistence manager 308 may utilize a relational database management system (RDMBS) 310.

[0026] In one embodiment, a skin can be a collection of files that includes a cascading style sheet and a directory of images that define the look and feel of a portal. Every button, banner, portlet header, background color, and font characteristic can be determined by a skin. In one embodiment, a portal can be associated with more than one user or portal group. A user group can be any arbitrary collection of users that is determined statically, or dynamically by evaluating rules that take into account information about a user and other information. A portal has a default skin that can be customized for a group. In this way, a group can define its own look and feel for a particular portal page. The group skin can be further customized to suit the needs of individual users. Skin information can be cached in server 302 so that it may be used by other JSP's invoked by portal.jsp during rendering of the portal page.

[0027] Another piece of information retrieved by portal.jsp 402 via esp.tld 304 is a template corresponding to each portal page. As with skins, a template can be customized. In one embodiment, customization of a template involves the layout or placement of portal elements (e.g., portlets, static data, dynamic data, header, footer, content, etc.) on the template. A template can be afforded an arbitrary number of levels of customization. In another embodiment, a template can have three levels of customization: global, group and user. An initial template is created for a portal page at the global level. This is the default template used for describing the portal page if there are no further customizations. Customizations at the group level supersede the global level template. Likewise, customizations at the user level take precedence over the group and global levels.

[0028] As part of retrieving the template, portal manager 306 binds portlets to template placeholders. In doing so, portal manager 306 utilizes access controller 312 to determine capabilities or permissions (e.g., whether the given portal user is entitled to execute, view or edit the portlet in question) based on one or more entitlements. An entitlement is a rule that grants or denies access to a resource capability. In one embodiment, a resource can be any resource available on a computer network, including but not limited to a portlet, a portlet GUI component, a portal page, portlet content, etc. In one embodiment, evaluation of an entitlement consists of dynamically associating roles with a user based on role rules that take into account information about the user, information about the user's communication session, or the current state of the system. For example:

[0029] (1) When all of these conditions apply, the user is a GoldMember:

[0030] Checking account balance>$5,000

[0031] Combined account balance>$50,000

[0032] In rule (1) above, a user is deemed a GoldMember if there is more than $5,000 in their checking account and they have more than $50,000 in their combined accounts. Certain portlets, for example, may only be for GoldMember users. By way of a non-limiting example, if only GoldMember users were entitled to view the portlet in question, the portlet would not be bound to a template for non-GoldMember users. Similarly, if the entitlement was for editing, then the portlet would be bound to the template and would be visible to a user, however only GoldMember users would be allowed to edit the portlet's contents. Access controller 312 directs role mapper 314 to determine which roles correspond to client 300. Access controller 312 then directs decision module 316 to determine whether or not access to a resource should be allowed based on entitlements corresponding to the roles.

[0033] The final piece of information portal.jsp 302 needs in order to render the portal is the currently selected portal page tab 100-104. This determines which portal page template to use initially, since each portal page is described by a template and each tab corresponds to a unique portal page. After obtaining this preliminary information, as shown in FIG. 4, portal.jsp 402 uses a JSP include directive to invoke header.jsp 404. header.jsp 404 renders a standard header which is the same for each page in the portal. The header could be a navigation pane, for example, allowing a user to jump to different areas of the portal. It could also provide a standard graphic design element to unify pages within the portal. Next, portal.jsp 402 invokes PortalPageHeader.jsp 406. PortalPageHeader.jsp 406 renders tabs 100-104 based on the number of portal page templates retrieved. Next, portal.jsp 402 invokes PortalPageContent.jsp 408 to render the selected portal page. A placeholder defines regions of the template wherein a portlet can display itself, or wherein other static or dynamic content can be rendered. In one embodiment, PortalPageContent.jsp 408 is responsible for rendering the page elements corresponding to each placeholder. If the placeholder hosts a portlet, PortalPageContent.jsp 408 invokes portlet.jsp 410.

[0034] FIG. 5 is diagram of a portlet rendering system and method in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment by way of example, portlet.jsp 410 invokes Titlebar.jsp 500 which, in turn, renders the portlet's window title bar. The title bar might display icons that, when selected, allow a user to edit the portlet's contents 216, detach the portlet such that it occupies a window independent from the web browser's main window 214, or remove the portlet 218 (i.e., close its window). Titlebar.jsp 500 can access entitlement information via esp.tld 304 in deciding whether or not these icons are present or active. portlet.jsp 410 invokes Banner.jsp 502 to render a banner in a like manner to that of the portal page. portlet.jsp 410 invokes header.jsp 504 and footer.jsp 508 to render the header and footer portions of the portlet window. Portlet content generation (e.g., stock quotes) begins when portlet.jsp 410 invokes content.jsp 506 to initiate portlet execution (e.g., by making a JSP tag library call).

[0035] FIG. 6 is an XML portlet document in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. XML is a standard markup language that combines a generic syntax with human-readable tags to represent any kind of data. In one embodiment, there is no XML document per se. Rather, the XML description of portlet attributes can exist as a one or more streams of bytes or data sent between applications, objects and devices. In another embodiment, an XML document can exist as a physical file in a computer file system. Generally speaking, an XML document is self-descriptive and consists of one or more elements. An element has content or information which is delimited by a start tag and an end tag. Start tags begin with < and end with >. However, end tags begin with </ and end with >. For example:

	<company>
	BEA Systems, Inc.
	</company>

[0036] In this example, the company element has a start tag <company>, an end tag </company> and the content BEA Systems, Inc. An element can also be empty. In this case, the element consists of a single tag that begins with < and ends with />.

[0037] XML does not have a fixed set of tags. Rather, each application can define its own tags with their own meaning. In one embodiment by way of illustration, Table 1 enumerates tags that can be used to describe portlet attributes. Although some tag names indicate that their content consists of a uniform resource locator (URL), in another embodiment the content could be any identifier that specifies the location of a resource on a network such as the Internet. A Boolean or flag value indicates a state of true or false. A string is a sequence of characters.

TABLE 1
Portlet XML Tag Definitions
XML Tag	Data Type	Description
Portlet-name	String having up to	A string that serves to identify
	254 characters.	the portlet JSP.
Description	String having up to	This is a simple description of
	254 characters.	the portlet's capabilities.
weblflow-filename	String.	The name of a file which
		contains webflow information.
		This information can be used
		to drive web page navigation
		processing on a server.
content-url	String.	The URL to the content area
		JSP.
Header-url	String.	The URL to the header area
		JSP.
alternate-header-url	String.	The URL to the header that
		should be used by default
		when the page is maximized.
Footer-url	String.	The URL to the footer area
		JSP.
alternate-footer-url	String.	The URL to the footer used
		for maximized state.
titlebar-url	String.	The URL to the default title
		bar JSP.
Banner-url	String.	The URL to the banner are
		JSP.
editable	Boolean.	Whether the portlet content
		will be editable by a user.
Edit-url	String.	The URL to a portlet editor
		JSP that is invoked if the edit
		icon 216 is selected.
helpable	Boolean.	Whether there is online help
		available for this portlet.
help-url	String.	The URL to the portlet help
		JSP that is invoked if the help
		icon 200 is selected.
icon-url	String.	The URL to the image for
		titlebar icon 202.
minimizable	Boolean.	Whether this portlet can be
		minimized by a user.
maximizable	Boolean.	Whether this portlet can be
		maximized by a user.
maximize-url	String.	The URL to the maximized
		body JSP.
mandatory	Boolean.	Whether this portlet must can
		be removed by a user (icon
		218).
moveable	Boolean.	Whether or not a user can
		move the portlet when
		customizing a portal page.
floatable	Boolean.	Whether this portlet can be
		opened as a floating window
		(icon 214).
Default-minimized	Boolean.	Whether this portlet appears
		minimized by default.
login-required	Boolean.	Whether this portlet requires a
		user to login prior to having
		access to the portlet.

[0038] FIG. 7 is an XSD in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. By way of illustration, an XSD can be used to validate the data in an XML document by defining data type constraints for each element of data in an XML document. Table 1 summarizes this information in the Data Type column. XSD elements are defined in XML. Elements are declared using the xsd: element tag which has name and data type attributes corresponding to an element in an XML document. For example, the following XSD code fragment declares a portlet element as a sequence of other elements, namely portlet-name and description:

	<xsd: element name portlet>
	<xsd: complexType>
	<xsd: sequence>
	<xsd: element nameportlet-name
	typestring254/>
	<xsd: element namedescription
	typestring254/>
	</xsd: sequence>
	</xsd: complexType>
	</xsd: element>

[0039] This fragment could be used to validate an XML document that described a portlet, for example. Both portlet-name and description have a data type of string254 and since they occur in a sequence, an XML document being validated by this code fragment must also have portlet-name and description in the same order and with the same data types.

[0040] One embodiment may be implemented using a conventional general purpose or a specialized digital computer or microprocessor programmed according to the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the computer art. Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the software art. The invention may also be implemented by the preparation of integrated circuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0041] One embodiment includes a computer program product which is a storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a computer to perform any of the features presented herein. The storage medium can include, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical discs, DVD, CD-ROMs, microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMs, VRAMs, flash memory devices, magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data.

[0042] Stored on any one of the computer readable medium (media), the present invention includes software for controlling both the hardware of the general purpose/specialized computer or microprocessor, and for enabling the computer or microprocessor to interact with a human user or other mechanism utilizing the results of the present invention. Such software may include, but is not limited to, device drivers, operating systems, and user applications.

[0043] The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to the practitioner skilled in the art. Embodiments were chosen and described in order to best describe the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention, the various embodiments and with various modifications that are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.