Interactive Portlets

1
Interactive Portlets

• Presentation for WSRP Meeting
• March 18, 2002
• Eilon Reshef
• VP Products and Co-Founder
• WebCollage

2
Outline

• WebCollage
• Who are we, why are we here?
• Interactive Portlet Example
• Corporate credit card account
• The Need for Interactive Portlets
• Data APIs are not enough
• WSIA Use Cases
• WSIA/IWS Functionality Elements

3
WebCollage

• Web Application Integration Platform
• Turning standard Web applications into reusable
  Interactive Web Services
• and into interactive Portlets
• Republish Web applications in multiple ways
• Focus on B2B Scenarios
• Travelers Checks, Boutiques, Configurators
• A.k.a. Application Syndication
• Interest in WSRP
• Platform for transforming standard Web
  applications into Portlets

4
The Need for Interactive Portlets

• Data APIs are Not Enough
• Development effort to incorporate
• Existing applications
• Rich applications
• Configurators, advisors,
• SAP, Siebel, Oracle,
• Data APIs are Often Inadequate for B2B
• Brand
• Dynamic cross-sell, up-sell,
• Privacy

5
High Level Requirements

• Portlets that include interactive multi-step
  processes
• Benefits Drag-and-Drop, coarse grain, loose
  coupling
• No Portlet-specific code
• with explicit adaptation points to fit Portal
• Look and feel, data, flow
• and which fits existing paradigms
• Existing know-how, existing applications and
  code-base

6
OASIS WSIA Main Use Cases

• Embedded
• Side by side Portlets
• Customized
• Adaptation of look and feel
• In and out parameters
• Coordinated
• Event wiring between Portlets
• Orchestrated
• Composed flow between Portlets

7
WebCollage IWS
?
Portal
Portlet
GetPresentation()
Presentation HTML/WML/XML
?
Action
?
?
?
Interactive Web Services (IWS)
End User
8
WSIA/IWS Functionality Elements

• Definition (WSDL, )
• Instantiation (with Initial Data)
• Navigation (URL Rewriting)
• Adaptation (HTML Transformations)
• State Management
• Data Export (Exit Points)

9
WSIA/IWS Definition

• WSIA
• Not yet addressed

• WebCollage IWS
• A Portlet has a standard WSDL interface
• Multiple SOAP operations
• Designated operations are interactive and have
  a specific signature
• Same across Portlets
• Two types of integration points into a Portal
• Navigation and presentation (generic)
• Operation invocation (specific)

10
WSIA/IWS Instantiation

• WSIA
• Not yet addressed

• WebCollage IWS
• Any SOAP operation can instantiate a Portlet
• Data can be transferred
• State is returned
• Or start directly with interactive operations
• GetPresentation()
• No explicit termination

11
WSIA/IWS Navigation

• WSIA
• Is URL rewriting done by Portlet or by Portal?
• Portlet
• Portal sends the container URL as part of the
  operation
• Portlet rewrites URLs
• Portal
• Portlet needs to specify URLs to rewrite
• Markup
• XPATH?
• JavaScript?

• WebCollage IWS
• Portal transfers a controller URL (Portal URL)
  as part of the call
• Portlet responsible for rewriting relevant links
• Some may leak

12
WSIA/IWS Adaptation/Customization

• WSIA
• Property-based versus stream-based
• Property-based
• Portal sends property values as part of call
• Portlet returns adapted output
• Stream-based
• Portlet defines locators into the output
  (XPATH,)
• Portal implements logic for manipulating output

• WebCollage IWS
• Property-based adaptation
• Properties defined via XML Schema as part of WSDL
  definition
• Arbitrary type
• Name, description,
• Property sheets can be stored persistently by
  Portlet or by Portal

13
WSIA/IWS State Management

• WSIA
• Not yet addressed

• WebCollage IWS
• Transient state
• Returned by Portlet, resent by Portal on every
  call
• Persistent state
• Returned by Portlet, resent by Portal on every
  call
• Also saved by Portal (persistency)
• Remember me

14
WSIA/IWS Data Export

• WSIA
• Not yet

• WebCollage IWS
• Any SOAP operation can return data
• Must send state
• Pre-defined denotes termination of navigation
• E.g., Export Expense Report

15
Points to Consider

• Basic Model for Interactive Components
• Relationship between WSIA and WSRP
• Portal-Specific Requirements
• Administration, user management, ?

16
Summary

• Looking forward for a standard for interactive
  Portlets
• Standard is strategic for WebCollage
• No technical preferences
• Will happily contribute knowledge and experience
• Interactive Web Services specification and
  reference implementation
• Looking for consolidated efforts with WSIA

17
Thank You!