Abstract:
A system and method for rendering a portal, comprising rendering a portal containing a portal page with a first Java Server Page (JSP); rendering the portal page containing a portlet with a second JSP; rendering the portlet containing a portlet element with a third JSP; and rendering the portlet element with a fourth JSP.

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY  
       [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.  
       CROSS REFERENCES  
       [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 PAGE LAYOUT, Inventors: Phil Griffin, et al., filed on ______; SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELEGATED SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION, U.S. application Ser. No.______, 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______. 
     
    
     
       FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE  
         [0003]    The present invention disclosure relates to portal rendering.  
         BACKGROUND  
         [0004]    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. Portal pages can integrate many elements, such as live data feeds, static information and multimedia presentations. However, if the software required for rendering each element on a portal page is complex, maintenance problems can arise. For example, a web page that contains text and graphics is coded in at least two programming languages, often intermingled within the same file used to describe the web page. Implementing even minor changes requires a great deal of skill and knowledge. What is needed is a more modular approach to portal rendering that permits users of average skill to create and modify portal pages with minimal effort. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0005]    [0005]FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary portal in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.  
         [0006]    [0006]FIG. 2 is diagram of a system in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.  
         [0007]    [0007]FIG. 3 is diagram of portal rendering in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 4 is diagram of portlet rendering in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0009]    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.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary portal in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment, by way of example, portal  16  is rendered upon display area  12 , which can be a region in the display area of a device (e.g., a computer monitor). In a further embodiment, a portal can be rendered as one or more pages available on the World Wide Web. Such pages can be implemented using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), or other programming language, 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.  
         [0011]    Portal  16  contains several elements. Portal page selection tabs  20 - 28  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 tab  20  were selected, for example, the portal page corresponding to that tab 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  20 - 28  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  20 - 28  could be rendered as buttons or as other kinds of interactive controls.  
         [0012]    Portal  16  is also contains portal page  10 , which includes portlets and other elements. A portlet is an application that can manage its own graphical user interface (GUI). Portlets can communicate with each other and with other software and hardware components (e.g., Enterprise Java Beans™, Java™ Beans, servlets, applets, etc.). The Java™ programming language, its libraries, environment and toolkits are available from Sun Microsystems, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. The other software and hardware components may be part of the same execution environment as the portlet or may be in a different execution environment. In one embodiment, a portlet is implemented as a JavaServer Page™ (JSP). JSP&#39;s are part of the Java™ standard available from Sun Microsystems, Inc. For example, portlet  30  displays real-time stock ticker information. A user might be able to configure such a portlet to display certain stocks of interest. In another embodiment, the user can select a given stock displayed in portlet  30  and receive more detailed information, such as the price history, price to earnings ratio, etc. The portlet would be responsible for handling user input and responding accordingly. Portlet GUI  32 , for example, displays up-to-date information pertaining to a user&#39;s checking accounts. Likewise, portlet  32  could provide detailed information on transactions if the user were to select an account. Advertisement portlet  18  displays an advertisement that could be directed specifically to the current user based on demographics or other information. For instance, if a user had an outstanding home loan in good standing, the advertisement could be for a home equity loan. Likewise, if the user had an appropriate amount in a savings account, the advertisement could be for a new car loan. Static area  14  contains non-interactive content, such as text, an image or any combination thereof.  
         [0013]    In one embodiment, a portal page such as  10  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&#39;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.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 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. 2 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.  
         [0015]    In one embodiment, by way of illustration, client  200  can render a portal by delegating the work to a hierarchy of JSP&#39;s wherein one JSP renders parts of its GUI by invoking other JSP&#39;s. Client  200  can be a web browser, for example. However, client  200  may be any software, firmware or hardware capable of communicating with server  202 . Server  202  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.  
         [0016]    JSP&#39;s separate GUI functionality executing 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 “.hml”. The “jsp” extension indicates to server  202  that the file contains embedded directives to invoke special JSP processing within server  202 . For example, consider the following JSP page:  
         [0017]    &lt;%@page import=“java.util.*” %&gt; 
         [0018]    &lt;HTML&gt; 
         [0019]    &lt;HEAD&gt; 
         [0020]    &lt;TITLE&gt;JSP Date Example&lt;/TITLE&gt; 
         [0021]    &lt;/HEAD&gt; 
         [0022]    &lt;CENTER&gt; 
         [0023]    &lt;H2&gt;Today&#39;s Date is:&lt;/H2&gt; 
         [0024]    &lt;%=new Date( ) %&gt; 
         [0025]    &lt;/CENTER&gt; 
         [0026]    &lt;/BODY&gt; 
         [0027]    &lt;/HTML&gt; 
         [0028]    Embedded in the HTML code above are statements expressly for processing by a JSP engine (not shown) in server  202 . For example, the scriplet code fragment “new Date ( )” is delimited by the special symbols &lt;%= and %&gt;. When the JSP page is invoked by client  200 , it will be processed and executed on server  202  by the JSP engine, whereas the HTML code will be processed and executed on client  200 . The above scriplet creates a new instance of the Date class on server  202  and returns the current date as a string to client  200 , which is then displayed by client  200 :  
         [0029]    Today&#39;s Date is:  
         [0030]    Tues Jul. 05 13:34:33 PDT 2002  
         [0031]    In one embodiment, when client  200  invokes a JSP page, web server  202  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  200  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 &lt;jsp:include&gt; or similar directive.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 3 is diagram of portal rendering in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. 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  300  is the entry point for the portal web page. It forwards the web page request to the main portal JSP page, Portal.jsp  302 . Portal.jsp  302  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  302  retrieves such information via calls to a JSP tag library, esp.tld  204 . esp.tld  204  includes JSP tags for communicating with portal manager  206 . Portal manager  206  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  208  is responsible for persisting this information and providing it to portal manager  206 . Persistence manager  208  may utilize a relational database management system (RDMBS)  210 .  
         [0033]    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 the 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  202  so that it may be used by other JSP&#39;s invoked by Portal.jsp during rendering of the portal page.  
         [0034]    Another piece of information retrieved by Portaljsp  302  via esp.tld  204  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.  
         [0035]    As part of retrieving the template, portal manager  206  binds portlets to template placeholders. In doing so, portal manager  206  utilizes access controller  212  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&#39;s communication session, or the current state of the system. For example:  
         [0036]    (1) When all of these conditions apply, the user is a GoldMember:  
         [0037]    Checking account balance&gt;$5,000  
         [0038]    Combined account balance &gt;$50,000  
         [0039]    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. Thus, if only GoldMember users were entitled to execute the portlet in question, it would not be bound to a template for non-GoldMember users. Similarly, if the entitlement was for viewing, rather than execution, the portlet would be bound to the template but only GoldMember users could view it. 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&#39;s contents. Access controller  212  directs role mapper  214  to determine which roles correspond to client  200 . Access controller  212  then directs decision module  216  to determine whether or not access to a resource should be allowed based on entitlements corresponding to the roles.  
         [0040]    The final piece of information Portal.jsp  302  needs in order to render the portal is the currently selected portal page tab  20 - 28 . 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. 3, Portal.jsp  302  uses a JSP include directive to invoke header.jsp  304 . header.jsp  304  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  302  invokes PortalPageHeader.jsp  306 . PortalPageHeader.jsp  306  renders tabs  20 - 28  based on the number of portal page templates retrieved. Next, Portal.jsp  302  invokes PortalPageContent.jsp  308  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  308  is responsible for rendering the page elements corresponding to each placeholder. If the placeholder hosts a portlet, PortalPageContent.jsp  308  invokes Portlet.jsp  310 .  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 4 is diagram of portlet rendering in accordance to one embodiment of the invention. Portlet.jsp  310  invokes Titlebar.jsp  402  which, in turn, renders the portlet&#39;s window title bar. The title bar might display icons that, when selected, allow a user to edit the portlet&#39;s contents  36 , detach the portlet such that it occupies a window independent from the web browser&#39;s main window  34 , or remove the portlet  38  (i.e., close its window). Titlebar.jsp  402  can access entitlement information via esp.tld  204  in deciding whether or not these icons are present or active. Portlet.jsp  310  invokes Banner.jsp  404  to render a banner in a like manner to that of the portal page. Portlet.jsp  310  invokes aheader.jsp  406  and afooter.jsp  410  render the header and footer portions of the portlet window. Portlet content generation (e.g., stock quotes, account balances) begins when Portlet.jsp  310  invokes acontent.jsp  408  to initiate portlet execution (e.g., by making a JSP tag library call).  
         [0042]    One embodiment may be implemented using a conventional general purpose or a specialized digital computer or microprocessor(s) 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.  
         [0043]    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.  
         [0044]    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, execution environments/containers, and user applications.  
         [0045]    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.