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Subject: Re: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario
Gil, with "configuration" of a portlet template I meant the user-independent settings of a portlet template (e.g. a news feed to be used by the portlet template) - i.e. the data that really defines what the template is. With "customization" of a portlet template I meant the user or user-group specific customization (e.g. selecting news topics of interest based on the news feeds defined in the configuration of the portlet template) I'll try to further improve the definitions ... Best regards, Thomas Gil Tayar <Gil.Tayar@webcollage.com> on 04/15/2002 02:05:50 PM Please respond to Gil Tayar <Gil.Tayar@webcollage.com> To: Thomas Schaeck/Germany/IBM@IBMDE cc: "'Sasha Aickin'" <AlexanderA@plumtree.com>, Michael Freedman <Michael.Freedman@oracle.com>, wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: Re: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario OK. That _is_ clearer. I would propose using "active portlet instance" instead of "portlet view", but I'm not strong on both. Assuming no objections - I propose on these being the definitions for the terms discussed in this email. Your definitions have something else I don't understand, and will maybe help me understand the difference between a template and an instance: what is a "configuration" (template), and what is a "customization" (instance)? Gil -----Original Message----- From: Thomas Schaeck [mailto:SCHAECK@de.ibm.com] Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 13:53 To: Gil Tayar Cc: 'Sasha Aickin'; Michael Freedman; wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: RE: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario I think this may just be a naming issue (see my other note). I'd propose to use the following wording: Portlet Template: ----------------- A portlet template is a persistent entity that defines a configuration of a portlet service that is global to all users. Note:In portal UIs, from a user view, portlet instances are typically visible as "Portlets" that can be selected in a customizer/toolbar for creation of a ->Portlet Instance on a page. Portlet Instance: ----------------- A portlet instance is a persistent entity that defines a customization of a portlet template. A portlet instance may directly or indirectly be related to individual users or groups of users, typically it is *not* global to all users. Note: In portals, portlet instances typically are created by users selecting portlet templates for creation of an instance associated with a page, with the result that a ->portlet view of the portlet instance is rendered whenever the page is displayed at runtime. In portals that have a customizer with a copy / clone function for portlet instances, portlet instances may be referenced from multiple pages. Portlet View: ------------- A portlet view is the runtime manifestation of a ->portlet instance as a markup fragment aggregated in a portal page. Filled out form see below ... Best regards, Thomas Gil Tayar <Gil.Tayar@webcollage.com> on 04/14/2002 08:10:35 AM Please respond to Gil Tayar <Gil.Tayar@webcollage.com> To: "'Sasha Aickin'" <AlexanderA@plumtree.com>, Michael Freedman <Michael.Freedman@oracle.com> cc: wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: RE: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario Mike, The definition for portlet instance as a "a portlet in the portal layout structure" is still confusing. Let me ask a question which will maybe make things clearer between us - if no user is seeing a portal page, does a portlet instance exist? If the answer is yes, then a portlet instance is not (only?) a runtime manifestation. Moreover, we do not have a name for the runtime manifestation, and I feel we should. If the answer is no, then what is the word for the design time manifestation? Is it the "portlet template"? My feeling is that there should be concensus on the answer to this question, so that we will be on common ground on this very important term - portlet instance. So, let me re-ask the question (and I would really appreciate if all WSRP members could answer), and make them more answerable : 1. If no user is seeing no portal page at a certain point in time, does a portlet instance exist at that time? Answers: (X) Yes (because the instance is a persistent entity, it exists from creation until being destroyed. ( ) No ( ) Other: ____________________________________________________________________ 2. If a user is seeing a portal page at a certain point in time, is it the portlet instance which is rendering the portlet? Answers: ( ) Yes (X) No (the WSRP portlet service is called with the instance handle for the instance to be rendered and the portlet service renders markup based on the instance state) ( ) Other: ____________________________________________________________________ Cheers, Gil -----Original Message----- From: Sasha Aickin [mailto:AlexanderA@plumtree.com] Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 07:10 To: Michael Freedman; Gil Tayar Cc: wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: RE: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario Mike, I'd like to offer a slight clarification, if I could: I think that WSRP/portlets care about a clone only if the service maintains its personalization data AND the portlet service has to maintain information about each portlet instance on each page. I feel like, as I think Yossi said earlier, that the portal could implement clone by simply including the same instance on two pages. That way, WSRP would not need to know about cloning even if the portlet service maintained personalization data. Cheers, Sasha. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Freedman [mailto:Michael.Freedman@oracle.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 2:24 PM To: Gil Tayar Cc: wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: Re: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario I believe that is how we have defined things: portlet instance: a portlet on a page; or more generically a portlet in the portal layout structure. From a portal's perspective, the portlet instance is the realization of the portlet in the runtime layout structure. A portlet instance is derived from a portlet template. e.g. when adding a portlet to a page, the user chooses a portlet template (from the toolbox). The template is used to "type" the instance being created. personalization data: a set of customized data settings for a portlet instance. There is an 1 to N relationship between personalization data and portlet instances. 1 set of personalizations may be shared between multiple instances. What is/was a little confusing was Yossi statement that "the same portlet instance appears in different places in the portal structure". That is not what I had indicated in my reply to him -- rather I said was "personalization [data] can be shared between multiple portlet instances of the same type." I.e. portlet instances ARE your runtime manifestations on a page. There is a special case where two of these happen to share the same personalization data. This tends to come into existence via some kind of clone operation. WSRP/portlets care about this in the situation the service maintains its personalization data. I hope this helps. -Mike- Gil Tayar wrote: I second #1, as I outlined in my previous email. I submit that what is confusing is the term "portlet instance". I would prefer "portlet instance data" or "portlet customization data" and leave "portlet instance" to the runtime manifestation on the page, e.g. only when the user views it. -----Original Message----- From: Tamari, Yossi [mailto:yossi.tamari@sapportals.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 11:28 To: wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: RE: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario Thanks for the answers, but I'm still not satisfied on 1 and 2...1. What bothers me here is that the fact the same portlet instance appears in different places in the portal structure is completely handled by the portal. The producer does not know/care where this instance is in the portal pages. Hence while the feature is logical in the portal framework, I don't see its relevance to WSRP.2. I see your point, I'm just worried about performance. We should give this some more thought. Maybe the metadata could either give a URL\title or say that it is dynamic. Yossi. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Freedman [mailto:Michael.Freedman@oracle.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 12:06 AM To: Tamari, Yossi Cc: wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: Re: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario Good questions. 1. What I meant when I said that personalization data can be shared between multiple instances is that the personalization can be shared between multiple portlet instances of the same type. For example I can have two instances of a Stock portlet that share the same personalization data. In this case both instances display the same result. When either is customized, the changes are reflected in both as the personalization data is shared. This generalization allows a consumer to expose the same portlet (result) from different levels in its structure. Remember, a portlet instance is defined as a particular reference in the structure (portlet on a page). If you want the same content in two locations in the structure you need the function defined here. One use of this is in a portal that supports access from multiple devices. One can envision the need to allow portal designers/users to maintain different portal structures between the device (types). However, in such a world the end user still wants access to the same content. Cloning is an operation that can be used create a second portlet instance with the characteristics that its personalization data is shared. So a cloned instance is one that has the characteristics described above. 2. Yes, requesting a portlet instance to render a link reference to itself does mean you ask the portlet to render an URL that returns its content as markup. I agree that this operation can often be defined by meta-data. However it may not always be static. In both this case and the case we need to render a title bar for the portlet we must allow a way for the portal (consumer) to acquire the portlet's (producers) title. This is because the title is commonly personalizable -- hence dynamic. Further discussions will resolve whether this occurs during a render operation (get "Link") or is merely a getTitle API that returns a string. Done in the former the portlet gets an opportunity to define/override the standard getContent URL -- hence I included it in the list. 3. Whether changes to a portlet template's settings should affect existing instances is a good question. We should discuss this in the next phase. I will add it to the questions list in this area. I will also remove the statement from the document (so it can be added once answered). I agree there are basic configuration settings that should be propagated. An example would be a news feed portlet that requires the URL of the source be entered to wire the portlet to a particular news feed. If this URL changes there needs to be a way for the update to alter existing instances. On the flip side, one can also envision some template settings being the initial personalization for an end user. Its not as clear if these values should be propogated particularly if there is support for > 1 level of personalization in the instance. Hope this helps. -Mike- "Tamari, Yossi" wrote: Hi Mike,I need some clarifications:1. personalization data - What does it mean that it can be shared between multiple instances? do you mean instances of the same portlet? if so, why is that a different instances, i.e. why should the consumer request the exact same data twice? And how is that different from a cloned instance?2. "You can request a portlet instance render a link reference to itself" - Does that mean you ask the portlet for a URL that returns its content as markup? I think this should be part of the meta-data, as it does not need to be truly dynamic.3. Why should changes to the portlet template's settings not affect existing instances? If the name of my company was change, I want the new name rendered in ALL the instances. Yossi. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Freedman [mailto:Michael.Freedman@oracle.com] Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 9:53 PM To: WSRP Subject: [wsrp][interfaces]: Portal Usage Scenario I have attached a short document describing a portal's possible usage pattern for portlets using the terms we discussed last week. Please comment/annotate with new operations or suggested operations to remove. Please don't annotate with questions intended to clarify the behavior of the operation, send these separately. The goal for this Thursday's meeting is to see if we can agree on a preliminary usage pattern and collection of operations. Hopefully we can then move into enumerating the questions we need to answer. In our discussion on Thursday, I expect we will need to classify at least the operational aspects of the usage scenario along two axes: Axis 1: Is this a valid Portal operation? Yes, we all agree this a valid operation No, we all agree this is not a valid operation Maybe, there is debate whether this is a valid operation. Don't know, we need more information and discussion to understand the operation before classifying it. Axis 2: Should this operation be covered/enabled by our spec? Yes, we all agree. Yes, but it should be addressed in a later revision. No, we all agree. Maybe, there is debate whether we should address this. Don't know, we need more information to decide. It might be useful if each of you did your own classification (assuming of course the usage scenario isn't grossly controversial). -Mike- ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl>
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