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Subject: Re: Handling HELP
Comments embedded. Alejandro Rich Thompson wrote: >I see two concerns being raised and would like to address them separately: > >1. Ability of a Portlet to use an external Help system (either as a system >or a set of static pages). > This is certainly doable either using proxied resources or the >portlet managing the connection to the external system. The Producer >certainly could manage such connections for the Portlet and thereby reduce >the repeated implementation of the functionality. If this really is a >request for the portlet being able to control what the Consumer does as a >result of End-User interactions with controls the Consumer has inserted >into the aggregated page, then I would say it falls into areas we >explicitly excluded from consideration for v1. > > Is the latter for the specific case of Help. >2. Displaying Help in a separate window or IFrame. > We have talked more than once about how a Consumer can manage >multiple views onto a Portlet (each with its own navigationalState, >windowState and mode). For a Consumer to launch a new window when the >End-User presses the Consumer's 'help' control and to access the same >Portlet from this new window is straight forward. The important key here >is for the Portlet to not store information such as mode in a session-like >manner, but to use what is supplied on each invocation. > It is not only the session but also the navigational state. Being a new window, the new window will have its own navigational state, thus you can not use session nor nav-state to share information with the Help running in a separate window.. > An area this does not deal with is the Portlet being able to cause >a new view (window or IFrame) to be opened in a different >windowState/mode. I think there was some speculation about how this could >be done in JavaScript at one point, but it certainly has not been fully >explored (in particular, what are the additional requirements it places on >the Consumer?). Is there a strong use case requiring this to be explored >before v1 is standardized? > > If the consumer uses javascript to do the popup it is up to the consumer, no need to standardize that. >Clearly I am concerned about scope-creep here. There are issues here that >will need to be addressed, but I think we have the basics covered in the >current draft. > >Rich Thompson > > > > >Alejandro Abdelnur <alejandro.abdelnur@sun.com> >03/17/2003 06:42 PM > > To: wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org > cc: > Subject: Handling HELP > > >My original intention was to wait until this issue is resolved in JSR168 >EG and then bring the outcome for the consideration of WSRP TC. Because >WSRP is about to stop receiving change requests and I believe it is >something that WSRP should also address, I'm bringing it now. > >IMO, the current state of the specification does not address a common >use case for handling Help: help being provided by an external system, >using static pages or displaying Help content at the same time the user >is trying to do a task (while the portlet is in VIEW or EDIT mode). >Following is a list of requirements that would address this use case. > >Requirements: > >1. It must be possible for Help to be rendered directly by external >pages (JSP, static HTML, etc). >2. It must be possible for a portlet to use an external Help system. >3. It must be possible to display Help side to side with the operation >the portlet is performing. This has to be done without breaking the >portlet window semantics (a portlet window can have a single state). >4. It must be possible to fulfill the previous requirements using the >Help button in the portlet window decoration. >5. How this is done it must be simple for portlet developers. > >A few clarifications: > >Portlet Window is the visual representation of portlet in a portal page. >The portlet window decoration would be the title bar of the visual >representation that normally has a set of buttons to control the portlet >(EDIT, HELP, MIN, MAX, etc). >Requirement #3 it could be the case of a popup window or an iframe >within the portal page that shows the help while the portlet is being >displayed in VIEW or EDIT. The portlet window semantics sentence refers >to the fact that a portlet has a single >portlet-mode/window-state/navigational-state at any given time. > >Alejandro > > > > > > > >
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