System and method for XML data representation of portlets

• US 7,367,014 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2002
• Issued: 04/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Griffin, Philip B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOW, CHIH CHING
• Application Number:
  US10/279,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20030126558A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,014 Days
• Field of Search: 717/107, 715/500, 715/513, 707/3
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1012 to domains
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1015 to users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1064 Restricting content processing at operating system level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1073 Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1076 Revocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 : Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 : comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 : providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0884 : by delegation of authentication, e.g. a proxy authenticates an entity to be authenticated on behalf of this entity vis-à-vis an authentication entity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 : for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 : specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 : Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 : Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2871 : Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 : Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 : Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 : Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 : Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 : Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 : Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 : Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 : Version management

Abstract

An Extensible Markup Language (XML) document adapted to describe a portlet, comprising a name element including a name tag, a description element including a description tag, and a content resource element including a content tag.

Claims

1. A method for representing portlet configuration information in an extensible markup language (XML document, comprising:

providing an extensible markup language document that describes portlet configuration information, said portlet configuration information containing metadata for describing how the portlet'"'"'s graphical user interface is rendered and to what extent a user can interact with said interface, wherein the document includes;

a name element including a name tag for defining the name of the portlet;

a description element including a description tag for describing the portlet; and

a content resource element including a content tag, the content resource element describing a resource used to generate the portlet;

validating the portlet configuration information in the document by using an XML schema definition that defines data type constraints for each element in the document;

initiating a request to generate a portal by invoking the resource described in the document;

compiling the resource to spawn a hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes; and

generating the portal by executing the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes wherein generating the portal includes reading a portal skin that defines a look and feel of the portal including one or more of;

button, banner, portlet header, back ground color and font characteristic of said portal, said portal skin customized to at least one of;

individual user and group;

wherein executing the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes includes executing at least one interdependent rendering process that renders parts of its graphical user interface by invoking other interdependent rendering processes in said hierarchy such that the portlet'"'"'s contents are editable by detaching the portlet whereby the portlet occupies a window independent from a browser'"'"'s main window; and

wherein said document enables nonproprietary tools to manipulate and render the portlet in said portal by representing said portlet configuration information in a standard way.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a header resource element including a header tag.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

an alternate header resource element including an alternate header tag.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a footer resource element including a footer tag.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

an alternate footer resource element including an alternate footer tag.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a title bar resource element including a title bar tag.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a banner resource element including a banner tag.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

an editable element including an editable tag; and

an editor resource element including an editor tag.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a helpable element including a helpable tag; and

a help resource element including a help tag.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

an icon resource element including an icon tag.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a minimizable element including a minimizable tag.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a maximizable element including a maximizable tag.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a maximize element including a maximize tag.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a mandatory element including a mandatory tag.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a moveable element including a movable tag.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a floatable element including a floatable tag.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a default-minimized element including a default-minimized tag.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a login-required tag and a login-required element.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

a webflow-filename element including a webflow-filename tag.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the document further comprises:

state information.

21. A system for representing portlet configuration information as an extensible markup language (XML document, comprising:

a server for rendering portals by performing a hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes;

a portal rendered by the server, the portal having a portlet for managing a separate graphical user interface within the portal'"'"'s graphical user interface wherein the portlet includes portlet configuration information;

an extensible markup language document stored in a computer readable

storage medium for representing the portlet configuration information, the document including identification information for identifying the portlet and further including rendering information for describing one or more resources that comprise the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes; and

a client for initiating a request to render the portal by invoking the one or more resources described in the extensible markup language document;

a portal skin that defines the look and feel of said portal including one or more of;

button, banner, portlet header, background color and font characteristic of said portal, wherein said portal skin is customized to at least one of;

individual user and group; and

an extensible markup language schema for validating the data in the XML document by checking data type constraints for each element of data in the XML document;

wherein the server receives the request to render the portal from the client, compiles the one or more resources to spawn the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes and generates the portal by executing the interdependent rendering processes wherein generating the portal includes reading the portal skin;

wherein executing the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes includes executing at least one interdependent rendering process that renders parts of its graphical user interface by invoking other interdependent rendering processes in said hierarchy such that the portlet'"'"'s contents are editable by detaching the portlet whereby the portlet occupies a window independent from a browser'"'"'s main window; and

wherein said document enables nonproprietary tools to manipulate the render the portlet in said portal by representing said portlet configuration information in a standard way.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the interdependent rendering processes further include:

a portal manager for retrieving and persisting information pertaining to portal skins, portal templates and portlets;

a controller for enabling communication with the portal manager; and

a persistence manager for enabling the portal manager to persist the information;

wherein the portal and its contents are rendered by calling the portal manager, the controller and the persistence manager.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the one or more resources are implemented as Java Server Pages compiled into servlets and spawned as running processes deployed on the server.

24. The system of claim 21 further comprising:

an extensible markup language schema for validating the data in the XML document by defining data type constraints for each element of data in the XML document.

25. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors cause a system to:

provide an extensible markup language document that describes portlet configuration information, said portlet configuration information containing metadata for describing how the portlet'"'"'s graphical user interface is rendered and to what extent a user can interact with said interface, wherein the document includes;

a name element including a name tag for defining the name of the portlet;

a description element including a description tag for describing the portlet; and

a content resource element including a content tag, the content resource element describing a resource used to generate the portlet;

validate the portlet configuration information in the document by using an XML schema definition that checks data type constraints for each element in the document;

initiate a request to generate a portal by invoking the resource described in the document;

compile the resource to spawn a hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes; and

generate the portal by executing the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes wherein generating the portal includes reading a portal skin that defines a look and feel of the portal including one or more of;

button, banner, portlet header, background color and font characteristic of said portal, said portal skin customized to at least one of;

individual user and group;

wherein executing the hierarchy of interdependent rendering processes includes executing at least one interdependent rendering process that renders parts of its graphical user interface by invoking other interdependent rendering processes in said hierarchy such that the portlet'"'"'s contents are editable by detaching the portlet whereby the portlet occupies a window independent from a browser'"'"'s main window; and

wherein said document enables nonproprietary tools to manipulate and render the portlet in said portal by representing said portlet configuration information in a standard way.