Hi Thomas,
<note>
As I
was not in the F2F, and have not yet posted to this mailing list, I would
like to introduce myself. My name is Gil Tayar, I am the Chief Architect
of WebCollage, and a colleague of Eilon Reshef.
</note>
I very
much liked your life-cycle description, and I think it can provide a descent
framework on which to base WSRP's life-cycle and interface/protocol discussions.
It also complements Mike's more detailed document very well.
To summarize
the states of a portlet, you have the following:
1. Unbound:
The portlet exists, but there is _no_ connection to the portal.
2. Bound:
the portlet is bound, and registered in the portal.
3. Template:
a portlet template is created by the portal, with a given set of parameters.
4. Instance:
A template inside a given user page.
As a member
of WSIA, where states #1-#3 do not "exist" (yet!), I would like to dig
deeper into the "Instance state". It seems to me that this state should
be subdivided into two:
4a. Serialized/Stored
Instance: the template and the customizations the user selected and
put in the page, as it exists in the "persistence store/database" of the
portal.
4b. Active
Instance: the entity used to render the portlet and "do the actions".
I believe
the distinction between the two is an important one, as important as the
distinction between a java object serialized to a stream, and the java
object itself. One (the serialized object or portlet) is "just" data used
to create the other.
To make
another point, the state names I gave are a bit confused. Some are "states"
and some are "entity types". We can deconstruct this further:
Entity
Types -
1. Portlet.
The remote service that responds to WSRP messages.
2. Bound
Portlet. The location and registration information for the Portlet,
as stored by the portal.
3. Portlet
Template. The set of parameters to be used when creating a Stored Instance,
as stored by the portal.
4. Stored
Portlet Instance. The set of customization options to be used for a
certain user page, as stored by the portal.
5. Active
Instance. The viewed portlet, when viewed inside the portal.
The above
lists turns the "states" into more of a list of "operations" which create
entities from other entities -
Operations
-
1. Binding:
a request of the administrator(?) to the portal to register the portlet
and store location and registration information, to be used when creating
a portlet template.
2. Creating
a Template: Using the location and registration information, get the
meta-data, query the administrator(?) for the parameters, and store them.
3. Inserting
Template into Page: User selects a template, customizes it, and creates
a Stored Portlet Instance from it.
4. Viewing
the Portlet: User opens portal, and the portal creates an Active Instance
from the Stored Instance.Hope
it makes sense,Gil-----Original
Message-----
From: Thomas Schaeck [mailto:SCHAECK@de.ibm.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2002 18:19
To: Michael Freedman; wsrp@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [wsrp][interfaces and protocols]: Portal
using WSRP Service
Hi Mike,
here's the life-cycle writeup I promised:
Binding to a WSRP Service
-------------------------
Pre: - The Portal and the WSRP Portlet Service are not
bound -
1. The administrator browses the directory for WSRP services
using the
portal admin UI -->
- The Portal finds the WSRP Portlet Service in the directory
2. The administrator selects a WSRP service -->
- The Portal makes a call or series of calls to the WSRP
Portlet Service to
establish a relation (bind) (may include establishing
a trust relation, see
my security note)
- The Portal creates a portlet template referencing the
WSRP portlet
service. (Potentially, the template may need to be parameterized
with
template settings to become usable.)
Post: - The portal is bound to the WSRP service through
the portlet
template, users may now see the template beeing offered
in the portal's
customizer -
Creation of Instances
---------------------
Pre: - The portal is bound to the WSRP service through
the portlet
template, users may now see the template beeing offered
in the portal's
customizer/toolbox -
3. A portal user selects the portlet template to be put
on a page -->
- The portal server creates a portlet instance from the
portlet template
- The portal server links the instance to the user's
page
Post: - The portal is bound to the WSRP service through
the portlet
template, users may now see the template beeing offered
in the portal's
customizer/toolbox and a unique instance which may have
persistent data now
exists for the user
Destruction of Instances
------------------------
Pre: - The portal is bound to the WSRP service through
the portlet
template, users may now see the template beeing offered
in the portal's
customizer/toolbox and a unique instance which may have
persistent data now
exists for the user
4. A portal user discards a portlet instance from a page
-->
- The portal discards the link from the page to the instance
- The portal discards the instance
Pre: - The portal is bound to the WSRP service through
the portlet
template, users may now see the template beeing offered
in the portal's
customizer/toolbox, the unique instance does no longer
exist
Unbinding a WSRP service
------------------------
Pre: - The portal is bound to a WSRP service through a
portlet template,
users may now see the template beeing offered in the
portal's customizer -
5. The adminstrator browses the list of portlet tempplates
and discards the
portlet template -->
- The portal makes a call to the WSRP Portlet Service
referenced in the
portlet template to undo the binding
- The portal discards the portlet template
Post: - The Portal and the WSRP Portlet Service are not
bound -
Best regards,
Thomas
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