Introduction to AquaLogic User Interaction Development

by Jennifer Shipman
04/19/2006

Abstract

User interaction around SOA focuses on bringing together information and services from any system in order to serve the needs of users. BEA AquaLogic User Interaction (ALUI) provides an open, extensible solution that makes heterogeneous information and applications more accessible by providing them as services that deliver unified, collaborative, context-based experiences for all users across the enterprise. The ALUI architecture was designed for customization and integration, and the AquaLogic Development Kit (IDK) delivers a rich set of tools to facilitate implementation. This article provides an introduction to AquaLogic User Interaction focused on development features and concepts.

What is ALUI?

BEA AquaLogic User Interaction (ALUI) is a suite of integrated products for creating interactive solutions, including portals and composite applications. ALUI makes it simple to create, deploy, and manage service-oriented applications that facilitate complex processes and connect user activities that span multiple, heterogeneous systems. ALUI provides:

• a powerful, interoperable infrastructure that integrates ALUI components into a cohesive Web-based environment
• features and tools to support administration, collaboration, content management, and usage tracking
• a well-tested, extensible, and customizable user interface
• a collection of integration services to connect with existing applications and repositories

ALUI delivers this functionality through a collection of products:

AquaLogic Interaction (ALI) is the portal component of ALUI. It provides the framework for applications and integrates AquaLogic components into a cohesive Web-based environment. ALI provides a service-oriented framework to quickly deploy applications, standardize application look and feel, provide administration functionality, and make applications easy for end users to find. An advanced HTTP engine supports calls to remote Web services and handles gateway and tag transformation for remote content, allowing you to deploy and manage hundreds of applications. For details on architecture, see Overview of the ALI Architecture in the ALI online documentation.

AquaLogic Interaction Activity Servers are integrated applications that provide additional functionality surfaced through the ALI user interface.

• Analytics collects information on activity within the portal and Web applications, helping administrators respond to user needs.
• Collaboration allows employees, customers, and partners to work together easily and efficiently via the Web. Remote services can access Collaboration functionality through the AquaLogic IDK.
• Publisher enables users to create new Web content and keep portals and composite applications up to date. Remote services can leverage Publisher's content management capabilities through the AquaLogic IDK.
• Process provides tools to create and deploy new applications that encompass business processes.
• Search indexes all the information and resources deployed across the enterprise, making information easy to find. Remote services can access and customize Search functionality through the AquaLogic IDK.
• Studio gives users without extensive technical development skills the ability to create Web applications.

ALI Integration Services combine the full range and functionality of existing enterprise systems into composite applications. The AquaLogic IDK provides a collection of APIs for creating Integration Services, including Portlets, Content Crawlers, and Identity Services.

Every AquaLogic User Interaction component is designed to provide a personalized experience for each organization, and for specific groups and users. The rest of this article explains how the AquaLogic Interaction Development Kit (IDK) is used to customize and extend AquaLogic User Interaction functionality.

AquaLogic Interaction Development Kit (IDK)

The AquaLogic Interaction Development Kit (IDK) allows users to design customized interfaces and extend ALUI functionality to create powerful applications that meet the needs of any organization. The IDK supports both Java and .NET development environments.

• The UI Customization Toolkit provides tools to customize the content, design, and functionality of the portal to meet user needs. Using these tools, you can modify the ALI user interface to meet the needs of any organization, including adding custom branding, creating user-specific experiences, modifying standard UI text, and adding custom functionality.
• Integration Service APIs deliver a simple, consistent way to integrate data and functionality from existing systems. Using these APIs, you can create Web services that import user information and content from external repositories, authenticate users against existing systems, and expose functionality from external applications within the ALI user interface.
• Remote APIs give access to key information and core functionality in AquaLogic Interaction, Collaboration, Publisher, and Search, including user profile data, Knowledge Directory content, portal objects, and security. Using these APIs, you can embed key functionality from ALI products in custom applications and services.

To download the IDK, go to the AquaLogic Interaction Developer Center. Let's now look at each of these components in a little more detail.

UI Customization Toolkit

AquaLogic Interaction includes a unified Web environment with personalized pages, portlets, and easy navigation to applications and communities. Built-in templates support rapid creation of pages, portlets, content, projects, applications, and Web services. A broad range of advanced development technologies including .NET Web Controls, AJAX, and adaptive portlet technologies allow you to deliver powerful solutions quickly.

• Experience Definitions allow you to create entirely different interfaces with unique security, branding, and design. Experiences can include customized login processes, look and feel, and default functionality. For details, see Customizing Experience Definitions in the ALI online documentation.
• Portlets are the building blocks of the AquaLogic Interaction UI, providing focused content and services for a specific audience. Portlets are completely customizable and can connect with almost any application, including SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, and Microsoft Excel. The IDK provides a wide range of development tools for portlets. For more information on portlets, see Integration Service APIs below.
• Adaptive Styles make it possible to implement style customizations on global, per user, per community, per product, per page, and per portlet levels. The CSS Mill allows you to create new style sheets using simple property files. For details, see Using Adaptive Styles and Modifying Portal Style Sheets in the ALI online documentation.
• Adaptive Tags are a collection of XML tags that can be included in the markup returned by any gatewayed page, including portlets. Developers can customize many aspects of the portal UI using tags, including navigation. For example, navigation can be customized to support applications with linear process flow, rapid selection, or browsing behaviors. For details, see Using Adaptive Tags in the ALI online documentation.
• Programmable Event Interfaces (PEIs) allow you to embed custom functionality into the AquaLogic Interaction UI without editing the ALI source code. PEIs are triggered in response to user interaction, including basic user actions such as login and search, and administrative actions such as object creation and management. For details, see Using PEIs in the ALI online documentation.

The ALI online documentation contains detailed information on UI customization. For more details on the built-in tools that allow administrators to customize the portal UI, see Basic Portal UI Customizations. For details on the development features provided to support advanced customizations, see Advanced Portal UI Customizations and Portal Component Replacement.

Integration Service APIs

Web services integration technology provides a consistent way to access data and functionality in existing systems. Enterprise software vendors have adopted Web services almost universally as the ideal way to expose data and execute operations between programs over the Web. Web services offer a standard way for developers to integrate systems, resources, and databases into Web-based applications. Service-Oriented Applications hosted by the portal can be used to integrate functionality from a wide range of Web services.

The AquaLogic Interaction Development Kit (IDK) allows easy integration of external systems and applications. With AquaLogic Interaction you can integrate components running on Java and .NET platforms into the same page or application, and develop integration services using a broad range of Web standards, including SOAP, JSR-168, and WSRP. AquaLogic Interaction runs portlets and other integration services remotely, improving stability and supporting the deployment of a larger number of applications.

Integration services are categorized in three groups: Portlets, Identity Services, and Content Services.

Portlets

Portlets make it possible to integrate content and functionality from external systems in the AquaLogic Interaction UI. The back end for a portlet can be any Web application that returns HTML or XML over HTTP; portlets can be written in any language that communicates over HTTP. Each portlet is self-contained and executes its particular functionality in a separate process. Most portlets connect to an external application for data or functionality. For an introduction to portlets, see Developing Portlets in the ALI online documentation.

• Adaptive Portlets work dynamically to react to user actions and refresh content within the page. For examples, see the Adaptive Portlet Design Patterns in the ALI online documentation.
  • Adaptive Tags are a collection of useful XML tags that can be included in the markup returned by portlets. Using the attributes defined in the tag, the portal gateway transforms the XML and replaces it with standard HTML output generated from portal data to be displayed in a browser. For details, see Using Adaptive Tags in the ALI online documentation.
  • The ALI Scripting Framework provides a client-side JavaScript library that offers services to portlets and hosted gatewayed pages. The Scripting Framework allows portlets to: store and share session state through browser-level variables, leverage page-level events, and refresh portlet content without reloading the portal page. For details, see Using the ALI Scripting Framework in the ALI online documentation.
• The .NET Web Control Consumer provides support for creating portlets using Microsoft .NET Web Controls. The JSR-168 Consumer and WSRP Consumer provide support for deploying portlets that conform to these established development standards. For details, see the ALI Developer Center downloads page.
• The Programmable Remote Client (PRC) allows you to embed components and functions into any Web application delivered through the ALI framework. For details, see Remote APIs below.

Identity Services

Identity Services synchronize users, groups, and user profiles with traditional systems of record, including LDAP directories and Windows domains. For an introduction to Identity Services, see Developing Identity Services.

• Authentication Services synchronize with various external user directories and authenticate users against existing systems of record. Authentication Services allow you to add customer, partner and employee users to AquaLogic Interaction without requiring manual export, upload or duplication of user information. For details, see Developing Authentication Services in the ALI online documentation.
• Profile Services import data about users from any system, creating a universal user profile that facilitates advanced personalization and expert location. For example, Profile Services can combine information from a CRM system, an LDAP directory, and an HR system in order to present the ideal information and functionality to each user of an application. For details, see Developing Profile Services in the ALI online documentation.

Content Services

Content Services import and index content from external sources, including network file systems, databases, and Web sites. For details, see Developing Content Services in the ALI online documentation.

• Content Crawlers gather new content from external repositories for indexing in the AquaLogic Interaction Knowledge Directory, providing users with a single directory of all the information needed to do their work. For details, see Creating Content Crawlers in the ALI online documentation.
• Federated Search Services allow you to add content from external sites to the AquaLogic Interaction search index without adding entries to the Knowledge Directory. For details on Federated Search and other ALI search customizations, see Customizing ALI Search in the ALI online documentation.

Remote APIs

The IDK's Programmable Remote Client (PRC) provides APIs for a wide range of ALI functionality, as well as Collaboration and Publisher operations. In addition to enabling the automation of bulk operations such as user creation or project creation, these APIs allow you to embed AquaLogic Interaction, Search, Collaboration, and Publisher features into composite applications. The PRC supports calls to access, create, or manipulate user information, portlets, projects, search queries, documents, and administrative objects. These APIs allow you to access key information such as user profile and security information, and integrate external systems deeply into core ALI functionality. For an introduction to the PRC, see Extending Server Functionality with Remote APIs in the ALI online documentation.

• AquaLogic Interaction portal administration is where all ALI objects and operations are configured. The PRC's remote APIs provide access to key administrative components, including object management, portlet operations, Knowledge Directory operations, user operations, and jobs. For details, see Extending Portal Functionality in the ALI online documentation.
• ALI Search indexes and searches all the documents, information, applications, communities, discussions, Web sites, and other content accessible through the portal. Using the remote search API, services can query document, folder, user, and Community objects using a standard request-response model, and add multiple constraints and filter searches by location or object type. For details, see Extending AquaLogic Interaction Search Functionality in the ALI online documentation.
• ALI Collaboration helps people work together via the Web, supporting tasks, projects, communities, calendars, discussions, and document sharing with version control. Using the remote Collaboration API, services can create, query, and manage Collaboration projects, tasks, documents, and discussions from remote applications. The remote API can be used to embed collaborative components and functions into any Web application delivered through the ALUI framework. For details, see Extending AquaLogic Interaction Collaboration Functionality in the ALI online documentation.
• ALI Publisher provides the Web publishing system for deploying content-driven applications, such as a customer support knowledge base or sales support center. Using the remote API, services can create and publish many types of Web content, including articles, customer profiles, employee reports, and news stories. For details, see Extending AquaLogic Interaction Publisher Functionality in the ALI online documentation.

For a full listing of topics in the ALI online development documentation, see the Table of Contents. For a full listing of ALUI product documentation, see edocs.bea.com.

Summary

BEA AquaLogic User Interaction (ALUI) is an integrated set of products used to create enterprise portals, collaborative communities, and composite applications, all built on a service infrastructure. The ALUI architecture makes it simple to create, deploy, and manage service-oriented applications that leverage multiple, heterogeneous systems. ALUI and the IDK allow you to provide useful, personalized experiences for all users across the enterprise without duplicating existing data and functionality.