EUNIS 2007 Innovation for a European ERA Grenoble
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium The ESUP-Portail project on the way to 1, 000 users Pascal Aubry Consortium ESUP-Portail / University of Rennes 1
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium History How the project began, how it grew to its present size
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The very beginning Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • May 2002: 4 projects selected – EEPUN (partner Microsoft) – Monte-Cristo (partner SCT) – ENCORA (partner Sun) – ESUP-Portail (no industrial partner, open-source based) • Funded by the French Ministry of Education – about 6 M€ for the whole project – development and investment • Of the four, one is still really operating
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium Our operational goals • Create an open-source portal for universities – Adopt an existing solution or build a new one • Distribute the final product • Expand the ESUP program – To reach a wider public
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our numerous other goals Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Explore new technologies – for providing access to digital resources and services • Encourage the use of IT – by integrating them in a single environment • Enhance the cooperation between institutions – by adopting common standards
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our numerous other goals (cont. ) • Develop independent learning Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium – By implementing tools • Modernize the pedagogy – By proposing up-to-date tools • Soften the line between on-line education and traditional in-class education • Develop new kinds of relationships – between the students, the professors and the administration
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our numerous other goals (cont. ) Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Promote mobility – Provide organized and controllable access to institutional applications • Simplify administrative procedures • Improve information quality
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our strategy and targets Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Strategy – Schéma Directeur des Environnements Numériques de Travail (SDET) • Architecture, authentication, interoperability • Targets – digital universities – regional digital universities – thematic digital universities
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium Our preferences for implementation • Consideration of existing technologies • Open-source software • A solid, well-understood technological base and architecture – J 2 EE, u. Portal, CAS • A flexible, modular and evolving system – adaptable to the institutional strategy • Respect of standards – directory: Sup. Ann (French standard that extends edu. Person) – authentication, authorization and SSO: CAS & Shibboleth – interoperability: XML, Web services, JSR-168 (portlets)
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our preferences for implementation (cont. ) Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Specific components in addition to the usual portal tools – e-learning platforms – pedagogical services – documentation modules – administrative Information System applications – system applications • The coherent deployment of services
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our path towards to the solution Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Choosing a portal – a “home-made” solution was planned – u. Portal was finally chosen • Choosing an SSO – several solutions were evaluated – CAS was quickly selected for its • • permanence security portability ease of u. Portal integration • Adding services
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The architecture Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium services from the administrator’s point of view, Information System-centered portal from the user’s point of view, user-centered students and staff Information System Central Authentication Service
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project A typical Information System for a French University Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium services LDAP Misc Accounting (Nabuco) Students & courses Staff (Harpège) (Apogée)
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium The ESUP-Portail community More than 1, 000 users predicted by Dec 2007
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The initials members Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • 5 universities – university of Valenciennes (coordinator) – university of Nancy 1 – university of Nancy 2 – university of Rennes 1 – ENSEEIHT • Sept 2004: 72, 000 users • ≈ 20 full-time developers (one year) – only a few Java developers
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our deployment partners Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • A few test sites – to validate the proposed portal prior to its widespread distribution • In 2004/2005, most of these sites use the solution in production
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The official members Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • 79 institutions – universities – regional “digital” universities (9 out of 11) – Hautes Ecoles • Most sites using the portal by Sept. 2007 • Today: 300, 000 users • Dec. 2007: 1, 000 users
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Our organization • An operational coordinating committee Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium composed of the project leaders in the original member institutions • communication • strategy • meeting organization • A technical coordinating committee composed of the engineers responsible for the main sub-projects • • technologies frameworks integration QA
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project International relations Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Study of or participation in international projects – JA-SIG – Sakai – Mille (Canada) – university of Geneva – Slide • We are not native English speakers…
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium The role of the consortium today • Supporting the community through mailing lists (≈30) • • Developing new applications Integrating contributions Documenting the project Publicizing project activities
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Communications Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • ESUP-Days – 2 meetings a year – 2 -days conference, 220 participants in last June – on technical and logistical aspects – to obtain feedback • Papers and conference presentations – in France: JRES – in Europe: EUNIS – In the U. S. : JASIG
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Papers and presentations • In English – – – Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • JASIGwinter 2006, EUNIS 2007 – The ESUP-Portail project on the way to 1, 000 users EUNIS 2006, JASIGsummer 2007 – ESUP-Portail helpdesk: user support at establishment-level EUNIS 2006 – Open-source Identity Federation with Shibboleth EUNIS 2004 – ESUP-Portail: open source Single Sign-On with CAS EUNIS 2004 – ESUP-Portail: a pure Web. DAV-based Network Attached Storage In French – JRES 2007: Diffusion en direct et en différé de vidéos de cours : architecture et intégration dans ESUP Portail – JRES 2007: ORI-OAI - Outil de Référencement et d'indexation pour un réseau de portails OAI – JRES 2007: esup-commons : un framework de développement pour le projet ESUP-Portail – ESUP-Days (4 conferences) – Tuto. JRES 2006 – Distribuer un developement – CSIESR 2006 – in. JAC ESUP et OAI-PMH – Le CMS ESUP-Portail – JRES 2005 – ESUP-Portail Helpdesk : le suivi des demandes utilisateurs à l'échelle d'un établissement – JRES 2005 – Utilisation de Web. DAV dans ESUP-Portail – CSIESR 2005 – le socle de l’ENT ESUP-Portail – CSIESR 2005 – Expérience sur la mise en place d'un ENT (démarche) – CSIESR 2005 – Authentification SSO, CAS – CSIESR 2005 – Connecteur entre socle et briques applicatives – CSIESR 2005 - Problématique notion de « profils » – JRES 2003 – Les Espaces Numériques de Travail – JRES 2003 – ESUP Portail, un ENT universitaire – JRES 2003 – Single Sign-On open-source avec CAS – JRES 2003 – INJAC
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Training • 20 training programs already organized to Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium – bring teams up to standard • XML, XSLT, Java, … – show local administrators how to deploy • u. Portal (-esup) • CAS • some applications (helpdesk, …) – show developers how to write applications • u. Portal channels, then portlets
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium Federating the community • So many deployers… • but very few contributions…
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium The ESUP-Portail sub-projects The services offered by the ESUP-Portail environment
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The ESUP-Portail sub-projects • Incubator (24 projects) – immature projects – no guarantees incubator Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Repository (35 projects) – completed projects – guarantees • system integrity: security fixes • permanence: functional fixes • coherence with the other projects (lib conflicts) repository • Moving from the incubator to the repository requires that the project – attain the right scale – be in operation for one year in two establishments or two years in one discontinued projects
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium Developments around JA-SIG products – u. Portal-esup: a pre-configured portal for the French university community – u. Portal-quick-start – client librairies: , perl. CAS (CRU), pam_cas-esup, mod_cas-esup – v 2 utilities: CAS Generic Handler, CAS quick-start – v 3 French translation
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Services for all users Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Communication tools – – Horde IMP webmail, Sympa Mailing list manager calendar, planning helpdesk announcements, php. BB forums, intranet • Data storage – Slide-based Web. DAV repository – storage quotas information • Documentation – online publications – access to outside libraries • User tools – bookmarks, online help, LDAP searches • System tools – printing quotas information – network status information
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Services for students Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Course offerings • Homework uploads (Moodle) • Administrative files access – grades – exam dates
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Services for faculty and staff Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Faculty – course offering data entry forms – homework downloads (Moodle) • Administrative staff – printing credits management – storage quotas management – helpdesk • Faculty and staff – administrative files access • Career status, traveling expenses refunds
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The u. Portal-esup package Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • A pre-configured u. Portal installation • Easy configuration – by setting properties and running ant tasks • • A pre-filled database WAI effort (accessibility) French translations Statistics – user connections, channel usage • Patches
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium u. Portal-esup statistics The ESUP-Portail project
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Internationalized developments Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium • Not very many… – php. CAS – CAS Generic Handler and CAS quick-start – Slide-based Web. DAV server • Quotas handling – CAS-ified Horde IMP – Esup-helpdesk – Esup-print – Esup-diskquota • Maybe more in the future (see esup-commons)
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium esup-commons A development framework for the ESUP-Portail project
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium The goals of esup-commons • Provide a robust and easy-to-use development framework to our community • Make all the community use the same standards – Make easier the deployment of applications by using the same procedures – Incite people to contribute to existing applications by adopting common architectures
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Esup-commons in a few words • Open-source free software • Based on standards only Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium – Spring, JSF, Hibernate, Xalan/Xerces, Lucene, Axis, … • Portlets and servlets – – same code for both using the My. Faces MVC choice of deployment type by setting properties a less complicated development environment stand-alone applications (quick-starts) • Native i 18 n support • Integration with the Information System – CAS authentication, LDAP searches, u. Portal group and user attribute retrieval
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Esup-commons in a few words (cont. ) • Enhanced exception handling Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium – exception reports sent by email • A taglib to simplify JSF pages • SMTP capabilities • Version management – insure that the versions of the database and the application are the same (especially important in clustered environments) • Deep link handling and URL generation • Hibernate pagination • esup-blank – a blank canevas to develop new applications • esup-example – a simple application to show to use esup-commons
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project The layers web requests batch commands web rendering web controller taglib batch controller domain services auth. service cache service i 18 n service database URL service data persistence portal service data access domain beans LDAP service data bean management Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium web. beans
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium So what about now?
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France The ESUP-Portail project Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium In the future • Constitution of a legal entity for the Consortium in order to allow – funds to be collected from members – the consortium to become a well-known interlocutor (Ministry of Education, JA-SIG…) – the project to continue in the future • More than 1, 000 users
EUNIS’ 2007 – Innovation for a European ERA – Grenoble, France Copyright © 2002 -2007 ESUP-Portail consortium http: //www. esup-portail. org
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