KRA Developers Bootcamp Terry Durkin IU Development ManagerLead

KRA Developers Bootcamp Terry Durkin - IU (Development Manager/Lead Developer) Bryan Hutchinson - Cornell (Development Manager/Lead Developer)

About KRA • Six partner schools – Cornell, Indiana, Michigan State, MIT, Arizona, CSU • Based on a MITs Coeus – Full Featured Research Admin suite – 12+ years of development work – Still going! – Consortium model

More About KRA • First Release - July 2008 – Proposal Development – Budget – Grants. gov S 2 S • Second Release - 2009 – Awards – IRB/Human Participants –… • Beyond – Functional Parity with Coeus

How Bootcamp Works • High-level Overview of Concepts • Discussion based on slides • Exercises – Sample Application mimicking KRA functionality • Ask questions any time! • Be engaged - You will get out what you put in!

Day 1 - Documents and BOs • Kuali is “Document based” • Two Types of Documents – Transactional Documents – Maintenance Documents

Transactional Documents • Represent a business function – Apply for funds (by creating a proposal) – Manage Human Participants (by creating a protocol, amendment, etc…) • • Complex rules and approval process Lots of data Potentially long living Focus on Transactional Documents later in the week

Maintenance Documents • Manage (create/alter) Reference Data • What is “reference data” – In DB terms, it’s a table used by the entire system as a FK from other tables – People, Organizations, Units, Sponsors, etc… – What else would be reference data? • Simple documents to perform CRUD operations

Business Objects • Business Objects (BOs) are Java Beans – Properties – Getters/Setters • Two categories – Reference Data (CRUD via Maint Docs) – Those used in Transactional Documents (Document Composition) • Map to a single table in the DB

Database • Kuali uses OJB as an ORM tool – OJB - Ob. Ject. Relational. Bridge – ORM - Object-Relational Mapping • • Configure Write Java Code (not SQL) Related data elements are stored together Model complex database relationships

Using OJB • OJB Repository XML • Class Descriptor – Define the Java Class and the Table Name • Field Descriptor – – Java Property Name Column Name JDBC Type Conversion (boolean to char, custom datatypes, etc…) – Primary Key – Optimistic Locking

OJB - Getting more advanced • Model Relationships – Collection Descriptor – Reference Descriptor • More on these later in the week.

Data Dictionary (DD) • Controls the behavior of Bos • Defined in XML - <BO Class Name>. xml – Inquiries – Lookups – Attributes - Properties of the BO • UI Controls - Lookups, Maint Docs, Trans Docs • Size & Shape Validation • Required-ness

OJB - repository. xml • Reference Descriptor – Relationships to Reference data – 1: 1 (Proposal: Sponsor) – Not saved/deleted when the related object is saved • Collection Descriptor – – Relationships where a parent can have many children 1: M (Proposal: Investigators; Investigator: Unit) “Reverse Foreign Key” Save with the Parent

Maintenance Docs • How we manage Reference Bos • XML based: <BO Class Name>Maintenance. Document. xml – – – BO Class Maintainable Class - API for customization Business Rules - API to perform validation Document Authorizer - Customize Auth. Z for a doc Document Type - Reference to KEW Maintainable Section(s) and Item(s) - what and how attributes are presented – Attributes, Locking Key, Default Existence Checks…

Values Finders • User to present a list of options in the UI – Drop-down – Radio Group • Queries the database and returns a list of valid values • Persistable. Business. Objects. Calues. Finder – 80% - BO Class, Key/Label Attributes Names • Custom Values Finders – 20% - Extend Key. Values. Base, Implement Key. Values. Finder • XML (DD) and Code (Class file)

Transactional Documents • Composed of a Document class and multiple BOs – Document Composition BOs have a reference to the Document class/table (FK Relationship) • Transactional Document classes are special BOs – Super BOs with additional behavior

Transactional Document • Similar to Maint Doc DD files – Add Attributes (since these are BOs) – No lookups (we use KEW for Doc Search) – No Inquiries • Similar to other OJB mappings – Lots of relationships defined – Other mappings should not refer back to the Document class

Web stuff in Kuali/KRA • Struts – Pseudo MVC – Forms, Actions, Mappings • Struts in Kuali – Heavily customized – Addresses common Struts anti-patterns – Simplifies development • Single Action Mapping

Struts Action Classes Object Hierarchy for KRA: -Kra. Transactional. Document ----Kuali. Transactional. Document. Base ------Kuali. Document. Action. Base ----Kuali. Action -----Dispatch. Action

Struts Form Classes • Document is placed in the Form • POJO Form Base handles type conversion • Object Hierarchy for KRA: -Proposal. Development. Form ----Kuali. Transactional. Document. Form. Base ------Kuali. Document. Form. Base ----Kuali. Form -----Pojo. Form. Base ------Action. Form (Struts base form)

Building the UI • JSPs/Custom Tags • JSTL and JSP Expression Language – Preferable to Struts tags when possible • Kuali Rice Tags – page. tag and document. Page. tag – tab. tag – document. Controls. tag

KRA Custom Tags • Build complex JSPs • Maintainability • Methodology is approximate, but in general: – 1 JSP per page – 1. tag per panel on the page

HTMLControl. Attribute. tag • <kul: html. Control. Attribute /> • Replaces struts <html: xxx /> • Uses Data Dictionary entries to determine: – Type of control (text, drop-down, etc) – Length – Max Length • DD Attributes

Lists of Data • Old stuff – OJB, BOs, DD, etc • New stuff – Document changes • Special getter • Deletion Aware Lists – Action Form - Methods for add/delete – JSP/tag - Accessing properties of a list

Services and DAOs • Services are where Business Logic occurs – Perform a calculation; Save a Document • Services are defined as Interfaces and Implemented as classes • Spring manages the resolution of Interface to actual code - Spring Beans XML • Accessing Services – Dependency Injection – Service Locator (Kra. Service. Locator) • Data Access Objects - DAOs – Similar to Services, but have knowledge of the data model

Rules and Events • Events - A way to evaluate a rule when an action occurs – Automatically invoked via frameworks (Save, Route, etc…) – Custom events (add or delete a BO from a list)

Rules • Beyond size & shape validation from the DD • Document. Rule. Base - Customize save/route/etc… rules • Custom Rules - Implemented in Rules classes; Validate pretty much anything about the document; Return true/false

Error Messages • Give context to errors – Display error messages on the appropriate panel – Highlight fields that have errors • Generated from DD • Generated from Rules classes

Audit Errors • Similar to Error Messages • Allows users to continue working on their document and defer validation until ready • Errors and Warnings • Provides a link to where the error is occurring

Document Authorizer • Determine the level of access that a user has to the document – Read Only – Full Access – Somewhere in between • Document Actions – What actions can a user take on a document – Implemented in JSPs via <kul: document. Controls /> • Who can initiate a document