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Finally, to convey to the system what user accounts were to be used as fragments an XML file was used. Put simply, it told the system what fragments existed, what user accounts were used to provide the layout of each, and what users would recieve each fragment. This file was named dlm.xml and was read each time that the system started up allowing the portal to then pre-load each of the layouts of the indicated fragments and special classes used to determine which users, the audience of the fragment, received each fragment when they logged in.
DLM was availabe starting in 2002uPortal with DLM premiered in Luminis starting in 2002. Then in mid 2004 there was talk of requirements for the uPortal 3.0 offering along the lines of layout management functionality. There were several areas where ALM and DLM each had differing strengths and weaknesses. A result of such discussions was a compilation of a Gap Analysis illustrating such differences. This was followed by discussions of merging the two feature sets together.
As a first step toward such an effort DLM was to be made available to the community. The result is the offering currently was made available in uPortal 2.5.0. Solutions to other gaps between the offerings will be forthcoming going forward in the hope that the distance will be significantly reduced if not removed altogether in the uPortal 2.6.0 timeframe in preparation for use in the 3.0 code base.