Spring 2006 Roadmap

Summary

This document is intended to document uPortal Framework development planned to occur over the next 6 months (until the Fall 2006 Developer Meeting). The following branches are slated for active development. Unless otherwise stated, new features listed in a lower numbered release can be expected to also be incorporated into any higher number releases – e.g. 2.5.x features can be expected to also be present in 2.6.x. Which features are targeted for a specific branch is determined by the Release Strategy

uPortal 2.5.x

Release Engineering: ~awp9

uPortal 2.5.x is the current mature, production branch of the uPortal Framework. This release is undergoing active maintenance and is recommended for production deployment. The focus of development on this branch is improvements in performance, stability, and incorporation of backwards-compatible features consistent with the Release Strategy.

Planned Work

Work Item	Contributor
Person Directory Externalization Encapsulation of the Person Directory infrastructure into a separate project to improve modulatity in the uP 2.x code base, and enable sharing of this component between uP 2.x & 3.x	~edalquist (UW-Madison)
WSRP Consumer Functionality Enhanced ability to consume WSRP provided services. Initial work is focused on integrating Peoplesoft functionality utilizing included WSRP support.	~jwatkins@kumc.edu (KUMC) & ~markow@columbia.edu (JA-SIG)
Performance Validation & Enhancements	Columbia, ~dmindler & ~faizan (Rutgers)
Stability Validation & Enhancement	Columbia,~dmindler & ~faizan (Rutgers)
XHTML Theme & CSS-based Skin Templates Valid XHTML theme to reduce page download size and ease local customization by separating structure & presentation	~jayshao (Rutgers)
Layout Publishing Tools Tools for programatically publishing a layout for a given user/group of users.	Rutgers
SLM -> DLM Migration Tools Tools to migrate existing customized user layouts from one layout manager to another. May eventually support any layout implementation, though initial work will focus on SLM -> DLM conversion.	Rutgers

Opportunities

Work items which may be desired, but which currently have no resources allocated for implementation within the next six months.

Work Item	Contributor

uPortal 2.6 (tentative)

Release Engineering:

uPortal 2.6 is a tentative release categorizing ongoing development efforts currently occuring in the HEAD of the uPortal source tree. This release is incomplete, undergoing active development and is NOT recommended for production deployment as it may change at any time. This release includes features which may not be backwards-compatible with previous releases, as per the Release Strategy.

Planned Work

Work Item	Contributor
i18n Framework Improvements Framework support for internationalized messages. Includes i18n framework & channel support, message externalization.	~jan.nielsen@sungardhe.com (Sunguard HE)
Make DLM the Default Layout Manager Data.xml and portal properties will be modified to specify DLM as the default layout manager to showcase the codebase and communicate it's status as the preferred layout management approach for new installations	~jayshao (Rutgers)
DLM Fragment Manager GUI tool for configuring and specifiying DLM fragments and permissions	~mboyd (Sunguard HE)
DLM Integrated Modes Support Support for in-line customization of a user's layout under DLM	~mboyd (Sunguard HE)

Opportunities

Work items which may be desired, but which currently have no resources allocated for implementation within the next six months.

Work Item	Contributor

uPortal 3.x (sandbox)

Release Engineering: ~edalquist

uPortal 3.x is an independent development branch currently located in the JA-SIG sandbox. It represents a complete re-architecture of the uPortal framework. While it is expected to encompass most of the featureset of uPortal 2.x, it is a separate codebase, and work items listed above do not apply to uP 3.x. This release is incomplete, undergoing active development, and may change at any time. It is NOT recommended for production deployment at this time. While a migration path from uPortal 2.x is a high-priority work item for the uP 3.x project, backwards compatibility is NOT guaranteed, and significant work may be required to migrate existing installations.

Planned Work

Work Item	Contributor
Improved Portlet Specification (JSR-168) Support Improvemed compliance with the portlet specification and support for Portlet features	~edalquist (UW-Madison)
DLM Integration Integration of the Distributed Layout Manager (DLM) into the uPortal 3 codebase to provide for pushed/pulled fragments, and enhanced layout publishing and permissioning	TBD (SCT & Unicon)
Enhanced UI & Interaction Behavior Theme and management work to enhance and refine user interaction with uPortal	~bcollierjones (UMBC)

Opportunities

Work items which may be desired, but which currently have no resources allocated for implementation within the next six months.

Work Item	Contributor