Winter 2011 uPortal Website Design

Notes:

Staging area: http://www.jasig.webchuckhosting.com/
I think we will only have the top level pages in the menu (e.g., Overview, See It, Get It, ...). The child pages will be referenced via links in the other pages.
While the new 'project' content type did get created, it is missing a few fields: logo link, icon link, project type (project/portlet/community of practice/component), parent project(list of projects that are not components)
We need an Incubator page (see below) that sits alongside high level project pages with a list of all project nodes with status of "incubation". We will also need an Incubator logo that would sit in the header.
We need an admin page that will consist of quick links and tips for our web site admins. A couple pieces will be how to create a news item (restricted to News Editors and Project Authors), how to create an event (restricted to News Editors and Project Authors) and how to create a project item/node (restricted to Project Authors).

Information Architecture

uPortal

Overview

uPortal is the leading open source enterprise portal framework built by and for the higher education community. uPortal continues to evolve through contributions from its global community and is supported by resources, grants, donations, and memberships fees from academic institutions, commercial affiliates, and non-profit foundations.

uPortal is built on open standards-based technologies such as Java and XML, and enables easy, standards-based integration with authentication and security infrastructures, single sign-on secure access, campus applications, web-based content, and end user customization. uPortal can easily integrate with other enterprise systems and can be customized for specific local needs. The powerful layout management system enables a dynamic, personal view for users with multiple roles. For information on the many portlets available for uPortal, see <link to portlets>. The user experience is further enhanced and made accessible through use of the Fluid skinning system. uPortal is one of the most widely deployed open source enterprise portal frameworks, having been adopted by hundreds of higher education institutions, K-12 schools and research communities world wide.

uPortal is mobile-ready for a wide variety of mobile devices! A mobile theme is included for out-of-the box compatibility with mobile browsers. Native mobile apps can easily be developed using the companion uMobile framework. This allows for easy deployment of native iPhone or Android campus apps that can include authentication, personalization and user customization. For more information, see <link to uMobile>.

Forever Free!
You may download uPortal and use it on your site at no cost. Unlike our competitors, uPortal is 100% free open source software managed by Jasig. Our community has access to all releases of the uPortal software with absolutely no costs. We welcome contributions from our community of all types and sizes. For more information see, <link to open source page>.

<news> <events>
recent news with link to all news
upcoming (and recent?) events with link to all events

Features

For content, see uPortal Final Feature List

Benefits

For content, see uPortal Final Benefits

User Stories

(This page will need to wait until we have stories authored)

How schools have solved problems
Links to youtube videos
Screen shots of portals, portlets

News

News is from the uPortal news items.

Events

Events are an iCal feed from Bedework.

See It

Want to see uPortal in action? Community members have created a number of screencasts and videos demonstrating various uPortal features. These include both out-of-the-box portlets and locally developed, custom portlets. These portal and portlet tours give you a sense of whats possible with uPortal.

Also, be sure to visit uPortal's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/uportal

Interested in adding your own screencast to the mix? Send an email to the uPortal Steering Committee for more information.

Videos

list (with thumbnails?) of all videos

Gallery

gallery of all images

Get It

Forever Free!
You may download uPortal and use it on your site at no cost. Unlike our competitors, uPortal is 100% free open source software managed by Jasig. Our community has access to all releases of the uPortal software with absolutely no costs. We welcome contributions from our community of all types and sizes. For more information see, <link to open source page>. uPortal is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See <link to license page> for more information.

(Maybe the release table could be on the right with the following text on the left)

Quick-start Release

Users wanting to quickly setup and demonstrate a uPortal site may download the development quick-start distribution of uPortal. This distribution provides a "drop it in and go" configuration of uPortal. The intent is to make it easier for potential uPortal adopters to quickly get uPortal up and running and allow them to begin trying out uPortal and integrating interesting portlets. The builds include a working configuration of the Tomcat Servlet Engine and HSQLDB database.

Developer's Quick-start Release

The Developer's Quick Start is functionally the same as the standard Quick Start. The difference is the Developers version includes the Subversion data for uPortal which allows for easy comparison against the uPortal Subversion repository.

Source Code Release

Users ready to deploy uPortal in a production environment should download the source release of uPortal, containing only uPortal source code and configuration files (no servlet container or database). Use of this distribution requires knowledge of Java web application environments as well as the Ant and Maven tools. A servlet engine and relational database must be available.

For access to the latest code, visit the uPortal Source Code Repository.

Community

Use http://www.jasig.webchuckhosting.com/uportal/community.
(We'll have to add a paragraph on the Steering Committee that links to the steering committee page)

Mailing lists

Use http://www.jasig.webchuckhosting.com/uportal/mailing-lists

Steering Committee

Use http://www.jasig.webchuckhosting.com/uportal/steering-committee

Community Call Recordings

(to be completed later)

Portlets

(This content will be developed separately)

Highlight 11-12 key portlets (accepted or in incubation)
Highlight the reusable types
Similar in layout to the features and benefits pages
Perhaps with screen shots for each
Link to complete list of portlets (portlet wiki page)

uMobile

Use http://www.jasig.org/umobile for now but will flesh out child pages later.

Incubation

The Jasig Incubator is a defined process and accompanying support infrastructure that can be used by software developers and others to facilitate and collaborate on software projects and practices. The goal of Jasig Incubation is to generate and support sustainable community source products or communities of practice. Projects that emerge from incubation have demonstrated or developed active community support, appropriate governance, as well as synergy and alignment with other Jasig products. They are considered sponsored projects of the Jasig organization.
<list of all project nodes with status of "incubation">

Why Open Source

(Can this be a child of all the project pages?)
While other projects may claim to be open, Jasig projects are 100% Real Open Source. What does it mean to be truly open? That means open in all aspects, including the following:

Everyone can download all versions are freely available at no cost
Everyone can fully participate in the community discussion
Everyone can take advantage of webinars, documentation, screencasts and conferences
Everyone is invited to submit contributions which will readily be considered for adoption

Open Access
The Jasig community is committed to increasing openness in higher education and beyond. In addition to having free and open access to all versions of our software, you have access to the entire community surrounding the software. You can participate on the discussion lists, watch the IRC channels, access the wiki, participate in free webinars and attend conferences.

Open Collaboration
This open and inviting environment creates great opportunities for collaboration with peers. Instead of waiting for a vendor to implement an enhancement or having to take on all the development yourself, you can cooperate with other individuals and organizations to implement innovative solutions.

Open Contribution
The projects readily invite contributions from community members which are then considered for adoption into the main project. The whole community benefits as members contribute back and the contributors benefit as the community can help with maintenance and further development.

Open Choice
If you want assistance with implementation that goes beyond the free assistance provided from the community, you are not locked into one vendor. There are a variety of support options from multiple solution providers. See <solution providers link> for more information.

Examples of other portal sites: