A Short Comparison on .NET Open-Source Portals
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74 Economy Informatics, 1-4/2006 A Short Comparison on .NET Open-Source Portals Cǎtǎlin MAICAN, Radu LIXǍNDROIU Transilvania University Of Braşov This paper tries to present two of the most important open source portals based on the .NET technology. The first part makes a short presentation of the open source current, while the second part presents the “commandments” of the open source taking into account Windows- based open source software. The third part presents the main features of a portal. These fea- tures are further detailed for the two main portals based on the ASP.NET technology in the forth and the fifth part of the paper. Keywords: open source, portal, DotNetNuke, Passage, comparison. hy open-source portals? than be tied to a purchasing decision. W It seems that making the argument for Building a portal is about integrating an or- open-source software becomes easier every ganization with all its business processes, year. This is mainly due to open-source people and locations, this being a procedure products such as Linux, MySQL, or the that one cannot take lightly or accomplish Apache Web Server (just to name a few), easily. Business processes are complex be- which have been very successful. Further- cause of the competitive forces and the ever- more, quality software organizations such as shifting variety of people associated with the Apache Software Foundation boast a his- them. Building a portal enables information tory of consistent, stable, and successful movement through the organization. There- software deliveries. fore, it is better to invest in a person, rather Many open-source projects are commercially than a product that will be outdated in a year. developed code bases turned over to the open Does .NET /Windows open-source exist? market as a business decision, because they There is no doubt that the "Open Source" no longer have to pay to maintain the code. term coined by Eric Raymond, founder of the We cannot forget the best part about open- Open Source Initiative, has been subjected to source software: it is free. Although, we a lot of interpretation in recent years. Since should note that open source and free are not the term is descriptive, it could not be pro- synonymous. Just because most open-source tected by a trademark; therefore, companies products are free, it doesn’t mean that they and organizations are free to leverage the are all free. All open source means that you term in their marketing campaigns to pro- can receive the source in order to identify mote their own interests. As a result, "Open bugs [1]. Source" has started to lose some of its ideal- The greatest thing about capable open-source ist values. These values are best summed up software is that it solves the classic “build by the Open Source Definition's 10 Com- versus buy” engineering dilemma. Software mandments [2]: had become so complex that it was simply 1. Free Redistribution not practical to choose to build anything. 2. Source Code Now, with reliable open-source alternatives, 3. Derived Works developers can start with the open-source 4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code products and build the features sets needed. 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Another advantage might be that open-source Groups tools lower barriers to a developer’s entry 6. No Discrimination Against Fields of En- into the market. With open-source products, deavor developers can become proficient with 7. Distribution of License emerging tools and technologies, cultivating 8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Prod- an ability to build solutions with them, rather uct Economy Informatics, 1-4/2006 75 9. License Must Not Restrict Other Soft- • Portal Core Services - Provides core por- ware tal application functions. These functions are 10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral the common services (such as user interface There are Open Source zealots who believe design and search) that are utilized by other that unless an application is part of a stack components. These services can be supported which includes 100% Open Source services using a 3rd party tool. and components, it can not claim to be Open • Content Services - Content components Source. This "stack" typically includes an are Information (knowledge) from internal Open Source operating system at its founda- sources, external feeds, databases, etc. 3rd tion (ie. Linux), an Open Source web server party tools or application service providers (ie. Apache), an Open Source database (ie. (ASPs) can provide this component. mySQL), and an Open Source application • Portal Interface Framework - The inter- layer (ie. PHP, Perl, Python) or LAMP. face framework provides a structure or con- But, what happens with projects like Dot- tainer for other applications (or port- NetNuke because it is not part of a fully lets/modules). The framework allows new Open Source stack (at this point in time applications to follow a consistent visual in- DotNetNuke, Passage Portal, Rainbow or terface and programming standard. other .NET portals with an Open Source li- • Collaboration Services – Collaboration cense run on ASP.NET, a services layer components are those that facilitate employ- which is only available for the Windows plat- ees working together. Many components fa- form - a situation which the Mono project is cilitate virtual meetings through application trying to address). sharing, community chat rooms or videocon- Does this "stack" argument actually make ferencing. any sense? In the true sense of the OSD, it • Integration Services - Integration com- certainly does not. Each application is sup- ponents are those that link existing services posed to be judged independently based on to the portal. These components provide the its own licensing scheme. And there is no application and transactional linkage to en- specification as to someone being restricted terprise systems (such as email or corporate from combining Open Source components directories). Adapters can facilitate this inte- with proprietary ones to produce a compre- gration, but integration is usually developed hensive solution. or customized on the basis of requirements. Portal features According to [4], the main portal features are: Application portlets/modules Employee self-service Commerce Product information Core Portal Functions Collaboration Content Portal Interface Framework, Personalization, Alerts, Search, Workflow, Content and Document Management, Security Integration architecture Existing systems E-mail Calendar Directory Training HR ERP Docume Others… nt Manage ment Figure 1. Portal features 76 Economy Informatics, 1-4/2006 The portal platform services provide the provide the user with convenience and con- structure and core functions for an organiza- tact. Although many packages provide portal tional portal. Without these services, the por- platform services, it is critical that the engine tal is merely a static web site. Value added provides adapters to extend the platform as services such as alerts and preferences can requirements change. Table 1: A short description of core portal features Component Description Portal interface framework Provides a container for application portlets/modules. A framework may be used to make the user interface across portals Personalization/ Filters Applies user-defined filters to content to refine what information is presented. Iden- tifies and categorizes content to improve personalization Alerts Automatic notification of changes, additions of preferences within the portal. This includes the possibility to search the content across multiple data sources Search Infrastructure component that indexes and organizes links to portal content Workflow Move assets and information around the organization based on business rules and relations Document Management / Con- Manages the creation, editing, publishing, access and archiving of business and tent Management technical content/documents. The Document management should be integrated with content management for providing easier access to content creation procedures. The Content Management component should contain access to a content repository and to external content Reporting Real-time monitoring and reporting of business activity Security Provides the proper level of access security and permission structure. Collaboration Services allow users to com- required. Because face-to-face communica- municate and solve business problems irre- tion is not always possible, collaboration ap- spective of location, space and time. As or- plications such as application sharing, white- ganizations become more geographically di- board, video-conferencing and chat can en- verse, alternate forms of communication are hance the standard voice communication. Table 2: Collaboration services within a portal Component Description Communication / messaging Tools used by users for communicating between them. Includes applications such as web-mail, discussion forums, chat and instant messaging. Application sharing Enable multiple parties to share and collaborate on applications at a distance. In- cludes web-based meeting facilities. Community building Creates virtual community for users with similar interests and needs. Integration Architecture provides the infra- tions. The following picture shows the most structure for existing systems integration. In common systems that may be needed to be order to integrate, it is imperative to integrated. buy/develop adapters for existing applica- Integration Engine E-mail Calendar Directory Training HR ERP Docume Others… nt Manage ment Figure