Management CLI - user sites

[imremarko]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been investigating and working with the GateIn Mangement CLI and had a question regarding the imports for the user sites.

So far I’ve been able to export and import data for all the different sites but I was wondering if it was possible to import a template for the user sites? I have my own template and was able to load it via the “portal.war\WEB-INF\conf\portal\user” way.

When I go into the Management CLI and in the user sites, I notice that there is no template part. Every time a user logs into the portal and goes into his user site, I can see that in the management CLI  there is a new folder added for that particular user along with the classic xml files (pages, navigation and user).

Is there any way of defining the user site template via the management CLI?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Imre

[antoine_h]

Hi,

I am not sure at all : I don't use the import and export feature (unless for prototyping pages, then export the definition to get the xml written for me... very usefull for lazy guy...).

but the import and export (with CLI or with the GUI tool), is only for the Page.xml and navigation.xml of the global pages.

and may be the groups.

but I am not surprised that there is not the export for the user site pages.

with the export, you don't have the Gadget definition exported too.

so you have the pages, but you have to write again (by hand) the gadgets that goes into the pages you exported/imported.

the import/export is not fully convenient...

**************

I have seen your other posts, and your focus to try to make some pages that would be designed by each user, by himself and for his own use.

I will try to give you a few advice, about that, and hope few guideline to think about this kind of feature.

This kind of feature is quite risky, with any portal.

Most of the time, some variability in the pages are proposed to the users, at a group level, but not at a user level.

Making this kind of things at a user level is very expensive (in a general sense of the word). So it is done only if there is a very very high value for it.

Few elements, to explain that :

- managing each page content, at user level means that the portal will search and load the page definition at each page request.

Why not.

If you have 100 users online, It should go without to much CPU consummed.

but what if reaching 1000 users online, or 10 000 users online ?

If your portal is for 100 users online, why take a J2EE strong heavy engine,... when a Drupal or Wordpress can do it, far more simply ?

- does the user really want this ?

most of the time, the user does not know what to do with this kind of feature.

It is "too much".

As in a restaurant : they propose you some dishes... not to make what you want with all that is in the fridge and cupboard of the kitchen....

the idea is "where is the chef ?".

the design of the pages, and choosing the content of the page should be done by the people responsible for that, that know what is good value for the users,...and not left to the user hoping he will make this part of the job of design of the portal.

By the way, about the restaurant : how many people prefer the menu, from entries to desert, with limited choices ... compared to picking dishes "a la carte" ?

so, roughly, if you want, you can propose some dishes "a la carte" (group level), but avoid to say to users : "come in the kitchen, and tell us what dishes you would like with what you see in the fridge".

I am right now working in a company, where we have switched from a very complex to build and manage "user page designed by himself" use case, to a far more simpler use case : "let's have 20 or 30 groups, with the pages defined according to their businesses needs and way to work. Then, the user will belong to one of these group".

After presented with nice explaination, the business and marketing people where ok with that.

Many people felt relief, to cancel this quite complex to build feature : "user page design by himself"...

I mean : changing that is possible... and wise...

- about GateIn itself

I don't know about the other portals, but I know for sure that this feature of "user site" is great to make a few specific users pages.

Tipical : a root site, a technical admin site, and a business level admin site, for few users that are important for the portal run.

most of the time, these users are internal to the company.

let's say 10 or 20 special users.

and I know for sure that using the "user site" feature, for any user that subscribes, is not recommended.

it is not recommended for large number of users.

**************

If I misunderstood some way to use the portal, or made some mistakes in my understanding and practice of the portal, I hope that somebody will say how to do differently.

It will be interesting to se other experiments and  some of these other way to build and use the features...

Hope it helps,

Antoine

Consultant J2EE, JBoss AS7, Hibernate, EJB, JBoss Portal and GateIn (JSR-286), UXP, EPP5, JSF, Richfaces.

[nscavell]

No the templates are not supported for import/export, just the "data". You can try adding the templates to your extension (or however you are doing it) but I'm not sure if they are picked up after initial startup of the portal.

[imremarko]

Nick, Antoine,

Apologies for the delay, was on Holiday and forgot to pop by here

Anyways, thanks a lot for the nice and complete answers. This gives us a better understanding on how it works and how we should align/rethink with some of our initial ideas.

Cheers and have a nice day,

Imre