JA-SIG Newsletter - July 2008

[Mark Rogers-4]

JA-SIG Newsletter - July 2008
==================================

1 Upcoming Events
1.1 Registration Now Open for the JA-SIG Fall 2008 Unconference
1.2 Fall 2008 Internet2 Member Meeting (October 13-16, 2008)
1.3 EDUCAUSE 2008 - Orlando, Florida (October 28-31, 2008)

2 JA-SIG Project Updates
2.1 Central Authentication Service (CAS)
2.1.1 CAS 4 Roadmap Planning (Call for Participation)
2.1.2 CAS 3.2.1.1 Release and CAS 3.3-RC2 Release
2.1.3 Spring Security 2.0.3
2.1.4 phpCAS
2.2 uPortal
2.2.1 uPortal Roadmap and Vision

3 Around JA-SIG
3.1 Community Profile - Chris Myers and RJ Podeschi (Millikin  
University)
3.2 140 Participants Attend Sixth ESUP-Portail Conference in Paris
3.3 JA-SIG Web Redesign RFP
3.4 uPortal Steering Committee
3.5 JA-SIG Election Results

==================================

1 Upcoming Events

1.1 Registration Now Open for the JA-SIG Fall 2008 Unconference

REGISTER NOW FOR THE JA-SIG FALL 2008 UNCONFERENCE at UNIVERSITY OF  
WISCONSIN-MADISON

- Registration fee for the October 2008 JA-SIG Unconference: $175/
Members, $225/Non-Members
- Nightly rate at the historic Edgewater Hotel:  $129
- Two-and-a-half days talking, learning, teaching, planning, coding,  
and hanging out with your peers - and with the uPortal, CAS, Fluid,  
JSR-168, SpringMVC experts: Priceless!

DATES:
October 6, 2008, 9 am to October 8, 2008, noon
October 9-10, developer meetings and optional post-conference activities

PLACE:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street,  
Madison, WI 53706, Front Desk: 608-262-1122

REGISTRATION FEE:
$175 - JA-SIG Members
$225 - Non-Members
(Includes Breakfast, Mon/Tue Lunch, and Snacks)
Register here:
https://www.concentra-cms.com/register/start.action?confId=34

ACCOMMODATIONS:
Edgewater Hotel, 666 Wisconsin Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
$129/single/night
800-922-5512   (www.theedgewater.com)
Make sure you ask for the JA-SIG room block and rate!
Hotel registration not available by web for this event.

WHAT'S AN UNCONFERENCE?

"An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is  
driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during  
the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small  
group of organizers, in advance."
    -Wikipedia

JA-SIG has always been about people coming together to share and  
learn in an open environment, and this is what an "unconference" is  
all about. Many attendees at last year's unconference said it was  
their favorite event of the year.

The October event will provide both spontaneous and planned  
opportunities to collaborate on community initiatives and topics.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

It's up to you!  Ideas people are talking about so far include the  
following:

*  Lightning Talks  - Volunteers talk for up to 10 minutes. Any topic  
goes.
*  Code Clinics - Bring your uPortal, portlet, or CAS code or problem  
and work on it with Core developers
*  Screencast Factory - Show off your work while a facilitator  
captures it to share with the community.
*  Designer/Developer collaborations
*  Strategic Planning - What should JA-SIG be focused on next year?  
In three years?  Join the conversation.
*  How-to's. How-not-to's.  Tips and techniques.
*  See a list of ideas for activities and add your own: http://www.ja- 
sig.org/wiki/x/BBTP

As part of the un-conference format the final schedule will be  
determined in real-time, interactively with the attendees.

OK, I'M INTERESTED!  WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT?

If you're planning to join us, please do the following:

1.  Register for the Unconference right here:
     https://www.concentra-cms.com/register/start.action?confId=34
2.  Visit and Add your Name on the Unconference Planning Site on
     the JA-SIG wiki. This is a great place to indicate your
     interests---what you'd like to discuss, learn, share or teach:
     http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/DRTP
3.  Call the Edgewater Hotel to reserve a room:  800-922-5512
     Mention the JA-SIG room block and rate
4.  Make travel arrangements. Tips are available here:
     http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/wRjP

See you at the JA-SIG Unconference,
The Fall 2008 Unconference Organizers

1.2 Fall 2008 Internet2 Member Meeting (October 13-16, 2008)

Dates: October 13-16, 2008
Place: New Orleans, Louisiana (Sheraton New Orleans Hotel)

"The Fall 2008 Internet2 Member Meeting provides the community an  
opportunity to share the latest information on timely issues and  
rapidly evolving areas of interest. The fall program will offer  
sessions that highlight innovative uses of advanced networking for  
research and teaching, as well as technical sessions on the  
development and evolution of high-performance network infrastructures  
in support of local to global cyberinfrastructure. Sessions will  
focus on initiatives and projects that explore ways in which advanced  
network applications, services, tools, and digital content empower  
and enhance the capability of research and education communities. In  
addition, the program will focus on the challenges of Business  
Continuity Planning and the progress of Health Science and Teaching  
and Learning/K20 initiatives. Case studies of how advanced networking  
has succeeded in enabling research and education, why, and what  
others can learn from this success are also encouraged."

Source: http://events.internet2.edu/2008/fall-mm/calls.cfm

1.3 EDUCAUSE 2008 - Orlando, Florida (October 28-31, 2008)

"Mark your calendar for the premier information technology event in  
higher education, EDUCAUSE 2008, October 28-31 in Orlando, Florida.  
The program 'Interaction, Ideas, Inspiration' will include  
preconference seminars; track and poster sessions; small group  
meetings; and corporate exhibits, presentations, and workshops. ... "

Source: EDUCAUSE 2008 Web Site - http://www.educause.edu/e08

2 JA-SIG Project Updates

2.1 Central Authentication Service (CAS)

2.1.1 CAS 4 Roadmap Planning (Call for Participation)

The CAS community has started CAS4 roadmap planning! A conference  
call will be held this Friday (July 25, 2008). The draft agenda is as  
follows:

1 - Direction & Requirements

* Next Steps for the CAS 3.x branch
* What are we looking for in a CAS4? <http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/ 
display/CAS/CAS+Vision+and+Roadmap>
* Integration with Existing Systems
* Features / Use Cases
* Relationship to Existing Architecture

2 - Project Resources

* How the to-do list gets done
** Implementers
** Sponsors?
** Grants?

* Support
** Mailing lists
** Documentation

3 - Governance Model

* Comments on/discussion of model <http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/ 
CAS/Governance+Model>

It's not too late to get in on the conference call. If you are  
interested in participating, let me know (benjamin dot oshrin at  
rutgers dot edu).

Benn Oshrin (Rutgers University)

2.1.2 CAS 3.2.1.1 Release and CAS 3.3-RC2 Release

We've released a minor point release of version 3.2.1.1 which  
addresses an opportunity to inject HTML into the logout page via the  
url parameter.  You can't hijack CAS sessions or anything with it,  
but you can create some really interesting HTML pages which could  
trick your users if they're not paying attention.  If you've based  
your logout page at your local institution off of the "example  
default" pages then you should update your logout page (just to be  
safe we also updated the "confirm view".  Thanks to Romain Bourgue  
for identifying this.  There are no other changes in the 3.2.1.1  
release.

We've also released CAS 3.3-RC2.  If you've been keeping track we  
last left off at 3.2.2-RC1.  We've made some exciting additions such  
as Terracotta support, Memcache Support, updated RESTful support, and  
a lot of minor bug fixes.  Because of a change to an internal  
property on the tickets (changing from Atomic Boolean to boolean) and  
its affect on the JPATicketRegistry, we bumped up the version to 3.3.

You can download both releases from http://www.ja-sig.org/products/ 
cas/downloads/

2.1.3 Spring Security 2.0.3
If you've haven't been keeping up with Spring Security, they've  
recently released their version 2.0.3.  Spring Security is a Spring  
subproject related to authentication and authorization.  It includes  
the most recent JA-SIG CAS Client for Java.  If you're doing anything  
beyond simple authentication, we recommend you take a look at the  
more full-featured Spring Security which builds on the JA-SIG CAS  
Client for Java foundation.
http://static.springframework.org/spring-security/site/index.html

2.1.4 phpCAS
The phpCAS team has been hard at work making phpCAS PEAR-installable,  
adding Single Sign Out support, and more!  Check it out at: http://
www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/CASC/phpCAS

Contributed by:
Scott Battaglia (Rutgers University), Lead Developer, JA-SIG Central  
Authentication Service

2.2 uPortal

2.2.1 uPortal Roadmap and Vision

We are currently working on a "Roadmap and Vision" similar to the one  
being developed by the CAS team.  Our efforts to date can be found at:
http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/zRjP

The Roadmap includes information on current versions of uPortal (2.6  
and 3.0) and yet-to-be-released versions (3.1 and 3.2).

3 Around JA-SIG

3.1 Community Profile - Chris Myers and RJ Podeschi (Millikin  
University)

I met Chris Myers and RJ Podeschi from Millikin University at the  
Portals 2008 Conference at Gettysburg College in June.  Millikin is  
an independent, four-year university in Decatur, Illinois with  
approximately 2,500 students in traditional and non-traditional  
undergraduate and Masters degree programs.

I was impressed to hear that Chris and RJ successfully implemented  
uPortal at Millikin from the ground up with relatively little outside  
assistance.  I asked them to describe how they did it, and what  
follows is their reply.

Jonathan Markow
JA-SIG Executive Director

----------------------------------------------

Honestly, the implementation was very interesting, and has been an  
awesome learning experience.  Before we got started with implementing  
uPortal, Chris only had minimal experience with Linux and Tomcat, and  
none with Java (none of our staff had much experience with Java  
programming either.)  Our boss made uPortal the top priority for  
Chris to work on, so he was able to dedicate a lot of time to the  
project, learning these technologies as he went along.  He started  
out reading the documentation and trying the deployment step by  
step.  Whenever he would find an error message or a problem, he would  
do research (primarily on Google and the JA-SIG website,) and would  
be able to resolve it, sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after  
a few days.  He documented everything as he went along (even the most  
basic commands, and about 30 websites he referenced) so that he could  
replicate the process exactly in the future.  After about four weeks  
of working on it on and off, many Google searches, and a lot of  
answered prayers, he had an instance of uPortal 2.5 and CAS 3.1 up  
and running on SLES 10, Tomcat 5.5.25, and MySQL, connected to  
Millikin's Novell eDirectory system via LDAP and using automatic  
group creation with the JITLDAP plugin.  It didn't do too much just  
yet, but it worked.

Millikin is a member of the Associated Colleges of Illinois, a  
collaborative group of 23 private colleges and universities across  
Illinois.  One of the other schools in the group is the University of  
St. Francis in Joliet.  A few staff members from Millikin were able  
to take a day trip up there this past December, and worked with their  
staff, especially Tim Archer, who had already gone through a uPortal  
rollout.  Tim was able to help us tweak and configure uPortal to make  
it more robust for our environment (USF also uses Novell and  
GroupWise on their campus and Banner for their campus information  
system.)  Tim had written a couple of custom Java classes for CAS and  
Oracle packages for, well, Oracle, that enabled us to perform single-
sign on with GroupWise and some other web applications.  Also, as we  
have progressed forward with our implementation and expansion of  
uPortal, whenever we have hit a roadblock we have been able to get a  
hold of Tim, and he has helped us find a solution to the problem.

We were able to purchase a new server to install the software on  
early in January once we were able to prove the functionality of  
uPortal.  While we were undergoing this hardware migration, RJ was  
able to migrate the database from MySQL to Oracle so that we could  
leverage the data in our campus information system for the portal as  
well - he has developed a number of queries and reports that we can  
run from the portal directly against Oracle views and tables.  RJ has  
also developed a messaging portlet for the portal that allows us to  
display information about system upgrades, outages, and other notices  
in the portal and on our department webpage, using the messaging  
piece built into Banner (so we only have to enter a notice once to  
have it show up everywhere.)

We then extended the base framework that Tim provided in order to  
bring more Millikin applications online and into the portal (such as  
Jira, Moodle, TouchNet bill payment, and Banner self-serve).  We have  
since developed several web applications to integrate into the  
portal, including one that allows end users to see what printers they  
have available to them via Novell iPrint based on the department they  
work for, and to be able to install them directly from the portal.  
We have also developed an application called MySSO that allows a user  
to save their credentials (encrypted, of course) for a non-campus  
website once and single-sign on into it in the future.  We found a  
Novell-developed open-source Java application for password management  
that we have been able to integrate into uPortal to provide remote  
password changes, forgotten password functionality, and policy  
enforcement for our users.  Our incoming freshmen complete their  
registration for Orientation and Registration through the portal,  
which lets them know if they have not completed one of the  
prerequisites for the different parts of the process.

We went live with a soft rollout with uPortal to students in late  
April and faculty in May, after 6 months of implementation and  
development, and have continued adding new functionality as time has  
progressed.  This fall, we will be training our incoming students how  
to use the portal during their technology session, which will save us  
approximately an hour per student in training, and will allow us to  
have only one password change and one place to log in, instead of the  
five we have currently.

Chris Myers (CMyers at mail dot millikin dot edu) is the User  
Services Specialist in the Information Technology department at  
Millikin, where he supports the GroupWise email system, NetWare  
fileservers and user accounts, iPrint system, Moodle, and uPortal.  
Chris is also very involved in his church, where he supports the IT  
efforts and is a youth leader.

RJ Podeschi (rpodeschi at mail dot Millikin dot edu) is the Sr.  
Database Administrator in the Information Technology department at  
Millikin, as well as a Millikin alum. RJ supports Oracle databases,  
the Banner administrative system, Touchnet Payment Gateway, and  
Resource 25 campus scheduling system for Millikin. He is active in  
his church on the administrative council, and enjoys running, playing  
golf, and cooking.

3.2 140 Participants Attend Sixth ESUP-Portail Conference in Paris

One hundred and forty participants recently attended the "ESUP-Days"  
conference in Paris (June 30, 2008) organized by the ESUP-Portail  
consortium.

Some highlights of the conference were the following presentations:

1.  The new legal structure for the consortium, effective July 2008
2.  The distribution of the new version of Esup-Portail packaging  
with uPortal 2.6 and CAS 3.0
3.  The new web-site of the consortium, which is based on the  
Confluence wiki
4.  User-experience feedback, always an important part of these events
5.  The ESUP-Helpdesk application, version 3
6.  The new release of the ORI-OAI project and an example of its  
integration with the portal

Finally, this conference--with representatives from our entire  
community of 80 French universities--was an opportunity to announce  
the increasing collaboration with JA-SIG.

Alain Mayeur
University of Valenciennes
http://www.esup-portail.org

3.3 JA-SIG Web Redesign RFP

JA-SIG's websites have been growing for the past seven years with  
essentially the same information architecture they started out with.  
At this stage in our evolution as an organization, we have decided to  
redesign our sites with the following goals in mind:

Create a new information architecture and website re-design that make  
it much easier for users to understand what JA-SIG is and does, for  
JA-SIG website maintainers to add to and edit the site's content, for  
users to find the information they need, and for JA-SIG to present  
itself to the world.  Scoped deliverables will also include the
following:

- Enhancement of the JA-SIG brand and visual identity
- Design and development of new logos
- Adoption of new content management system that simplifies site  
maintenance
- Improved information architecture that will optimally organize  
existing content and provide for new content that will help achieve  
the goals of this project.

Following a recent open requirements process, we have drafted an RFP  
for this work, and we invite vendors to submit proposals prior to  
August 10th.  The RFP, "JA-SIG Web Redesign RFP Final.pdf" may be  
found on the following JA-SIG wiki page:
http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/pages/viewpageattachments.action?
pageId=8716350

We will be asking for feedback on various design options during the  
summer.  To participate in this process, subscribe to the jasig-
webpresence working group list:
http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/SoBO.

Thank you,

Jonathan Markow
Executive Director

3.4 uPortal Steering Committee

The uPortal steering committee is excited to see the JA-SIG web  
presence re-implementation RFP released, having worked to define the  
uPortal aspects of that RFP and looking forward to working with the  
successful respondent to improve the uPortal website. While that  
effort will more generally update the website, the committee most  
recently has been specifically looking at the CAS project roadmap  
page and effort with jealousy and is working to implement a similar  
roadmap page and effort for uPortal. While uPortal's issue tracker  
already presents a technical roadmap, you can look forward to there  
soon being available a more articulate roadmap page as well.

Andrew Petro
uPortal project steering committee

3.5 JA-SIG Election Results

The JA-SIG Elections Committee is pleased to announce the results of  
the 2008 JA-SIG elections.  Member organizations were asked to select  
five positions on the JA-SIG Board of Directors.

Joining the Board of Directors are Benn Oshrin of Rutgers University,  
John Lewis of Unicon, Katya Sadovsky of UC Irvine and Robert Sherratt  
of University of Hull.  Barry Walsh, of Indiana University, was re-
elected to the board for another term..

These positions become official on September 1, 2008.

The JA-SIG Elections Committee extends thanks to all who participated  
in the nomination and election.

Carl Jacobson - University of Delaware, Chair
Dave Koehler - Cornell University
Deb Smith - CONCENTRA-CMS, JA-SIG Administrator

==================================

JA-SIG Newsletter - July 2008
wiki-copy: http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/Newsletter+-+200807 
+-+July+2008

Archives available in the JA-SIG wiki at:
http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/Newsletter

If your institution or company has items of interest to the JA-SIG  
membership, please submit them via email to newsletter at ja-sig dot  
org.

The next JA-SIG Newsletter will be published on or about August 15th,  
2008.  Articles for that edition of the newsletter should be  
submitted no later than Thursday, August 14th, 2008.  Thanks!

==================================




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