Analysis of a University Portal - Essay Example

A portal is a gate, a door, or entrance. In the context of the World Wide Web, it is the next logical step in the evolution toward a digital culture.Portals have become one of the most visible information technology (IT) issues in higher education, as well as the commercial sector. For the purpose of this assignment, a university portal is used a case study i.e. https://campusconnect.depaul.edu Technology This kind of portal is used to deliver university services to both staff and students. The portal users can access their degree progress, the enrollment date, class schedules, financial aid, view their tuition account and also access to e-mail addresses. It is web based. The technology behind this portal is Ext JS 4.0. This a pure and interactive JavaScript application framework for developing robust web applications exploiting techniques such as DHTML, Ajax and DOM scripting. From the web pages’ source code, it is clear that it is interoperable with jQuery and Prototype. It includes an optional architecture that provides a model view controller style of code organization. Usability The portal has an overall superb usability experience. This is because the pages are arranged in a solid methodology coupled with proper tools. Also, all the components of the portal are working properly and together. Users can at a single glance access the university news or events and other coursework pages. Layout of the pages The diagram below shows the layout of the pages and the components of the portal. The homepage shows two main tabs i.e. ‘My page’ and ‘Student Centre’. Under the ‘My Page’ tabs, users can access their degree progress, the enrollment date, class schedules, and financial aid, view their tuition account and also access to e-mail addresses, To-Do and holds summary, university news and events. In general, all the pages fit into a unified visual design and the flow of interaction hence providing a seamless user experience. This provides an ability for ease customization of the layout. Figure 1 Data Sources This kind of portal aggregates information from various sources in one convenient page. Therefore users accessing the portal can reach important information such as campus news, campus events, the student center, degree progress, class schedules, and financial aid and can also view their tuition account. Each of these pages have different data sources that have been aggregated together so as to build up the portal. Therefore, for one to manage the data portal, data can be viewed, sorted and data sources filtered. The other data sources that have been integrated into the portal include the ‘Holds’ and ‘ToDos.’ The ‘To Do Summary’ which includes the evaluation of credit, CDM application fee, TOEFEL score port and transcripts. All these data sources are integrated together and interlinked with all the portal components such that a user in ‘Student Center’ page can still access the ‘Holds and ToDos’. Content Management and Knowledge Management capabilities On the right top of Figure 1 shows a tab ‘Technology Support Centre. Also, on the left, there is the ‘University news and Events tabs’. This link provides users access to latest news and events hence making the content management easy. This provides consistency with a correct implementation with the common user interface. Architecture There are many possible architecture topologies of portals that can be adopted depending on the security, performance, scalability and integration needs of the organization. The figure below shows a model high level secure portal architecture. Figure 2: Architecture This type of architecture is a cloud based model. The reasons for this is that from the architecture, the user interacts with the portal using a web browser over the internet so as to be able to login and access any vital information such as their profile, courser work offered, fee statement or grades scored on completed courses. Security Model The key features of the portal are highlighted below. Member Services This portal has centralized administration of the users and this credentials, identities and permissions are most preferable in many environments. A portal server has capabilities that are used for managing the access rights of the user and defining the users of the portal. Normally, a group subsystem and the user includes web pages that give users the capability to register and manage information regarding their own account, a repository storing all the information of the users and portlets used for managing group information and user accounts. Administration The users normally are administered either through a self-care process or by administrators. The server on which the portal is running on has forms that are used for enrolling new users and also administration portlets that are used for updating information regarding individual users and groups. This forms used by users for self-care have the ability of being modified so as to include new attributes. This new attributes include new fields to the form that match the field identifiers. Authentication Authentication is a process of establishing the identity the user. Normally, the Application Server provides authentication services to the portal server. During the authentication process, there is an option of using a third-party authentication server. This server has trusted association with the application server. Identifying the user This portal employs an authentication that is form-based where the user is prompted using an HTML form to enter their ID and corresponding password for the authentication process to be completed so that one can access the portal. This happens by the portal server requesting the application server in order to validate the authentication information against a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) user registry. Single Sign-On This is carried out by the portal server providing a single sign-on (SSO) support where users can only be able to log on only once hence be known to the different parts of the portal server with the same consistent user credentials. Normally, users need not be asked for multiple logons since they have the ability to access different portal applications. Authorization Authorization is done after identifying the user through a consultation of access control lists that are cached locally in the portal server in order to determine the exact portlets and pages that can be accessed by a certain user. The access control to several portal assets i.e. pages, portlets and user groups is enforced by the portal server. Also, the portal administration database stores the control lists. Collaboration With the page layout and the usability, this portal can be used a front door to the university. When users have logged in, they can access all kind of university information, use custom applications to accomplish tasks and interact in community areas. This is provided by the guest login, where users can access the services as guests. Unique Capabilities It has a blueprint that shows how each component flows on the portal. It has a usability specification that ensures easy navigation and identifies each of the component It has a degree progress tab where user can interact and view the progress report on the completed coursework and also the scheduled coursework. The ‘View My Financial Aid’ section allows users to check their financial status and also any scholarships offered. The ‘Current news and Events’ pages provides a personalized way of communicating within the university; hence no need for noticeboards. Users for this portal have access to personalized e-mail addresses The portal has a Technology support center where users can report any issues or challenges when accessing the services offered found on the portal. Works Cited Bhava, Nagarajan. "So, what is Ext JS? | Packet Publishing." Home | Packet Publishing. , Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. Microsoft Portal Technology. "View Data Sources using the Manage Data Portal - SharePoint Online for enterprises." Office, 10 Oct. 2120. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. Myer, Thomas. "Usability for component-based portals." IBM - United States. 1 June 2002. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. Winkler, Ramona. "What is a Portal? Portals, and what they are explained..." Atlantic Webfitters offers DotNetNuke. Sept. 2005. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. Read More