Integrating Novell Portal Services with a Directory
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Senior Research Engineer
Novell, Inc.
kburnett@novell.com
01 Jun 2003
Note: This is a section from the DeveloperNet University course found at http://developer.novell.com/education/tutorials/portal/.
Novell Portal Services (NPS) requires a directory to function properly. The directory is the underlying integration point for NPS. The directory maintains and stores most of the following:
Configuration
Access Control
Relationships
Layout Information
In addition to these items, user information (name, password, privileges, and preferences) are stored in the directory. NPS leverages the directory to authenticate and build a personalized "page" of data for the user.
Who you are in the directory matters! All assignments for what can be viewed in the portal are based on directory assignments:
User
Groups
Containers
Attributes
Gadgets
Gadgets are the basic building blocks of NPS. Gadgets are applications that reside within the portal framework and serve to interact with other (external) resources, such as directories, databases, and Web pages. Gadgets communicate to any back-end system to gather data for the user. NPS provides single sign-on functionality to these back-end systems.
A gadget is represented in the LDAP directory as a Gadget object. NPS offers a wide variety of gadgets with the product, including the following:
|
Collaboration
|
System
|
Application
|
|
Exchange GroupWise Mail GroupWise Calendar POP3/IMAP NNTP |
Authentication HTML iFrame PortalStats Portal Administration Registration RSS Shortcut User Admin XML Remote |
Applet Citrix News Phonebook Stock NetworkFileGadget |
NPS Gadgets can be easily viewed in ConsoleOne. Figure 1 illustrates this.
NPS Gadgets displayed in ConsoleOne.
Novell provides an array of Gadget Development Tools. The exteNd Directory Gadget Developer Kit provides tools to develop, test, and deploy gadgets. Check out the offerings at Novell's Developer site at http://developer.novell.com/ndk/npssdk.htm.
The exteNd Directory Gadget Developer Kit includes documentation, extensive sample code, and the SDK libraries.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
Disclaimer
The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.