Skip to main content

Notice: this Wiki will be going read only early in 2024 and edits will no longer be possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.

Jump to: navigation, search

COSMOS DG Extending the Web User Interface Framework

Revision as of 17:07, 12 March 2008 by Sleeloy.ca.ibm.com (Talk | contribs) (→‎Design Overview)

COSMOS Wiki > COSMOS Document Plan > COSMOS Manual Guide

COSMOS Development Guide Extending the Web User Interface Framework

Category: Development Guide

Owner Sheldon Lee-Loy
Bug # 219143
Due dates Schedule

Introduction

The COSMOS UI framework is a web based framework that facilitates the assembly of web components into a single web console application. It includes

  • A set of out-of-the-box web widgets
  • A registration service to discover and share web widget configurations
  • A page template processor

A web widget is a lightweight portable component that can be installed and run within any separate HTML-based web page without requiring a separate compilation.

The main the focus of the COSMOS UI framework is to provide reusable web widgets to help facilitate the development and validation of Management Data Repositories (MDRs) as defined by the Configuration Management Database Specification Federation specification (CMDBf). An MDR is a CMDBf term that represents a component that contains data about managed resources (e.g. computer systems, application software and building) and/or process artifacts (e.g. incident records and requests for change forms) and the relationships between them.

The secondary goal is to provide a web container that manages and assembles these web widgets in a unified web console.

About this Document

This document will first cover the overall architecture of the COSMOS UI framework followed by a set of tutorials that help the user understand basic concepts and extension mechanisms.

Before reading this document the reader should be aware that the COSMOS UI framework uses web methodologies such as AJAX and web technologies such as HTTP, JSON, XML, and Javascript. The reader should be quite familiar with these technologies and methodologies. In addition the framework heavily relies on the DOJO toolkit. The reader should have a good understanding of the following DOJO toolkit concepts.

  • JavaScript Programming With Dojo and Dijit
  • Dijit - The Dojo Widget Library

Design Overview

Before going into the design details of the framework let us consider the various configuration scenarios that is possible with the framework. This will give one an understanding the kinds of problems the framework tries to solve.

Scenario 1: Provide a web console for users to query a Data Manager

In this scenario, a developer would like to assemble a web console made of a set of widget components provided by COSMOS. The developer wants to create a whole new look and feel of the COSMOS UI console in terms of how the widget components are laid out and how they interact with each other. Furthermore, the developer wants to change certain cosmetic attributes like fonts, background color ,etc.

Scenario 2: Develop a web widget to manage a Data Manager

In this scenario, the existing out-of-the-box web components can not be utilized to interact with the data manager. The developer wants to create their own web widget to visualize the contents of their data manager and submit queries to their data manager. These new custom web widgets are better suited to interact with their data manager.

Scenario 3: Develop a report to visualize the contents of a Data Manager

A developer wants to develop a report that will visualize the data from a particular data manager. These new reports provide a way to visualize the data so that end users can analyze the information more efficiently.

The design of the COSMOS UI framework addresses several key requirements.

  • Provide a set of out of the box web widgets that facilitate managing data managers
  • Allow exploiters to assemble web widgets in a unified web console.
  • Allow exploiters to configure and reuse existing web widgets
  • Allow exploiters to contribute and create web widgets

Let us look at the overall component architecture of the COSMOS UI framework and explore how the framework meets these requirements.

The COSMOS UI framework is composed of several key components.

  • Page templates
  • Web Widgets
  • Widget Configuration Files
  • Data Feeds
  • Reporting System
  • Report Templates

Configuration Scenarios

Scenario 1: Pages

Scenario 2: Widgets

Scenario 3: Data Feeds

Scenario 4: Reports

Core Design

Pages Templates

Widgets

Configuration Files

Data Feeds

Data Tagging

Error Handling

Internationalization

Deployment Model

Tutorials

Development Environment

Creating new widgets

Configuring a widget

Navigator

Adding a menu option to a node
Changing the style of a node

CMDBf Query Builder

Testing and Debugging

Retrieved from "https://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=COSMOS_DG_Extending_the_Web_User_Interface_Framework&oldid=87137"

Back to the top