Getting Started with uPortal.Cornell:
What is uPortal.Cornell?

Some History

In the beginning (well, since 1982), there was CUINFO.

Originally a mainframe-based service, CUINFO is now a web service which brings together documents and services in a single interface. Here is a screen shot of CUinfo in 1985. CUINFO began service on October 10, 1982 and is credited as the first campus-wide information system (CWIS). [Wiggins]

Bear Access (PDF brochure)is a complimentary service which provides access to commonly used software and services. Named after the Cornell University mascot, Bear Access provides mechanisms for delivering, installing, and updating the software needed to use online services.

A custom application Bear-Access interface named RunWay delivers the software needed for Cornell-specific applications like Just-the-Facts, Faculty Advisor, and COLTS (Cornell's online timecard system for employees).

Bear Access was originally based on technology developed by a university consortium called Project Mandarin, beginning in 1989. The technology underlying Bear Access was updated using Project Salsa (Service and Licensed Software Acquisition) in 1997. Project SALSA is a software delivery architecture. It provides a server on which applications to be delivered to users may be stored and provides client software to obtain, launch and update those applications from that server.

Motivation

The development of both CUinfo and Bear Access predated the Web. Both of these systems have migrated somewhat toward web protocols, and their technologies and services increasingly overlap.

Increasing demand for administrative web services and web services from departments and even other institutions share the common need for a common infrastructure for authentication, authorization, user profile management, and separation of content and display to support rendering to multiple display devices (e.g., web, wap).

Over 20 institutions, including Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Brown, Delaware, University of British Columbia, Cal Poly, Columbia, Holy Cross, Georgetown, and Boston College, have developed a vision of an open portal architecture that supports such customer-centric services. These institutions, recognizing the need to protect the institutional image, to exploit the potential of the portal, and to promote the use of Java technology, joined under the sponsorship of Sun Microsystems to form the Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG). Together they have worked to build a common portal reference framework.

Gleason lists the following requirements for the portal framework:

• Provide access to all information and services through a single graphical interface
• Support a single log-on to obtain authentication and authorization to all information resources and applications
• Provide a framework where all elements of the university (academic, administrative, and community) and all business applications can be integrated
• Provide a convenient set of Web-based communications services
• Provide a one-stop place to perform all business transactions
• Provide the ability to present information and access to services on an individual basis in a personalized manner
• Provide each member of the community with the ability to customize the appearance, layout, and information
• Grant to the university full control and management of appearance and content
• Be vendor independent (not locked into proprietary hardware and/or software)
• Be free of commercialism
• Be available to all constituents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Be flexible and able to absorb new technology advances and new applications.