Background on Grouper's Web UIs as of v2.0
Grouper has always shipped with an optional web-based user interface which tries to expose much of the underlying capabilities of the API. While appropriate to administrators with a good grasp of the concepts underlying group management, and Grouper in particular, this UI has not been optimal for many end users who are concerned with managing only a few groups. In many cases it is most appropriate to embed the required group management functionality in an existing application. Web services provide a platform neutral means of achieving such integration.
Since the Grouper UI was first developed, many new technologies have become available and web browsers have standardized to the extent where more interactive and user-friendly user interfaces are now possible and supportable. With the advent of Grouper v1.5.0, the Grouper UI has been updated to allow the use one of these technologies - AJAX. So far an alternative screen for dynamically updating group memberships has been developed. This screen can be linked to from the existing group summary page, or can be linked to directly by passing appropriate parameters. It is likely that new features of Grouper will be made available using the new approach and, over time, existing functionality will be updated where there is clear benefit.
Simple membership update UI (also called the "Lite UI")
Here is an example link to the new Simple Membership Update application (fill in your own grouper.server):
https: //grouper.server/grouper-ui/grouperUi/appHtml/grouper.html?operation=SimpleMembershipUpdate.init&groupName=school:folder:group
Note: you can link by group ID also: groupId=12345abc12345abc12345abc
The new membership update screen provides features not offerred in the pre 1.5.0 UI:
- Search a large group for a user
- Import a group list from a CSV (Comma separated values) file
- Export a group list to a CSV file
- View/edit membership enabled/disabled dates
There are Ajax controls to improve the usability of the screen:
- Auto complete "drop down" so the user does not have to navigate away from the page to search for data
- DHTML modal dialog to get quick input from the user without navigating away from the screen
- DHTML context menu to fit more functions on the screen without confusing beginner users
Other Lite UIs
In Grouper 2.0 there were more lite UIs added, including a lite main menu.
- Attribute framework UI
- Permissions UI
- External subject management
- Subject picker
- Attribute picker (e.g. permissions)
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