You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 26 Next »

Background on Grouper's Web UIs as of v2.0

Grouper has always included an optional web-based user interface which tries to expose much of the underlying capabilities of the API. This is referred to as the "Admin UI".  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 Admin UI was developed, web browsers have standardized so that more interactive and user-friendly user interfaces are supportable. Starting with Grouper v1.5, the Grouper UI was updated to allow the use of AJAX. An alternative screen for dynamically updating group memberships (the "Lite UI") was developed, and other UI screens were added. The Lite UI screen can be linked to from the existing group summary page, or can be linked to directly by passing appropriate parameters (groupId or groupName).   It is likely that this UI architecture will replace the original Admin UI.

Simple membership update UI (also called the "Lite UI")

Here is an example link to the 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 membership update screen provides features not offered 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.


     (question) Questions or comments? (info) Contact us.

  • No labels