Apereo Notification Portlet

This is a Sponsored Portlet in the uPortal project.

Configuration

See also the legacy documentation in the external wiki.

Java Properties

Some configuration settings for the Notification portlet are managed in Java properties files that are loaded by a Spring PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer. (Other settings are data, managed in the "portlet publication record" a.k.a. portlet-definition.xml file; these are covered elsewhere in this doc.)

The properties files that are sourced by Spring are:

• classpath:datasource.properties
• classpath:configuration.properties
• file:${portal.home}/global.properties
• file:${portal.home}/notification.properties

For a definitive, comprehensive list of these settings you must look inside datasource.properties and configuration.properties. (This README may be incomplete and/or out of date.)

The portal.home Directory

uPortal version 5 uses a directory called portal.home for properties files that live outside of -- and have the ability to override properties files within-- the webapp in Tomcat. Please review the README file for uPortal-Start for more information on this system.

The Notification portlet sources the shared global.properties file, as well as it's own (private) file called notification.properties in the portal.home directory.

Using Encrypted Property Values

Within the properties files that are sourced by Spring, you may optionally provide sensitive configuration items -- such as database passwords -- in encrypted format. Use the Jasypt CLI Tools to encrypt the sensitive value, then include it in a .properties file like this:

hibernate.connection.password=ENC(9ffpQXJi/EPih9o+Xshm5g==)

Specify the encryption key using the UP_JASYPT_KEY environment variable.

Notification Web Components

This project provides UI components for Apereo uPortal that are modern Web Components. These components are intended to replace the previous generation of components for uPortal based on Java Portlets (see below).

The Web Components work differently from the earlier components. They do not interact with data sources through the Portlet API, but rather through a collection of REST APIs. Unlike portlets, configuration of data sources for the REST API is global: it applies equally to all components that work with them.

Data Sources for the Notifications REST API (Web Components)

The following data sources are available for use with the REST APIs and the Web Components that work with them. According to convention, the configuration for these APIs and data sources goes in a notification.properties file within portal.home.

ClassLoaderResourceNotificationService

This data source reads notifications from one or more files in the Java classpath in the standard Notification JSON format. Use the following property to specify the location(s) of JSON files in the classpath.

Example:

ClassLoaderResourceNotificationService.locations=demo/demoNotificationResponse.json,demo/demoNotificationResponse2.json

DemoNotificationService

The DemoNotificationService is a specialization of the ClassLoaderResourceNotificationService designed for demonstrations. Use the following property to specify the location(s) of JSON files in the classpath.

Example:

DemoNotificationService.locations=demo/demoNotificationResponse.json,demo/demoNotificationResponse2.json

RestfulJsonNotificationService

This data source reads notifications from one or more remote URLs in the standard Notification JSON format. Use the following property to specify the URLs to read.

RestfulJsonNotificationService.serviceUrls=https://my.university.edu/notifications

OAuth2RestfulJsonNotificationService

The OAuth2RestfulJsonNotificationService is an extension of the RestfulJsonNotificationService. It similarly reads notifications from remote URLs (in the standard JSON format), but it will also authenticate the request with OAuth2. Use the following property to specify the URLs to read.

OAuth2RestfulJsonNotificationService.serviceUrls=https://my.university.edu/notifications

In addition, you must specify your OAuth2 clientId, clientSecret, and accessTokenUri.

OAuth2RestfulJsonNotificationService.clientId=CHANGEME
OAuth2RestfulJsonNotificationService.clientSecret=CHANGEME
OAuth2RestfulJsonNotificationService.accessTokenUri=CHANGEME

RomeNotificationService

This data source converts RSS into notifications. It reads from one or more feeds. Use the following property to specify feed URLs.

RomeNotificationService.feedUrls=https://my.university.edu/announcements/rss,https://my.university.edu/library/rss

JDBC (RDBMS) Notification Services

This module includes data sources that allow you to pull notifications from relational databases using custom SQL queries.

Using the AnyRowResourceContentJdbcNotificationService you can define a notification using JSON in the classpath and assign it to users when a cutom SQL query returns at least one row. You can parameterize the query with user attributes and other inputs.

Additional JDBC data sources normally extend from AbstractJdbcNotificationService.

JpaNotificationService

The JpaNotificationService is different from most other notification data sources because it is based on a push model: other components or systems push notifications to the Notification module when they become available, instead of the Notification module pulling notifications when they are needed (viz. when the user logs in).

Notifications may be pushed to the JpaNotificationService via HTTP POST to the /api/v1/notifications URI. Only authorized users may use this API, and a valid, signed OIDC Id token must be presented as a Bearer token in the Authorization header of the POST request.

Sample JSON for JpaNotificationService

The /api/v1/notifications URI accepts JSON like the following in the request body:

{
  "title": "Applications for Graduation Due",
  "source": "Demo Service",
  "priority": 1,
  "url": "http://www.jasig.org",
  "linkText": "Follow story",
  "body": "Please submit your application to graduate in a timely manner.",
  "actions": [
    {
      "clazz": "org.jasig.portlet.notice.action.read.MarkAsReadAndRedirectAction",
      "label": "MARK AS READ AND REDIRECT"
    }
  ],
  "addressees": [
    {
      "name": "admin only",
      "type": "INDIVIDUAL",
      "recipients": [
        {
          "username": "admin"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

You can use the embedded Swagger client at /NotificationPortlet/swagger-ui.html to try out the JpaNotificationService and your JSON.

Filtering the Notifications REST API (Web Components)

You can filter the contents of the Notifications REST API using query string parameters. Some filtering options are available now, and others are being added periodically.

Web Components in the Notification project typically support a filter property (HTML attribute) that allows you to specify filtering options without knowing or editing the notificationApiUrl property.

Example:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@2.5.16"></script>
<script
  type="text/javascript"
  src="/NotificationPortlet/scripts/notification-modal.js"
></script>
<notification-modal filter="minPriority=1"></notification-modal>

minPriority

Use the minPriority query string parameter to filter out notifications that either (1) have no priority value assigned or (2) are lower in priority than the value specified. Remember that priority 1 is the highest priority, so minPriority=2 means notifications with priority value 1 or 2.

Example:

/NotificationPortlet/api/v2/notifications?minPriority=2

maxPriority

Use the maxPriority query string parameter to filter out notifications that are higher in priority than the value specified. Remember that priority 1 is the highest priority, so maxPriority=3 means notifications with priority value 3-5 (assuming 1-5 is the normal range) or no priority value assigned.

Example:

/NotificationPortlet/api/v2/notifications?maxPriority=3

read

Use the read query parameter to filter out notifications that have been marked read. A value of true will return notifications that have been read while a value of false will return unread notifications. The absence of this parameter will return all notifications regardless of their READ attribute value.

Example:

/NotificationPortlet/api/v2/notifications?read=false

Sorting the Notifications REST API (Web Components)

You can sort the contents of the Notifications REST API using query string parameters. Some sorting options are available now, and others are being added periodically.

Web Components in the Notification project typically support a filter property (HTML attribute) that allows you to specify sorting options without knowing or editing the notificationApiUrl property.

Example:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@2.5.16"></script>
<script
  type="text/javascript"
  src="/NotificationPortlet/scripts/notification-modal.js"
></script>
<notification-modal filter="sort=priority&amp;order=descending"></notification-modal>

Available Sort Strategies

Currently the following sort strategies are supported:

• priority
• due_date

Additionally, you may optionally specify one of the following order values:

• ascending (default)
• descending

Java Portlet-Based UI Components

As it's name implies, this project was originally developed as a collection of Java Portlet (JSR-286) technology user interface components. This project is evolving away from portlets -- and toward UI widgets based on Web Components -- but the portlet-based components are still available.

The following UI components in this project are portlet-based:

• notification
• notification-icon (though there is a replacement based on Web Components)
• emergency-alert
• emergency-alert-admin

The following subsections cover configuration of portlet-based UI components.

Publication Data

Besides Java properties, some configuration settings are managed as data in the Portlet Publication Record (the portlet-definition.xml file in uPortal). These settings are defined on a per- publication basis, so you can have several publications of the same portlet with each of them configured differently.

Filtering in Portlet-Based Display Strategies

You can filter the notices that come from data sources in the publication record. Use the following portlet preferences to exclude some notices from appearing in the display:

Portlet Preference	Possible Value(s)
FilteringNotificationServiceDecorator.minPriority	Number between 1 and 5
FilteringNotificationServiceDecorator.maxPriority	Number between 1 and 5
FilteringNotificationServiceDecorator.requiredRole	Either 'true' or 'false'; a value of 'true' enables role checking, but a notice must define an attribute named org.jasig.portlet.notice.service.filter.RequiredRoleNotificationFilter.requiredRole to be subject to filtering.
FilteringNotificationServiceDecorator.titleRegex	Regular expression that matches the entire title
FilteringNotificationServiceDecorator.bodyRegex	Regular expression that matches the entire body

Modal Notifications

The modal display strategy presents notices in a Bootstrap modal dialog. If the notice defines actions, they will be rendered as buttons at the bottom of the dialog; any button will dismiss the dialog, as well as invoke the specified action server-side. Notices that do not define actions will offer a 'close' (x) option in the upper-right corner of the dialog.
This feature could be used for a Terms of Service pop-up that must be accepted before accessing the portal.

Additional Documentation

Swagger Client and API Documentation

The Notification portlet provides API documentation with Swagger. You can access the Swagger client in your deployment at the following URI: /NotificationPortlet/swagger-ui.html.