Soffit Data Model

To be of any use, real soffits must go beyond Hello World! Soffit provides a rich data model for sharing data from the portal with your application. There are (currently) four objects in this data model:

• The Bearer contains information about the user: username, user attributes, and group affiliations in the portal
• The PortalRequest contains information about the request your soffit is filling, like parameters, mode, and window state
• The Preferences object contains a collection of publish-time settings for your soffit chosen by the administrator; these are options you define for your needs; using preferences is optional
• The Definition contains publish-time metadata about your soffit in the portal; these are settings defined by and consumed by the portal itself, like title and chrome style

Sharing Data Model Objects with a Soffit

These objects can be shared by the portal with a soffit on each request, but none of them will be sent automatically. Under the hood, data model objects are sent to soffits as Jason Web Tokens (JWTs) using HTTP headers. Web servers place limits (usually configurable) on the size of the header area for inbound and outbound requests. The more data model elements sent, the greater the risk of exceeding this limit. In typical cases sending all four elements is somewhat risky; sending fewer (1, 2, or 3) should be safe.

You can instruct uPortal to send each data model object using a dedicated portlet preference in the publishing record (metadata) of each soffit. The default value of each preference is false; set it to true to send the element.

• Bearer: org.apereo.portal.soffit.connector.SoffitConnectorController.includeAuthorization
• PortalRequest: org.apereo.portal.soffit.connector.SoffitConnectorController.includePortalRequest
• Preferences: org.apereo.portal.soffit.connector.SoffitConnectorController.includePreferences
• Definition: org.apereo.portal.soffit.connector.SoffitConnectorController.includeDefinition

Accessing Data Model Objects in a JSP

Each of these objects is defined within the Expression Language (EL) Context in which your .jsp files execute. Use camel-case spelling to reference them, for example…

<h2>Hello ${bearer.username}</h2>

The @SoffitModelAttribute Annotation

Sometimes the Data Model provided by Soffit is not enough – sometimes you need to define your own objects for rendering a JSP. For Spring Boot-based Soffit applications, the @SoffitModelAttribute annotation satisfies this need.

@SoffitModelAttribute Examples

Annotate a Spring bean with @SoffitModelAttribute to make the entire bean available within your JSP.

@SoffitModelAttribute("settings")
@Component
public class Settings {

    public int getMaxNumber() {
        return 100;
    }

}

Annotate a method on a Spring bean with @SoffitModelAttribute to have Soffit invoke the method and make the return value available within your JSP.

@Component
public class Attributes {

    @SoffitModelAttribute("bearerJson")
    public String getBearerJson(Bearer bearer) {
        String result = null;
        try {
            result = mapper.writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter().writeValueAsString(bearer);
        } catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
            final String msg = "Unable to write the Bearer object to JSON";
            throw new RuntimeException(msg, e);
        }
        return result;
    }

}

Signatures of methods annotated with @SoffitModelAttribute are flexible; you may take any, all, or none of the following objects as parameters, in any order:

• HttpServletRequest
• HttpServletResponse
• Bearer
• PortalRequest
• Preferences
• Definition