Integrations

uPortal, like so many web applications that aggregate services, faces challenges with integration. Here, we collect solutions to share with integrators.

Creating Custom Modules

The below steps detail how to add custom code to your uPortal-start project. We highly recommend contributing enhancements and fixes to existing code back to the community. This encourages your changes to be supported and maintained by the community.

There are good reasons for custom modules. Some features are so specific to your institution that no one else will benefit. Other times the changes are in conflict with the community code.

Steps to Create a Custom Module

  1. Create a custom directory in your repo, if it does not exist
  2. Create a subdirectory that will also represent the name of your custom module. If this code is associated with a portlet or uPortal module, prefix your shortname. For example, to customize a class in uPortal-persondir, rename it to <shortname>-persondir. Another example is to customize CalendarPortlet, name it <shortname>-calendar.
  3. Create a src directory in the subdirectory
  4. Copy source files in this directory as appropriate
  5. Create a build.gradle file in the subdirectory, following the below pattern:
description = "<institution> Custom Components for <target module or portlet>"

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'eclipse'

repositories {
    mavenLocal()
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    compile "<target module or portlet>"
    compileOnly "${portletApiDependency}"
    compileOnly "${servletApiDependency}"
    <additional dependencies as needed>
}

Here is an example for customizing uPortal Groups:

description = "MyUniversity Custom Components for uPortal Security"

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'eclipse'

repositories {
    mavenLocal()
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    compile "org.jasig.portal:uPortal-groups-core:${uPortalVersion}"
    compileOnly "${portletApiDependency}"
    compileOnly "${servletApiDependency}"
}
  1. Add module to settings.gradle in root of repo. The entry will be include 'custom:<subdirectory>' similar to the other modules.
  2. Add the module to overlays/uPortal/build.gradle or the appropriate portlet, as needed. The entry will be a compile dependency like compile project(':custom:<subdirectory>') in a dependencies block.

CORS Security Whitelisting

CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) Filter in uPortal restricts POSTs from code originating from other servers. This restriction can interfere with front-end services, such as CAS and Shibboleth.

This can be mitigating by whitelisting services for the CORS Filter. In uPortal.properties, add the services that can redirect to uPortal in the following property:

cors.allowed.origins=https://idp.myschool.edu, https://cas.myschool.edu

In the above example, two services are whitelisted. In an actual case, only one of CAS or Shibboleth would be in use. Also note that the protocol must be specified.

See: CORS