What a remarkable coincidence.  We are in a very similar position.  

I have unofficially looked at uPortal and found it too disgusting for
words yet it seems to be the portal of choice at present.  We have
started to use another free portal (IBuySpy.com) for ASP.Net and have
found it much easier to understand, enhance, install and maintain, but
of course, it doesn't come with hooks for any of our current systems
(Peoplesoft HR, Oracle Financials, WebCT, in house Student system etc).
We use LDAP & Active Directory for authentication of students and staff
which I have managed to integrate into the portal easily enough.

We currently have a large web app written in Forte 4GL which we need to
replace.  Most of the functionality of this can be easily re-created in
the new portal but I'm not sure how we could get PeopleSoft to work
within it - if at all.  Maybe it's better just to have links to the
external system or to duplicate some of the functionality with our own
code.

-------------------------------
Peter G Jones
Senior Analyst/Programmer
University of Canterbury 
New Zealand
-------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick J Daly [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Tuesday, 21 May 2002 11:20 p.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Queen's University Belfast


Hello,

I have been looking at the Portals list and it is interesting to see
that most institutions are being faced with the same questions as
ourselves here at Queen's University, Belfast:

Do we need a portal system?
Which portal system should we use or do we build our own?
What is the role of a CMS?
What are other institutions using?
How do these technologies integrate with existing systems?
Are these technologies better implemented as a new 'connected' layer
rather than being fully integrated? .. etc.

We have started to answer these questions for ourselves and have already
gone some way in developing our own internal systems that support
customised user areas, it is not a portal system 'yet'.

Our main concern are the integration issues, we want one University wide
authentication system, user profiles held centrally with information
available for such things as QAA reporting and we need customisable
desktops relating to learning, research and administration for both
staff and students. We have already started developing web applications
that support these goals:

- all applications rely on core University databases held by our MIS
section,
- we have one University wide authentication facility for students and
we hope to expand this for all staff,
- we have developed an internal VLE (currently in its 2 year
of use), which we are currently working on to expand into an MLE
- we have secure areas online for staff and students
containing personal details and other sensitive information e.g.
examination results.

These web applications/systems have been primarily developed using PHP
and have used the SQL Server and Ingres databases.

Our systems are still in their infancy and we are continuing to work on
the integration issues. We are happy to buy commercial products but we
must be convinced on the integration issues, it would be interesting to
hear from those who have already explored these areas or anyone doing
similar work.

Regards

Paddy

----------------------
Patrick Daly
Information Services
The Queen's University of Belfast
Belfast, BT7 1NN

TEL/FAX:  02890 335051
Email:  [log in to unmask]