Architecting and Building KRA using Kuali Rice

Terry Durkin, KRA DM/Lead Developer(Indiana University)

Bryan Hutchinson, KRA DM/Lead Developer(Cornell)

Introduction

• KRA Background

• Rice Background

• How KRA uses Rice

About KRA

• Kuali Research Administration• Enterprise level Research Administration• Any proposal submitting institution• Based on MIT’s Coeus

– 12 years of development/functionality– Used by 44 schools

• Release 1.0 - July 2008– Proposal Development/Budget incl. Grants.gov S2S

Functional Roots - Coeus

• Cradle to Grave Research Administration– Proposals/Budgets– Awards

• Links to Financial System

– Subcontracts– Negotiations– Compliance (human subjects)

About Kuali Rice

• Software Development Simplified– Unified development platform– Diverse functional requirements

• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)• Integration of Kuali Applications• Integration of existing Enterprise Applications• Version 0.9.2 focuses on KRA requirements

Rice Components

Nervous System (KNS)

• Data Dictionary

• Document lifecycle

• Lookups

• UI Components

• Maintenance Documents

• Persistence

Workflow (KEW)

• Workflow as a Service• Rules• Approvals• Actions• Workgroups• Integrated into KNS Documents• Accessible from existing applications• Embedded/External

Notifications (KEN)

• Notifications (not Actions)

• Multiple notification schemes– Email– Mobile Phone

• Priority

• Extensible

Service Bus (KSB)

• Service Integration• Ease of Integration• Provides opportunities for synergies between Kuali

applications• Framework for communicating with existing

applications• Multiple Connectors

– Java– SOAP– Spring Integration– Etc…

Identity Management (KIM)

• New to the Rice party

• Application integration via KSB

• Institution and Application Extensible

• Can provide fine grained User/Role based AuthZ

• Integrate with existing AuthN infrastructure

Technical Roots

• KFS pioneered the KNS

• KEW based on IU Workflow

Moving Rice Functionality Forward

• Identifying KRA Requirements

• Integration Meetings– Technical representatives from Rice enabled

applications– Review of Enhancement Proposals based on

Functional Requirements

• Project Planning– Managing multiple release schedules

Functionally different from other Kuali Applications

• Analysis of Functional Differences

• Differences provide basis for Rice enhancements– Extend and customize functionality where

possible– Focus on Extension, not Disruption– Add new tools to the Rice toolbox– More on this tomorrow!

Tool Differences from KFS

• Same basic building blocks (Kuali stack)• Rice allows us to make our own choices

about development– Maven, not Ant– Jetty, not Tomcat (Development)– HTMLUnit Tests– Bamboo, not Anthill

• Allows execution of Bamboo native plugins and Maven plugins

KRA In Depth

• This is nice… but…

How does KRA use Rice?

KRA Building Blocks

• Kuali Toolbox– Open Source Tools

• Struts - UI• OJB - Persistence• Spring - Services

– Rice builds upon and extends functionality• Struts - Mitigates common issues (POJO forms,

Formatting,…)• OJB - DAO w/ Object Hierarchy; No custom code

for POJO persistence

KRA Architecture

KRA Architecture

Documents - Size

• KRA: Few, large, complex• KFS: Many, small, still complex

• KNS– Data Dictionary - Specify multiple pages– Web Flow - Allow consistent behavior while

navigating between multiple pages in arbitrary order– Document interaction - Document is saved/loaded– Rules - Events/Rules can be specified in code and

extended

Documents - Size

Documents - Size

Documents - Size

<headerNavigation> <headerNavigationTab> <navigateTo>proposal</navigateTo> <displayName>Proposal</displayName> </headerNavigationTab> <headerNavigationTab> <navigateTo>keyPersonnel</navigateTo> <displayName>Key Personnel</displayName> </headerNavigationTab>…snip… <headerNavigationTab> <navigateTo>actions</navigateTo> <displayName>Actions</displayName> </headerNavigationTab> <headerNavigationTab> <navigateTo>auditMode</navigateTo> <displayName>Audit Mode</displayName> </headerNavigationTab> </headerNavigation>

Documents - Web Scope

• KRA: Large Documents, Session based

• KFS: Currently Request based

• KNS– Mitigate issues with Session based

persistence (multiple browsers, etc…)– Eases development/maintenance (hiddens,

load-save-load anti-pattern)

Documents - Web Scope

<action path="/proposalDevelopment*" name="ProposalDevelopmentForm" validate="true” attribute="KualiForm"input="/WEB-INF/jsp/ProposalDevelopment{1}.jsp" scope="request" parameter="methodToCall"

type="org.kuali.kra.proposaldevelopment.web.struts.action.ProposalDevelopment{1}Action"> <forward name="basic" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/ProposalDevelopment{1}.jsp" /> <forward name="keyPersonnel" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/ProposalDevelopmentKeyPersonnel.jsp" /> <forward name="proposal" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/ProposalDevelopmentProposal.jsp" /> <forward name="template" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/ProposalDevelopmentTemplate.jsp" /> </action>

public class ProposalDevelopmentDocument extends ResearchDocumentBase implements Copyable, SessionDocument {

...

}

Documents - Locking

• KRA: Pessimistic Locking, Long lasting docs, Session Based, Functional Areas

• KFS: Optimistic Locking, short lived docs

• KNS (enhancement pending)– Centralized locking mechanism– Document Authorizer classes– Provide two layers of locking if desired

Documents - Versioning

• KRA: Many documents require versioning• KFS: Versioning not required in general (PurAp

docs do version)

• KNS (enhancement pending)– Support optional versioning of documents– Configuration option– Little additional code required– New Version created by user request or

programmatically

Custom Attributes

• KRA: Transactional Documents, table based, runtime

• KFS: Reference Data, code based

• KNS (KRA model enhancement pending)– Support both models– UI: Integrated custom tag– Accessible for Lookups, Routing, Reporting– Strongly typed for validation

Custom Attributes

Custom Attributes

User Roles; AuthZ

• KRA: User/Role based; Integrated into Unit Hierarchy; Code checks Rights

• KFS: Workgroup based

• KIM– Manage people/workgroups– Qualified Roles allow integration with Unit Hierarchy

• KNS– Document Authorizer Class

People

• KRA: Research System required data

• KFS: Financial System required data

• KIM– Define a ‘Person’ generically– Institution specific attributes– Application specific attributes

KIM

https://test.kuali.org/confluence/x/Kqg

Workflow

• KRA: Based on Coeus’ routing, Units define custom rules and responsibilities

• KFS: Account, Unit based; Rules defined for the entire document

• KEW– Flexible routing allows document/node based

workflow (and more)

More…

• KSB– Units/Organizations– People– Validation

• KRA - Grants.gov– Kuali Lookupable Interface for cohesive interface– Web Service

Synergies and Moving Forward

• KRA– Relies on Rice to provide functionality

• Rice– Greater richness of functionality as KRA requirements

are integrated

• Future Rice Enabled Applications– More choices, more functionality, more features

Future of KRA

• Release 1.0 - July 2008– Proposal Development– Budget– Grants.gov S2S

• Release 2.0 - 2009– IRB– Awards

• Release 3.0, 4.0– Full functionality of Coeus

Wrap-up

• Final Thoughts

• Questions

Other Kuali Days Sessions of Interest

• Rice Sessions

• KRA/Coeus Joint Session

Contact

• http://www.kuali.org/communities/kra/• https://test.kuali.org/mocks/kra-coeus-dev/proposal.html

• Terry Durkin - tdurkin@indiana.edu• Bryan Hutchinson - bh79@cornell.edu• Andrew Slusar - as833@cornell.edu