Jen,
I favor sticking with the historical "tab" and "channel" terminology for
this release. It maximizes the re-usability of existing documentation.
I object to "portlet" as the generic term for the dynamic boxes on the
screen in the uPortal documentation and terminology because it is
confusing in its relationship to JSR-168 Portlets. Some of the channels
are implemented as JSR-168 portlets. Some are not. Technically, all of
them are "channels" and can benefit by channel things, like channel
types, metadata about which channel controls to show, categorization,
and selection of audiences permitted to subscribe to them.
I see why implementing schools might adopt portlet, or widget, or
channel, or thingamabob as their local terminology. End users don't
need to understand JSR-168 and the distinction of which channels are
JSR-168 portlets and which are not.
The target audience of the uPortal release, however, tends more towards
the IT staff of higher education institutions who might adopt and
implement uPortal locally. Avoiding calling things "portlets" that are
not "Portlets" has value for this audience.
I like the term "tab". Using the default theme and skin, they look like
tabs. I find it easier to explain this to people in terms of tabs, and
then tell them that if they want they could look like something other
than tabs. Tabs are nicely concrete and palpable and easier to grok. I
like using "managed fragment" to differentiate between DLM managed tabs
and end-user personal layout tabs.
The term "page" has too much content management system expectations
associated with it. uPortal *isn't* a content management system and you
*don't* interact with pages in the sense of Drupal or HyperContent.
Andrew
Timothy Carroll wrote:
we have implemented a bit more hierarchy than the out of box uportal.
we use the terms tabs, pages, portlets
Jen Bourey wrote:
Hi all,
In cleaning up the up3 UI, I've noticed that the terminology isn't
always consistent. What do we want to use? I think historically
we've used channel and tab as terms? At Yale, we've switched to
calling those items portlets and pages, not that that's necessarily
better.
I don't have strong feelings about what terminology we use, although
I would like to fix it to all be the same. What would everyone prefer?
- Jen
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