Main caracteristics of Lutece

Organization of the portal

  • A site conceived by means of Lutece can be represented as a tree structure of dynamic pages, whose root is the home page.
  • The data presented in each page of the portal coexists inside blocks called portlets. These page headings are text zones ,which can be inserted dynamically within a page by the webmaster during conception or the update of the pages. Each page is associated to a model composed of rows and columns. up of a model.
  • The technical data used to organise the site (i.e. pages, headings, content type, style sheets ..) are stored in the database.

Navigation

  • The main pages of the site are grouped into a navigation bar which is always visible.
  • The direct access to the inner pages is done through the sliding menus associated to each main page of the site.
  • An interactive navigation path is present on each visited page.
  • The navigation through the tree structure within the site can be accessed directly by placing links onto the page ( towards the daughter pages ).
  • The website plan, generated dynamically, allows direct access to pages of the site.

Services

  • The management of a set of services is maintained by XPages which are always visible ( search engine, site plan, chat, newletter, contacts, links towards other websites )
  • Some open-source softwares have been added as services ( full-text indexing, search engine ).

  • Portlets and content type

    The portlets, within which is placed web content, have a known type, depending on its content. The available portlets are article list( news, agenda ,..), data sheets, normal text or HTML, XML Document, person list, Downloadable files, internet links list, naviagation links list within the site, Web syndication( RSS format).

    The insertion of the portlets into a page follows a composition model , which organises itself into rows and columns ,can be fully parametrizable. The page-setting is also controlled by style sheets(CSS).

  • Seperation between content and presentation

    The seperation of content and view is possible by opting for XML as the exchange format. The XML files consist of structured data, extracted from the database.

    The dynamic rendering of page content is managed by the transformation of XSLT content from XML data and style sheets associated to each portlet.

    Models for page-setting are predefined for each portlet type and can be completed to satify possible future needs.

    A page is recalculated( integrated cache management ) only when its content has changed.

Tool to manage page-setting of the portlets

  • The administration tool is designed for webmasters of the portal and also publication assistants.
  • This tool was conceived to simplify use and does not require particular skills.
  • A set of graphical interfaces assists the webmaster during the creation of the pages, the choice of the page headings, the entering and publication of content, and also the choice of the presentation style
  • A preview window allows the webmaster to see the page on which he is working and can thus interact directly on his content.
  • The construction of the pages of the portal and update are done into a pre-production environment.
  • The additions or updates brought in pre-production are committed after the validation of the webmaster.
  • The HTML content is editable through a WYSIWIG editor

Tool to manage the services

  • A list of persons to contact is exposed on the portal .This list is managed through the administration tool.
  • It is also possible to manage a page of "Useful links", within which the webmaster inserts the portlets of type useful links.

Tool to create user accounts

  • The profile ® administrator ¯ gives right to create webmaster accounts and external contributor accounts.
  • The profile ® webmestre¯ gives right to create all the user accounts needed to produce content or assist the publication process.
  • Each user account is binded to a content producer account, to whom is associated a set of one or more information channels. The information channel defines a unique context to each producer( right to access information , type and origin of the information ).

Tool to produce content

  • The tools for content are designed for webmasters and for different external contributors.
  • The production of content consists of the typing of articles or data sheets, with the help of an integrated text editor. An image can be associated to each content produced.
  • The contents are produced without details on future page-setting( rule to seperate content and page-setting )
  • Webmaster can upload Image libraries and downloadable files which he can insert in his portal. He can also simply insert links in portlets ( through the "linkservices" ) which points towards xpages, useful link lists, local actors.

Tool to publish content

  • The tool to publish web content into the site is designed for the webmaster and for the publication assistant. This tool gives access to all content added by contributors and even gives a preview before effective publication.
  • The publication is the association of an article to different kinds of portlets, which have also different content type. ( list of articles or datasheets ).
  • An article can be published on different spots of the website and is shaped in different ways. ( title only, title, image and summary, starting date and expiry date ).
  • The validity of the article is managed at the level of its properties and determines its visual aspect.
  • It is possible to bind an information channel to a portlet, to automatize the publication of the produced content on this specific channel.