Computing Portals will build on General Portal Standards
“(better)portalML” (XUL) -- define the user’s customized portal layout and what they can choose from
- define available objects and layout (number of columns etc. generalizes ideas in Flow,..,GridBag Object layouts in Java AWT)
- e.g. <portal name=“” ><columns=3/><portalobject mode=“forced” source=“”><placeat layout=“flow1” position=“1” > …...
- placement of component objects on pages and specification of their parameters and location e.g. access weather object for suchandsuchcity with suchandsuch sensor overlay
- choice of nifty JavaScript or Java index
- rendering preferences such as resolutions and “universal access”
- borders, backgrounds etc.
Portal building tools will exist for developers (architect template for portal i.e. differentiate my.NPAC from my.Netscape) and users ( specialize portal template )
Such general tools will be competition for specialized systems like WebCT for education