DSpace ClientUI built on RESTful API - GSoC 2011

Summary

Project	DSpace ClientUI built on RESTful API
Student	Vibhaj Rajan
Mentors	Bojan Suzic (lead) Mark Diggory
Technologies	DSpace REST JavaScript jQuery FireSpark
Proposal	Melange
Repository	https://github.com/tr4n2uil/restclient
Demo	http://ec2-50-16-74-56.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/restclient/
Notes	jQuery DSpace deployment on Amazon EC2

Requirements

Client run interface
Attractive look and feel
Easy to customize

Functional Specifications

Features to be supported

Respository Browsing
Repository Manipulation
Content Searching
Statistics
Administration

Customizations to be supported

Stylesheets (CSS)
Layout
Themes
Internationalization

Project Timeline

	Ready
	Base done, Improvement phase
	In Progress

Before May 24

Obtain access to :
- Wiki
- Project repository
Download, build and install local DSpace instance
Download, build and install DSpace REST module
Test and verify the installation
Go through the functionality of DSpace and DSpace REST API
Compare possible JavaScript UI frameworks -- Ext JS preferred

Mark: I would like to see a bit more dialog with Bojan concerning the REST API contracts and migration to Spring, mainly, are we happy with these API contracts and using them for the students project, or do we need to consider some possible changes int he API to adopt to using Spring REST instead of Entity Broker. And if so, is there a timeline for providing those changes in scope of the 1.8 release?

Vibhaj: Confirmed that the possible migration shall not affect the REST interface and hence RestClient project.

May 25 - June 15

Get familiar with DSpace REST API
1. collections, communities, items and bitstreams
  - create
  - view
  - edit
  - delete
2. users and groups
  - view
3. search
4. generating statistics
Decide the JavaScript Library to be used by discussing with the DSpace community: jQuery [decided by community]
Learn the jQuery JavaScript Library
- Selectors
- Actions and Methods
- Events
- UI Widgets
Design client run FireSpark framework supporting JavaScript UI for RESTful (JSON) services
Design generic Services and Workflows in FireSpark
Plan these extensions for RestClient
- RESTUI.Resource.Load Workflow
- RESTUI.Resource.Edit Workflow
- RESTUI.Resource.Delete Workflow
- ParseItemMetadata helper

June 15 - July 10

Implement extensions (Services and Workflows) to FireSpark in RESTClient to provide support for :
1. Repository Browsing
  - Communities
    - All
    - Single
    - Subcommunities
    - Recent Submissions
    - Sort
  - Collections
    - All
    - Single
    - Sort
  - Items
    - All
    - Single
    - Read Metadata
  - Bitstreams
    - Download

July 11 - July 15

GSoC Mid Term Evaluations

July 15 - July 31

Implement extensions (Services and Workflows) to FireSpark in RESTClient to provide support for :
1. Repository Manupulation
  - Communities
    - Edit
    - Delete
  - Collections
    - Edit
    - Delete
2. Content Searching
3. Administration
  - Users
    - Login
    - All
    - Single
  - Groups
    - All
    - Single
4. Statistics
  - Reports
  - Charts and Visualization

August 1 - August 15

Enhancing the look and feel
Look into and improve scope for customizations
- Stylesheets (CSS)
- Layout
- Themes
- Internationalization (jQuery support required)
Improve the architecture of RESTClient and FireSpark
Testing
Complete Documentation
Final Improvements

Recent Screenshots

Issues / Problems

1. [ 04 Jun 2011 ] I am not getting the community logo using the URL /communities/{id}/logo

Solved : /bitstream/{community.logo.id}/receive

2. [ 05 Jun 2011 ] While working with REST module, I found that after making many requests while testing for some time, I get the following exception and then the module does not give correct results for further requests. Kindly look into the issue and inform me if the error is occurring due to some mistake from my side.

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: This statement has been closed.
        at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.checkClosed(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:2424)
        at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.setInt(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:1147)
        at org.apache.commons.dbcp.DelegatingPreparedStatement.setInt(DelegatingPreparedStatement.java:120)
        at org.apache.commons.dbcp.DelegatingPreparedStatement.setInt(DelegatingPreparedStatement.java:120)
        at org.apache.commons.dbcp.DelegatingPreparedStatement.setInt(DelegatingPreparedStatement.java:120)
        at org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.loadParameters(DatabaseManager.java:1558)
        at org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.queryTable(DatabaseManager.java:223)
        at org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.querySingleTable(DatabaseManager.java:366)
        at org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.findByUnique(DatabaseManager.java:514)
        at org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.find(DatabaseManager.java:476)
        at org.dspace.eperson.Group.find(Group.java:684)
        at org.dspace.content.Collection.groupFromColumn(Collection.java:1315)
        at org.dspace.content.Collection.<init>(Collection.java:134)
        at org.dspace.content.Collection.findAll(Collection.java:319)
        at org.dspace.rest.providers.CollectionsProvider.getEntities(CollectionsProvider.java:229)
        at org.sakaiproject.entitybus.impl.EntityBrokerManagerImpl.internalGetEntities(EntityBrokerManagerImpl.java:550)
        at org.sakaiproject.entitybus.impl.EntityBrokerManagerImpl.getEntitiesData(EntityBrokerManagerImpl.java:402)
        at org.sakaiproject.entitybus.rest.EntityHandlerImpl.handleEntityAccess(EntityHandlerImpl.java:563)
        at org.sakaiproject.entitybus.util.servlet.DirectServlet.dispatch(DirectServlet.java:186)
        at org.sakaiproject.entitybus.util.servlet.DirectServlet.handleRequest(DirectServlet.java:157)
        at org.sakaiproject.entitybus.util.servlet.DirectServlet.service(DirectServlet.java:130)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:304)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:240)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:164)
        at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:462)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:164)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:100)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:562)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:395)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProcessor.process(Http11AprProcessor.java:306)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11AprProtocol.java:323)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(AprEndpoint.java:1719)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
INFO: EntityEncodingManager: No entities to format (json) and output for ref (/collections)
WARN Could not process entity: /collections/2 (404)[null]: Attempted to access an entity URL path (/collections/2.json) for an entity (/collections/2) that does not exist

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