New to JForum

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Hi,

Its pleasure to me to appreciate JForum team for developing such a good application and my special thanks to Rafael Steil.

I am new to JForum and I need to integrate this application in my web app. Can anyone give me some inputs about how to integrate (and also some documents)

Regards..
Sridhar.

[originally posted on jforum.net by sridharmnj]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Try doing a search. There are several threads on this subject.
[originally posted on jforum.net by GatorBait3]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Yep, do a search for "sso" and "integration".

To start, you can read http://www.jforum.net/confluence/display/integration/Overview

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Hi Rafael,
Thanks for your reply.

I already integrated JForum with my current web application (some extent).

*****************************************************************

Following are the steps I followed to integration.

1) Created a MyUserSSO class which implements SSO and compiled it.

2) Created JForum.jar with all JForum compiled classes. Copied JForum.jar and other remaining jar files which are in JForum lib folder, into my application's lib folder.

3) Copied JForum's web.xml file contents into my appliction's web.xml file.

4) Copied ..\JForum\images\avatar, .\smiles folders and .\transp.gif files into my application's images folder.

5) Copied templates and upgrade folders from JForum to my application root folder (into the same folder where my WEB-INF is located)

6) Copied Config folder, dwr-forum.xml and log4j.xml from JForum\WEB-INF to my application's WEB-INF folder.

7) Modified SystemGlobals.properties as below.

commented : #sso.implementation = net.jforum.sso.RemoteUserSSO
added : sso.implementation = net.jforum.sso.MyUserSSO

commented : #authentication.type = default
added : authentication.type=sso

(If you dont use MyUserSSO, no need to modify the above contents in SystemGlobals.properties)

8) put a link in my application's leftpane to ./forums/list.page and also a link from JForum (header) to my application's home page.

Now its working fine. :lol:

*****************************************************************
But, my application looks something like this..

Header
L................................R
e................................i
f................................g
t................................h
P.......Body.................t
a................................P
n................................a
e................................n
................................ e
Footer

(My application is developed by using Struts and Tiles)
when I am clicking link to forums. Its showing forums content in full page, but not like my application structure. ops: So, I am trying to get the forums content in application's body location as said above.

If any one of you, integrated JForum with struts and Tiles. Please give me some inputs how to do that. Meanwhile, I am trying to integrate with it as said above (Struts and tiles). If I succeeded, I will certainly post the further steps in my next post.

Best Regards..
Sridhar.




[originally posted on jforum.net by sridharmnj]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Hello Sridhar,

To tell you the truth I haven't had enough time to finish what I started (non-current job related), I got some work done and I think it is the right approach if JForum app is wanted to be integrated with your App without using Portlets (integration here refers to included JForum output in custom application layout). Here are some of my thoughs about how to reach the goal and I'm more than satisfied to provide source code to any who want to finish it.

The approach I followed is described as:
Requirements:
Servlet 2.4/JSP 2.0 because Filters behavior in this version is by far better than JSP 1.2 version.
JDK 1.5
The idea behind this filter is to wrap html output from JForum by intercepting all JForum calls through Struts controller.
Sample case:

.../jforum/list.page is called (or something similar)

the filter try to read request-scoped attribute "wrapped", if it is null then call a struts action that will call a tiles .jsp page( not a .xml definition file, but a .jsp file) and response will be wrapped an an instance of HttpResponseWrapper subclass.
The struts action is required( I required) because my custom processor queries DB and store results in request scope, these results (lists, values) are used to present dynamic info in layout (header, left menu, etc..)
If request does not comes through Struts controller, your layout won't display dynamic info as your app does.

This wrapper.jsp will then include list.page(or other page) and set request attribute wrapped to "1". This nested Filter execution is not possible with JSP 1.2 specification, that is why Servlet 2.4/JSP 2.0 is required.

At this point same filter will get executed but since "wrapped" request attribute was set to 1, there won't be a recursive call to same struts action, but instead to list.page controller (using HttpResponseWrapper subclass).
When *.page html output is generated and control got back to Filter, output is processed to be included in .jsp.

It sounds confusing but I have made it in www.discrete-it.net but unfortunately I was trying to upgrade my box from FreeBSD ports and Postgres had some problems, and I dont have DB now, so it won't show up. I'll let you know as soon as I get it online again.

On the other hand not all JForum output need to be wrapped, you probably don't want smiles or dialogs wrapped in your layout, so I also include a ByPass structure to avoid calling struts action to include them in layout.

Here is a list of necessary files:
web.xml - filter declaration and mapping
Coupling.java - Filter
DuplaVO - Value Object used by Coupling.java which is initiated with some JForum paths. Those paths will be avoided when wrapping it inside your custom app layout. Smiles dialog, etc.
RequestWrapper.java - Wraps custom output.
struts-config.xml - declaration of action that will get called from filter.
tiles.jsp - tiles definition called from struts-config.xml declaration. (through ForwardInclude struts action)
IncludeAction.java - Custom IncludeAction struts subclass.
wrapper.jsp - called from tiles.jsp. This file will set wrapper parameter to avoid infinite Filter (Coupling.java) recursion and will include output from accesed list.page (or other JForum page)

Good luck and let me know if I can be of more help.

P.S. Feel free to rename package names and please FEEL FREE to help us and post your progress with it.
Thanks,
Orlando


web.xml declaration

...
  <!-- JForum-your app Coupling -->
  <filter>
    <filter-name>jforum-ezine</filter-name>
    <filter-class>com.orly_otero.filters.jforum.Coupling</filter-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>ID</param-name> <!-- In case a new application like JForum is included in your app -->
      <param-value>forums</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>tiles-content</param-name>
      <param-value>/WEB-INF/pages/forums/wrapper.jsp</param-value>  <!-- This is the only file inside this folder, JForum pages are in other location  -->
    </init-param>
  </filter>
...
  <!-- JForum-your App coupling -->
  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>jforum-ezine</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>*.page</url-pattern>
    <!-- Added to Servlet 2.4/JSP 1.2 and needed for this solution. Please use a Servlet container that implement this specification. eg Tomcat 5.5.17 -->
    <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
    <dispatcher>INCLUDE</dispatcher>
    <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
  </filter-mapping>
...

Coupling.java
You can removed file upload-related commented code & package import.
package com.orly_otero.filters.jforum;

import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;

import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

import com.orly_otero.helpers.http.ResponseWrapper;
import com.orly_otero.patterns.VO.DuplaVO;

import org.apache.commons.fileupload.*;

public class Coupling implements Filter{
  String ID=null;
  String TilesContent=null;
  String ActionContext=null;
  private static Vector NOT_FILTERED_PAGES=new Vector();
  private static Vector JFORUM_PAGE=new Vector();

  private boolean AvoidStrutsIncl(HttpServletRequest request){
    boolean found=false;
    Iterator i=null;
    String servletPath=request.getServletPath();

    if (servletPath.indexOf("/jforum.page")!=-1){
      String module=request.getParameter("module"), action=request.getParameter("action");
System.err.println("module: "+module);
System.err.println("action: "+action);
      if (module==null || action==null){
        found=true;  //Remove & try OReilly, ....
/*
        FileUploadBase multiRequest=new FileUpload();
        try{
          List list=multiRequest.parseRequest(request);
System.err.println("Pase 1");
          i=list.iterator();
System.err.println("Pase 2");
          FileItem fi=(FileItem)i.next();
          if (fi.isFormField()){
System.err.println("multi field name: "+fi.getFieldName());
          }
System.err.println("Pase 3");
        }
        catch(Exception e){
System.err.println(e.toString());
        }
*/
      }
      if (module!=null && action!=null){
        //Search in JFORUM_PAGE dupla vector.
        i=JFORUM_PAGE.iterator();
        while(i.hasNext() && !found){
          DuplaVO dupla=(DuplaVO)i.next();
          if (module.equals((String)dupla.getObj1()) && action.equals((String)dupla.getObj2())) found=true;
        }
      }
    }
    else{
      //Search in NOT_FILTERED_PAGES vector.
      i=NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.iterator();
      while(i.hasNext() && !found){
        String item=(String)i.next();
        if (servletPath.indexOf(item)!=-1) found=true;
      }
    }

    return found;
  }
  
  public void init(FilterConfig config) throws ServletException{
    ID=config.getInitParameter("ID");
    TilesContent=config.getInitParameter("tiles-content");
    ActionContext=config.getInitParameter("action-context");
    //Pages that are not going to be filtered.
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/posts/listSmilies.page");
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/posts/review/");  //(eg. .../0/1.page)
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/posts/downloadAttach");
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/posts/preList");
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/rss/");  //(eg. .../0/1.page)
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/bookmarks/insert");
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/bookmarks/delete");
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/pm/findUser");
    //These shouldn't be available once JForum is integrated with SSO.
    NOT_FILTERED_PAGES.add("/user/logout");

    //jforum servlet actions that will be chained as usually because JForum code makes a response.sendRedirect
    //that gets lost when used inside a Wrapped response in filter.
    JFORUM_PAGE.add(new DuplaVO("posts", "insertSave"));  //"module", "action". Multipart Request
    JFORUM_PAGE.add(new DuplaVO("bookmarks", "insertSave"));
    JFORUM_PAGE.add(new DuplaVO("bookmarks", "updateSave"));
    JFORUM_PAGE.add(new DuplaVO("pm", "findUser"));
    //These duplas should be gone once JForum is integrated with SSO.
//    JFORUM_PAGE.add(new DuplaVO("user", "validateLogin"));  //"module", "action"
//    JFORUM_PAGE.add(new DuplaVO("user", "insertSave"));
  }

  public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws ServletException, IOException{
    HttpServletRequest req=(HttpServletRequest)request;
    HttpServletResponse res=(HttpServletResponse)response;
    RequestDispatcher rd=null;

System.err.println("Entering filter");
System.err.println("ServletPath: "+req.getServletPath());
System.err.println("RequestURI: "+req.getRequestURI());
System.err.println("RequestURL: "+req.getRequestURL());
System.err.println("PathInfo: "+req.getPathInfo()); 
System.err.println("CharEncoding: "+req.getCharacterEncoding()); 

    if (AvoidStrutsIncl(req)){
      //Do not apply filter to this URL.
      chain.doFilter(request, response);
System.err.println("Exiting filter without wrapping it.");
      return;
    }

    String wrapped=(String)request.getAttribute("wrapped");
    if (wrapped==null){
      //Generic .do action to display layout.
System.err.println("Entering .do action");

      req.setAttribute("tilesID", ID);
      req.setAttribute("tilesContent", TilesContent);
      rd=req.getRequestDispatcher("/layout-wrapper.do");
      //Wrapping output.
      PrintWriter out=response.getWriter();
      ResponseWrapper resWrapper=new ResponseWrapper(res);
      rd.include(req, resWrapper);
      String wrappedContent=resWrapper.toString();
      /*
       * Modifying response which will be inserted in my app.
       */
      //First step is to remove <html><head>,... from JForum page as well as their ending tags.
      int index1=wrappedContent.lastIndexOf("<html");
>
      String part1=wrappedContent.substring(0, index1);
//System.err.println("part1: "+part1);

      index1=wrappedContent.lastIndexOf("<body");
>
      int index2=wrappedContent.indexOf("\n\r", index1);
      index1=index2;
      index2=wrappedContent.indexOf("</body>", index1);
      String part2=wrappedContent.substring(index1, index2-1);
//System.err.println("part2: "+part2);

      index2=wrappedContent.indexOf("</html>", index1);
      String part3=wrappedContent.substring(index2+7);
//System.err.println("part3: "+part3);

      String resString=part1+part2+part3;
      //Second step is to replace my app context from statements as <form action="/ezine/jforum.page"...>
      //because path gets lost.
//      resString=resString.replaceAll("<form action=\""+ActionContext+"/", "><form action=\"");
>
      //Updating headers.
      updateHeaders(response, resString);
      //Writing output.
      out.write(resString);
System.err.println("Exiting .do action");
    }
    else if (wrapped.equals("1")){
System.err.println("Entering .page action");

      chain.doFilter(request, response);
      String redirectTo=(String)request.getAttribute("jforum-redirectTo");
      if (redirectTo!=null){
System.err.println("Filter Redirecting to.");
        res.sendRedirect(res.encodeRedirectURL(redirectTo));
      }
System.err.println("Exiting .page action");
    }

System.err.println("Exiting filter");
  }

  public void updateHeaders(ServletResponse response, String responseString){
    response.setContentLength(responseString.length());
  }

  public void destroy(){
  }
}

DuplaVO.java

package com.orly_otero.patterns.VO;

public class DuplaVO extends ValueObject{
  private Object obj1;
  private Object obj2;

  public DuplaVO(){
    obj1=obj2=null;
  }

  public DuplaVO(Object obj1, Object obj2){
    this.obj1=obj1;  this.obj2=obj2;
  }
 
  public void finalize(){
    obj1=obj2=null;
  }

  public Object getObj1(){
    return obj1;
  }

  public Object getObj2(){
    return obj2;
  }

  public void setObj1(Object o){
    obj1=o;
  }

  public void setObj2(Object o){
    obj2=o;
  }
}

ResponseWrapper.java

package com.orly_otero.helpers.http;

import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

public class ResponseWrapper extends HttpServletResponseWrapper{
  private CharArrayWriter charWriter;

  public ResponseWrapper(HttpServletResponse response){
    super(response);
    charWriter=new CharArrayWriter();
  }

  public PrintWriter getWriter(){
    return new PrintWriter(charWriter);
  }

  public String toString(){
    return charWriter.toString();
  }

  public char[] toCharArray(){
    return charWriter.toCharArray();
  }
}

struts-config.xml declaration

    <!-- Response Layout Wrapper(eg. Forum-related pages) -->
    <action path="/layout-wrapper" type="com.orly_otero.struts.Actions.IncludeAction" parameter="/WEB-INF/pages/common/wrapper/tiles.jsp" />  <!-- /layout-wrapper.page does not work -->

IncludeAction.java

package com.orly_otero.struts.Actions;

import org.apache.struts.action.*;

import javax.servlet.http.*;

import java.util.Locale;

public class IncludeAction extends org.apache.struts.actions.IncludeAction{
  protected Locale getLocale(HttpServletRequest request){
    Locale result=null;
    String param=request.getParameter("lang");

    if (param==null){
      HttpSession session=request.getSession(false);
      result=(Locale)session.getAttribute(org.apache.struts.Globals.LOCALE_KEY);
      if (result==null) result=new Locale("en");
    }
    else if (param.toLowerCase().equals("es")) result=new Locale("es");
    else result=new Locale("en");

    return result;
  }

  public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception{
    HttpSession session=request.getSession(false);
    session.setAttribute(org.apache.struts.Globals.LOCALE_KEY, getLocale(request));
    return super.execute(mapping, form, request, response);
  }
}

tiles.jsp YOUR LAYOUT

<%@ page contentType="text/html" %>

<%@ taglib uri='struts-tiles' prefix='tiles' %>
<%@ taglib uri='struts-bean' prefix='bean' %>
<%@ taglib uri='jstl-core' prefix='c' %>

<%@ page import="java.util.Locale" %>
<%@ page import="org.apache.struts.Globals.*" %>
<%@ page import="org.apache.struts.util.MessageResources" %>

<%
  Locale locale=(Locale)session.getAttribute(org.apache.struts.Globals.LOCALE_KEY);
  MessageResources messages=(MessageResources)application.getAttribute(org.apache.struts.Globals.MESSAGES_KEY);
  String message=messages.getMessage(locale, "under-construction");
  String ID=(String)request.getAttribute("tilesID");

  if (ID.equals("forums")) message=messages.getMessage(locale, "menu.forums");
  //more IDs here.
%>

<tiles:insert page="/WEB-INF/pages/user/layout.jsp">
  <tiles:put name="title" value="<%= message %>"/>
  <tiles:put name="header" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/header.jsp"/>
  <tiles:put name="top-left" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/top-left.jsp"/>
  <tiles:put name="top-middle" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/top-middle.jsp"/>
  <%-- TODO: Fix reference Ignore this --%>
  <tiles:put name="reference" value="/jforum.page?module=forums&action=list"/>
  <tiles:put name="top-right" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/top-right.jsp"/>
  <tiles:put name="left-menu" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/left-menu.jsp"/>
  <tiles:put name="polls" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/polls/active-polls.jsp"/>
<!-- IMPORTANT to Wrap content.Tiles content is a pattern or filename. -->
  <tiles:put name="content" value='<%= request.getAttribute("tilesContent") %>'/>
  <tiles:put name="right-menu" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/right-menu.jsp"/>
  <tiles:put name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/pages/user/footer.jsp"/>
  <tiles:put name="poweredBy" value="/WEB-INF/pages/common/misc/poweredBy.jsp"/>
</tiles:insert>

wrapper.jsp USED always as input to tiles.jsp in my particular case.

<%@ taglib uri='jstl-core' prefix='c' %>

<c:set var="wrapped" value="1" scope="request"/>
<c:import url="<%= request.getServletPath() %>"/>

This should work, please let me know if something is missing.
[originally posted on jforum.net by orly]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

ValueObject.java

package com.orly_otero.patterns.VO;

public class ValueObject implements java.io.Serializable{
}

[originally posted on jforum.net by orly]