What's in a name? Choosing terminology should be done with consideration as it has profound effect on comprehension, expectations, and findability.

I would say that historically the uPortal community has chosen terms largely on the consideration of technology correctness. If a change is to be made, I would propose that the following guidelines:

1. Where possible, follow convention. People are comforted by recognizing familiar terms and labels which translates into increased confidence and satisfaction. The term "shopping cart", for example. Breaking this convention simply confuses people, and there really isn't much sense in otherwise mis-labeling or coining a new term unless innovation demands it.

We need not simply follow what Google or Yahoo does, but these two carry significant weight in setting and establishing convention.

iGoogle uses: "tab" for a discreet section of layout, and "stuff" or "gadget" for content. My Yahoo uses: "page" for a discreet section of layout, and "module" or "RSS feed" for content.

2. No technical jargon - express everything in plain language. Unless the audience is solely or primarily technical. Only a very limited segment of the uPortal audience is going to care if a box of content is technically a "channel" or "portlet". But everyone is going to need to know what to call said box of content. How can the average person make sense of "managed fragment" without an in-depth explanation from Andrew Petro?

3. Use a singular term whenever possible. Especially in the case of channel and portlet. Let's find one term that can adequately cover them both and use it consistently. I can guarantee that confusion will decrease across the board.

4. Be "just enough" specific. Keep the terms as familiar and generic as possible to gain the greatest audience comprehension. iGoogle's use of "stuff", for example. Everyone knows what "stuff" is (given the context of iGoogle) and there is really no reason to try and be more specific.

I would suggest the following: "tab" for a discreet section of layout, and "portlet" for content.

If uPortal comes to a place where there is a three-tier structure, then I would suggest: tab > page > portlet.

Overall, I think portlet is debatable, and that ultimately there is a better term. But for the near-term, it would be good to standardize and to Cris' point, portlet is more future-oriented.

Perhaps the good news is that with uPortal 3, the theme labels are localizable such that "portlet" can be called "channel", "box", "stuff", "thingamabob", or whatever is desired. But please deviate with prudence.

Gary



Jen Bourey wrote:
First of all, I probably should have clarified that I'm only looking at the AJAX UI, UI links, etc. at the moment, so terms like "managed fragment" shouldn't be of concern. I also object to the use of "portlet" as a generic term. It's driven me partially insane since the day we started using it. I'm completely OK with sticking with channel and tab, although since some other terminology has crept into the UI, so it seems worthwhile to solicit some opinions about which direction we should fix it in. My preference would be to someday replace the term "channel" with something that's neither "channel" nor "portlet". Ideally I'd really rather use a term that doesn't indicate (or mis-indicate) a backing technology. That doesn't necessarily need to happen now though.

- Jen


On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Andrew Petro <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:

    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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