Building Applications with the KNS

The History of the KNS

• KFS spent a large amount of development time up front, using the best talent from each of the partner institutions

• Came up with a foundation on which to build KFS - the Kuali Nervous System

• It focused on a unified approach to development of functionality– A standard way to use workflow, perform CRUD operations,

handle business transactions• KNS extracted into Rice as a module

KNS Overview

• The Kuali Nervous System provides a rich set of open source functionality which can be used to build an electronic document– started as part of the Kuali Financial Systems

project– now part of Rice and Kuali Research

Administration uses it too

KNS Overview (2)

• Provides reusable code, shared services, integration layer, and a development strategy

• Provides a common look and feel through screen drawing framework

• A document (business process) centric model with workflow as a core concept

KNS Diagram

KNS Development

CHART_TChart

(POJO)ORMMap

Data Dictionary

Lookups and

Inquiries

MaintenanceDocuments

TransactionalDocuments

Workflow(KEW)

KNS – The Toolkit

• KNS frameworks provide infrastructure for common business object operations.– Lookups allow users to find and return specific

values.– Inquiries allow users to see related data for a

specific value’s record.– Maintenance documents create or update new

business object entities.

Other KNS Features

• Data Dictionary• Question component• Notes and attachments• Pluggable business rules• KIM Integration for Authorization• System parameters

Lookup Page

Inquiry Page

Maintenance Document

Data Dictionary

• Business Objectso Attributeso Lookupso Inquirieso Relationships

• Document Definitionso Sectionso Fieldso Collections

The Data Dictionary

Business Object XML• Provides metadata for business object properties

– i.e. maxLength, labels, control types• Metadata is accessible in JSPs for business object

field rendering• Contains lookup and inquiry sections used for

constructing those screens by the frameworks

The Data Dictionary (cont)

Transactional Document XML• Associates a Rule class and Authorizer class with the

document type• Maps a document class to a workflow document name and

document type

Maintenance Document XML• Has many of the same features, but also defines the layout of

the maintenance document itself.

Business Objects

• Attributeso Labelso UI Widgetso Validation

• Lookups• Inquiries• Relationships

Types of Documents

• Two types of documents

– Maintenance Documents

– Transactional Documents

Maintenance Documents

• Creates, Edits, Copies, and Inactivates Business Objects

Maintenance Documents (2)

• No GUI programming required, user interface is rendered by framework

• These are used for maintaining data• An easy way to maintain support tables in a database• Supports creation of new records and editing of existing

records• Examples include:

– Budget rates– Project codes

Transactional Documents

• Any service you can think of

Transactional Documents (2)

• These are data-entry centric documents or “transactions” that model the business processes

• Examples include: Proposal Development, Journal Entry, Payment Reimbursement

• Built on a case by case basis using the Kuali Rice tag libraries (encompass snippets of UI behavior):– Notes and attachments– Workflow route log (audit log)

• Integrated with workflow

The Document Hierarchy

Parallel Hierarchies

KIM - Permissions

• KIM has the concepts of Permission Templates and Permissions

• Permission Template represents some course-grained permission– Use Screen, Initiate Document, Maintain Records, etc.

• A Permission is created from a template and has more specific information identified on it’s permission details– for example “Initiate Document” of type “Transfer of Funds”

KIM - Permissions

• Evaluation of permissions is handled by the permission service. KIM provides plug points for implementing custom logic for permission checking– Example: permission checks based on hierarchical data

• Example Service Operations:– Is principal authorized by permission name w/details– Is principal authorized by permission template name w/details– Get assignees for permission– Get authorized permissions for principal– Get ids of roles that have given permission

Permission Data Model

KNS usage of KIM Permissions• Many permissions exist that are used by KNS, examples:

– Edit Document– Look Up Records– Use Screen– Create / Maintain Records