Services offered by the Technology Portal
User Registration and Authentication/Authorization[edit | edit source]
One of the required features that should be delivered with the first public release of the marketplace is the ability of the platform to authenticate the user of the platform and authorize him to perform specific actions. Authentication is performed through the login form depicted on Figure 18. In this form, the user enters his credentials and asks for authentication. The platform then validates the provided credentials and decides whether to grant permissions to the user or not. Permissions are distinguished in two specific user groups, users and administrators. Users are allowed to access details of each artifact, submit a new artifact, update an existing one. The administrators are able to list the existing users of the system but without having access to critical data such as their passwords. Moreover, administrators are able to screen the submissions of artifacts and accept them or not for publishing in the repository.
In case the user is not yet registered to the Marketplace, the respective functionality is given through the registration form, shown in Figure 19. In this form, the guest is requested to enter some personal details such as email, password, first name, last name, organization name, type of organization, and country of origin.
Such critical information such as credentials and personal data of the users are transmitted encrypted over TLS from the browser to the server.
Of course, authentication is not needed for basic activities such the browsing of artifacts, accessing the policy terms, terms of use or contact pages.
User Management[edit | edit source]
The user that belongs to the administrators’ group is permitted to access the users page where he may have a general overview of the registered users and their status (active, disabled, not confirmed). Of course, the credentials of the users are not possible to be presented as they are stored encrypted to the database. The administrator can enable or disable users. Deletion is not permitted in favor of data integrity.
Artifacts Repository[edit | edit source]
The artifacts repository is one of the most important functionalities that the Marketplace delivers to the public. This repository stores artifacts that the users may find useful in their organization and support them to elevate their expertise on a domain, improve the maturity of their product, find funding resources, discover new collaborations, etc. These artifacts are presented as a list of cards that present the basic information of each artifact in a user-friendly way. To improve the experience of the user and the functionality of the repository, searching and filtering capabilities are also supported through a set of filters that allow the user to focus on the artifacts of his interest. A view of the repository page is presented in Figure 20. The link for accessing/downloading the artifact’s resources is available in the bottom left corner of each card only for the authenticated and authorized users.
Artifacts Submission Process[edit | edit source]
The artifacts submission process consists of two independent paths. The first path is performed by the user who accesses the contribution page and submits the required details for its artifact through a web form. This form is presented on Figure 21 and requests from the user to fill in the fields with the required information. The most important information that describes each artifact comprises of:
- Artifact’s name
- Artifact’s description
- Artifact’s domain
- Artifact’s category
- Artifact’s Type
- Artifact’s License
- Artifact’s version
- Artifact’s download link
When the fields of the form are all filled the user submits the form. However, the artifact is not yet available through the repository. The permission for publishing a submitted artifact to the repository is given by the administrators of the Marketplace. The users that belong to the administrator’s user group are performing a primary screening of each submission in order to reassure that the submission fits to the scope of the Marketplace. Since this is achieved, the status of the artifacts is updated to published and it becomes available to the users of the platform.
Preliminary Match – Making Service[edit | edit source]
The Match – Making service is the second fundamental service that is planned to be delivered through the Marketplace. In this first version, this is performed through an external link that navigates the user/guest of the platform to a 3rd party tool. However, the developments of the match – making services are still in progress in order to release a more sophisticated service based on Artificial Intelligence in the near future.