Portal-based design for SaaS system presentation layer configurability

SaaS (software as a service) is a new software development mode. It has drawn many IT workers´ attentions. Its core concept is that transform from developing softwares into developing services in the process of software development. And the applied SaaS mode developed system can provide the users with a greater operating space, and it can be more meet the needs of users. In the SaaS application system, the multi-tenants share a single instance can effectively reduce the costs on hardware and maintenance and maximize the scale of SaaS application. Although the single instance architecture implements a true sense of the SaaS architecture, at the same time this architecture results that all of the tenants have to use the same version of user interface. It is quite difficult to meet the personalized needs of tenants and the user experience is rather serious. And the user interface reflects in the presentation layer when we do the web development. Obviously, the problem about the configurability of the presentation layer in SaaS application is deserved to be researched. In this paper, we focus on the portal technology and related knowledge to format a configurability strategy. Taking use of the strategy to design and implement the user interface configuration in SaaS application system.