About Extending Portal Services with Portlets

Portlets provide portal users customized tools and services as well as information. Portlets let you to integrate applications, tools, and services into your portal, while taking advantage of portal security, caching, and customization. Users can then add these portlets to their My Pages or to community pages.

Portlets

Portlets can be intrinsic or remote. An intrinsic portlet consists of one or more sets of code that are located on the portal computer. Your portal administrator needs to install this code in the correct location before an intrinsic portlet can be created. A remote portlet is a portlet hosted by a separate remote server. When a user displays a My Page or community page that includes a remote portlet, the portal contacts the appropriate remote server to obtain updated portlet content.

Some portlets can be placed only in certain areas of the page:

Header portlets can be added to communities, community templates, and experience definitions to change the branding of these objects by replacing a banner at the top of the page (so that it differs from the top banner displayed by the main portal).
Footer portlets can be added to communities, community templates, and experience definitions to change the branding of these objects by replacing the banner at the bottom of the page (so that it differs from the bottom banner displayed by the main portal).
Content canvas portlets can be added below the top banner on community pages that include a content canvas space (specified in the page layout). Content canvas portlets can display across the entire width of the page or across one or two columns. You cannot add more than one content canvas portlet per page.

Portlet Web Services

Portlet web services allow you to specify functional settings for your portlets, leaving the display settings to be set in each associated portlet. There are intrinsic portlet web services and remote portlet web services.

An intrinsic portlet web service references one or more sets of code that are located on the portal computer. Your portal administrator must install this code in the correct location before you can create the associated intrinsic portlet web service.

A remote portlet web service references services hosted by a separate remote server. These services can be hosted by a web site or can be provided by code on a remote server. If the code is hosted by a remote server, your portal administrator must install this code before you can create the associated remote portlet web service. When a user displays a My Page or community page that includes a remote portlet, the portal contacts the appropriate remote server to obtain updated portlet content.

Portlet Templates

Portlet templates allow you to create multiple instances of a portlet, each displaying slightly different information. For example, you might want to create a Regional Sales portlet template, from which you could create different portlets for each region to which your company sells. You might even want to include all Regional Sales portlets on one page for an executive overview.

After you have created a portlet from a portlet template, there is no further relationship between the two objects. If you make changes to the portlet template, these changes are not reflected in the portlets already created with the template.

Portlet Bundles

Portlet bundles are groups of related portlets, packaged together for easy inclusion on My Pages or community pages. You might want to create portlet bundles for portlets that have related functions or for all the portlets that a particular group of users might find useful. This makes it easier for users to find portlets related to their specific needs without having to browse through all the portlets in your portal.

Portlet Content Caching

Caching some portlet content can greatly improve the performance of your portal. When you cache portlet content, the content is saved on the portal for a specified period of time. Each time a user requests this content—by accessing a My Page or community page that includes the cached portlet—the portal delivers the cached content rather than running the portlet code to produce the content.

When you create a portlet, you can specify whether or not the portlet should be cached, and if it is cached, for how long. You should cache any portlet that does not provide user-specific content. For example, you would cache a portlet that produces stock quotes, but not one that displays a user e-mail box.

If you develop portlet code, you can and should define caching parameters.

For more information on portlet caching, refer to the BEA AquaLogic User Interaction Development Center or the documentation provided with the portlet software.

Portlets Available with the Portal

Some portlets (and their necessary portlet web services and remote servers) are automatically created in the Portal Resources folder when you install the portal. There are also portlets that are available with the portal installation, but require additional steps to complete installation. For information on the additional installation steps, refer to the Installation Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.

Note: You can also create your own portlets, have a web developer or an AquaLogic User Interaction portlet developer create portlets for you, or download portlets from the AquaLogic User Interaction Support Center.

For information on installing and configuring portlets provided as a software package, refer to the portlet software documentation instead of the procedures in this guide. For information on developing portlets, see the BEA AquaLogic User Interaction Development Center.

The following navigation portlet can be used with the Portlet-Ready Navigation scheme (set in an experience definition) to provide custom navigation for your portal:

Navigation Tags Header Portlet: This portlet is provided as an example of a custom header that includes navigation tags; you can customize it and use it in communities or experience definitions. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder.
Note: The Tag Navigation experience definition is also included in the portal as a convenience when you are using portlets for navigation. This experience definition uses the Portlet-Ready Navigation scheme and has the Navigation Tags Header Portlet set as its header.

The following branding portlets enable you to add custom branding to your portal pages:

Classic Footer Portlet: This portlet is provided as an example of a custom footer that you can customize and use in communities or experience definitions.
Classic Header Portlet: This portlet is provided as an example of a custom header that you can customize and use in communities or experience definitions.
Layout Footer Portlet: This portlet is provided as an example of a custom footer that uses adaptive tags; you can customize it and use it in communities or experience definitions.
Layout Header Portlet: This portlet is provided as an example of a custom header that uses adaptive tags; you can customize it and use it in communities or experience definitions.

The following login portlets can be added to guest default profiles so users can log in to the portal:

Portal Login: This portlet allows users to log in to the portal. You probably want to add this to all your guest users' home pages so that users can log in from the default page displayed when they navigate to your portal.
Tag Login Portlet: This portlet is provided as an example of a custom login portlet that uses adaptive tags; you can customize it and add it to your guest users' home pages so that users can log in from the default page displayed when they navigate to your portal. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder. For information on adaptive tags, see the Adaptive Page Layouts section of the AquaLogic User Interaction Development Guide.

The following user profile portlets are included on the user profile page by default:

Folder Expertise: This portlet displays the folders for which the user is an expert. Portal administrators can add users to a folder as an expert through the Related Resources page of the Folder Editor, or, if users have the Self-Selected Experts activity right, they can add themselves as experts when they are browsing folders in the Knowledge Directory. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder and is displayed on the user profile page by default.
General Information: This portlet displays user profile information such as name and address, but it is configurable by the portal administrator to display any information. If your portal displays a legacy layout (rather than adaptive layouts), this portlet is displayed on the user profile page by default. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder.
Managed Communities: This portlet displays the communities to which the user has Edit or Admin access. If your portal displays a legacy layout (rather than adaptive layouts), this portlet is displayed on the user profile page by default. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder.

The following portlets are ready to be added to My Pages and community pages:

Job Histories Intrinsic Portlet: This portlet displays the same job history information that is displayed on the Job History page of the Automation Service Manager. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder.
Portal Search: This portlet lets users search your portal and access their saved searches. Users might want to add this to their home page for easy access to their saved searches. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources folder.
RSS Reader Portlet: This portlet lets users specify an RSS or ATOM feed to display on a My Page. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources/RSS Reader folder, but is available only if the portal administrator installed the Remote Portlet Service and imported the RSS Reader migration package.
RSS Community Reader Portlet: This portlet lets community managers specify an RSS or ATOM feed to display on a community page. This portlet is stored in the Portal Resources/RSS Reader folder, but is available only if the portal administrator installed the Remote Portlet Service and imported the RSS Reader migration package.
User Activities: This portlet displays a user’s status history and any other recent activities that are submitted by other applications. This portlet is stored in the Activity Service folder, but is available only if the portal administrator installed the Remote Portlet Service and imported the Activity Service migration package.

To view another user's activities, open the user's profile and look at the User Activities portlet displayed in the profile. To subscribe to e-mail notification or an RSS feed of the user's activity, click the appropriate button at the bottom of the user's User Activities portlet.
User Status: This portlet lets users post their current status. This portlet is stored in the Activity Service folder, but is available only if the portal administrator installed the Remote Portlet Service and imported the Activity Service migration package.

The following portlet templates (and any necessary portlet web services and remote servers) are created when you install the portal:

Community Links Portlet Template: This template is used by the portal to create portlets that display the links saved in a Community Knowledge Directory folder. This portlet template is stored in the Portal Resources folder.
Content Snapshots: This template is used by the portal to create portlets that display the results of a Snapshot Query. This portlet template is stored in the Portal Resources folder.

Providing Access to Existing Web Applications with PortletsYou can enable users to access existing web applications through the portal. For example, users may need to access an employee benefits system. If they access the benefits system through the portal, they do not have to enter their login credentials separately for that application, and can continue to have the convenience of the portal context, personalization, and navigation.
Creating an Intrinsic Portlet Web ServicePortlet web services allow you to specify functional settings for your portlets, leaving the display settings to be set in each associated portlet. An intrinsic portlet web service references one or more sets of code that are located on the portal computer.
Creating a Remote Portlet Web ServicePortlet web services allow you to specify functional settings for your portlets, leaving the display settings to be set in each associated portlet. A remote portlet web service references services hosted by a separate remote server.
Providing Custom Tools and Services with PortletsPortlets provide portal users customized tools and services as well as information. Portlets let you to integrate applications, tools, and services into your portal, while taking advantage of portal security, caching, and customization. Users can then add these portlets to their My Pages or to community pages.
Portlet PreferencesPortlets can includes several different types of preferences.
Managing User Credentials for External Applications Through the Credential Vault ManagerYou can provide secure portal access to existing web applications by setting up lockboxes to store user credentials. For example, you might want to provide portal access to a secured employee benefits system. Users can enter their user authentication information through the Password Manager on the My Account page and not have to enter the information each time they access the secured application through the portal.

AquaLogic Interaction Administrator Guide