Portal Server APIs

Portal Server provides programming tools that enable developers to create custom portlets. These include the following:

• Provider API for extending the base classes to create new providers

• Desktop API for creating new providers for delivering portal content

• Portlet API for implementing Java Specification Request (JSR) 286: Portlet Specification 2.0

• JSF Portlet Bridge 1.2 for running JavaServer^TM Faces-based applications as portlets in a web container that supports JSF 1.2

• Struts Portlet Bridge for developing Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE^TM) applications

• Simple API for Workflow for writing task management portlets in conjunction with Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite human workflow feature

• Content Management API to interact with the content management system and write custom portlets for using content in the repository

• Administration portlet for developing administration portlets that enable Desktop functions of a portal to be managed from the Desktop instead of from the management console

• Authentication API for changing the appearance and behavior of the authentication screen, enabling authentication modules, and adding custom authentication modules

• Search APIs

  • Search API for creating and modifying search objects in C

  • C API for customizing the way the robot crawls URLs and generates resource descriptions

  • Java APIs for searching the database, for submitting data, and for manipulating search objects such as resource descriptions

  • Search provider tag library and helper beans to create custom search JSPs

  • Resource Description Manager API for enabling two processes to exchange resource descriptions across a network

Programmers can use other tools to create custom portlets. The ROME library (not a Portal Server tool) for parsing, generating and publishing RSS (rich site summary) and Atom feeds are examples.

Portal Server provides a sample portlet to illustrate portlet functions and facilitate the design of custom portlets. For more information about Portal Server programming tools, see Sun Java System Portal Server 7.2 Developer’s Guide