Chapter 2 Understanding the Standard Desktop

This topic describes the standard Desktop and how it delivers content to end users. This topic provides the following sections:

• Delivering Content

• Implementing the WSRP Standard

Delivering Content

The standard Desktop, which end users access by using an HTML browser, provides the primary end-user interface for Portal Server.

End users can access and use two additional Desktops, if they are configured to do so:

• The mobile Desktop, using a mobile device

• The voice Desktop, using one of the following:

  • A phone

  • Software that enables Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and supports Voice over IP (VoIP)

For information, see the Sun Java^TM System Portal Server Mobile Access documentation.

The standard Desktop displays a web page that arranges content in rows and columns. Each specialized content area within the page occupies a small window.

The mechanism for delivering content to these windows is a container channel or a channel. A container channel, often simply called a container, generates its content by aggregating the content of other channels.

A channel is a component that processes requests and generates content. A channel consists of the following:

• A provider object

• Configuration files

• Data files, such as XML files and HTML templates, that are required to support the channel

Portal Server accepts three types of channels:

• Community portlets – Process requests from and generate content for a community. Community members use community portlets to set up and manage communities.

• Portlets – Process requests and generate content. Portlets are automatically detected and configured web components. The Portlet Container, an implementation of the JSR 168: Portlet Specification defined by the Java Community, manages portlets.

• Providers – Adapt the interfaces of generic resources. For example:

  • JSP providers compile and execute JSP files to generate content

  • XML providers translate XML files to general content

The Portal Server also can query providers for information to display text and graphics in channels.

Portal Server supports portlet content obtained from local as well as remote sources. For information about remote portlets, see Implementing the WSRP Standard.

To Manage Containers and Channels

To manage containers and channels on a portal Desktop, use the Manage Containers and Channels page of the Portal Server management console.

1. Log on to the Portal Server management console.

2. Click the Portals tab.

   The Portals page displays a list of your existing portals.

3. Click the name of the portal whose Desktop you want to manage.

   The Desktop Tasks and Attributes page appears.

4. In the Tasks section, click the Manage Containers & Channels link.

   The Manage Containers and Channels page appears.

5. To update your Desktop, use the Manage Containers and Channels page selections.

   For additional information, click the Help button.

Implementing the WSRP Standard

Portlets available from local sources provide most of a portal's base functions. Remote portlets allow administrators to provide content without installation effort and without code running locally on the consuming portal server.

Portal Server implements the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) 1.0 standard, a web services protocol for aggregating content and interactive web applications from remote sources. The implementation includes the following:

• The WSRP consumer, a web service client (the portal)

  • Invokes producer-offered WSRP web services

  • Provides an environment for end users to interact with portlets that one or more WSRP producers offer

• The WSRP producer, a web server

  • Offers just one portlet or provides a runtime (or a container) for deploying and managing several portlets

  • Implements various WSRP interfaces and operations

Portal Server's implementation of the WSRP producer supports publishing JSR 168 portlets for use by remote WSRP consumers. The JSR 168 portlets are deployed locally on a portal server. An instance of the WSRP producer can publish these portlets.

Before a portal that acts as a WSRP consumer can access a remote portlet, the portal must find the producer's web service definition language (WSDL). The producer can register the WSDL, as well as other information related to the producer, in the UDDI (universal description discovery interface) service registry. Registration makes the portlet available to the consumer.

For additional information, see the WSRP 1.0 standard set by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS):

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=wsrp