Chapter 1 Understanding Portal Server

This topic provides a conceptual overview of key features of Portal Server. The following sections are provided:

• About Portal Server

• Portal Server Communities

• Portal Server Search Server

• Portal Server Data Management

• Portal Server Deployment

About Portal Server

Portal Server allows administrators and delegated administrators to build portal pages and to make them available to individuals throughout an enterprise according to user identities. The Desktop is the interface that the end user accesses to view the content for a portal site.

The product is a component of the Sun Java^TM Enterprise System (Java ES), a software system that supports a wide range of enterprise computing needs.

Portal Server provides a framework and a set of software modules that offer the following:

• Security

• Mobility

• Identity-based content delivery

• Collaboration

• Business system integration

Portal Server's core framework supports the Java Specification Request (JSR) 168 Portlet Specification standard and the web services for remote portlets (WSRP) 1.0 standard for portal content. Portlet developers can use the Sun Java Studio Creator 2 application development tool or open standard tools to build portlets. Portal administrators can then leverage portlets, WSRP consumers, or additional portal tools for adding content to portal pages.

A Portal Server installation provides the following:

• Sun Java System Directory Server

• A web container, such as Sun Java System Application Server or Sun Java System Web Server

• Sun Java System Access Manager for identity and user management, including authentication, authorization, and federation

• Sun Java System Portal Server

• A search server

• A wiki based on JSPWiki.org

• A management console

• Development tools

• Three sample portals

  • Sample enterprise portal

  • Sample developer portal

  • Sample community portal

• Java DB, Sun's supported distribution of the open source Apache Derby database written in the Java programming language, to support collaboration

Portal Server works with previously installed software components as long as the software is an appropriate version. For more information about product requirements, see the “Checking Hardware and Software Requirements” section in Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Configuration Guide.

Portal Server Communities

Portal Server provides community services for end users. End users can use communities to work jointly with each other and the entire community.

A portal community consists of the following:

• An owner who sets up the community

• A portal page available to community members

• A list of members who subscribe to the community

• A set of services (usually portlets) available to the end users

• A set of data that the community uses

End users define and set up communities. Community members use communities to interact with others in the community and to manage content and business processes.

For more information about communities and collaboration, see Chapter 3, “Understanding Portal Server Community Features.”

Portal Server Search Server

Portal Server search server provides interfaces that allow end users to locate resources in a database. The search server provides the following:

• A robot to discover, convert, and summarize document resources

• An end-user interface, provided by the Desktop, using JSP providers

• Configuration tools provided by the Portal Server management console

• A command-line interface for system management

The search server supports federated search, a single search to multiple search engines, including the following:

• Google

• LDAP directory (using Java Naming and Directory Interface^TM API, or J.N.D.I. API)

• Relational database management system or RDBMS (using Java DataBase Connectivity software or JDBC^TM API)

• Remote resource description messages (RDM) interface

Federated search results are displayed on a single page.

Administrators use the Portal Server management console to perform search server administrative and configuration tasks. The Portal Server command-line interface provides psadmin subcommands for managing the search server.

For more information about the search server, see Chapter 4, “Understanding the Portal Server Search Server.”

Portal Server Data Management

Portal Server uses the following databases:

• LDAP directory - Stores data for directory and authentication services. Portal Server administrators use the management console and the command-line interface to manage the following:

  • Portal-specific user and organization information

  • WSRP data

  • Configuration data for portals and instances

• Search server database - Stores data for the search server, including the following:

  • Resource descriptors data

  • Robot configuration data

  • Taxonomy data

  • Discussions data

• Relational database - Stores information about the following:

  • Communities

  • File sharing

  • Surveys

  • Wikis

  Two relational databases are available:

  • JavaDB - Sun's supported distribution of the open source Apache Derby and installed by default during Portal Server installation

  • Oracle - Must be installed

  Administrators can create JavaDB and Oracle instances on dedicated hosts.

For information about Portal Server directories, see Appendix D, “Understanding How Files and Directories Are Installed” in the Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Deployment Planning Guide.

Portal Server Deployment

Portal Server enables enterprises to design a variety of deployment scenarios. This section provides the following topics:

• Open and Secure Intranet Access

• Multiple Portals

• Single Sign-On Authentication

Each enterprise assesses its own needs and plans its own deployment of Java Enterprise System. The optimal deployment for each enterprise depends on a variety of factors, including:

• The types of applications that Java Enterprise System is supporting

• The number of users

• What hardware is available

For more information about deployment planning and deployment scenarios, see the Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Deployment Planning Guide.

Open and Secure Intranet Access

Two options are available for providing end users access to the intranet that contains a portal:

• An open Portal Server that runs using HTTP or HTTP SSL. This option provides end users access only to the portal and the resources made available directly through the portal.

• A secure Portal Server that runs with the Secure Remote Access server. This option provides end users with secure remote access to the following:

  • Intranet file systems

  • Applications

  • Web sites

  • The portal and resources made available directly through the portal

  Only the IP address of the Gateway is published to the Internet.

Multiple Portals

Portal Server supports multiple portals using a single user repository. Administrators can design, deploy, and administer each portal independently. Setting up multiple portals for single end users allows administrators to do the following:

• Deploy multiple portals and Portal Server instances on one or more hosts

• Use Access Manager software to manage users for all portals

• Provide different content for different portals

• Offer single sign-on (SSO) between portals

• Enable end users to customize their Desktops for each portal

To manage end users, portal administrators use tools provided by Access Manager. End-user data in LDAP directories do not need to be synchronized with any other repository.

A portal is a collection of one or more Portal Server instances that deliver the same content and are mapped to a single URL. The content and services delivered by a portal are common to all of its instances.

A Portal Server instance is a web application deployed into a web container, using a particular portal context URI and serving requests on a specific network port. Each Portal Server instance is associated with a single portal.

Multiple portals share the same user repository, or Access Manager. These portals can be deployed on one host or on two or more hosts. Using the same user ID and the same session, a single end user can access more than one portal.

Single Sign-On Authentication

Single sign-on (SSO) enables end users to enter a password or other credentials once to gain authenticated access to various resource servers, which supply applications or services. Portal Server provides two ways of providing SSO:

• Access Manager - Within Java Enterprise System, the Access Manager product manages SSO. Portal Server is one of the resource servers for which SSO is enabled.

  Once an end user is authenticated with Access Manager, he can access Portal Server and any other resource server that Access Manager controls.

• SSO Adapter service - To deliver content from a third-party server that is not integrated with Access Manager, Portal Server provides an SSO Adapter service. Services accessed using SSO Adapter can include mail, calendar, address book, WSRP portlets, and data web services.

  The SSO Adapter service:

  • Establishes a connection to third-party server back-end systems

  • Stores configuration data and user credentials that Portal Server needs to access these services on behalf of the user

  • Defines two levels of data:

    • SSO Adapter template defines a class of connections to be made available to users. Many end users use a single template. Because the template defines the same data values, including default values and what values a user can edit, for all users, SSO Adapter templates are defined at a global service level.

    • SSO Adapter configuration provides data values that are specific to a user. A configuration references a template and takes data values from the template for properties that end users cannot change. End users can change user-editable properties of an SSO Adapter configuration. Changes to these properties apply only to the individual end user who makes the changes.