18 Deploying Portlets

This chapter discusses deploying portlets.

18.1 Deploying Portlets

Generally speaking, a WebLogic Portal application consists of an EAR file, an LDAP repository, and a database. The EAR file contains application code, such as JSPs and Java classes, and portal framework files that define portals, portlets, and datasync data. The embedded LDAP contains security-related data, such as entitlements, roles, users, and groups. The database contains representations of portal framework and datasync elements used by the portal runtime in streaming mode.

Portlet data can fall into the following two categories:

• Portal Framework Data – Refers to desktops, books, pages, and other portal framework elements that are created with the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.

• EAR Data – Refers to the final product of Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse development—a J2EE EAR file. The EAR must be deployed to a destination server using the deployment feature of the WebLogic Server Administration Console.

When you deploy or redeploy a portal application EAR file to a server in production mode, .portlet files are automatically loaded into the database.

The primary tools you use to perform portlet deployment are the WebLogic Portal propagation tools and the deployment feature of the WebLogic Server Administration Console. For detailed instructions on deploying a portal and its portlets, refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Production Operations Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.