How Portal-to-Go Works

Figure 7-1 shows how Portal-to-Go works. When an end-user requests a Portal-to-Go service, the following actions transpire:

1. Portal-to-Go's Request Manager performs user-level preprocessing, including authentication.

2. Request Manager sends a request to the corresponding Master Service.

3. Master Service invokes an adapter to retrieve the requested content.

4. Adapter returns the content in XML.

5. Transformer converts the XML content into a format appropriate for the target device.

6. Request Manager returns the information to the device.

XML and related technologies are at the core of Portal-to-Go's functionality as follows:

• XML separates presentation and content

• A DTD maps XML tags to User Interface (UI) elements

• XSL stylesheets define rules for formatting, sorting, and filtering results

Figure 7-1 How Portal-to-Go Works