Introduction to the WebSphere Portal Server

• What is a Portal
• An Example of A WebSphere Portal Site
• Benefits of Portal Sites
• General Portal Architecture
• The Major Components of Horizontal Portals
• WebSphere Portal Goals
• WebSphere Portal Components
• WebSphere Portal Accessibility
• WebSphere Portal Packaging
• WebSphere Portal Requirements
• A Typical Network Architecture for WebSphere Portal
• WebSphere Portal Server
• WebSphere Portal Server Architecture
• Portal Container
• Portal Engine Architecture
• Page Aggregation Modules
• Portlet
• WebSphere Portal Built-in Portlets
• Portlet Application
• Portlet Mode and State
• WebSphere Portlet Content Publishing (WPCP)
• Portal Document Manager (PDM)
• Search Engine
• WebSphere Portal Information
• Summary

Introduction to JSR 168 Based Portal Programming

• What is JSR 168
• Other API Alternatives
• Relationship With J2EE
• Relationship With Servlets
• A Portal Site
• The Portlet
• Portlet Application
• The portlet.xml File
• Portlet Container
• Summary

Portlet Development Using RAD v7

• The WebSphere Family
• Eclipse Platform
• The WebSphere Studio Product Family
• Rational Web Developer
• Rational Application Developer
• Key Features in RAD v7.0
• Views, Perspective and Editor Areas
• Basic Operations with RAD Views and Perspectives
• The Java Perspective
• The Debug Perspective
• Navigator View
• Package Explorer
• Outline View
• Task View
• Build and Validation
• Import and Export Project
• Templates and Code Completion
• Searching
• Setup Compiler Class Path
• JRE Switching
• Portal Development Support
• RAD 7 Installation
• Portal Server v6 Installation
• Configure Portal Server Runtime
• Basic Steps in Development
• Project Structure
• Portlet Project
• Create a Project Structure
• Working With the Project portlet.xml Editor
• Creating a Test Server
• Managing the Server
• Unit Testing
• Export Portlet Application

Basic Portal Programming

• Design Pattern of Portlet Applications Model-View-Controller
• More on MVC
• The Portlet Interface
• The Hello World Portlet
• Portlet Lifecycle - Initialization
• Portlet Lifecycle Request Handling
• Two Phase Request Processing
• The render Method
• The PortletRequest Interface
• The PortletResponse Interface
• The RenderResponse Interface
• PortletURL
• Example
• The processAction Method
• The ActionRequest Interface
• The ActionResponse Interface
• Example
• More on Render Parameter
• The GenericPortlet Class
• User Session Management
• Example
• End of Portlet Life
• Portlet Configuration
• Portlet Initialization Parameter
• Portlet Context
• Interacting With JSP
• State Management
• Better View State Management
• Portlet Preferences
• Example: Reading Preferences
• Updating Portlet Preferences
• Example: Updating Preference
• Validating Preference Update
• Example Validation

Display Generation

• Techniques in View Development
• JSP Custom Tags
• Available Portal Custom Tags
• JSR 168 Tags
• The defineObjects Tag
• More on defineObjects
• The actionURL Tag
• The param Tag
• The namespace Tag
• National Language Support
• Dynamic Translation
• Resource Bundle File
• Displaying Translated Text
• More on JSTL Internationalization Tags
• Example of Using Resource Bundles
• Static Translation
• Portlet Resource Bundle
• Providing Locale Specific Preference Defaults

Advanced Programming

• Portlet Caching
• Programmatically Control Cache
• Accessing User Information
• Steps to Access User Information
• Access User Information From Portlet
• Portlet Services
• Writing a Portlet Service
• Defining the Portlet Service Interface
• Example - AccountService
• Writing the Portlet Service Implementation java.util.prefs.Preferences
• Example - AccountServiceImpl
• Registering Portlet Services
• WAS Admin Console PortletServiceRegistryService
• Using a Service from a Portlet
• Example
• Content Access Service

Credential Vault

• Credential
• Components of Credential Vault
• Structure of the Credential Vault
• Slot
• Slot Scope
• Credential Access Level
• Single Sign-on Scenario
• CredentialSlotConfig
• Methods of CredentialSlotConfig
• CredentialVaultService
• CredentialVaultService Interface Methods
• Example - Looking Up CredentialVaultService
• Example Create a Slot
• Saving Credential in a Slot
• Credential Class
• Classes that Implement the Credential Interface
• Example Retrieve the Credential
• PassiveCredential
• UserPasswordPassiveCredential
• ActiveCredential
• HttpFormBasedAuthCredential
• Example - Using HttpFormBasedAuthCredential

Themes and Skins

• Elements of a Portal Site
• Page and Label
• Page/Label Hierarchy
• Portal Site Navigation
• URL
• Theme
• Screen
• The Home Screen
• Skin
• Container
• How is a Page Rendered?
• Directory Structure of Themes & Skins
• Creating a New Theme
• Creating a New Skin
• Custom JSP Tags portal-core Tags for Rendering Portal Page Components portal-logic:if tag for Checking Conditions if tag for Checking Conditions
• Navigating Page Hierarchy
• Tags for Locating Portal Resources
• Tags for Generating a Portal URL wps Tags for Rendering portlet control icons
• The Default.jsp
• The Control.jsp
• A Typical Layout of HTML Skins
• Summary

Cooperative Portlets

• Example Use Case
• Distinguishing an Action
• Data Source and Destination Location
• Steps to Setup Cooperation
• Understanding the WSDL
• A Simple Source WSDL
• A Simple Source JSP
• A Simple Target WSDL
• Processing the Message in the Target
• Wiring the Source and Target
• Publishing Data from a Target
• Creating Cooperative Portlets in RAD

Struts and JSF Portlet Development

• Introduction to Struts
• Why Use Struts to Write Portlets
• Struts and Portlet API Mismatch
• Customizing Struts
• Portal Struts Processor Class
• The Struts Portlet
• Struts Portlet Framework
• Struts Portlet Framework Details
• Generating Portlet URL
• The Response Object
• Action Processing
• Display Rendering
• Getting the Portlet Objects
• Struts Logging
• Creating a Struts Portlet Project
• JavaServer Faces (JSF) Basics
• Defining the Screen Layout
• Managed Bean
• Assigning the Model
• HTTP Request Handling
• Navigation
• Advantage of JSF
• Creating a JSF Portlet
• Creating a JSF Portlet
• Navigation State Management
• Advanced: Obtaining Core Objects

Personalization

• What is Personalization
• Personalization
• Recommendation Engine
• LikeMinds Recommendation Engine
• Rules Engine
• Personalization Interface in Portal Server

Composite Applications

• What Is A Composite Application?
• What Is A Component?
• Components and Applications
• Benefits Of Composite Applications
• Template
• Composite Application Design and Use
• Creating A Template
• Configuring A Template
• Edit The Template Layout
• Creating The Application
• Configuring The Application
• Using The Application
• Protecting Applications and Templates
• Defining Roles
• Roles Portlet
• Assign Application Members

Using AJAX in a Portlet

• What is AJAX?
• A Simple Example
• The Old Way
• The AJAX Way
• Two Key Aspects of AJAX
• What are the Advantages of the AJAX Approach?
• AJAX Technologies
• The Basic AJAX API
• Creating the XMLHttpRequest Object
• The XMLHttpRequest Object Basics
• Complete Example
• The Timeline
• Using AJAX from a Portlet
• Handling AJAX Requests
• Making an AJAX Request
• Where to Go From Here?

Portlet Build and Deployment Process

• Introduction
• Overview of The Build Process
• The Build Process
• Installing a Portlet Web Module
• How is a Portlet Web Module Installed?
• Managing Applications
• Managing Portlets
• Adding A Portlet To A Page
• Configuring A Portlet
• Copying A Portlet Application
• Copy A Portlet
• Removing A Portlet From A Page
• Uninstalling A Portlet Application

Portal Development Best Practices

• Architecture Best Practices
• Controller (Portlet) Guidelines
• View (JSP) Guidelines
• Configuration Management
• Session Management
• Inter Portlet Communication
• Security Guidelines
• Performance Tips
• Performance Testing Guidelines
• Summary

Web Services for Remote Portlets

• Remote Portlets
• WSRP
• WSRP Benefits
• Information Artifacts
• Security Issues
• WSRP Producer: Steps
• WSRP Consumer: Steps