Portlet Development Guide

Introduction

Portlet Overview

Portlet Development and the Portal Life Cycle

Architecture

Development

Staging

Production

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Related Guides

Part I Architecture

Portlet Planning

Portlet Development in a Distributed Portal Team

Portlets in a Non-Portal Environment

Planning Portlet Instances

Security

Interportlet Communication

Performance Planning

Portlet Types

Java Server Page (JSP) and HTML Portlets

Java Portlets (JSR 168)

Java Page Flow Portlets

Struts Portlets

Java Server Faces (JSF) Portlets

Browser (URL) Portlets

Remote Portlets

Portlet Type Summary Table

Part II Development

Understanding Portlet Development

Portlet Components

Portlet Properties

Portlet Title Bar, Mode, and State

Portlet Preferences

Resources for Creating Portlets

Portlet Rendering

Render and Pre-Render Forking

Asynchronous Portlet Content Rendering

Portlets as Popups (Detached Portlets)

JSP Tags and Controls in Portlets

Backing Files

Building Portlets

Supported Portlet Types

Portlets in Library Modules

Portlet Wizard Reference

Order of Creation - Resource or Portlet First

Creating the Resource First

Create the Portlet First

Starting the Portlet Wizard

New Portlet Dialog

Select Portlet Type Dialog

Portlet Details Dialogs

How to Build Each Type of Portlet

JSP and HTML Portlets

Java Portlets

Building a Java Portlet

Java Portlet Deployment Descriptor

Packaging Java Portlets for Use on Other Systems

Customizing Java Portlets Using weblogic-portlet.xml

Floatable Java Portlets

Adding an Icon to a Java Portlet

Java Page Flow Portlets

JSF Portlets

Placing Multiple JSF Portlets on a Portal Page

Using JSPs in JSF Portlets

Supporting Unique JSF Component Identifiers

Browser Portlets

Struts Portlets

Remote Portlets

Web Service Portlets

Detached Portlets

Considerations for Using Detached Portlets

Building Detached Portlets

Portlet Properties

Editing Portlet Properties

Tips for Using the Properties View

Portlet Properties in the Portal Properties View

Portlet Properties in the Portlet Properties View

Portlet Preferences

Specifying Portlet Preferences

Specifying Preferences for Java Portlets in the Deployment Descriptor

Specifying Preferences for Other Types of Portlets using Workshop for WebLogic

Using the Preferences API to Access or Modify Preferences

Getting Preferences Using the Preferences API

Setting Preferences Using the Preferences API

Getting and Setting Preferences for Java Portlets Using the Preferences API

Getting and Setting Portlet Preferences Using the API for Other Portlet Types

JSP Tags for Getting Portlet Preferences

Portlet Preferences SPI

Implement the SPI

Using the SPI

Best Practices in Using Portlet Preferences

Desktop Testing of Portlet Preferences

Users Must be Authenticated

Do Not Store Arbitrary Data as Preferences

Perform setup steps:

Set up preferences in your portlet:

Do Not Use Instance IDs Instead of Preferences

Backing Files

How Backing Files are Executed

Thread Safety and Backing Files

Scoping and Backing Files

Backing File Guidelines

Adding a Backing File Using Workshop for WebLogic

Adding the Backing File Directly to the .portlet File

Portlet Appearance and Features

Portlet Dependencies

Identifying Portlet Dependencies

Considerations and Limitations

Creating a Dependency File

Portlet Modes

Adding or Removing a Mode for an Existing Portlet

Properties Related to Portlet Modes

Portlet States

Modifying Portlet States in Workshop for WebLogic

Minimizing or Maximizing a Portlet Programmatically

Portlet Title Bar Icons

Portlet Height and Scrolling

Making All Portlets Scroll

Getting Request Data in Page Flow Portlets

JSP Tags and Controls in Portlets

Viewing Available JSP Tags

Viewing Available Controls

Portlet State Persistence

Adding a Portlet to a Portal

Deleting Portlets

Third-Party Portlets

Autonomy Portlets

Documentum Portlets

MobileAware Portlets

Advanced Portlet Development with Tag Libraries

Adding ActiveMenus

Configuring the ActiveMenus Tag

Using The TypeInclude tag

Using The Type Tag

Using The TypeDefault Tag

Using The menuItem Tag

Using the ActiveMenus Tag

Enabling Drag and Drop

Using the DragDrop Tags

Using the dragDropScript Tag

Using the draggableResource Tag

Using the resourceDropZone Tag

Enabling Dynamic Content

Understanding the DynamicContent Tags

The Container Tag

The Container Action Script Tag

The Execute Container Action Tag

The Parameter Tags

Using the DynamicContent Tags

Optimizing Portlet Performance

Performance-Related Portlet Properties

Portlet Caching

Remote Portlets

Portlet Forking

Configuring Portlets for Forking

Architectural Details of Forked Portlets

Understanding Request Latency and the Portal Life Cycle

Queuing and Dispatching Forked Portlets for Processing

Dispatching Pre-Render Forked Portlets to Threads

Dispatching Render Forked Portlets to Threads

Threading Details and Coordination

Forking Versus Asynchronous Rendering

Best Practices for Developing Forked Portlets

Consider Thread Safety

Consider the Runtime Environment for Forked Portlets

Isolation of Forked Portlets from the Runtime Environment

BackingContext and Pre-Render Forked Portlets

Use Caution with Interportlet Communication and Forked Portlets

Asynchronous Portlet Content Rendering

Implementing Asynchronous Portlet Content Rendering

Thread Safety and Asynchronous Rendering

Considerations for IFRAME-based Asynchronous Rendering

Considerations for AJAX-based Asynchronous Rendering

Comparison of IFRAME- and AJAX-based Asynchronous Rendering

Comparison of Asynchronous and Conventional or Forked Rendering

Portal Life Cycle Considerations with Asynchronous Content Rendering

Asynchronous Content Rendering and IPC

File Upload Forms

Disabling Asynchronous Rendering for a Single Interaction

URL Compression

Local Interportlet Communication

Definition Labels and Interportlet Communication

Portlet Events

Event Handlers

Generic Event Handlers

Event Types

Event Actions

Portlet Event Handlers Wizard Reference

Portlet Event Handlers Wizard Dialogs

Portlet Event Handlers Wizard - Add Handler Field Descriptions

Portlet Event Handlers Wizard - Add Action Field Descriptions

IPC Example

Before You Begin - Environment Setup

Basic IPC Example

Create the Portlets

Create the JSP Files and Portlets

Create the Backing File

Attach the Backing File

Add the Event Handler to bPortlet

Test the Project

Summary

IPC Special Considerations and Limitations

Using Asynchronous Portlet Rendering with IPC

Generic Event Handler for WSRP

Consistency of the Listen To Field

Part III Staging

Assembling Portlets into Desktops

Portlet Library

Managing Portlets Using the Administration Console

Copying a Portlet in the Library

Modifying Library Portlet Properties

Modifying Desktop Portlet Properties

Deleting a Portlet

Managing Portlets on Pages

Adding Portlets to a Page

Positioning Elements on a Page

Overview of Portlet Categories

Creating a Portlet Category

Modifying Portlet Category Properties

Adding Portlets to a Portlet Category

Overview of Portlet Preferences

Creating a Portlet Preference

Editing a Portlet Preference

Overview of Delegated Administration

Overview of Visitor Entitlements

Deploying Portlets

Deploying Portlets

Part IV Production

Managing Portlets in Production

Pushing Changes from the Library into Production

Transferring Changes from Production Back to Development

Portlet Database Data

Database Structure for Portlet Data

Removing Portlets from Production

Portlet Resources in the Database

Types of Database Tables

Management of Portlet Data

How the Database Shows Removed Portlets