# What are providers?

| Definition | Related Help Topics | Additional Information |

## Definition

Portlets are owned by entities called providers. The provider is the primary communication link between portlets and an Oracle9iAS Portal instance. The portal, provider, and portlets communicate via HTTP using a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API. To communicate, a provider must register with an Oracle9iAS Portal instance. Once registered, users such as Page Designers can access the provider's portlets in the repository and add them to Portal Web pages.

A single provider can manage one or many portlets.

There are two types of providers

- A database provider is written as a stored procedure and is used to create portlets that reside in the database. One example of a database provider is Oracle9iAS Portal itself. An Oracle9iAS Portal instance is installed in the database and can also provide portlets that are stored in the database such as charts, forms and reports.
- A Web provider is written as a Web application. It is installed and hosted on a Web server, remote from an Oracle9iAS Portal instance. Oracle9iAS communicates with a Web provider using the HTTP protocol. A portlet exposed as a Web provider can be developed in any Web language.

> To access a database provider on a remote server as though it were a Web provider, you can use the Federated Portal Adapter.

## Related Help Topics

### Concepts:

### Next Steps:

- Registering a provider with a Portal instance

## Additional Information

### On Portal Center:

- For more information go to the documentation section of Portal Center.