Portal Express, Version 6.0
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux, Windows
Mobile portals
Access through mobile devices is becoming increasingly important. IBM® WebSphere® Portal Express supports mobile devices by generating pages in any markup language.
Three markup languages are currently supported:
- HTML: for desktop computers and some personal digital assistants
- WML: for WAP devices, which are typically mobile phones
- cHTML: for mobile devices in the NTT DoCoMo iMode network.
Support for other markup languages is easy to add. Users can customize a unique home page for each device, selecting content and applications that are most useful on the device.
When the home page is requested, the page is produced by detecting the type of device that is making the request and then by assembling the portlets, each of which renders its contents in the appropriate markup language.
When a user customizes the home page for a device, the portlet selection list shows only the portlets that can produce markup that is appropriate for that device. Thus, the list of available portlets for each device depends on what the portlets can actually do.
Some portlets might be available for all supported devices, while others might be available only for a single device. The user interface design of each portlet also varies from device to device, so that the user's experience can be optimized on each device. Thus, the user's home page and each of the portlets might appear very different on a mobile phone from how they appear in a desktop browser.
Supporting new devices: content transformation
Using Transcoding Technology embedded within this version of WebSphere Portal Express, portlets that normally produce HTML content can be made to automatically render WML and cHTML as well. By defining the transcoding PortletFilter on a portlet, the portlet HTML output can be converted to WML or cHTML, depending on the device that is making the request. See the Transcoding section for more details.
Supporting new devices: clients and markups
The WebSphere Portal Express page aggregation subsystem supports several markup languages and recognizes certain browsers and mobile device user agent signatures, all out of the box. The framework is easy to extend to support additional markups or new devices. To support new browsers and devices, add new markup and clients using the corresponding administration portlets.