Personalization service concepts

A Web portal, or launch page, is an integrated Web site service that dynamically produces a customized list of Web resources available to a specific user. Resources can include corporate content, support services, and learning tools. The portal output represents a personalized list of resources based on the access permissions for the particular user. The launch page displays only those resources that have the correct access permissions for that user.

We can use WebSEAL configuration options and the authorization API entitlements service to build a custom portal solution in a ISAM environment. The process flow for building a custom WebSEAL portal service includes the following tasks:

1. Secure policies are formulated and attached at the appropriate points in the protected object resource.
2. Appropriate explicit ACLs are attached to each of these resource objects.
3. The WebSEAL configuration file is edited to include the URL to the portal service, the path of the object space containing the portal resources, and the permission bit required by the user for access to these resources.
4. For each user request to the portal URL, WebSEAL uses the Authorization Entitlement Service to search this object space and produce a list of resources that meet the authorization conditions for that user.

5. WebSEAL places this information in a PD_PORTAL HTTP header sent to the back-end (junctioned) portal server.
6. The custom portal service (such as a CGI or servlet) located on the back-end server reads the PD_PORTAL header contents and, for example, maps the contents to descriptions and URL links that are displayed to the user on a Web page. This information represents the personalized list of resources available to the user based on access control permissions.

Parent topic: Custom personalization service