Portal, V6.1

 

Web 2.0 user interface features

 

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Web 2.0 portal theme w/support for Client Side Aggregation

Using Client Side Aggregation instead of Server Side Aggregation provides...

• Faster rendering and performance

• Desktop like user experience

• Existing portlets that were written to the server side programming model can be tied in by using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML).

  For example, such portlets can be refreshed individually rather than rerender the whole page.

• The use of the portal Web 2.0 theme for portlets in the portal is optional.

  Server side aggregation is provided as a fallback option. For example, if the browser does not support JavaScript, the "old" portal rendering procedure is still available.

 

Client side portlet programming model

With the client side programming model user customization of...

• user profile
• preferences
• changes to the portlet state

...are done locally, and therefore with a faster response time. A fragment that contains the customization is later sent to the server and saved.

The user experience is consistent between both CSA and SSA. The user cannot tell the difference between CSA and SSA, except that CSA performs better.

 

Live text

Live text provides elements embedded in portal pages that become active in the browser and are enhanced with additional functionality by JavaScript libraries. For example, if you include portal user IDs in portlet output and mark them as live text, users can click on these IDs in the browser and see a person info card or a context menu that allows them to send a mail to the person.

Live text has the following advantages:

• Live text allows easier click to action.

• Easier to handle portal tags. For example, you can write tags and then make them available to other UI developers for reuse.

• Content editors can add meaningful live text elements to portlets without requiring portlet development knowledge.

• You can embed content from other sources, for example, from a HTTP or .NET server.

 

REST services

Portal offers the following Representational State Transfer (REST) services...

• Layout model
• Portlet model
• Content model
• Navigation model
• Wire model
• User profile

By the use of REST services you can write your own advanced Web application and build it on top of new REST services that provide the XML request information.

REST services allow you to access portal models remotely for both read and write access. The Navigation model allows read access only. Updated by changes made to the content model.

 

Controller SPI

The Controller SPI is a new public portal interface.

It is not directly related to the new type of Web user experience, but it allows you to perform certain administrative tasks more easily.

 

Terminology

These are terms that are used in the documentation for the new features:

CSA

Client Side Aggregation.

Aggregation based on JavaScript and XSLT transformations that are executed on the client. This is the new aggregation model that provides an improved user experience by faster response and performance.

SSA

Server Side Aggregation

Aggregation based on JSPs that are executed on the Server. This is the "old" portal aggregation model; this still works as before.

Pure Server Side Portlet

Normal server side portlet that uses Java and JSPs; it usually uses no JavaScript. Portlets that are written to the client side model use no or few JSPs.

AJAX Portlet

Normal server side portlet that uses lots of JavaScript and AJAX technologies and less Java & JSPs.

DPR

Differential Page Rendering.

This denotes the server side rendering model that is used by the Web 2.0 theme. The concept of DPR is to render only those parts of a portal page that were affected by the a user interaction.

For example, if a user interacts with a single self-contained portlet that runs in the Web 2.0 theme, the portal refreshes only this portlet rather than the entire portal page.

 

Parent topic: What's new