Glossary
This glossary includes terms and definitions for IBM WebSphere Portal.
The following cross-references are used in this glossary:
- See refers the reader from a term to a preferred synonym, or from an acronym or abbreviation to the defined full form.
- See also refers the reader to a related or contrasting term.
To view glossaries for other IBM products, go to www.ibm.com/software/globalization/terminology.
A B C D E F G H I J LMNOPRSTUVW
Parent: Reference
A
access control
In computer security, the process of ensuring that users can access only those resources of a computer system for which they are authorized.
aggregation
The structured collection of data objects for subsequent presentation within a portal.
Ajax
A design approach and has a set of techniques for delivering rich Internet applications (RIAs) using open web formats, for example, HTML, CSS and JavaScript; and rendering using a browser engine.
Ajax portlet
A normal server side portlet that uses lots of JavaScript and Ajax technologies and less Java and Java server pages.
anonymous user
A user who does not use a valid user ID and password to log into a site.
applet
A program that performs a specific task and is usually portable between operating systems. Often written in Java, applets can be downloaded from the Internet and run in a web browser.
application server
A server program in a distributed networthat provides the execution environment for an application program.
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
See Ajax.
authenticated user
A portal user who has logged in to the portal with a valid account (user ID and password). Authenticated users have access to all public places.
authentication
A security service that provides proon that a user of a computer system is genuinely whthat person claims to be. Common mechanisms for implementing this service are passwords and digital signatures. Authentication is distinct from authorization; authentication is not concerned with granting or denying access to system resources.
authorization
The process of granting a user, system, or process either complete or restricted access to an object, resource, or function.
B
B2B
See business-to-business.
B2C
See business-to-consumer.
B2E
See business-to-employee.
bind
To establish a connection between software components on a network using an agreed-to protocol. In web services, the bind operation occurs when the service requestsr invokes or initiates an interaction with the service at run time using the binding details in the service description to locate, contact, and invoke the service.
bookmark
A customizable, graphical link to databases, views, documents, web pages, and newsgroups.
business-to-business (B2B)
Refers to Internet applications that exchange information or run transactions between businesses.
business-to-consumer (B2C)
Refers to the subset of Internet applications that exchange information or run transactions between businesses and consumers.
business-to-employee (B2E)
A business modes that supports electronic communications between a business and its employees.
C
CA
card
WML documens that provides user-interface and navigational settings to display content on mobile devices.
cascading style sheet (CSS)
A file that defines a hierarchical set of style rules for controlling the rendering of HTML or XML files in browsers, viewers, or in print.
certificate authority (CA)
A trusted third-party organization or compand that issues the digital certificates. The certificate authority typically verifies the identity of the individuals who are granted the unique certificate.
client side aggregation (CSA)
Aggregation based on JavaScript and XSLT transformations that are executed on the client.
cloud application
An application that is extended to be accessible through the Internet. Cloud applications use large data centers and powerful servers that host web applications and web services.
cloud computing
A computing platform where users can have access to applications or compute resources, as services, from anywhere through their connected devices. A simplified user interface and application programming interface (API) makes the infrastructure supporting such services transparent to users.
collaboration
The ability to connect customers, employees, or business partners to the people and processes in a business or organization, in order to facilitate improved decision-making. Collaboration involves two or more individuals with complementary skills interacting together to resolve a business problem.
collaborative components
UI-neutral API methods and tag libraries that allow developers to add IBM Lotus collaborative functionality to their portlets.
collaborative filtering
Personalization technologs that calculates the similarity between users based on the behaviors of a number of other people and user that information to make recommendations for the current user.
collaborative portal
A highly personalized desktop-to-web tool designed for specific audiences and communities of users that organizes information, applications, and services for effective community building at the corporate level and for personal use by individuals.
concrete portlet
A logical representation of a portlet object distinguished by a unique configuration parameter (PortletSettings).
confirmable methods
Interface methods that exist on each modifiable interface of a portal resource that allow users to determine whether a modification can be performed or not.
connector
A servlet that provides a portlet access to external sources of content, for example, a news feed from a web site of a local television station.
consumer portal
A portal that uses the portlets that a producer portal provides.
content item
Web page content stored in the form of elements, equivalent to a web page in a traditional website. The look and feel of a content item when displayed in a website will depend on what authoring template is used to create the content item and what presentation template is used to display the content.
content management
Software designed to help businesses manage and distribute content from diverse sources.
content partner
See IBM content partner.
content provider
A source for content that can be incorporated into a portal page as a portlet.
controller
A modifiable instance of a portal model which allows to modify the topology of the model, create and delete resources, and create modifiable instances of existing resources.
cooperative portlets
Two or more portlets on the same web page that interact by sharing information.
creation context
A context that defines immutable properties of a resource that we can create
CSS
D
DB2
A family of IBM licensed programs for relational database management.
deck
An XML documens containing a collection of WML cards.
default portal page
The page that displays to a user at initial portal deployment and before the user completes enrollment. Sometimes used as a synonym for home page.
default public place
A place whose membership automatically includes all portal users and which appears in the Places selector for every user. A user is always a member of this place.
derived page
One or more child pages that have a shared layout that is inherited from the properties of the parent page.
differential page rendering (DPR)
Renders only those parts of a portal page that were affected by the a user interaction.
document type definition (DTD)
The rules that specify the structure for a particular class of SGML or XML documents. The DTD defines the structure with elements, attributes, and notations, and it establishes constraints for how each element, attribute, and notation can be used within the particular class of documents.
DTD
dynamic layout
Standard portal layout that consists of rows or columns and is persisted in the database.
E
ECM
See Enterprise Content Management
embedded static page
A static page that is rendered in the content area of the portal.
enrollment
The process of entering and saving user or user group information in a portal.
Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
Software and tools designed to enable companies to manage content and documents, optimize business processes, and enable compliance with an integrated infrastructure.
Enterprise Information Portal
Software developed by IBthat provides tools for advanced searching, and content customization and summarization.
XML
A standard metalanguage for defining markup languages that is based on Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
A language for specifying style sheets for XML documents. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) is used with XSL to describe how an XML document is transformed into another document.
F
federated search
A search capabilito that enables searches across multiple search services and returns a consolidated list of search results.
G
group
- A collection of users who can share access authorities for protected resources.
- In places, two or more people who are grouped for membership in a place.
governance
The decision making processes in the administration of an organization. The rights and responsibilities of these processes are typically shared among the organization's participants, especially the management and stakeholders.
governance life cycle
A life cyclthat represents the states and transitions that can exist in SOA deployment.
governance processes
A process that ensures that compliance and operational polices are enforced, and that change occurs in a controlled fashion and with appropriate authority as envisioned by the business design.
H
helper file
A properties file that WebSphere Portal provides to ensure that users specify the correct information that is needed to complete different types of configuration tasks such as configuring an LDAP user registry or a database user registry.
home page
The top-level web page of a portal.
HTML
See Hypertext Markup Language.
HTTP
See Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
HTTPS
A web protocol for secure transactions that encrypts and decrypts user page requests and pages returned by the web server.
HTTPS
See HTTP over SSL.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
A markup languagthat conforms to the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) standard and was designed primarily to support the online display of textual and graphical information, including hypertext links.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
An Internet protocol used to transfer and display hypertext and XML documents on the web.
I
i-mode
An Internet service for wireless devices.
IBM content partner (content partner)
IBM partnethat provides syndicated content for portals.
integrity
In computer security, assurancthat the information that arrives at a destination is the same as the information sent.
iwidget
An open-source specification that allows for seamless interoperability across various platforms and products.
J
JavaScript
A web scripting language used in both browsers and web servers. (Sun)
JavaScript Object Notation
A lightweight data-interchange format that is based on the object-literal notation of JavaScript. JSON is programming-language neutral but uses conventions from languages that include C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python.
Jetspeed
The open-source portal that is part of the Jakarta project by Apache.
L
label
A node in a portal that cannot contain any content, but can contain other nodes. Labels are used primarily to group nodes in the navigation tree.
lazy application
An application whose initialization is deferred until first use.
LDAP
See Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
LDAP directory
A type of repository that stores information on people, organizations, and other resources and that is accessed using the LDAP protocol. The entries in the repository are organized into a hierarchical structure, and in some cases the hierarchical structure reflects the structure or geography of an organization.
light mode
An operation methods that enhances portal performance by improving start-up time and reducing memory consumption in production environments.
LDAP
An open protocol that uses TCP/IP to provide access to directories that support an X.500 model and that does not incur the resource requirements of the more complex X.500 Directory Access Protocol (DAP).
For example, LDAP can be used to locate people, organizations, and other resources in an Internet or intranet directory.
load balancing
The monitoring of appservers and management of the workload on servers. If one server exceeds its workload, requests are forwarded to another server with more capacity.
M
mandatary place
A shared place, either a public place or a restricted place, in which all portal users must be members. Only portal administrators can designate a shared place to be a mandatary place. Because membership is automatic and required, portal users cannot join or leave mandatary places.
membership
The state of being a portal user and a place member. Membership in the portal is controlled by the administrator during the installation and set up of portal servers. Membership in places is controlled by a place manager, who determines the level of access for each place member: participant, place designer, or place manager.
mashup
A graphical interface that features two or more reusable web applications (widgets) presenting seemingly disparate data in an understandable combination for a specific purpose.
meta search
A search across one or more search engines. A meta search engine provides a meaningful subset of search functionality through an abstraction layer that is generic enough to support a wide variety of search services.
messaging
A method for communication between programs. Messaging can be synchronous or independent of time.
middleware
Software that acts as an intermediate layer between applications or between client and server. It is used most often to support complex, distributed applications in heterogeneous environments.
model view controller (MVC)
A software architecture that separates the components of the application: the model represents the business logic or data; the view represents the user interface; and the controller manages user input or, in some cases, the application flow.
modifiable
An interface for modifying portal resources that exist in the read only model.
MVC
N
News Industry Text Format (NITF)
An XML-based format that defines the structure and content of news articles.
News Markup Language (NewsML)
An XML-based format for publishing news-related information.
NewsML
See News Markup Language.
NITF
See News Industry Text Format.
node
A logical group of managed servers.
O
OCS channel
See open content syndication channel.
open content syndication channel (OCS channel)
An XML-based format for syndicated content.
P
page
A node in a portal that can contain content in addition to labels and other pages. Pages can contain child nodes, column containers, row containers, and portlets.
participant
A member of a portal place who can visit and use the place. By default, all portal users are participants in public places.
people awareness
The collaboration feature that provides access to people from various contexts. People awareness lets you see references to people and contact people by name through the Sametime online status indicater. Throughout the portal, wherever you see the name of a person, we can view the person's online status, send e-mail, initiate a chat, or share an application via an electronic meeting.
people finder
A portlet that enables users to find, view information about, and contact individuals in their organization. Administrators can configure people finder to display information details such as e-mail address, job title, and location.
person
An individual authenticated by the portal and having a person record in one or more corporate directories. Persons can be members of places, public groups within the organization's corporate directory, or personal groups that a user defines.
person card
An interface that displays information about a registered user such as phone number and online status (if Sametime is enabled), and additional details typically found on a business card. Available actions let you view the person's complete profile and, depending on how the portal is configured, send e-mail, chat, and link to Lotus Connections features such as Communities, Activities, and Blogs.
person link
A reference to a person's name or a group name that appears with the Sametime online status indicater. The reference lets you view the person's online status, send an e-mail, start a chat, or share an application using an electronic meeting, among other actions shown on the person link menu.
personal group
In Sametime Connect, a group of people designated by the user as a group. A user can choose individuals from the public Directory (public group) and create personal groups, which are then stored locally. Users can add and remove people from a personal group, whereas the membership of the public group is defined by the owner of the public Directory.
personalization
The process of enabling information to be targeted to specific users based on business rules and user profile information.
pervasive computing
The use of a computing infrastructure that supports information appliances from which users can access a broad range of network-based services, including Internet-based e-commerce services.
place designer
A member of a place who can edit place layout and bookmarks.
place manager
A member of a place who can edit place membership, layout, and bookmarks.
place member
A individual or group who has joined or been granted access to a place. Place members have three levels of access to a place: manager, designer, and participant.
place template
A format for use in creating a place. The portal provides has a set of default templates for creating various types of places. Portal administrators may allow users to create, modify, and delete new templates.
policy
A set of rules and actions required to be performed when certain events or status conditions occur in an environment. Policies are implemented using the IPL.
port
An end point for communication between applications, generally referring to a logical connection. A port provides queues for sending and receiving data. Each port has a port number for identification.
port type
An element in a WSDL documens that comprises has a set of abstract operations, each of which refers to input and output messages that are supported by the web service.
portal
A single, secure point of access to diverse information, applications, and peoplthat can be customized and personalized.
portal administration
The place where portal administrators set and maintain basic collaboration permissions, place records, place membership records, and server settings for companion products for advanced collaboration.
portal artifacts
Stored in the portal file system. All deliverables of software development are usually artifacts (otherwise referred to as software components).
portal configuration
The Portal Configuration is stored in the portal configuration database. It consists of configuration entities. Each portal resource is represented by one portal configuration entity in the portal database.
portal extension artifacts
Artifacto that belong to components that are installed together with the portal but are not core portal components.
portal farm
A series of identically configured, stand-alone portal server instances that offer a way to maintain a highly scalable and highly available server environment.
portal member
An individual or group who has a user record in the portal directory (LDAP or other directory) and can log in to the portal.
portal solution release
The solution that is developed by the customer and is based on WebSphere Portal. The solution consists of portal configurations, portal artifacts, and portal extension artifacts and is shared between multiple users.
portal theme
The style element that gives a place a particular look. The portal provides several themes, similar to virtual wallpaper, which can be chosen when creating a place.
portlet
A reusable web module that runs on a portal server. Portlets have predefined roles such as retrieving news headlines, searching a database, or displaying a calendar.
portlet API
The set of interfaces and methods used by Java programs running within the portal server environment to obtain services.
portlet application
A collection of related portlets that can share resources with one another.
portlet container
A column or row used to arrange the layout of a portlet or other container on a page.
portlet control
A portlet registry settinthat renders the outer frame for a portlet.
portlet framework
The set of classes and interfaces that support Java programs running within the portal server environment.
portlet palette
A web module that enables users to browse available portlets organized by category, search for individual portlets, and add them to a portal page by dragging to the desired location.
pre-rendered site
A complete website saved to disk in HTMthat can be used as a live site and displayed to users using either Web Content Manager or a web server.
presentation template
A templato that determines the structure of each web page in the site and which elements and components are displayed on each page. HTML defines the default properties and layout of the template.
producer definition
A set of interfacedefined for the producer portal. The producer definition can include the producer service description, the producer portal URL, and the security setup.
producer portal
A portal that provides portlets as a service so that other portals, called consumer portals, can use the portlets and make the portlets available to their users.
property extension database
A database used to store additional attributes that cannot be stored in the LDAP user registry.
provisioning
The process of setting up and maintaining a user's access to a system.
PSTN
See public switched telephone network.
public group
A group of individuals, known to all portal userso that the administrator has created on that exists in the organization's corporate directory. Only administrators can modify and manage public groups.
public place
A shared placthat is open to all portal users. The person who creates the place (and who automatically becomes the place manager) designates it as a public place during place creation.
public switched telephone network (PSTN)
A communications common carrier networthat provides voice and data communications services over switched lines.
pure server side portlet
A normal server side portlet that uses Java and Java server pages, but usually uses no JavaScript.
R
registered user
A portal user who has a user ID and password for logging in to a portal.
Representational State Transfer (REST)
A software architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems like the World Wide Web. The term is also often used to describe any simple interface that uses XML (or YAML, JSON, plain text) over HTTP without an additional messaging layer such as SOAP.
REST
See Representational State Transfer.
restricted place
A shared placthat is open to only those individuals and groups whom the place creator (or place manager) adds to the place's membership list. The person who creates the place (and who automatically becomes the place manager) designates the place as a restricted place during place creation.
Rich Site Summary (RSS)
An XML-based format for syndicated web content that is based on the RSS 0.91 specification. The RSS XML file formats are used by Internet users to subscribe to web sites that have provided RSS feeds.
role
A job function that identifies the tasks that a user can perform and the resources to which a user has access. A user can be assigned one or more roles.
RSS
See Rich Site Summary.
rules-based personalization
Personalization technologs that enables you to customize web content based on user needs and preferences, and business requirements.
S
search center
A portlet that enables site users to search for keywords.
search collections
A searchable collection of documents that can span multiple content sources.
search service
A service used to define the configuration parameters for a search collection. A search service can be local, remote, inside the product, or outside the product.
SecureWay Directory
An LDAP directory that can store user-related data, such as the user ID, the user name, and passwords.
security
The protection of data, system operations, and devices from accidental or intentional ruin, damage, or exposure.
security manager
A component that is responsible for authenticating user logins.
server side aggregation (SSA)
Aggregation based on Java server pages that are executed on the Server.
service
In service-oriented architecture, a unit of work accomplished by an interaction between computing devices.
service description
The description of a web service, which can be defined in any format such as WSDL, UDDI, or HTML.
service provider
A company or program that provides a business function as a service.
service requester
The application that initiates an interaction with a web service. The service requestsr binds to the service using the published information and calls the service.
service-oriented architecture (SOA)
A conceptual description of the structure of a software system in terms of its components and the services they provide, without regard for the underlying implementation of these components, services and connections between components.
session bean
An enterprise beas created by a client and that usually exists only for the duration of a single client/server session. (Sun)
shared place
A place created for a community of people with a common purpose. Shared places can be public or restricted. The place creator (who automatically becomes the place manager) specifies whether a place is public or restricted during place creation.
Short Message Service (SMS)
A service used to transmit text to and from a mobile phone.
single sign-on
An authentication process in which a user can access more than one system or application by entering a single user ID and password.
site area
A component contained in a site framework as a way to group similar content items. There can be several site areas within one site framework.
site framework
A structure that consists of a single top-level intelligent page or site area beneath which are stored other intelligent pages, site areas, and content items. The hierarchical set of intelligent pages and site areas define the navigational structure of the website.
site template
A pre-built sample sito used to streamline the process of developing a custom portal.
SMS
source portlet
The portlet that sends the information to other portlets.
SSO
See single sign-on.
staging
The process of moving solution releases from development to production.
Stand-alone static page
A static page that renders the complete browser content.
static page
A portal page that references a static layout.
static layout
The layout of a page that is based on a plain HTML page that may contain references to portlets.
subscribe
To register to access data published by another application or system.
subscriber
The consumer of a business service.
T
TAI
See trust association interceptor.
target portlet
The portlet that receives the information from the source portlet
template library
The database, known as the Portal Template Catalogs that stores place template specifications and portlets forms, subforms, and profiles.
theme
The style element that gives a place a particular look. The portal provides several themes, similar to virtual wallpaper, from which we can choose when creating a place.
transcoding technology
Content adaptation to meet the specific capabilities of a client device.
transport
The process or protocol mechanism of transferring an XML message or document between parties as part of a meaningful, reliable exchange. The most common transports for web services are SOAP/HTTP, SOAP/HTTPs, and SOAP/JMS.
trust association interceptor (TAI)
The mechanism by which trust is validated in the product environment for every request received by the proxy server. The method of validation is agreed upon by the proxy server and the interceptor.
U
URI
A unique address used to identify content on the web, such as a page of text, a video or sound clip, a still or animated image, or a program. The most common form of URI is the web page address, which is a particular form or subset of URI called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URI typically describes how to access the resource, the computer containing the resource, and the name of the resource (a file name) on the computer.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The unique address of an information resource accessible in a network such as the Internet. The URL includes the abbreviated name of the protocol used to access the information resource and the information used by the protocol to locate the information resource.
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
A set of standards-based specificatione that enables companies and applications to quickly and easily find and use web services over the Internet. See also Web service.
URI
See Uniform Resource Identifier.
URL
user group
A group consisting of one or more defined individual users, identified by a single group name.
V
W
W3C
See World Wide Web Consortium.
WAP
See Wireless Application Protocol.
WAR
See Web archive.
WAR file
See Web archive.
Web archive (WAR)
A compressed file format, defined by the Java EE standard, for storing all the resources required to install and run a web application in a single file.
Web content library
A library that stores items required for displaying or creating web content, such as workflow items, an authoring template, a presentation template, site areas, and content items. Most systems have at least two web content libraries, one for design items and one for web content.
Web crawler
A type of crawlethat explores the web by retrieving a web document and following the links withis that document.
Web service
A self-contained, self-describing modular application that can be published, discovered, and invoked over a network using standard network protocols. Typically, XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available, and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. See also SOAP, Web Services Description Language.
Web service endpoint
An entito that is the destination for web service messages. A web service endpoint has a URI address and is described by a WSDL port element.
Web service interface
A group of operations described by the content of a WSDL 1.1 port element. These operations can provide access to resource properties and metadata. (OASIS)
Web service semantics (WSDL-S)
A technical specification that defines a mechanism to associate semantic annotations with web services that are described using Web Service Description Language (WSDL).
WSDL
An XML-based specification for describing networked services as has a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. See also Web service.
Web Services Interoperability Organization (WSI)
An open industry organization that promotes web services interoperability across platforms, operating systems, and programming languages.
Web Services Policy Framework (WS-Policy)
A model and framework for describing the capabilities, requirements, and general characteristics of a web service as a policy assertion or a collection of policy assertions.
Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF)
The set of specificatione that define the specific rendering of a Web Services Resource (WS-Resource), the association on that resource with the web service interface, and the messages that define the querying and updating of the properties on that resource.
widget
A graphical interface that features two or more reusable web applications (widgets) presenting seemingly disparate data in an understandable combination for a specific purpose.
wire
To connect two or more components or cooperative portlets so that they work together. In an application, wiring identifies target services; for portlets changes in the source portlet automatically update the target portlets.
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
An open industry standard for mobile Internet access that allows mobile users with wireless devices to easily and instantly access and interact with information and services.
Wireless Markup Language (WML)
A markup language based on XML used to present content and user interfaces for wireless devices such as cellular phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants.
workflow
The sequence of activities performed in accordance with the business processes of an enterprise.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
An international industry consortium set up to develop common protocols to promote evolution and interoperability of the World Wide Web.
WML
WSDL
See Web Services Description Language.
WSDL-S
WSI
See Web Services Interoperability Organization.
WSRF
See Web Services Resource Framework.
X
XML
See Extensible Markup Language.