Develop portlets

Get an overview of the process of creating portlets, learn about the concepts of the APIs used to develop portlets, and view the samples to get you started. Also, learn about integrating features such as single sign-on, cooperative sharing of information using the property broker, and migrating Struts applications to the portlet environment.

For z/OS, this section relates to the non-z/OS dev environment where IBM WebSphere Portal is installed.

WebSphere Portal can support portlets written to the standard portlet API as well as portlets written to the legacy IBM portlet API. .

• If we are not an experienced Java developer...

  we can quickly integrate many of your existing resources into WebSphere Portal without developing our own portlets.

• If you have Java and servlet development experience but are new to portlet development...

  you should start by reading Portlet concepts and Standard portlet API. When we are ready to start developing portlets, see Understand the basics for samples that demonstrate common features of the API.

• If you have developed portlets with the IBM Portlet API...
  Standard portlet API describes the new standards and provides links to topics that describe the difference between the two APIs and how to migrate to the standard.

• If you have experience with Struts applications...
  Struts Portlet Framework explains how to take an existing Struts application and convert it to a portlet.

• If we are already familiar with portlet development using either the standard portlet API or the IBM portlet API...
  Portlet communication describes how we can enable portlets to share information with other portlets on the page, using the property broker service. Collaborative Services API explains how we can integrate collaborative functionality into the portlets, such as online status, chat, and e-mail.

Rational Application Developer includes tools designed to help develop portlet applications for WebSphere Portal.

• Portlet concepts
  Learn about portlets from a user's and an application developer's perspective. View a brief comparison between a portlet and a servlet and understand basic portlet concepts; know the effect of Java 2 security enablement on the operation of portlets that rely on certain privileges for processing.
• Understand the basics
  Get introduced to the concepts of portlet creation, starting with a simple portlet that is modified throughout.
• Standard portlet API
  The Java Portlet Specification addresses the requirements of aggregation, personalization, presentation, and security for portlets running in a portal environment.
• Portlet services
  Portlet services are used to provide common functionality to portlets. Each portlet service has its own service-specific interface for the functionality that it offers.
• Struts Portlet Framework
  Learn how to write Struts applications that can be deployed in WebSphere Portal. Know special considerations when developing such applications and additional concepts, such as portlet modes, multiple device support, and portlet communications that might need to be addressed by the Struts application.
• Model SPI overview
  Models provide information needed by WebSphere Portal to perform tasks such as content aggregation or building navigation to browse the aggregated content. The information aggregated is represented through models that can be accessed programmatically using the Model SPI (read-only). The information of a model is usually persistent (stored in a data base) but can also be transient (computed and stored only in memory). Models can be represented using a tree structure (nodes have a parent-child relationship), a list structure, or a selection structure (a selected element in a tree structure).
• Controller SPI
  We can use the Controller SPI for portal administration. It allows us to modify portal resources. It enhances the read-only portal Model SPI by adding writable aspects.
• User and group management
  The Portal User Management Architecture (PUMA) SPI provides interfaces for accessing the profiles of a portal User or Group.
• Portal Access Control interfaces
  Portal Access Control provides interfaces for retrieving and modifying and access control information of portal resources, such as portlets or pages.
• Web 2.0 user interface features
  Learn about portal features that pertain to the Web 2.0 generation type of Web user interface.
• Client-side aggregation reference
  Refer to programming model guidelines for client-side mode or server-side mode, configuration tasks for the Page Builder theme, and WebDAV service entry points.
• Portlet communication
  IBM WebSphere Portal supports multiple ways for portlets to exchange or share information.
• Dynamic user interfaces
  Learn about dynamic user interfaces that include dynamic pages, dynamic portlets, dynamic UI configuration, dynamic UI properties, and shared dynamic UIs. Get an overview of how to develop a dynamic UI configuration.
• Collaborative Services API
  
• IBM Portlet API
  The IBM Portlet API has been deprecated for WebSphere Portal v7.0 and later versions, but it is still supported. No new functionality will be added and you should convert portlets based on the IBM Portlet API to the Standard Portlet API when possible. Learn how to convert IBM Portlets to Standard API portlets.
• Portlet development reference
  View important information and concepts related to portlet development.

Parent: Developing