JSR 168 JSR 286 Portlets & Enterprise Portal

IDE for JSR 286 Portlet Development

2008-07-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are starting a new project on JSR 286 and wondering what should be the best IDE for JSR 286 portlet development. The project is on IBM, so IBM RAD (Rapid Application Developer) was the first choice. Though as of now the latest production release 7.0 doesn't support JSR 286 and 7.5 version which supports JSR 286 is just in beta stage. IBM has not communicated any clear date for GA.

I think it leaves us to "Portal Pack 2.0 for NetBeans 6.1", a plugin for NetBeans. I have not tested it yet, but it says the support of JSR 286. I am not sure whether it has embedded JSR 286 container for testing portlet within IDE or not? I'll check and update on this.

By the way, have you started developing JSR 286 portlets? If yes, which IDE do you use?

IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1 - What's New?

2008-07-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, IBM announced the availability of WebSphere version 6.1. With this release, the focus was on Web 2.0 and support for JSR 286/ WSRP 2.0. Please check out what is new in IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1 -
http://my.advisor.com/doc/19519

Portal Polls & Surveys

2008-06-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Previously I used to publish the results of the poll "Which is the best open source portal server" regularly on this blog. I stopped doing that because it became more or less repeatative. Today while visiting the poll section of portlets forum, I found that there are certain other polls going and since it is a long time, I thought to put it on this blog. It may still help you in decision making.

Best Open Source Portal Server

Which commercial portal meets most of your portal requirements?

It looks like Liferay is the portal of choice for majority when it comes to open source portals and 'IBM WebSphere portal' in case of commercial portals.

If you have not voted you can also think of voting Portal Poll here.

JSR 286 Final Release

2008-06-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

JSR 286 (Portlet 2.0) final release is available to download from the JCP website. Here is the direct link - http://jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/final/jsr286/index.html

Happy Portlettting.

Social Networking Portal and WebOS

2008-06-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Two of the leading open source portals have taken altogether two different routes for future development. For Liferay Portal, it is more of community building and social networking features that is taking center space, whereas for eXo portal, it is more about WebOS. This is very interesting because the roadmap of both of these portal platforms is way different from commercial portals. It also shows the courage and innovation of the open source products which is missing in commercial products. I believe in terms of innovation, open source portals are now ahead of their commercial counterparts. I don't know whether it is due to the open source philosophy or due to the tough competition they are facing from commercial portals, but it is very good for the portal space.

I wish them all the best. Keep innovating.

Writing Java Applications in Visual Studio

2008-06-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

Writing Java applications in Visual Studio Dot Net seems an interesting idea. MainSoft promises that only. I have not given it a try, but will be very interesting to check it out. Here is the latest news that talks about this product -

Visual Studio and Java?

JSR 286 Approved

2008-03-07T02:13:00.000-08:00

You would be happy to know that the JSR 286 is approved and the final version should be available soon. By the time, you can have a look at final draft here. I am sure JSR286 will prove a big leap forward in success of Java Portals. I congratulate spec lead Stefan Hepper and all expert group members for the efforts and hard work.

Google Sites - Challenging Portals

2008-02-29T00:48:00.000-08:00

Today I saw the announcement of "Google Sites" in my mailbox. I use Google Apps services for few of my domains. Just if you are not aware of what Google Apps is, Google Apps is a collaboration platform that can be subscribed by the companies instead any installation locally. In other words, it is kind of hosted portal for an enterprise. It provides quite a few important collaboration features like Email, Calendar, Task, Docs etc. Now the latest addition to this set is Google Sites.

Google Sites is a tool for quickly creating new websites and sharing information. Here is how Google defines it -
"Google Sites is the easiest way to make information accessible to people who need quick, up-to-date access. People can work together on a Site to add file attachments, information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa), and new free-form content. Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publish Sites to the world. " The more information can be found at Google Sites help at http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/sites.html.

Now with the announcement of Google Sites, I believe that Google has started challenging Portal market. I think, Google is soon going to be the the free hosted sharepoint available to all. Though Google Apps is still at initial stages so we have some time where we see that Google started grabbing some portal market. I personally see that initially it will start affecting open source portals and small portal vendors before taking over biggies like Microsoft and IBM. We will soon see Google Apps catching fast in at least SME segment.

Where do you think Google Apps is heading? Do you also think that it is going to challenge portal market (especially collaborative portals)?

Portal Podcast

2007-06-13T14:40:00.001-07:00

In the SharedInsights conference, me and my colleague Hari talk about key issues in portal arena like the need for portlets marketplace, lack of enterprise search and collaboration applications in the portal space etc.

Please check out the podcast here.

Portal Podcast

2007-06-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

In the SharedInsights conference, me and my colleague Hari talk about key issues in portal areana like a need for portlets marketplace, lack of enterprise search and collaboration applications in the portal space etc.

Please check out the podcast here.

SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment Announced

2007-05-10T04:03:00.000-07:00

SAP AG today announced that the Java EE 5-based SAP NetWeaver(R) Composition Environment (SAP NetWeaver CE), a next-generation set of standards-based and integrated composition tools, has been released to customers and partners for full production use. SAP NetWeaver CE, which is used for the development and deployment of composite applications, will also be available for a 30-day trial download on SAP Developer Network (sdn.sap.com) starting in May....................Read More

My Note: SAP's support for standards was always sloppy, especially JSR 168. So it is good to know that SAP is ahead in supporting standards this time.

iSeries/ AS400 Integration with Portals

2007-05-04T01:23:00.000-07:00

iSeries integration with portals is one need that keep coming to us time to time. As always, IBM's product line is so confusing that it is very difficult to find out the product(s) that exactly fit to your requirement. On top of that, finding information on IBM products on web is not easy. As always their documents are so confusing and very difficult to find. So for the benefit of readers, I want to share some details on the products for iSeries (System i or AS/400) integration available from IBM. Following is the list of the products available for integration purpose -

1. iSeries Access Family components:

-- iSeries Access for Web

--The iSeries version of WebSphere Host Publisher

--WebSphere Host Access Transformation Server Limited Edition (HATS LE)

2. WebSphere Host On-Demand (a part of WebSphere Host Integration Solution)

3. IBM WebFacing Tool (part of WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSc))

4. Full functioned WebSphere Host Publisher packaged with the Host Integration Solution

5. Full functioned WebSphere Host Access Transformation Server (HATS) packaged with the WebSphere Host Integration Solution

IBM has vast information in it's (difficult-to-find) redbooks. I think these two redbooks are useful for this topic -

Redbook: iSeries Access for Web and HATS Limited Edition: V5R2 Hot Topics for IBM eServer iSeries Browser Users

Redbook: WebSphere Portal Express and Express Plus V5 for the IBM eServer iSeries Server

I hope this information will be useful for the readers.

If you aware about any source of similar information, please share with me.

Process and Integration Portals

2007-02-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

After the collaborative portals and groupware on portals, it seems the time for vendors to focus more on integration portals and process portals. BPM and Integration is suppose to be a main feature for Portals. Though Process portals are being discussed for quite some time now, but we did not see any release which is more oriented towards middleware and hence provides the tightly integrated capabilities for enterprise application integration, business process integration and single sigh on. Oracle has came up with much focused efforts in this direction by announcing Oracle WebCenter Suite. This is a welcome efforts in that direction.

You can check the release announcement here.

You can also check an interesting demo for the Oracle WebCenter.

Gartner on LotusSphere 2007

2007-02-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

Here is what Gartner thinks about Lotusphere 2007.

Here is the excerpt -

Significant updates to Lotus Notes and Quickplace, as well as the introduction of some compelling new products, were the reason that IBM's Lotusphere 2007 was buzzing with positive feedback from IBM customers and partners.

Perhaps the best news coming from Lotusphere is the near-disappearance of the bewildering "Workplace" name. The folding of Workplace into WebSphere Portal has helped to reduce the confusion regarding its strategy, messaging and products. While Workplace was, in Gartner's view, a failed marketing effort, its underlying concepts embracing the Web have provided a critical foundation for Notes 8, Quickr, Connections and Sametime — which are all built on Eclipse with the Expeditor tool. Combined with the recently added representational state transfer (REST) application programming interfaces, Atom syndication capabilities and "mashability," these concepts serve as a strategic architecture for all future Lotus products.

IBM hopes Lotusphere 2007 will launch an updated, more competitive and appealing Lotus. The demonstrations and product sessions have been successful among the Lotus users who come to these events. However, several challenges persist. The relationship of Quickr to existing products like Domino Document Manager, DB2 Content Manager and new document-oriented clients remains murky. While the mashups and possibilities of social software are promising, the lack of consumer-focused or Web 2.0 software-as-a-service offerings limits penetration.

IBM has addressed many of the lingering questions about Lotus's future direction and managed to inject a level of excitement in a product line that many consider moribund. During 2007, we will watch for signs that IBM has effectively executed on its plans and expanded rapidly into other delivery and business models.

JSR 168 Portlet Development Guidelines

2007-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

Drew Varner, Sr. Pricipal Consultant at BEA, has written a good post on JSR 168 portlet development guidelines. These are some basic guidelines that a portlet developers must aware of. He has also given examples to support his views. Here are the guidelines -

1. Always Utilize the URL Rewriting APIs for Content in Your Portlet
2. Do Not Append Paths to a Rewritten URL
3. Qualify Client-side Script Variables and Methods with Namespaces
4. Ensure Inline Client-side Scripts that Refer to Portlet Resources Follow the Spec
5. Always Declare a Content Type for Portlet Responses
6. Do Not Send Cookies from Portlets
7. Separate Business Logic from Presentation

Please check his post for details.

WebSphere Portal Express 6.0 Announced at Lotusphere

2007-01-24T04:51:00.000-08:00

In the past, IBM discontinued the Express edition of portal. Today IBM has again come up with Express flavor with new attires. This time it is going to be an integrated portal and collaboration platform for SMBs. Other than all regular feature of portal, I believe that it will also have some out-of-box intranet features, so that SMBs can build and deploy their intranet easily. It also has some pre-built sample websites to pick and customize. You can check press release here.

Even though I am at Lotusphere, I missed the annoucement. I'll check more details today and post it here.

Other than WebSphere Portal Express 6.0, IBM also announced following products in Lotusphere conference -

Lotus Connections, Press Release
Lotus Notes and Domino 8
Lotus Quickr
Lotus Sametime 7.5.1
IBM Websphere Portal Express Version 6.0
Lotus Component Designer
Lotus ActiveInsight
Lotus Workforce Management

A brief of these annoucements can be found here.

I am at Sun Microsystems's booth showcasing our SyncEx Collaboration Suite on Sun Platform. I would glad to entertain everybody who is interested in these products.

Sun Java Portal Server Startup Resources

2006-10-30T00:52:00.000-08:00

Good collection of articles for Sun Java System Portal Server at one place -

Click Here

AJAX with JSR 168 Portlets

2006-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Greg Ziebold and Marina Sum has written a good article titled Best Practices for Applying AJAX to JSR 168 Portlets. Check it here.

Another Collaborative Portal - Oracle WorkPlace

2006-08-21T02:06:00.000-07:00

Collaborative Portal technology is becoming so complex and completive that even the mammoth vendors like IBM and Oracle are finding it difficult to keep-up with it. Nearly all vendors have to have separate products for general portal (aka integration portal) and collaborative portal, probably in attempt to release products ahead of competitors (I know, not everybody will agree with me). For example, IBM has WebSphere Portal and WorkPlace products whereas BEA has Portal and AquaLogic User Interaction. On the same line, Oracle has also announced the Oracle Workplace and it is going to be different than existing Oracle Portal.

Check the recent news here.

As an advertisement note, most of the times, it is possible to use our products (http://www.SyncEx.com) to achieve the same collaborative and community features in any portal.

JBoss and Liferay Portal Comparison

2006-08-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

Liferay and JBoss are among the few popular open source poral servers. Here is another comparison between them by InfoWorld -

JBoss vrs. Liferay

What's new in WebSphere Portal Version 6

2006-08-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

Finally WebSphere Portal Version 6 is available for download from IBM PartnerWorld. If you have not downloaded, go get your copy. Here is a detailed document by IBM team describing new features in IBM WebSphere Portal 6.0 -

What's new in WebSphere Portal Version 6?

Web Clipper Portlet

2006-06-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

Web Clipper (also called Screen Scrapper or URL Scrapper) is the fastest way to bring (integrate) existing web application into portal. Nearly all commercial portals come with some kind of out-of-box Web Clipping portlets. Though, those web clipping solutions are not powerful enough and cannot always meet enterprise requirements. That is the reason, we can see various third party solutions in the market. Red Oak solution is the latest addition to the list of Web Clipper Portlet vendors -

Check Red Oak Press Release

Other than Red Oak, few other products also support enterprise level web clipping portlets. Here are two popular products -

1. Clickmarks Portlet Factory
2. Kapow RoboSuite

There is also one open source solution named PortletBridge which looks quite powerful. PortletBridge has been presently tested with following portals -

Pluto 1.0.1
JBoss Portal 2.2
JBoss Portal 2.0
LifeRay Professional 3.6.0
Gridsphere Portal 2.1.1
uPortal 2.5.1

Easy to use portal

2006-06-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

I keep getting the question that which (open source) portal should one use. The answer is not simple and depends upon the requirements. Today I got the similar email once again asking which portal is easiest to use.

Here is normally what I suggest to people -

Looking for easy to use portal - Stringbeans, and eXo
Looking for lots of out-of-box portlets - Liferay
Looking for portal with extendible architecture and standard support - eXo
Looking for good JSR 168 compliant portlet container - eXo, and JBoss

Though I believe that all the oepn source portals needs to improve on documentation front to make them really easy to use.

Update (June 30th, 2006): I received lots of feedback on this post. Based on that I want to make one clarification. In concluding above, I kept developer's point of view in mind and not end-user's. For example when I am saying "easy to use", it means easy to use for developers i.e. easy to deploy portlets, easy to adminster and easy to develop portlets etc.

JSR 286 (Portlet Specification V 2.0) Preview

2006-06-12T01:33:00.000-07:00

Stefan Hepper, specification lead - jsr 286, presented the a futuristic view of portlet specification 2.0 (jsr 286 ) and its status in 2006 JavaOne Conference. The presentation is available at -

What comes next in the Portlet Specification V 2.0 with JSR 286

To summarize, here are the major working areas for JSR 286 -

Coordination (Events support, Sharing session beyond portlet application, Sharing render parameters across portlets)
WSRP 2.0 alignment
Better support for Web Frameworks (JSF, Struts, Spring, WebWork)
AJAX Support

For everybody's information, the committee is nearly done with the first early draft and it will be made available soon.

Content Management Portals

2006-05-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

Support for content management in portals is another trend that is catching up very well. ( The other trend that I kept talking about is the collaborative portals.) We have seen quite a few happenings recently in this space. eXo Platform SARL came up with eXo Groupware. Liferay came up with Alfresco portlets and JBoss came up with the tie-up with Alfresco. The intention is same - to get entry into this space. In 2004, I had mentioned that open source portals are not really usable for enterprise level portal implementation based on content management needs.

Now, all of these portals are either supporting or planning to support JCR (JSR 170). eXo has come up with their own implementation for JCR. Whereas JBoss and Liferay are using Apache Jackrabbit for JCR implementation. Alfresco itself claims to be a portal which is making this space more interesting.

I am happy to see that after nearly one and a half year of my post, open source portals started picking up in this space and they are considering it as one of the important feature of portal. Though I think that all open source portals are still a long way to go to be really useable and compete with their commercial counterparts.

On the side note, here is one interesting post on JBoss Portal support for Alfresco.