Portal & Portlets

On Tuesday we will be discussing Portals and portlets with UI Integration as the focal point. With the initial research being completed I couldn’t help but notice that portal is definitely a buzzword with more uses than swiss army knife. If you doubt me…try typing in ‘portal’ at Google and see if you can find a word that returns more hits. But I believe despite around all the hoopla on the word portal…at the core of the word (in reference to technology) is integration. Portals allow for the integration of different applications to provide the end user one central location point for access. The applications that are integrated within the portal could also be referred to as portlets. Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) a standard used for portlets will be discussed as well.

There are instances when a portal contains the full-fledged application integrated within the portal and then there are instances when the portal only serves as a gateway to the application. The two instances previously mentioned are defined as integration on an application layer or full integration and presentation layer or more of a shallow integration. The implications of these will be discussed in class.

There are some links for general reading of portals and portlets below.

Web Portal
Portlets
Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP)
MSDN: Portal Integration
Portals and Web services: Services at the user interface