Building Portals with the Java Portlet API / Edition 1

Building Portals with the Java Portlet API / Edition 1

Building Portals with the Java Portlet API / Edition 1
ISBN-10:
1590592840
ISBN-13:
9781590592847
Pub. Date:
08/15/2004
Publisher:
Apress

Overview

Building Portals with the Java Portlet API / Edition 1

Linwood and Minter describe the new Java portlet API, including security, portlet life cycles, and portlet interaction with servlets and JSP. The examples will work on any portal that complies with the JSR-168 portlet API. Several example portlets are developed to give you hands-on portlet experience. You'll even learn how to port existing servlet and JSP applications into a new portal environment.

The authors also discuss Single Sign On (SSO) using Kerberos and the GSS-API, syndicating content with RSS, and integrating a charting solution with JFreeChart. Other topics covered are the open-source Lucene search engine, personalization, portlet configuration, portlet preferences, and Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP).

 

About the Author:

Jeff Linwood has been in software programming since he had a 286 in high school. He got caught up with the Internet when he got access to a UNIX shell account, and it has been downhill ever since. Jeff has published articles on several Jakarta Apache open source projects in Dr. Dobb's Journal, CNET's Builder.com, and JavaWorld. Jeff has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He currently works for the Gossamer Group in Austin, Texas, on content management and web application syndication systems. He gets to play with all the latest open source projects there. Jeff also coauthored Professional Struts Applications and was a technical reviewer for Enterprise Java Development on a Budget and Extreme Programming with Ant.

David Minter has adored computers since he was small enough to play in the boxes they came in. He built his first PC from discarded, faulty, and obsolete components, and considers that to be the foundation of his career as an integration consultant. David is based in London, where he helps large and small companies build systems that "just work."

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781590592847
Publisher: Apress
Publication date: 08/15/2004
Edition description: Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed.
Pages: 416
Product dimensions: 7.01(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

Forewordxi
About the Authorsxiii
About the Technical Reviewerxiv
Acknowledgmentsxv
Introductionxvii
Chapter 1Introduction to Portals and Portlets1
Providing a Solution with Portals1
Designing the Portal's Information Architecture2
Portal Application Architecture5
Building Portlets with the Portlet API6
Providing Technical Solutions with Portals7
Security and Single Sign-On7
Content Syndication and RSS7
Searching Content from the Portal7
Portals and Web Services8
Integrating Existing Applications into the Portal9
Using Charts in the Portal10
Content Management and Portlets10
Summary10
Chapter 2Portlet Basics11
First Portlet12
Building the Portlet Application15
Packaging19
Deploying19
Running21
Portlet Programming 10121
GenericPortlet21
Portlet Requests22
Portlet Response23
Enhancing the Portlet25
Web.xml Deployment Descriptor37
Packaging and Deploying38
Running39
Summary40
Chapter 3The Portlet Life Cycle41
The Portlet Interface41
Overview44
Creation of the Portlet44
Request Handling47
Destroying the Portlet51
Threading Issues51
Summary71
Chapter 4Portlet Concepts73
Portlet Requests73
Render Request78
Action Request and File Uploading78
Portlet Response85
Render Response86
Action Response89
Portlet Context92
Sessions98
Sessions and Interportlet Communication102
Content Markup Types105
Portlet Modes107
Window States113
Caching116
Style Sheets and the User Experience116
Summary117
Chapter 5Using Servlets and JavaServer Pages with Portlets119
Portlets, Servlets, and JSP Design Goals119
Portlet Request Dispatcher120
Request and Response Objects126
Session Management Between a Portlet and a Servlet or JSP131
Creating a Form in JSP132
Using the Portlet JSP Tag Library132
To-Do List Portlet Example137
The web.xml Deployment Descriptor153
Directory Structure of the Application153
Complete Code Listing for the To-Do List Portlet154
Summary158
Chapter 6Packaging and Deployment Descriptors159
Portlet Application Packaging159
Versioning159
Portlet Application Deployment Descriptor Structure160
Web Application Deployment Descriptor170
XDoclet Portlet Support171
Summary184
Chapter 7Portal and Portlet Configuration185
Using the PortalContext to Retrieve Information About the Portal185
Using the PortletConfig Object190
Using Portlet Preferences195
Summary208
Chapter 8Security and Single Sign-On209
Portlet Security210
Summary238
Chapter 9RSS and Syndication239
Overview of RSS239
Walking Through an Example RSS File240
RSS Browsers246
Displaying Syndicated Information in Portlets247
Syndicating Out249
Summary253
Chapter 10Integrating the Lucene Search Engine255
Overview of Lucene255
Downloading and Installing Lucene256
Lucene Concepts256
Building an Index with Lucene263
Designing a Portlet to Search the Index270
Developing a Portlet for Lucene271
Indexing Other Types of Content277
Lucene and Different Types of Content279
Summary280
Chapter 11Personalization and User Attributes281
Making a Good Impression281
Making Choices289
Summary294
Chapter 12Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) and Application Syndication295
WSRP Overview295
WSRP and the Java Portlet API298
WSRP Markup in Content Fragments299
Using WSRP304
Common Problems with Application Syndication304
Future Directions of WSRP306
Summary306
Chapter 13Exposing an Existing Application As a Portlet307
Overview of the YAZD Forum Software307
Deciding What to Change309
Displaying Screens in a Portlet312
Getting Configuration Information332
Issues Encountered in Our Example338
Summary338
Chapter 14Charting with JFreeChart339
Building Charts and Graphs with JFreeChart339
Chart Types340
Basic JFreeChart Example343
Providing Data to the Chart347
Displaying Charts from a Portlet350
Portlet Extensions to JFreeChart354
Portlet Example with a 3D Pie Chart354
Summary357
Chapter 15Content Management Systems359
Overview of Content Management Systems359
Integration with a Content Management System361
Common Problems with CMS and Portals361
Java Content Repository API (JSR 170)362
WebDAV368
WebDAV Methods368
Slide WebDAV Client Library370
WebDAV Portlet371
Summary380
Index381

Customer Reviews

Average Review

Write a Review

Share This Item

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

See All Customer Reviews

Building Portals with the Java Portlet API 4 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 1 reviews.
Guest More than 1 year ago
Many companies have recognised the need for portals to provide an easy way for users to get at corporate information, in a way controlled by the company. Inevitably, there has been a writing of APIs to regularise what a portal is. Here, our authors give this, in the context of J2EE and the latest Java. The book explains how to use the Java Portal API. It shows a portal as a container of portlets. Each portlet is a wrapper around some single coherent function. At least, that is the ideal! You will be greatly eased in understanding what is offered if you have already written Java Servlets and JSPs. The Portal API and its recommended usage were deliberately written to mimic those, as much as possible. There is really nothing difficult here. Plus, put simply, if you can understand Servlets and JSPs, it strongly behooves you to upgrade your skill set and learn about portals. You have to keep moving forward. If only because there are programmers in India (and elsewhere) actively commoditising your current skill set. Just a few steps behind you. So perhaps try this book and keep going.