JSR – 168 Portlet Spec -...

transcript

JSR – 168 Portlet Spec

Sean P. GogginsIEEE Certified Software Development Professional

http://www.computer.org/certification

http://www.goggins.com http://www.clutchsoftware.com

Sean P. Gogginshttp://www.clutchsoftware.com

Agenda

1. Portal & Portlet Architecture & Strategy2. Pluto3. Our First Portlet4. The API Cliff’s Notes 5. EXO Portal… Plus, Deploy our Portlet in Portal

Two6. Jetspeed… Plus, Deploy our Portlet in Portal

Three!7. Liferay – My Favorite Portal

A note on the “Moon Guy”

He means I have a Pre Baked Demo I can do…Stop me if I skip one you want to see

Elements of Portal (ificaton)

�Perhaps a definition of "Portals" from Javaworld.com might also be useful -– A portal is a Web-based application that provides

personalization, single sign-on, and content aggregation from different sources, and hosts the presentation layer of information systems. Aggregation is the process of integrating content from different sources within a Webpage. A portal may have sophisticated personalization features to provide customized content to users. Portal pages may have different sets of portlets creating content for different users.

What is Portalification?

http://www.pythonline.com

What is a Portlet?

�A portlet is a Java technology based web component, managed by a portlet container, that processes requests and generates dynamic content. Portlets are used by portals as pluggable user interface components that provide a presentation layer to Information Systems.

Portlet and Portal TogetherStatic View

Portlet and Portal TogetherDynamic View

Why Build a Portal?

�To solve some specific business need�Usually associated with content

aggregration

Steps in building a Portal

�Gather Requirements– Portal’s require a more comprehensive architecture

than standard web or J2EE apps

�Build an Information Architecture– Content– User Interface– Portlets– Search Engine– Taxonomy

Taxonomy Creation and Maintenance

Categorize ContentCategorize ContentAssetsAssets

Label andLabel andPersonalizePersonalize

IndexIndex

Inventory Inventory Content Content

� Define the strategy

� Create an organization focused on taxonomy creation

� Define purpose and intended use (users) of taxonomy

� Prioritize needs:

– Concepts if you’re inventing

– Processes if you’re low skill service based

– Competencies if you’re high skill service based

� Decide basic metaphor for structuring information

� Choose a methodology/approach to building the taxonomy

� Classify information assets and categorize them

� Verification

� Implement Technology Support (JSR-168 compliant Portal?)

� Maintain

Steps in Building a Taxonomy

Building Portal Metadata – Dublin Core

RightsCoverageRelation

LanguageSourceIdentifier

FormatTypeDate

ContributorPublisherDescription

SubjectCreatorTitle

http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-type-vocabulary/

Look and Feel

�Most portlets are customized using Skins– Jetspeed– EXOPortal– Liferay

�Search is an important part of any portal effort these days.

JSR-168 / Java Portlets

�Javax.portlet package�Like other java applications

– Addition of portlet classes– Addition of portlet.xml deployment descriptor– WAR file deployment

�Different than other java applications– Portal handles the layout, aggregation,

personalization and single sign on

Why not use servlets & .jsp’s?

�Absence of personalization interface and support for persistence of personalization information in servlet architecture

�Servlet architecture doesn’t define aggregation on the desktop

Portlet & Servlet both

�End in “let”�Are java components�Have container managed lifecycles

– Servlet container (tomcat)– Portlet container (pluto)

�Generate dynamic content�Manage sessions�Share a deployment and class loading paradigm

But only PortletsPortletsPortlets

�Generate Fragments (not complete documents)

�Have container managed, predefined states– Window States– Portlet Modes

�Are not directly bound to a URL

…and Only Servlets…

�Can set the URL client request�Can set HTTP headers in responses�Can establish response character encoding

Portal Page

Portlet Architecture

�OASIS Standard – Web Services for Remote Portals

�Portals that support WSRP can display Portlets from other WSRP enabled Portals

Integrating Existing Applications into the Portal

�Write a thin web service and develop a portlet for that application

�Write a WSRP layer on top of the application and have the application host itself as a portlet producer

�Application rewrite, factoring business logic and persistence out of the legacy app.

Part Two

Installing Pluto

Installing Plutohttp://portals.apache.org/pluto/install.html

�CVS Client – I just used Eclipse� Install Maven� Install Tomcat�Edit build.properties file�Add %MAVEN_HOME%\bin directory to

path�Root Directory of PLUTO Project�Execute `maven fullDeployment`�Check it out!

Installing Plutohttp://portals.apache.org/pluto/install.html

�Build.properties settings– maven.tomcat.home=c:/tomcat5.0– maven.tomcat.version.major=5

If your Maven Build Works

Interesting Eclipse Plugins –Where Portal Construction is Going

•For Eclipse Generation of Portlets•http://plutoeclipse.sourceforge.net/

•Maven Eclipse Plugin–http://maven.apache.org/reference/plugins/eclipse/properties.html

JSR-168 Establishes

�Portlet Container – Pluto is the reference implementation

�Portlet API– Requests– Preferences– User Information– Deployment Packaging

�Relationship between portlet and portletcontainer

Portal – Just Another Web App

�WEB-INF (Familiar to Servlet & JSP folks)– Web.xml– Portlet.xml

�Pluto Specific Deployment Directory– $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/pluto/data

• Portletentityregistry.xml – portlet & portlet app definitions

• Pageregistry.xml – Describes how the portal page looks

Using Ant for War FilesInit

</target>INIT

Using Ant for War FilesCompile

</src>

</include>

</fileset>

</include>

</fileset>

</classpath>

</javac>

</target>

COMPILE

Using Ant for War FilesWar

</war>

</target>

Pageregistry.xml

Portal Application Id.portletId

portletentityregistry.xml

Portal Application Id

Portlet Id

Portlet Errors

Portlet Errors – Did you Deploy?

maven deploy -Ddeploy=FULL_PATH_TO_YOUR_PORTLET_WAR

Part Three

Build our First Portlet

Portlet Modes

�Mandatory support for– View– Edit– Help

�JSR-168 supports custom, vendor defined portlet modes

Window State

�Three States defined in JSR-168– Normal– Maximized– Minimized

�Custom states supported

Build our First PortletDefine Project Structure

Define our ConstructionFile structures, etc.

Build our First PortletCode the Java

package com.clutchsoftware.portlets;

import java.io.IOException;

import java.io.Writer;

import javax.portlet.GenericPortlet;

import javax.portlet.PortletException;

import javax.portlet.RenderRequest;

import javax.portlet.RenderResponse;

public class CardinalsOne extends GenericPortlet

protected void doView(RenderRequest request, RenderResponse response)

throws PortletException, IOException

System.out.println("TEST OUTPUT");

response.setContentType("text/html");

Writer writer = response.getWriter();

writer.write("Help, I'm a portlet, and I'm trapped in a portal framework!");

Code the Java

Build our First PortletBuild the web.xml

Build the XML

Build our First PortletPortlet.xml

Build the XML

Build our First PortletAnt Build Script

Run the ant build script

Perform the PLUTO Deployment

Edit the portletentityregistry.xml file

Make sure this is the same as your class name in your java file

Edit the pageregistry.xml file

Part Four

An API Tour

GenericPortlet

�Base class for java portlet specification�Implements Portlet and PortletConfig

interfaces of the portlet API�Key methods

– doDispatch()– doView()– doHelp()– doEdit()

Portlet Interface

� init()� processAction(ActionRequest, ActionResponse)� render(RenderRequest, RenderResponse)� destroy()

«interface»PortletRequest

«interface»ActionRequest

«interface»RenderRequest

«interface»PortletResponse

«interface»ActionResponse

«interface»RenderResponse

RenderResponse object –Content Types

� Portlets can produce content using the RenderResponse writer or it may delegate generation of content to a servlet or .jsp

� Set content type– public void setContentType(String type);

� Get Default Content Type for the Portal– public String getResponseConentType();

� List of all supported content types– public java.util.Enumeration getResponseContentTypes()

RenderResponse object –Writing Content to a Portal Page

� Where portlets can write– Output stream– Writer

� Most use getWriter() method on the RenderResponse object– public java.io.PrintWriter getWriter() throws

java.io.Exception;

PortletURL

�A portlet can create a URL that targets itself inside the portlet container – PortletURL’s

�Key methods on RenderResponse– createRenderURL()– createActionURL()

�Key PortletURL object methods– setParameter(String name, String value)– setParameters(java.util.Map parameters)– setSecure() [true to enable security, false to disable it]

What does a Portlet Have to Implement?

�GenericPortlet’s– getTitle()– doView()– Constructor

Lifecycle of a Portlet

�Creation of the portlet– Loading the classes– Invocation of constructor– init()

�Processing Requests– render()– processAction()

�Death of a Portlet– destroy()

Portlet RequestsRequest Attributes

�Request Attributes – Pass java objects

between portlets, servlets& JSP’s

– PortletRequest Attributes are identical to HTTPServletRequestattributes

Portlet RequestsRequest Properties

�Request Properties– Allows access to

container or server properties

– Vendor dependent– Not portable across

implementations

Portlet RequestsRequest Parameters

�Request Parameters– Name value pair– String object name– One or more String

object values

Portlet RequestsRequest Security

�Request Security– getAuthType()– getRemoteUser()– isUserInRole()– getUserPrincipal()

Portlet ResponsesPortletResponse Base Interface

�Three methods– setProperty(String key,

String value)– addProperty(String key,

String value)– encodeURL()

Portlet ResponsesRenderResponse Interface

�Numerous Methods– createActionURL()– createRenderURL()– setContentType()– setTitle()– getNamespace()– getLocale()– ….

Portlet ResponsesActionResponse Interface

�Numerous Methods– setWindowState() throws

WindowStateException– setPortletMode() throws

PortletModeException– sendRedirect()– setRenderParameter()– setRenderParameters()

– ….

PortletContext

�PortletConfig Interface provides access– getPortletContext()

�PortletContext– getServerInfo() – Returns a string that

provides the name and version number of the portlet container

– getMajorVersion() / getMinorVersion() –Return major and minor versions of the portletAPI

Portlet Sessions

�PortletSession Object– Obtained through a PortletRequest object– A façade over HTTPSession

�getPortletSession()

Part Five

EXO Portal

EXO Portlet Deployment

Build.xml Modifications for EXO

Result – One WAR for Each Portal

Seeing the EXO Deployment

EXO – Deployment Eclipse Plugin

�Demo

General Thoughts on EXO-Portal

�Deployment documentation is unclear– Reasonably well organized– Not written by somebody who understands

• How to use a spell checker• The English language

�LocalHost deployment on Tomcat crashed and/or exhibited non-deterministic behavior frequently.

Part Six

Jetspeed

Portlets on Jetspeed!Basic Requirements

� It is expected that the user is familiar with both the Apache Maven project tool and the Apache Ant build tool.

�Ant 1.5 or higher�Maven 1.0 or higher�Java 1.4 or higher�Servlet 2.3:

Tomcat 4.1.xorTomcat 5.x

Portlets on Jetspeed!CVS Checkout Instructions

�Web Access�http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs/jakarta-jetspeed-2/�Anonymous CVS Access

– This project's CVS repository can be checked out through anonymous (pserver) CVS with the following instruction set. When prompted for a password for anonymous, simply press the Enter key.

– cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic login cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic co jakarta-jetspeed-2

– Updates from within the module's directory do not need the -d parameter.

Portlets on Jetspeed!Building Jetspeed -1

Building Jetspeed 2If you are using the default Hypersonic database, this procedure requires two terminal sessions. If you are using another database, skip the immediate section below on Terminal Session #1.

��

Terminal session #2, build the portal and all components and unit test Jetspeed-2:

�� !��"�� #�� !��

http://portals.apache.org/jetspeed-2/getting-started.html

Deploying Jetspeed into TomcatWe only cover deploying to Tomcat 4 and Tomcat 5. Step #1 below is optional if you are NOT using the default Hypersonic database.

1. If you are using the Hypersonic SQL database, make sure you have terminated the test HSQLserver. Then in the same terminal, start the production Hypersonic database by typing

maven start.production.server

2. (in seperate window/terminal session)

cd ${jetspeed-2-home}

3. maven quickStart

This will recreate the DB to deploy into. WARNING This will drop all the tables and data in the production database.

4. Start up Tomcat. With a browser, go to:

http://localhost:8080/jetspeed

Portlets on Jetspeed!Portlet Deployment – 1

Ya put your .war filed portlet in here…

</fragment>

Notice the Syntax similarity with pluto –dodgers.DodgersDone

Documentation Says – You don’t need to Restart tomcat for the changes to be recognized•Half True

•If you don’t, it does show the portlet frame•But, the portlet doesn’t work until you restart tomcat

Jetspeed – General Thoughts

�Jetspeed 1 is relatively stable, but not JSR-168 compliant

�Jetspeed 2 is unstable– Portlets work and minutes later… don’t work– Sometimes the container won’t start…. And

then it will�Like Pluto, there is no binary download

available yet.

Part Seven

Miscellaneous Notes & My Favorite Open Source Portal – Liferay

Open Source Portlets

http://sourceforge.net/projects/portlet-opensrc

Liferay

� I’ve been running a Liferay Portal 24/7 for two years using Jboss & Oracle

�Decent Eclipse setup instructions available�Quite the Resource Pig�Requires knowledge of J2EE beyond servlets &

.jsp’s to operate�Learning curve is steeper, but the flexibility and

stability far exceed other portals I’ve shown here tonight.

Liferay Deployment

Thank You

Sean P. GogginsPortaltalk@goggins.com

JSR – 168 Portlet Spec -...

Documents