Introduction to portal technology
As J2EE technology has evolved, much emphasis has been placed on the challenges of building enterprise applications and bringing those applications to the Web. At the core of the challenges currently being faced by Web developers is the integration of disparate user content into a seamless Web application and well-designed user interface. Portal technology provides a framework to build such applications for the Web.
Because of the increasing popularity of portal technologies, the tooling and frameworks used to support the building of new portals has evolved. The main job of a portal is to aggregate content and functionality. Portal servers provide:
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| A server to aggregate content |
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| A scalable infrastructure |
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| A framework to build portal components and extensions |
Additionally, many portals offer personalization and customization features. Personalization enables the portal to deliver user-specific information targeting a user based on their unique information. Customization allows the user to organize the look and feel of the portal to suit their individual needs and preferences.
Portals deliver e-business applications over the Web to many types of client devices from PCs to PDAs. Portals provide site users with a single point of access to multiple types of information and applications. Regardless of where the information resides or what format it is in, a portal aggregates all of the information in a way that is relevant to the user.
The goal of implementing an enterprise portal is to enable a working environment that integrates people, their work, personal activities, and supporting processes and technology.
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ibm.com/redbooks |