Develop for the portal v7.0 page and theme architecture
WebSphere Portal v7.0 introduces a page and theme architecture that allows you to mix iWidgets and portlets on the same portal page and take advantage of both client side and server side rendering mode. This can simplify creating and editing themes for you.
Here is an overview of the new architecture:
You can use the Common Component portal configuration service to configure common component properties for working with Page Builder themes and skins. For details refer to the topic about the Common Component Service.
- Static pages use plain HTML. This can include placeholders for dynamic content, such as portlets or iWidgets. You can create and edit static pages by using an HTML editor tool of choice.
- The Page Builder theme allows you to render and edit static pages that include portlets and iWidgets. The theme allows you for each page to configure whether that page is rendered in client side aggregation mode, or in server side aggregation mode. Users with editor rights on the page can toggle pages between client side and server side mode. The Page Builder theme consists of a plain HTML file and several other components. You can customize it by using a HTML editor tool of choice. The portal provides several include files that you can use to add the logic for starting and editing the page.
- You can use portlets and iWidgets to add application logic to a static page. JSR168 and 286 define the standard for portlets, and the iWidget specification 2.0 defines iWidgets. Both portlets and iWidgets are self-contained pieces of application logic that you can develop, deploy, and use in a flexible manner. You need to distinguish between the types of code and its execution:
- Portlets are written as Java™ code. They are designed to be executed in a portlet container on the server side. If they are rendered by client side execution instead, the portal translates them into iWidgets markup that can be executed in the browser.
- iWidgets are written as Javascript logic. They are designed to be executed in the browser on the client side. For server side execution the portal wraps iWidgets into portlets.