Portlets - AI, ML, VR & more

In the SharedInsights conference, me and my colleague Hari talk about key issues in portal arena like the need for portlets marketplace, lack of enterprise search and collaboration applications in the portal space etc. Please check out the podcast here.

In the SharedInsights conference, me and my colleague Hari talk about key issues in portal areana like a need for portlets marketplace, lack of enterprise search and collaboration applications in the portal space etc. Please check out the podcast here.

SAP AG today announced that the Java EE 5-based SAP NetWeaver (R) Composition Environment (SAP NetWeaver CE), a next-generation set of standards-based and integrated composition tools, has been released to customers and partners for full production use. SAP NetWeaver CE, which is used for the development and deployment of composite applications, will also be available for a 30-day trial download on SAP Developer Network ( sdn.sap.com ) starting in May.................... Read More My Note: SAP's support for standards was always sloppy, especially JSR 168. So it is good to know that SAP is ahead in supporting standards this time.

iSeries integration with portals is one need that keep coming to us time to time. As always, IBM's product line is so confusing that it is very difficult to find out the product(s) that exactly fit to your requirement. On top of that, finding information on IBM products on web is not easy. As always their documents are so confusing and very difficult to find. So for the benefit of readers, I want to share some details on the products for iSeries (System i or AS/400) integration available from IBM. Following is the list of the products available for integration purpose - 1. iSeries Access Family components: -- iSeries Access for Web --The iSeries version of WebSphere Host Publisher -- WebSphere Host Access Transformation Server Limited Edition (HATS LE) 2. WebSphere Host On-Demand (a part of WebSphere Host Integration Solution) 3. IBM WebFacing Tool (part of WebSphere Development Studio Client ( WDSc )) 4. Full functioned WebSphere Host Publisher packaged with the Host

After the collaborative portals and groupware on portals, it seems the time for vendors to focus more on integration portals and process portals. BPM and Integration is suppose to be a main feature for Portals. Though Process portals are being discussed for quite some time now, but we did not see any release which is more oriented towards middleware and hence provides the tightly integrated capabilities for enterprise application integration, business process integration and single sigh on. Oracle has came up with much focused efforts in this direction by announcing Oracle WebCenter Suite. This is a welcome efforts in that direction. You can check the release announcement here. You can also check an interesting demo for the Oracle WebCenter.

Here is what Gartner thinks about Lotusphere 2007. Here is the excerpt - Significant updates to Lotus Notes and Quickplace, as well as the introduction of some compelling new products, were the reason that IBM's Lotusphere 2007 was buzzing with positive feedback from IBM customers and partners. Perhaps the best news coming from Lotusphere is the near-disappearance of the bewildering "Workplace" name. The folding of Workplace into WebSphere Portal has helped to reduce the confusion regarding its strategy, messaging and products. While Workplace was, in Gartner's view, a failed marketing effort, its underlying concepts embracing the Web have provided a critical foundation for Notes 8, Quickr, Connections and Sametime — which are all built on Eclipse with the Expeditor tool. Combined with the recently added representational state transfer (REST) application programming interfaces, Atom syndication capabilities and "mashability," these concepts serve as a strat

Drew Varner, Sr. Pricipal Consultant at BEA, has written a good post on JSR 168 portlet development guidelines. These are some basic guidelines that a portlet developers must aware of. He has also given examples to support his views. Here are the guidelines - 1. Always Utilize the URL Rewriting APIs for Content in Your Portlet 2. Do Not Append Paths to a Rewritten URL 3. Qualify Client-side Script Variables and Methods with Namespaces 4. Ensure Inline Client-side Scripts that Refer to Portlet Resources Follow the Spec 5. Always Declare a Content Type for Portlet Responses 6. Do Not Send Cookies from Portlets 7. Separate Business Logic from Presentation Please check his post for details.

In the past, IBM discontinued the Express edition of portal. Today IBM has again come up with Express flavor with new attires. This time it is going to be an integrated portal and collaboration platform for SMBs. Other than all regular feature of portal, I believe that it will also have some out-of-box intranet features, so that SMBs can build and deploy their intranet easily. It also has some pre-built sample websites to pick and customize. You can check press release here . Even though I am at Lotusphere, I missed the annoucement. I'll check more details today and post it here. Other than WebSphere Portal Express 6.0, IBM also announced following products in Lotusphere conference - Lotus Connections , Press Release Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Lotus Quickr Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 IBM Websphere Portal Express Version 6.0 Lotus Component Designer Lotus ActiveInsight Lotus Workforce Management A brief of these annoucements can be found here . I am at Sun Microsystems's booth showcasing