0

We have a new requirement driven by user interface team to go with portal solution for our user interface with portlets just like iGoogle. Our enterprise architecture team is recommending Portal technology (JSR 168) and personally but I think it is over kill. After reviewing Pageflakes architecture I am wondering whether we can come up with a lightweight UI framework to accommodate this instead of going with portal technology. I would appreciate your kind advice.

Additional information:

It is a Java shop with heavy investment in Websphere suite.

anonmys
  • 419
  • 1
  • 8
  • 18

1 Answers1

2

Of course this depends on your requirements. In general I think portals are good if you want to use the features they provide out-of-the-box (like login, user/role management, cms, etc) and are prepared to spend some time in configuring/maintaining the system. Anyway the JSR-168 is quite old and limited, and you should use JSR-286 as basis instead.

You might also consider building a custom "portal". That could be done with JavaScript framework like JQuery, or if more comfortable using Java-only, a component framework like Vaadin. Then it is good to rely on the framework's APIs to define the UI fragments and use the modularization mechanisms they provide.

Cannot say much about the Pageflakes, but it seems like simple and nice framework for aggregating HTML content from different sources using Ajax.

As a summary I'd say: Portal, if want to use (in good and bad) the advanced features. Custom, if you want to have the control and only build a simple "dashboard".

eeq
  • 2,108
  • 12
  • 21
  • I see, then it makes sense that this is coming from Enterprise Architects who want to create each app as a portlet with the same user/role management, cms etc). Since we use Oracle IDM as provisioning system, which means we need to have some Portal integration with IDM as well. It will interesting to know if anybody can share their insights about the effort it requires to train developers in Portal Technology, to build this IDM integration solution, to configure the system etc VS. building these features such as login, user/role management, cms integration etc ourselves. – anonmys Mar 28 '11 at 15:19