Chapter 7: Portlet Builders

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Portlet building technologies, including the IBM Application Portlet Builder Version 4.2 and those of various IBM Business Partners, promise to provide the capability to rapidly create portlets that can access and manipulate Domino applications without requiring in-depth J2EE programming knowledge. In this chapter we take a look at five portlet building tools that are currently available. We present detailed information on IBM Portlet Builder for Domino, Bowstreet Portlet Factory for WebSphere, and Conet Portlet Factory for Domino. In addition we briefly present the capabilities of Sofor Interactive Portlet Builder for Domino and Aptrix Portlet Connector.

7.1 Overview of the portlet builders option

This chapter outlines the technologies available in the marketplace that bridge the gap between the use of existing portlets and custom Java development options. It focuses on the technology offerings from five vendors including IBM, Bowstreet, Conet, Sofor, and Aptrix. All offer solutions that simplify the building of custom portlets to expose Domino applications on the WebSphere Portal platform. These builders utilize your Domino applications by querying and aggregating Domino data and displaying that content within a portlet context.

This chapter differentiates these various offerings, as well as providing key information about each portlet builder including features, pricing information, and advantages as well as disadvantages.

Why choose this option

While using existing portlets to expose Domino data is by far the most expedient option, it is only feasable when your portlet requirements match the functionality provided by an existing portlet.

Custom portlet development using Java and JSPs provides a much richer set of development options. There is no limit to what can be developed using the tools and techniques available from these options. If your team has the right development skills and enough time, custom portlet development is the way to go.

However, there are often situations where the skill set of the development team or the time allotted for development can prevent custom portlet development using Java and JSP tags from being a viable option.

Portlet builder technologies offer a middle-ground approach to portlet development. They offer significantly more development capabilities than the use of existing portlets. In addition, they promise a shorter development time and require less in-depth knowledge about custom portlet development than the more advanced Java- and JSP-based options.



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Portalizing Domino Applications for Websphere Portal
Portalizing Domino Applications for Websphere Portal
ISBN: 0738499811
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 103
Authors: IBM Redbooks

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