Review of Building Portals with the Java Portlet API (Expert's Voice) (v. 2) (Paperback)

Portals are becoming more popular as companies are looking for a single web-based entry point into their various applications.Java provides a standard portal model with JSR 168.This book is a thorough introduction into JSR 168 that will help get portal developers up to speed into this relatively new specification.

The book starts with an excellent introduction into developing portlets.The first seven chapters cover all the details of developing portlets.Response and request objects are covered in detail.The portlet life cycle is clearly explained.Deployment descriptors are discussed. Integrating with Servlets and JSPs is described.The remainder of the book covers more advanced topics.Anyone working with a portal knows the problems with providing single sign-on to multiple applications.The authors discuss this issue giving several examples.The authors cover syndication, searching, personalization, web services, content management, and more.

My only complaint with the book is that it uses the Apache Pluto portal, which is not in final release yet.Pluto is an open source portal but it is complicated to distribute content to it (you are forced to use Maven).When the book explains how to distribute portlets to Pluto it gets a little confusing because the authors need to explain multiple configuration files, some of which are exclusive to Pluto.Other than this one problem, the book gives a solid introduction to developing a portal providing detailed information of both the basics and many advanced concepts.Clearly the authors understand portal development and know how to pass that information on to their readers.

Product Description
This book is a thorough introduction into JSR 168 that will help get portal developers up to speed into this relatively new specification.</a></p></blockquote><p id="quoteAuthor">- Thomas Paul, JavaRanch Sheriff</p></div>

<p>How do developers bring existing applications into a portal? How do developers integrate content management systems and search engines with a portal? And how do developers get started with the Portlet API? Jeff Linwood and Dave Minter show you how to solve these real problems in <i>Building Portals with the Java Portlet API</i>. </p>

<p>This book describes the new Java portlet API, including security, portlet life cycles, and portlet interaction with servlets and JSP. The examples will work on any portal that complies with the JSR-168 portlet API. Several example portlets are developed to give you hands-on portlet experience. You'll even learn how to port existing servlet and JSP applications into a new portal environment.</p>

<p>The authors also discuss Single Sign-On (SSO) using Kerberos and the GSS-API, syndicating content with RSS, and integrating a charting solution with JFreeChart. Other topics covered are the open-source Apache Jakarta Lucene search engine, personalization, portlet configuration, portlet preferences, and Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP). XDoclet is also used throughout portions of this book.</p>

About the Author
Jeff Linwood has been involved in software programming since he had a 286 in high school. He got caught up with the Internet when he got access to a UNIX shell account, and it has been downhill ever since. Jeff has published articles on several Jakarta Apache open source projects in <i>Dr. Dobb's Journal</i>, CNET's Builder.com, and <i>JavaWorld</i>. Jeff has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He currently works for the Gossamer Group in Austin, Texas, on content management and web application syndication systems. He gets to play with all the latest open source projects there.Dave Minter has adored computers since he was small enough to play in the boxes they came in. He built his first PC from discarded, faulty, and obsolete components, and considers that to be the foundation of his career as an integration consultant. Dave is based in London, where he helps large and small companies build systems that "just work.

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