Creating Web 2.0-Enabled Communities With Sun Java System Portal Server

From its aggregation capabilities to community support, self-publishing features, and collaboration services, a portal implemented using Sun Java System Portal Server gives you access to better web technologies to build the read/write web. Some people think of Web 2.0 only in terms of an advanced collection of web interface technologies and consider web applications with a pop-up calendar, a rich text editor, or drag-and-drop functionality as being all there is to Web 2.0. But when these capabilities are joined with the idea of the read/write web, then the true power of Web 2.0 emerges. For example, the pop-up calendar is the user interface for an online calendar that is shared with other members of a group, and clicking on the date checks the availability of the other people in the group to make meeting scheduling easier. The rich text editor is the user interface for a wiki that enables users to quickly and easily publish documents that can be shared with other members of a group.

Aggregating Active and Passive Content

The most basic function of the portal is to aggregate a wide variety of active as well as passive content in such a way that users can easily access the information and applications that they need. A portal defines a piece of content using the concept of a portlet. Portlets are typically displayed as the boxes that you see on a portal page. With the Ajax-enabled portal desktop feature in Portal Server, aggregation is taken to a new level. Portlets can be positioned using drag and drop. The content of individual portlets can be refreshed independently and resized without having to update the entire portal page. The Ajax-enabled portal desktop feature is an example of how better web interface technologies are used within the portal.

The portal aggregation capability allows applications to be integrated within the context of the portal using portlet events. A portlet can send an event when something happens, such as entering data into a field. Then other portlets can receive that event and change their content in response to the event. Using events, a portal-based solution can be developed using multiple relatively independent portlets. Event-based portlets are developed independently from one another, with the only interface between them being the events that they exchange. The portal deployer decides which portlets should be put together on a page, thereby constructing the solution. This is a form of mashup, in which multiple independent functions can be joined together to do something more interesting.

Allowing End Users to Create Communities

To enable participation among groups of users, Portal Server makes content available to users based on administrator-defined roles. But Portal Server also allows end users to create communities. A community consists of a group of users along with a set of services that are available to the users. The services can be anything that has a portlet user interface. Those that are included with Portal Server include discussion forums, file sharing, surveys and polls, task and event management, wiki, and blogging. The community uses the aggregation capabilities of the portal to present these services to the members of the community. The Community feature also supports limiting access to a community to only those users that have been invited and the ability to prevent certain users from joining a community. In this type of Web 2.0 solution, the portal-defined community forms the central point of group interaction. Content is developed within the community. Users can search for content within the community. Users participate in the community. And this participation leads to increased communication and productivity.

Once a group of users is gathered together in a community, they can share information within the portal using Portal Server's various content editing capabilities. The built-in wiki portlet provides the ability to quickly edit content using a JavaScript what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) interface that also includes the ability to embed the content of other portlets into wiki pages. Wiki pages are linked to one another using hypertext links. Portal Server uses the open source JSPWiki system in the implementation of this wiki feature.

Other forms of user self-publishing include the ability to share files using the file-sharing portlet and integrations with document and content management systems from FatWire, Interwoven, and others. To manage personal or group weblogs, a blogging portlet allows users to read and write entries to a Roller blog server directly from the portal page. The blog portlet also provides a WYSIWYG interface based on JavaScript technology for editing content.

Community members have the ability to initiate polls and surveys with other community members to find out what they are thinking. The portal also includes task and event management portlets that integrate with the Sun Java System Calendar Server to keep track of community tasks and events.

The ability to search for and categorize content is a critical feature of Web 2.0 solutions. Portal Server includes search and classification features that provide this ability for enterprise-wide content as well as community content. Although search in general is an older, more established web technology, its importance has increased with the read/write web.

Enhancing the Participation Capabilities of Portal Users

Additional services to enhance the participation capabilities of portal users can be added to the portal using standard Portlet Application Programming Interfaces (see the JSR 168: Portlet Specification). Along with more traditional portlet implementations, the Portlet Standard has also been used to make available to portal users so-called widgets and gadgets, which are user interface elements based on JavaScript and Ajax technologies. Frameworks such as jMaki, Dojo and Google Gadgets can all be used within portlets or made available through portlets as a means to improve the user experience. The portal provides a standardized platform for user interface integration using the portlet abstraction.

As you can see from these examples, a portal can be a place where the promise of Web 2.0 is realized within your enterprise. Portal Server is a platform upon which a complete solution can be built, providing not only better web technologies but also access to the read/write web that enables improved participation and productivity.

For more articles, documentation, sample applications, webcasts, and other information related to Sun Java System Portal Server, visit http://developers.sun.com/portalserver/.