This section will introduce the reader to deploying his first portlet in JBoss Portal. It requires you download the HelloWorldPortlet from PortletSwap.com, using this link .

Portlets are packaged in war files, just like other JEE applications. A typical portlet war file can also include servlets, resource bundles, images, html, jsps, and other static or dynamic files you would commonly include.

Included in the download bundle you should have one java source file: HelloWorldPortlet\src\main\org\jboss\portlet\hello\HelloWorldPortlet.java , and it should contain the following:

package org.jboss.portlet.hello;

import javax.portlet.GenericPortlet;
import javax.portlet.PortletException;
import javax.portlet.RenderRequest;
import javax.portlet.RenderResponse;
import javax.portlet.UnavailableException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

public class HelloWorldPortlet extends GenericPortlet
{
   protected void doView(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      rResponse.setContentType("text/html");
      PrintWriter writer = rResponse.getWriter();
      writer.write("Hello World!");
      writer.close();
   }
}
               

Now lets dissect our simplest of portlets:

JBoss Portal requires certain descriptors be included in your portlet war, for different reasons. Some of these descriptors are defined by the Portlet Specification, and some are specific to JBoss Portal.

Now lets explain what each of these does:

To illustrate the relationship between the descriptors , we have provided this simple diagram

If you have downloaded the sample, you can execute the build.xml with ANT or inside your IDE. Executing the deploy target will compile all src files and produce a helloworldportlet.war under HelloWorldPortlet\helloworldportlet.war.

If you want to create an expanded war directory, after executing the above deploy target, you should execute the explode target.

The above target will produce the following:

This will deflate the helloworldportlet.war, and allow you to deploy it as an expanded directory. It will work just the same, with some additional benefits noted below:

The advantage to expanded war deployments is that you can modify xml descriptors, resource files jsp/jsf pages easily during development. Simply touch the web.xml to have JBoss Application Server hot-deploy the web appllication on a live-running server instance

Deploying a portlet is as simple as copying/moving the helloworldportlet.war in to the server deploy directory. Doing this on a running instance of the portal and application server, will trigger a hot-deploy :

18:25:56,366 INFO  [Server] JBoss (MX MicroKernel) [4.0.5.GA (build:
             CVSTag=JBoss_4_0_5_GA date=2006000000)] Started in 1m:3s:688ms
18:26:21,147 INFO  [TomcatDeployer] deploy, ctxPath=/helloworldportlet,
             warUrl=.../tmp/deploy/tmp35219helloworldportlet-exp.war/

Pointing your browser to http://localhost:8080/portal/ , should yield a view of our HelloWorldPortlet:

This section will introduce the reader to deploying a simple JSP portlet in JBoss Portal. It requires you download the HelloWorldJSPPortlet from PortletSwap.com, using this link .

This portlet will introduce you to using JSPs for view rendering and the portlet taglib for generating links.

Portlets are packaged in war files, just like other JEE applications. A typical portlet war file can also include servlets, resource bundles, images, html, jsps, and other static or dynamic files you would commonly include.

Included in the download bundle you should have one java source file: HelloWorldPortlet\src\main\org\jboss\portlet\hello\HelloWorldJSPPortlet.java , and it should contain the following:

package org.jboss.portlet.hello;

import javax.portlet.ActionRequest;
import javax.portlet.ActionResponse;
import javax.portlet.GenericPortlet;
import javax.portlet.PortletException;
import javax.portlet.PortletRequestDispatcher;
import javax.portlet.RenderRequest;
import javax.portlet.RenderResponse;
import javax.portlet.UnavailableException;
import java.io.IOException;

public class HelloWorldJSPPortlet extends GenericPortlet
{
   protected void doView(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      rResponse.setContentType("text/html");

      String sYourName = (String) rRequest.getParameter("yourname");

      if(sYourName != null)
      {
         rRequest.setAttribute("yourname", sYourName);
         PortletRequestDispatcher prd = getPortletContext()
            .getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/jsp/view2.jsp");
         prd.include(rRequest, rResponse);
      }
      else
      {
         PortletRequestDispatcher prd = getPortletContext()
            .getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/jsp/view.jsp");
         prd.include(rRequest, rResponse);
      }
   }

   public void processAction(ActionRequest aRequest, ActionResponse aResponse)
                  throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      String sYourname = (String) aRequest.getParameter("yourname");

      // do something

      aResponse.setRenderParameter("yourname", sYourname);
   }

   protected void doHelp(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      rResponse.setContentType("text/html");
      PortletRequestDispatcher prd = getPortletContext()
         .getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/jsp/help.jsp");
      prd.include(rRequest, rResponse);
   }

   protected void doEdit(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      rResponse.setContentType("text/html");
      PortletRequestDispatcher prd = getPortletContext()
         .getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/jsp/edit.jsp");
      prd.include(rRequest, rResponse);
   }
}

Now lets look at some of our methods:

JBoss Portal requires certain descriptors be included in your portlet war, for different reasons. Some of these descriptors are defined by the Portlet Specification, and some are specific to JBoss Portal. For brevity, we only discuss the portlet.xml descriptor here. For discussion on the other descriptors, please view Section 5.2.1.4, “The Application Descriptors” or the chapter on descriptors: Section 6.2, “Portlet Descriptors” .

Of importance in this tutorial are the two view jsps. The first, allows the user to input his name, which is then posted to the processAction method in our portlet class, set as a renderParameter , then the render method is invoked (in our case its the doView , which then dispatches to our view2.jsp .

Now lets have a look at our view.jsp :

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/portlet" prefix="portlet" %>

<portlet:defineObjects/>

<div align="center">
   This is a simple HelloWorld JSP Portlet. Type in a name and it will dispatch
   to the view2.jsp to print out your name.
   <br/>

   <form action="<portlet:actionURL><portlet:param name="page" value="mainview"/>
         </portlet:actionURL>" method="POST">
      Name:<br/>
      <input type="text" name="yourname"/>
   </form>
   <br/>
   You can also link to other pages, using a renderURL, like <a
      href="<portlet:renderURL><portlet:param name="yourname" value="Roy Russo">
            </portlet:param></portlet:renderURL>">this</a>.
</div>

If you have downloaded the sample, you can execute the build.xml with ANT or inside your IDE. Executing the deploy target will compile all src files and produce a helloworldportlet.war under HelloWorldPortlet\helloworldjspportlet.war.

If you want to create an expanded war directory, after executing the above deploy target, you should execute the explode target.

The above target will produce the following:

This will deflate the helloworldjspportlet.war, and allow you to deploy it as an expanded directory. It will work just the same, with some additional benefits noted below:

The advantage to expanded war deployments is that you can modify xml descriptors, resource files jsp/jsf pages easily during development. Simply touch the web.xml to have JBoss Application Server hot-deploy the web appllication on a live-running server instance

Deploying a portlet is as simple as copying/moving the helloworldjspportlet.war in to the server deploy directory. Doing this on a running instance of the portal and application server, will trigger a hot-deploy :

15:54:34,234 INFO  [Server] JBoss (MX MicroKernel) [4.0.5.GA (build:
                   CVSTag=JBoss_4_0_5_GA date=2006000000)]
                   Started in 1m:9s:766ms
15:55:04,062 INFO  [TomcatDeployer] deploy, ctxPath=/helloworldjspportlet,
                   warUrl=.../tmp/deploy/tmp57782helloworldjspportlet-exp.war/

Pointing your browser to http://localhost:8080/portal/ , should yield a view of our HelloWorldPortlet:

This section will introduce the reader to deploying a simple JSF portlet in JBoss Portal. It requires you download the HelloWorldJSFPortlet from PortletSwap.com, using this link .

This portlet will introduce you to leveraging the JSF framework in portlet development.

Portlets are packaged in war files, just like other JEE applications. A typical portlet war file can also include servlets, resource bundles, images, html, jsps, and other static or dynamic files you would commonly include.

Like a typical JSF application, we also package our faces-config.xml that defines our managed-beans, converters, validators, navigation rules, etc...

JBoss Portal requires certain descriptors be included in your portlet war, for different reasons. Some of these descriptors are defined by the Portlet Specification, and some are specific to JBoss Portal. For brevity, we only discuss the portlet.xml and faces-config.xml descriptors here. For discussion on the other descriptors, please view Section 5.2.1.4, “The Application Descriptors” or the chapter on descriptors: Section 6.2, “Portlet Descriptors” .

If you have downloaded the sample, you can execute the build.xml with ANT or inside your IDE. Executing the deploy target will compile all src files and produce a helloworldjsfportlet.war under HelloWorldJSFPortlet\helloworldjsfportlet.war.

If you want to create an expanded war directory, after executing the above deploy target, you should execute the explode target.

The above target will produce the following:

This will deflate the helloworldjsfportlet.war, and allow you to deploy it as an expanded directory. It will work just the same, with some additional benefits noted below:

The advantage to expanded war deployments is that you can modify xml descriptors, resource files jsp/jsf pages easily during development. Simply touch the web.xml to have JBoss Application Server hot-deploy the web application on a live-running server instance

Deploying a portlet is as simple as copying/moving the helloworldjsfportlet.war in to the server deploy directory. Doing this on a running instance of the portal and application server, will trigger a hot-deploy :

22:30:03,093 INFO  [TomcatDeployer] deploy, ctxPath=/helloworldjsfportlet,
                   warUrl=.../tmp/deploy/tmp5571helloworldjsfportlet-exp.war/
22:30:03,312 INFO  [FacesConfigurator] Reading standard config
                   org/apache/myfaces/resource/standard-faces-config.xml
22:30:03,390 INFO  [FacesConfigurator] Reading config
                   jar:file:/C:/jboss-4.0.5.GA/server/default/tmp/deploy/
                   tmp5504jboss-portal.sar-contents/lib/jsf-facelets.jar!/
                   META-INF/faces-config.xml
22:30:03,406 INFO  [FacesConfigurator] Reading config jar:file:/C:/jboss-4.0.5.GA/
                   server/default/tmp/deploy/tmp5504jboss-portal.sar-contents/
                   lib/tomahawk.jar!/META-INF/faces-config.xml
22:30:03,468 INFO  [FacesConfigurator] Reading config /WEB-INF/faces-config.xml
22:30:03,484 ERROR [LocaleUtils] Locale name null or empty, ignoring
22:30:03,640 INFO  [MyFacesGenericPortlet] PortletContext 'C:\jboss-4.0.5.GA\server\
                   default\.\tmp\deploy\tmp5571helloworldjsfportlet-exp.war\'
                   initialized.

Pointing your browser to http://localhost:8080/portal/ , should yield a view of our HelloWorldJSFPortlet: