Introduction to Script Portlet using AngularJS

Introduction

In this blog entry I would like to give an introduction to the NEW Script Portlet using AngularJS. I will also show you how to develop a sample weather application using the Script Portlet using AngularJS. 

This sample is only for demo purposes, and is by no means a completed application. In addition, this blog entry does not cover all the features of AngularJS or the Script Portlet.

What is Script Portlet?

The Script Portlet is IBM’s version of http://jsfiddle.net. It allows developers to write an application using JavaScript, HTML and CSS technologies. You only need a browser to develop and run these technologies. 

Installing Script Portlet

You can download Script Portlet from Greenhouse. This Portlet is constantly being updated with new features. At the time of this writing the Portlet is at version 1, update 3.

Your portal server should be at least at V8.0.0.1 CF 11 to install version 1.3 of Script Portlet. 

Once your Portal is updated, follow the steps in the “readme.pdf” to install the Portlet. This file is located in the .zip file you downloaded from Greenhouse.

Hello World

So now that you have your Script Portlet, let’s do a simple “Hello World” 

1. Place the Script Portlet on a portal page. 

2. Click “Edit Mode” on the top right of the page. This will enable the “Edit” link on your Portlet.

 3. Click the “Edit” link on the Portlet. This will launch four panels.

HTML/<head>: In this panel you can write your HTML code. Click on the <head> link to open the Head panel. Here you can write any code that you want to place in the <head> section of your Portal page. Note: If you want to include any JS or CSS files you can place them under the “Depedencies” section, explained later.

CSS: In this section put any CSS classes you want to define.

JavaScript: In this section place any JavaScript code you may have.

Preview: Once you click the “Save” button, your application can be previewed in this panel. 

For all these panels you have an icon that looks like this:. Click on this icon to expand the  panel. In the Preview panel you can also preview the application in a new browser window, just click the new browser icon.

Dependencies: You can define any external JS or CSS dependencies here. Just give the URL and click the “+” button to add the external resource to your application. Any dependencies you define here are automatically added to <head> section of the page. 

Rename the Portlet: You can rename the Portlet title. Click “Edit” link next to “Script Portlet Content Item”. Rename it to “Hello World”.

 

4. Now that we know the interface, let’s continue with our Hello World app. Place the below code in their respective panels.
HTML: 

JavaScript:

5. Click the Save button. This will render the application in the Preview panel.

6. Click on the “Click Me” button. It will display an alert that says “Hello, Script Portlet”.

7. Great, we finished our first application.

Some More Details About Script Portlet
All the code you develop in script Portlet is stored within IBM Web Content Management found on the Portal server.

You could create your own WCM project using managed pages and create a Portlet using Script Portlet. This project can then use WCM workflows to approve the page and Portlet for release and change management control.

For more details on Managed pages please refer to the IBM Wiki.

What is AngularJS?
AngularJS is like any other JavaScript framework (such as jQuery, Dojo, Prototype.js etc.), but with one key difference. AngularJS is based on a MVC framework. With growing demand to make web applications work more like desktop applications, you need to carefully design your front end views. If your JavaScript is all over the place with <script> tags then it will be impossible to maintain. With other frameworks like jQuery and Dojo, you as a developer should put extra effort to design your application properly. But with AngularJS (much like Spring and Struts) it provides guidelines of how to develop an MVC application.

Say Hello to AngularJS
Let’s develop a simple application before we develop a bigger application.
1. Place the script Portlet on the portal page and open the editor.
2. Add https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.0-beta.13/angular.min.js as the

3. Directives: Directives are notations letting AngularJS know what that block means. For example “ng-app” lets the framework consider that block as an application. This “ng-app” directive makes AngularJS take care of some important tasks on your behalf. The “ng-app” directive makes sure it initializes the models (ng-model), controllers (ng-controller), views (ng-view), etc. as the application is loaded.

We use {{someModelReference}} format to reference a model, typically meaning a data element.

This information is enough to complete our first AngularJS application.

4. Copy the below code in HTML panel.

5. Click the “Save” button. The application is opened in Preview panel. Type your name in the text box.

AngularJS Building Blocks

As seen in the above example, with some simple directives we made our code simple and clean, but at the same time we achieved some functionality without any JavaScript code. Now our code looks more readable. Let’s explore the building blocks of this framework:

Module:

A module is like an application. You can have one or more modules/applications on a page. In the above application “ng-app” initializes an application. A module can be initialized as ng-app=”MyModuleName”.

Modules contain models, controllers, views, factories, services, etc.

Model:

Any framework model represents your data. In AngularJS you can define what a model is. It can be as simple as string or it could be an object. You use “ng-model” to bind your data to HTML controls. You can also reference your model using {{yourObject.attribute}}. 

Model data is properly scoped when you use “ng-app” directive. Models can be further scoped using “ng-controller”. They can also be passed between controllers or views.

Controller

As in any MVC framework, your controller is the bridge between model and view. Controller can do custom logic, invoke a factory/service to call backend and construct the data model and hand it over to appropriate view.

View

View is the markup for the application. “ng-view” defines a view. There can be multiple views in an application. Each view is a HTML template that has place holders for model data and event handlers to hand over control to Controllers.

Routing

Routing is the configuration that defines which view to invoke and which control to be used. In the below example when “/list” is the path, it renders the “list.html” template and passes “ListCtrl” controller.

Factory/Service
Factory/Service is used to make a reusable service. Typically controllers invoke one or more services.

Weather App
Let’s develop a sample weather application using some of the features of AngularJS.

Since we have only one view, we don’t have to define the view explicitly or configure the routing. You can explore more on views and routing at https://angularjs.org/.

We use a free REST API to develop this application. You need a create a free account at http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/d/docs?d=data/index&MR=1

This free account will generate a key, which should be used in our sample application.

Dependencies
Define the following dependencies.
1. https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.0-beta.13/angular.min.js
2. http://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.2.0/css/bootstrap.min.css

We use bootstrap to control the look and feel. Bootstrap is an open source CSS utility to create responsive applications.

JavaScript 
Place the following code in JavaScript panel. Code is explained with inline comments.

HTML

Place the following HTML code in HTML panel. Code is explained with inline comments.

                          

                           

Ajax Proxy

We cannot directly make an Ajax call to another domain as browsers do not allow cross site scripting for security reasons. Portal has a feature called “Ajax proxy” that allows this to happen. It just needs some configuration.

Copy “proxy-config.xml” from your Portals  “IBM\WebSphere\wp_profile\config\cells\<YourCell>\applications\AJAX Proxy Configuration.ear\deployments\AJAX Proxy Configuration\wp.proxy.config.war\WEB-INF” directory and add the following policy.

Run the following command:

C:\IBM\proxy-config.xml is your updated file.

Final output:

Features Coming Soon
There are some NEW features that IBM plans to release soon:
1. Upload zip files: In the next version you should be able to upload a zip file with multiple JS, CSS and HTML files.
2. Copy existing scripts: You can copy existing scripts from a different project and update them as required.
3. WebDav entry point: You should be able to update your files connecting to a WebDav entry point. This should be handy if you use any tool like Brackets to edit your code or store the files in source repository.

References:
Greenhouse Script Portlet URL: https://greenhouse.lotus.com/plugins/plugincatalog.nsf/assetDetails.xsp?action=editDocument&documentId=DDB5C467D991413285257C67002476E0

Script Portlet Sample:
http://openntf.org/main.nsf/project.xsp?r=project/Script%20Portlet%20Samples%20for%20IBM%20WebSphere%20Portal/summary

Script Portlet Webinar:
https://developer.ibm.com/social/2014/05/05/webinar-replay-developing-portlets-using-html-css-javascript/

Script Portlet Presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/IBMSBT/script-portlet-v30#

Sample Weather Service:
http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/d/docs?d=data/index

AngularJS:
https://angularjs.org/

AngularJS Video Tutorial:
https://www.udemy.com/angularjs-jumpstart/?couponCode=AngularJSJumpStart40

Krishna Bhupathi is a Technical Lead with strong background in J2EE and Portal technologies. With over 10 years of experience in IBM technologies, Krishna has been responsible for design and delivery of many intranet and internet web sites using IBM products. He is a certified Portal developer. Prior to Prolifics, Krishna worked for IBM Global Services. He used to design and develop portal solutions to customers.  Krishna attended college in India, he did his engineering in Computer Science at Visvesvaraya Technological University. He likes playing cricket, he plays for TCC at Triangle Cricket League, NC. email: krishna.bhupathi@prolifics.com linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhupathikrishna  twitter: https://twitter.com/bhupatikrish

Prolifics and IBM's Digital Experience Software: Enhance, Extend and Enrich...

by Niral Jhaveri, Vice President,  User Experience, Prolifics

Hopefully you got a chance to attend IBM’s recent digital experience launch.  I know we’re excited about the evolution in IBM technology which will provide our customers even better ways to personalize content for their site visitors. It also excels in the analyzing and optimizing of site and campaign performance to drive desired results.  For example, With IBM’s Digital Experience Software, we can further help our portal and collaboration customers develop and manage dynamic content and rich media while delivering multi-channel applications - providing the ultimate, optimized customer experience. Prolifics is dedicated to providing customers with solutions that promote collaboration, empower conversation and bring together communities. Leveraging IBM’s Digital Experience technology stack, Prolifics can assist companies:


Enhancing
Upgrade to IBM Digital Experience
Migrate systems from older versions to IBM Digital Experience

Extending
Multi-channel extension of applications to mobile and tablets
Extend business applications beyond conventional desktop
Creating a mobile strategy

Enriching
Conduct health checks on aging applications
Provide tuning to improve performance and improve application longevity

Check out our latest video to see Watch for more on how Prolifics empowers businesses with mobile, social & collaboration.

Creating the Intranet “Classifieds” Feature using IBM WCM 8 – Part 3

In this blog series on WCM Based “Classifieds” intranet solution, we covered the Site Area, Authoring and Presentation Templates, HTML & Menu Components, Categories, Authoring Tools Component so far. In this final part of the blog we will look at the Workflow and Permissions and finally Creating the Page and Portlet.

Workflow and Permissions

• Workflow
• The following workflow is used to manage the item lifecycle. By default, the item enters the first stage “WS_DraftMktpl”; it has a scheduled move action which moves the item to next stage in 1 min. The next stage contains the Publish action and publishes the item on the live site.

• We could also use an approval process for each kind of item by inserting one more stage between the Draft and Publish stages for approval. Approver rights can be assigned to a group or person in the Approval stage, ensuring all content is approved manually by a group/person before it gets published.

• Permissions
• In order to enable users to post, edit and delete items on the live site, we configured the following permissions.
• Page and Content Viewer Portlet– Map “User” role “All Authenticated Users”
• Demo_Lib – Map “Contributor” role to “All Authenticated Users”
• Demo_Lib\Content – Map “Editor” role to “All Authenticated Users”

First, you need to assign all authenticated users access to pages and the portlet, which render the content. Next, you want to assign permissions for Demo_Lib(you content library) and Demo_Lib\Content in order to provide edit, delete and create functions to end users.

All these permissions are set using Portal Administration Console.

Creating the Page and Portlet
Page - Here we create a Portal Page anywhere in the Portal page hierarchy and make sure end users have appropriate permissions to access that page.

Portlet - Place a Web Content Viewer (JSR 286) portlet on the above page. Edit the portlet and add the below settings.

• Select the HTML component that renders the Marketplace view. This is a convenient feature in WCM 8 where we can directly render components instead of placing them on Content Items first.
• Next, select the three authoring templates to act as input when you click the button “Post Item,” providing users with an option to select one of these to add as the new item.

Conclusion
In short, the solution is useful for building a classifieds-like site within your intranet or Internet site using Portal and WCM 8. This article only gives the general idea and concepts that can be used to build such a solution, but you can tweak it in numerous way to meet your specific requirements. Essentially, the main enabler of this solution is the use of the Authoring Tools component and the appropriate permissions to provide that component to end-users.

In the example we used in this blog series all the three items can be created using a single button that gives users a choice to pick an authoring template. This was our client requirement; you may divide your site into different sections based on different item types and have a different button for each item type. So, based on your requirements, you can choose an appropriate option to select authoring templates within the Authoring Tools component.

Manmeet Gill is a Senior Consultant at Prolifics, an IBM Bravo Award Winner and a key member of specialized teams working on IBM WebSphere Portal, Content Management, IBM Forms and Collaboration technologies. He is certified in IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager and has over 8 years of IT experience. Besides specializing in IBM technologies he is a double black snowboarder, an advanced windsurfer and a superbike enthusiast. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from MSR Institute of technology, Bangalore.

Creating the Intranet “Classifieds” Feature using IBM WCM 8 – Part 2

In this blog series on WCM Based “Classifieds” intranet solution, we covered the Site Area, Authoring and Presentation Templates so far. In this blog we will look at the HTML & Menu Components, Categories, Authoring Tools Component, Workflow and Permissions and finally Creating the Page and Portlet.

HTML and Menu Components:

• Menu Components
• To list the three types of content items under respective sections of the rendered Marketplace, we use three menu components: menu_MktplcVehicles, menu_MktplcElectronic, and menu_MktplcOther. Each of these menu components pulls content based on the category that distinguishes each type of content. Each menu also contains the HTML markup to render the list of respective items.

• HTML Component
• This component is the main presentation component of Marketplace. The above three categories are put together using a jquery tab construct, and the markup for that resides in an html component called html_Marketplace. This html component is the top level component that is configured in the “Web Content Viewer(JSR 286) portlet”, and it calls the three menu components to render each tab view.

Rendered View of Marketplace:

Categories:
We use three categories under the Taxonomy - WCM/Marketplace - Vehicles, Electronics and Others - to categorize the three kinds of content items.

Authoring Tools Component:
This is the most important aspect of the whole solution. This is how “create” and “edit” features are exposed to the end users. An authoring tools component allows users with appropriate permissions to create new items, edit items, delete items or approve items inline on the live site. That means the users don’t need to access the authoring UI to author content.

We use two authoring tools components as part of our solution:
a) atcomp_ItemPost: This component allows users to create new items and is rendered as a button. The way we use this component is quite interesting, as we configured the component to use the Authoring templates defined in the rendering portlet. In the rendering portlet we add our three authoring templates. Refer to “Pages and Portlet section” for portlet configuration.

Since there is more than one authoring template in rendering portlet configuration, invoking this control displays a list of authoring templates to choose from (see below).

An inline interface displays the authoring template to create new content once the template is selected (see below).

b) atcomp_ItemEditDelete: This component allows users to edit or delete an item. In the Marketplace listing page, each item has an edit and delete option next to it if it was created by the current logged in user. Essentially, only the creator of the content item can edit or delete the content item. This can be setup by assigning a “Manager” role to “[Creators]” group in the Published workflow stage.

So far in this blog series focused on a WCM Based “Classifieds” intranet solution, we have covered the Site Area, Authoring and Presentation Templates, HTML & Menu Components, Categories, Authoring Tools Component. In the next and final part of this series, we will look at the Workflow and Permissions and finally creating the Page and Portlet.

Manmeet Gill is a Senior Consultant at Prolifics, an IBM Bravo Award Winner and a key member of specialized teams working on IBM WebSphere Portal, Content Management, IBM Forms and Collaboration technologies. He is certified in IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager and has over 8 years of IT experience. Besides specializing in IBM technologies he is a double black snowboarder, an advanced windsurfer and a superbike enthusiast. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from MSR Institute of technology, Bangalore.

Creating the Intranet “Classifieds” Feature using IBM WCM 8 – Part 1

A feature that most organizations can provide as a benefit to their associates using their intranet is by implementing a company classified ads feature. This concept is by no means new, and some of us can reminisce of the physical cork bulletin board prominently displayed in a break room or around the office walls. A human resources department may choose to champion the intranet version of this concept as a "soft benefit" to employees or associates. For the associates there is a convenience of posting ads within the organization as opposed to posting out in public forums such as Craig's List. The associate is transacting with a more 'trusted' party. Many times an item can be exchanged at their work location.

Organizations that leverage IBM Web Content Manager and WebSphere Portal for their intranet site can quickly and easily build and deploy such a feature. We recently developed and deployed a large intranet redesign using WebSphere Portal with WCM version 8. This 3-part blog series provides an overview of the design and implementation of this classified ads feature. With the tools provided by IBM WCM and WebSphere Portal, a robust classifieds system can be created. We use a workflow to provide governance, WCM authoring templates for structured content capture and inline authoring tools to place content creation in context and in the hands of end users.

We called the classifieds feature “Marketplace”; it consists of three kinds of items (using three different authoring templates) that can be posted by users. The items are submitted by the users from the live site using the inline Authoring Tools component. The submitted items are sent to a workflow that has a scheduled move action to push it to the next stage where it gets published. Once published, the items appear live on Marketplace.

Users also have the option to edit their own items again using the Authoring Tools component on the live site. The changed items are sent to the same workflow and appear on Marketplace after they have moved to the published stage.

The actual library artifacts cannot be included in this article as those are client assets, but we have included snippets and concepts wherever applicable. The idea is to share the concepts and the solution approach so anyone needing a similar setup can use this as a starting point.

This blog is broken down into a 3-part series covering various assets that will need to be created as part of the overall solution followed by a conclusion section.

In this first part we will look at the Site Areas, Authoring & Presentation templates required for this solution.

The Site Areas:
We use a single Site Area to store all Marketplace content items. Create a Site Area; in our example, we use DEMO_Lib\Marketplace.

We use categories in Authoring templates to distinguish between different types of content items posted by users.

The Authoring Templates:
We use three authoring templates to post three different kinds of content items. These are exposed to end users through the Authoring Tools component. In our example, we use the following authoring templates:
i. Post New Vehicle
ii. Post New Electronic
iii. Post Other The “Post New Vehicle” template has the elements listed below. This is requirement specific and could contain any number and type of elements.

The “Post New Vehicle” template has the elements listed below. This is requirement specific and could contain any number and type of elements.

Attach a category to content by specifying a category in the “Default Content Properties->Profile” section of the authoring template. Each authoring template will have a different category that will be used to differentiate between various content items.

Finally, the workflow is attached to the content items created by authoring templates; simply select a pre-defined workflow in “Default Content Properties->Workflow” section.

The Presentation Templates:
We do not directly use the presentation templates to render individual items; using HTML and menu components, the listing page meets the rendering requirements. However, a presentation template for each type of content item maybe useful if search is to be supported.

When using Portal search to search WCM content, the respective presentation template is used to render the content item. So, since search did not need to be supported, no presentation templates were needed in our example.

As a part of this WCM Based “Classifieds” intranet solution, we covered the Site Area, Authoring and Presentation Templates so far. In the remaining two parts of this blog series, we will look at the HTML & Menu Components, Categories, Authoring Tools Component, Workflow and Permissions and finally creating the Page and Portlet. In the meantime, feel free to email me with any questions or comments you may have and visit www.prolifics.com for more information about Prolifics' WCM solutions.

Manmeet Gill is a Senior Consultant at Prolifics, an IBM Bravo Award Winner and a key member of specialized teams working on IBM WebSphere Portal, Content Management, IBM Forms and Collaboration technologies. He is certified in IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager and has over 8 years of IT experience. Besides specializing in IBM technologies he is a double black snowboarder, an advanced windsurfer and a superbike enthusiast. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from MSR Institute of technology, Bangalore.

Reinventing the Intranet with WebSphere Portal 8 & WCM 8

IBM Connect is less than 1 month away and Prolifics is sharing a sneak peek into our presence at the conference! Our experts will be showcasing a number of recent success stories, implemented across a variety of industry with a range of IBM software. One of these projects involved IBM WebSphere Portal 8 and Web Content Manager 8, leveraged to enhance our customer's intranet.

Our customer is a group of 450 companies conducting business-to-business wholesale distribution of plumbing and heating supplies; industrial pipes, valves and fittings; heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment; electrical equipment; industrial and commercial fastening hardware; waterworks and utility supplies; and domestic, commercial and industrial pumps. With over 4,000 employees, it was important to update their intranet to get a “face lift” and be more user-friendly, remove the dependency on IT, and encourage collaboration across divisions. Prolifics, known for our deep Portal skills, was brought in to implement the intranet using IBM WebSphere Portal 8 and Web Content Manager 8. By leveraging these two products, the customer is able to empower its business users from HR to Marketing to Sales to add and edit their own content without relying on IT. This keeps content such as news, announcement and reports up to date and accurate. Portal 8 also provides a personalized experience based on roles and department, with dynamic page rendering. Web Content Manager is assisting with content creation and management, offering a complete repository of newly created content with its metadata Ultimately, the customer has provided its users greater ease of use, has improved the overall user experience, and has empowered their intranet audience with the latest tools and access to knowledge and applications – all with cutting edge technology.

To learn more about this story, email solutions@prolifics.com or stop by booth #C18-19 at IBM Connect, where we will be showcasing this story as well as other recent implementations. Want a more in-depth look into this project? One of our experts would be happy to take you through a deeper dive during a one-on-one session!

2010 Portal Excellence Conference

Samuel Sharaf, Solution Director, West Coast

This year the IBM Portal Excellence conference was held in Hilton Chicago. I was there with one of our key clients (American Express Corporate Travel) to co-present on the solution Prolifics developed. For those of you who are familiar with the IBM world, there is a conference every year for each of the five main brands. For me, this one was nearest and dearest to my heart as I have been involved with IBM Portal technology for several years.

So let’s go over some of the key highlights of the conference…

• Portal and LWCM 7.0 will be officially released around mid September time frame this year
• IBM acquired Coremetrics (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/websphere/announcement061510.html)
  The plan is to integrate Coremetrics with the WebSphere platform and exposed the web metrics through out of box Portlets so that organizations can make intelligent business decisions.
• Project NorthStar was announced, which reflects IBM’s vision and multi-year roadmap for how organizations can create next-generation online experiences. (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/info/northstar/)
  

Since I am intimately involved on daily basis interacting with the clients, the announcement of Portal 7.0 coming out soon was big news. Besides supporting JSR 286 and Web 2.0, Lotus Web Content Management will finally be fully integrated with the WebSphere Portal and will take advantage of Web 2.0 features for authoring and presentation templates. Also, the integration of Coremetrics with the WebSphere platform and the ability for the companies using Portal internally/externally to perform web trending will be huge.

I might sound biased; however, my presentation with American Express was received very well by the attendees. The session was full and we had lot of live interaction via Q&A with the attendees. The presentation was divided into two main parts. Chris, from American Express, talked about the business case and how the solution brought overall value to their business, while I focused on how the Prolifics team helped designed the overall solution and implement it. What drew attendee’s interest was the fact that the solution is scalable to millions of end users and has been rolled out in 22 different languages; and people in all 5 continents are actively using it to book their travel. If you are interested in learning more about the solution we developed for American Express Corporate Travel, our marketing department has done a great job in providing an overview. (http://www.prolifics.com/travel-portal.htm)

Overall I found the conference very informative and hey – where else could you meet the co-author of JSR 168 and JSR 286 (Stefan Hepper) and some key IBM architects one on one?

Samuel Sharaf is a Solution Director at Prolifics on the West coast with real world customer expertise with Portal implementations, Dashboard, Forms and Content Management. Sam also has expertise with migrating applications from non-IBM platforms to IBM WebSphere Application and Portal Servers.

Why Move to Portal 6.1?

Samuel Sharaf, Solution Director West Coast

We recently proposed a WebSphere Portal 6.1 upgrade to one of our very important customers. Their environment is currently running on Portal 6.0.x. The customer’s first question was, “What value does Portal 6.1 provides over version 6.0? And how it would benefit us?” To answer their question, we developed a simple table which lists the features available in the latest version of Portal and a brief description of these features.

These two columns, in table 1.0 below, can be used as basis for developing an ROI model for a customer who wants to upgrade to Portal 6.1. For example, most likely, a customer has developed custom AJAX functionality to enhance the user experience. Yet with any custom code, there is cost associated with code maintenance and enhancements. With Portal 6.1’s Web 2.0 support, most of the Portlets have built in AJAX support.The customer was happy to see how these new features in Portal 6.1 can help reduce the on going code maintenance and administrative costs and help improve the overall site and user experience.

WebSphere Portal 6.1 Features and Descriptions

UI Improvements

1. Themes and Skins Wizard
2. Themes and skins no longer part of wps.ear. Updates are applied without restarting Portal

Web 2.0

1. AJAX enabled Portlets
2. Supports JSR 268 which provides for improved inter-Portlet communication
3. Portal REST services and integration with Collaboration Services

Administering Portal/Web Content Management

1. Portlet Resource monitoring (out of box)
2. Simplified administration of sites
3. Greatly improved security configuration

Web Content Management Improvements

1. Security:
1. Inherited security support
2. User and contributor roles
3. Active content filtering
   
2. Performance:
1. Changes to WCM node structure for better authoring experience/performance
   
3. Presentation:
1. Improved UI tags for content rendering
   
4. Authoring/templating:
1. In line editing, Authoring tool enhancements, EditLive RTE 5
   
5. API:
1. JSR286 Portlets to enable Web content pages and directing links to right WCM Page

Samuel Sharaf is a Solution Director at Prolifics on the West coast with real world customer expertise with Portal implementations, Dashboard, Forms and Content Management. Sam also has expertise with migrating applications from non-IBM platforms to IBM WebSphere Application and Portal Servers.