  July 2004
Updated July 2005 If you've been following the first series of articles, The making of MetroSphere, welcome to this second series that takes MetroSphere.com -- a community weblog for technology-centered users -- to the next level. Using IBM WebSphere® Portal Enable, the MetroSphere development team built a framework where users could create accounts, modify the interface, and create their own pages. WebSphere Portal also enabled the team to control user access to various pages in a centralized way. Most important, it enabled the team to build their own blogging application in which users could create entries that appeared both in the main blog and in their own individual blogs. Now that the community is in place, the MetroSphere team focuses on improving two aspects of the site: collaboration and information. They'll enhance collaboration by adding the ability for users to communicate with each other in both a one-on-one and many-to-many basis. And they'll improve information by adding features to the site that pull data from other sources for the benefit of users. Learn how the team moves the site from WebSphere Portal Enable to WebSphere Portal Extend, taking advantage of built-in functions of IBM Lotus® Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (such as Lotus QuickPlace® and Lotus Sametime®), and adding custom programming to provide users with up-to-date information. Follow along as the team takes you through the planning and implementation stages of building the next level of their online community.
Editor's update: The Web site MetroSphere.com is no longer live. However, this series provides accurate and relevant information for installing IBM WebSphere Portal. Link to project implementation.
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