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The first thing that you might ask yourself when you see the title of this article is "Why am I reading an article about a point release? A fix pack, or point release, usually only provides technical fixes. Who cares!"
Surprise! IBM® WebSphere® Portal V5.1.0.1 provides new and updated capabilities, as well as the typical set of adjustments and fixes to some components of the product. It also contains some long anticipated enhancements that did not quite make it into WebSphere V5.1.
With this release, all WebSphere Portal platforms are supported at theV5.1 level, and all have just about the same functionality.
WebSphere Portal V5.1 for z/OS
For mainframe fans who have felt somewhat abandoned, we have aligned the technical application and portal component support needed, and have released a fully functional, robust version of IBM WebSphere Portal Version V5.1. for z/OS 1.4.
WebSphere Portal V5.1 for z/OS provides functional parity with WebSphere Portal V5.1 for Multiplatforms with close to 100% code compatibility.
Installation and configuration is simpler. It uses the multiplatform installation technique of starting with a Cloudscape-based configuration, and then letting you configure it to your specific needs.
The biggest difference between WebSphere Portal V5.1 for Multiplatforms and WebSphere Portal V5.1 for z/OS is that the latter exploits many of the z/OS qualities of service including:
- Native exploitation of the z/OS hardware
- z/OS exploitation of native WLM controls and algorithms
- Parallel sysplex support for superior scaling and growth
- Multiple JVM support through multiple WebSphere Servant region support
- Application isolation through WebSphere split Controller/ Servant design
- Use of DB2 for z/OS 7.1 sysplex data sharing
- Use of Sysplex Distributor and Dynamic VIPA for transaction failover and rerouting
- Exploitation of FFDC technologies
WebSphere Portal V5.1 for z/OS is engineered to perform equal to, or better than, WebSphere Portal V5.1 for Multplatforms. It provides near-linear scaling of CPU usage up to 64 processors, and can support a greater number of connected and active users, when compared to the multiplatform offering.These performance gains are due to performance capabilities inherent in the z/OS platform.
For more information on IBM WebSphere Portal V5.1 for z/OS, see the announcement.
WebSphere Portal V5.1 for iSeries
WebSphere Portal V5.1 also now supports iSeries running OS/400 V5R3. It tolerates use of IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0 as the underlying application server, although it installs WebSphere Application Server V5.1.1.3 as part of the installation process.
WebSphere Portal Express V5.0.2 for iSeries customers who would like to take advantage of the availability of WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1 Enable release on iSeries can trade up to it through the IBM Passport Advantage services. However, no automated product utility is supplied to assist migration from previous WebSphere Portal for iSeries releases (sorry).
WebSphere Application Server toleration support
This release includes toleration support for a later release of WebSphere Application Server than is provided and installed through the WebSphere Portal V5.1 and V5.1.0.1 automated installation program.
The WebSphere Portal team extensively tests new releases with the version of WebSphere Application Server available at release time. The team also tests selected later releases to address customer requirements to manage and standardize on an Application Server release in their application server and portal infrastructures.
Toleration support indicates the version of WebSphere Application Server that can be used to support specific WebSphere Portal version operations, except where noted. For example, for V5.1.0.1. the included component, WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, (which provides the process choreographer workflow engine) is not yet available on the WebSphere Application Server V.0 platform. Therefore, WebSphere Portal V5.1. and V5.1.0.1 customers who want to use those components supporting business integration and task management requirements should not upgrade their application server installation supporting WebSphere Portal to WebSphere Application Server 6.0.x.
WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1 introduces toleration support for WebSphere Application Server V6.0.0.2 on the multiplatform release, and for WebSphere Application Server 6.0, SF 99301 level 2, on the iSeries platform. Toleration support for WebSphere Application Server V6.x is not offered on the z/OS platform. The WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1 documentation includes instructions for manually installing the WebSphere Application Server V6 to support WebSphere Portal deployments.
In WebSphere Portal V5.1, IBM Workplace Web Content Management (WCM) provided enhanced performance, versioning support, a documented set of APIs for importing and exporting content, and the ability to reference within WCM templates external content stored in IBM Content Management repositories. The user interface changed from being applet based to portlet based. And, WCM integrated with WebSphere Member Manager for storing users and groups.
Now, WCM can reference Portal Document Management (PDM) documents within its presentation templates. In WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1, as the integrated Web content publishing environment, WCM supports personalization rules within other WCM Components, and enables other objects-- such as page designs, components, and categories-- to be accessed and controlled. Developers can apply sophisticated rules to present appropriate and targeted content within WCM pages. You can use the WebSphere Portal rule engine to query and present content across PDM and WCM applications.
WCM enables authors to categorize content. Personalization capabilities in WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1 can use those content categories to select the content which a specific user can view. You can use the provided tags to invoke the personalization rules and then WCM templates will format the results. Figure 1 provides an example of a WCM template with personalization rules embedded.
Figure 1. Personalization rules
WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1 introduces some new APIs, to provide enhanced security, the ability to launch dynamic pages, and the ability to obtain information on the portal internal structure.
The new major classes of APIs (described in more detail below) are:
- Dynamic UI Manager APIs for launching dynamic pages
- Model Service Provider Interface (SPI)
- PUMA Service Provider Interface (SPI)
- Content Access service for JSR 168 portlets
- Credential Vault service for JSR 168 portlets
See also the Customizing the portal section of the InfoCenter.
The Dynamic UI Manager API is used to launch dynamic pages and portlets to create dynamic user interfaces. (This API is used by the task launching feature introduced in V5.1.) Dynamic UIs are well suited for applications in which users might need to have several instances of a page or portlet open for multitasking.
Consider a travel request scenario. If several sales representatives need to travel to a conference, their manager would receive multiple travel requests. If the application provides static pages, the manager must complete one request before proceeding to the next one. However, using dynamic UIs, the manager can open several requests simultaneously and navigate between these and other pages in the portal. Figure 2 shows an example which uses the Dynamic UI manager.
Figure 2. Dynamic portal
The Model Service Programming Interface is used by portlets and portal applications to obtain read-only information about the portal infrastructure. It consists of a set of classes in the com.ibm.portal package. These classes let you retrieve information such as content and navigation hierarchy, layout information, and current page selection.
For more information, see the Model SPI InfoCenter section.
The PUMA Service Provider Interface (SPI) is used by portlets and portal applications to obtain information about portal users and groups. The PUMA SPI provides interfaces for accessing the profiles of a portal user or group. It is used to find, create, modify, and delete users and groups, as well as profile information about the currently logged in user.
Content access service and credential vault for JSR 168 portlets
All portlet services, including credential vault service, content access service, and the URL generation service, are now supported for JSR 168 based on JNDI lookup.
URL generation is critical to various customers because it lets them create action or render links to other portlets, on the same or different pages. It also enables them to create links to portal resources (such as icons). With URL generation, customers can easily migrate their servlet applications to WebSphere Portal.
Inter-portlet communication enhancements
In WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1, you can enable portlets to communicate with one another across pages. In previous releases, you could only enable portlets on the same portal page to communicate, or cooperate, with one another.
WebSphere Portal offers two loosely coupled mechanisms for inter-portlet communication: Click-to-Action (C2A) and wired portlets. Portlets express their desire to interact with a broker, who, at runtime, matches data types between the source of one portlet with the action of another portlet. If a match occurs with a C2A portlet, a pop-up menu displays on the page which the user can click to transfer the data to the connected portlet. On the other hand, if the portlet is wired by an administrator, then the data is exchanged automatically (no user action is necessary).
Now that portlets can communicate across pages, portlets in different Web applications can exchange information, including complex objects. You can enable portlets for inter-communication programmatically or by using the Portlet Wiring Tool, which is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Portlet Wiring Tool
Information can be propagated transitively in the same request such that portlet A sends to portlet B, which sends to portlet C. Wired portlets can be triggered in response to a the invocation of portlet action, or to the absence of an initial action. The latter is useful for synchronizing initial portlet views.
You can leverage cooperative portlets by portlets using the JSF or Struts MVC frameworks. JSR 168 portlets can leverage portlet wiring; Click-to-Action is not yet available for JSR 168 portlets.
For more information on cross page portlet communication see Page-to-page communication between JSR 168 portlets.
In WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1, lazy load support helps portals with large volumes of applications. Previously, page data for every page a user could access was pre-loaded at login. For a portal with a large number of pages, login time could degrade, because of the high volume processing required at login. With the lazy load improvements, data for each page is read when the page is accessed, avoiding performance degradation, and greatly increasing the number of pages that a single portal can host.
Other enhancements include:
- Updates to WebSphere Portal Application Integrator
- Vertical Clustering for Web Content Management
- Portal Document Manager (PDM) display of DBCS folders
- PDM Fixed Folder enhancement: Ability for customer to restrict create/rename/delete of PDM folders
- Globalization information for calendars to Enrollment/Self Care options
- WSRP support for Common PIM Portlets (CPP)
- Support for Domino 6.5.4 for Portal V5.1.0.1
- Display "friendly" URL in context of Virtual Portal
- MS Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) support
- Application Groups concept allowing you to store user groups in a database and not in the configured LDAP
- Audit of Security Events
- Migration enhancements
See the Release notes for information about the bug fixes and other information about WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1.
WebSphere Portal V5.1.0.1 provides some critical functional and performance enhancements that you have been waiting for. Platform support is strengthened and made consistent. We invite you to try it out soon!
- WebSphere Portal product documentation provides easy access to all WebSphere Portal documentation for all releases and languages, including the InfoCenter.
- New to WebSphere Portal provides a brief overview of the WebSphere Portal family of products.
- Get involved in the developerWorks community by participating in developerWorks blogs.
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Page-to-page communication between JSR 168 portlets illustrates the new cross page cooperative portlet feature.
- WebSphere Portal zone provides access to an ever-growing library of technical resources for portal and portlet developers, portal administrators, and portal designers.
- Browse for books on these and other technical topics.
Alan Booth is a software developer currently working on the WebSphere Portal. Alan is passionate about software quality and usability.
Richard Gornitsky is a Senior IT Architect for IBM Software Services for Lotus WebSphere Portal Technology Group. His expertise is in integrating WebSphere Portal into Fortune 500 firms from concept to production. Richard is a requested technical speaker and is a coauthor of Wiley Technology Publishing's Mastering WebSphere Portal. You can reach Richard at rsgornit@us.ibm.com.
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