Enterprise Portal is a portal framework that includes:
Portal Interface – an enterprise portal with which end users interact to access predefined content or to create their own.
Portal Studio – the application for portal development and administration integrated with Enterprise Security.
Developers create content in Portal Studio and deploy it to portlets in Portal Interface. Administrators use both Portal Studio and Portal Interface to perform portal administrative tasks.
Enterprise Portal is a J2EE Web application that uses Java servlets and JSP technology, which allows EP to be deployed and installed on any J2EE-based application server such as EAServer or Tomcat.Portal objects, such as portlets, templates, catalogs, and pages are defined in Enterprise Portal with XML documents stored in a database repository. Developers use Portal Studio to create and modify portal objects by manipulating XML documents. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLTs) convert XML documents into the HTML presentation of Portal Studio. Portal Studio uses Java servlets to retrieve and upload the XML documents that define the portal objects. Because EP uses XML to define portal objects, Portal Studio can export a collection of these objects to an XML document, which can then be moved and imported into other EP installations. This simplifies consolidation of portal objects that have been developed separately in different locations.
Portal Interface uses Java servlets and JSP applications to:
Construct the portal page framework (logos, icons, colors, and so on)
Request the page and the portlet definitions for the portal page
Retrieve portlet content from the corresponding sources
Pages and portlets within a Portal Interface user account are controlled by either an administrator or by the end user. Portlets can be arranged into pages that are automatically added to portal user accounts or made available through a catalog of pages. Alternatively, instead of selecting an entire page of portlets, portal users can add individual portlets to their own account from a portlet catalog. Lastly, users can define their own pages and portlets in Portal Interface. Portal Interface and Portal Studio are completely integrated. Changes made to portlets, catalogs, or pages from Portal Studio are updated to Portal Interface.
Portal users are assigned J2EE roles that are defined using Enterprise Security. These roles are also assigned to portlets and pages, which ensures that a portal user can select and view only those portlets or pages that are associated with their roles. Enterprise Security also associates login information with specific roles that enable single-sign-on capabilities. With single sign-on, users can view or access a portlet without providing specific authentication credentials. Additionally, you can integrate Enterprise Security with external security systems to synchronize existing users and roles. This allows Enterprise Portal to act as the security hub between different data systems and applications that are delivered through the portal.
