Tutorial: JSR 286 portlet Eventing using Eventing Story Board

The recently released Portal Pack 2.0 has a new feature called Eventing StoryBoard.The Eventing StoryBoard feature in Portal Pack 2.0 simplifies the task of creating portlet application that uses JSR-286 eventing. It provides a simple drag drop feature to link the portlets involved in eventing. Automatic code generation functionality in the storyboard adds the necessary interfaces, methods and xml elements needed during eventing.

Here's a tutorial  contributed by Sriram K,  which explains about JSR 286 eventing using Eventing StoryBoard

 http://portalpack.netbeans.org/tutorials/eventing/EventingStoryBoardTutorial.html

There is also a screencast available for the same. Thanks to Hemadri, Anjana, Sriram for their help for this screencast

http://portalpack.netbeans.org/demos/evtstoryboard/eventing-story-board.htm 

Posted at 06:59PM May 14, 2008 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[0]

Portal Pack and WebSynergy

There is a preview version of the WebSynergy plug-in available at Portal Pack project site. This plug-in supports portlet development and deployment on the new WebSynergy and also works with Liferay.

Prerequisites:
You need to install other Portal Pack 2.0 plug-ins before installing this plug-in. 

 
Using this plug-in :

• You can write portlets which can be deployed on the WebSynergy and Liferay.
  
•  By selecting the target runtime server as "WebSynergy", it automatically creates all liferay specific xml/properties file to the project.
• Liferay specific files get updated whenever a new portlet is added to the project
• Single click portlet deployment on WebSynergy and Liferay.
• You can see a list of the deployed portlets in the Services tab under WebSynergy node inside your NetBeans IDE
  
• Undeploy a portlet directly from the NetBeans IDE
• Create PHP/Ruby Portlet which can be deployed on the WebSynergy. Ruby portlet development support is not currently available for download. But it will be available soon. 
• Develop cross-platform inter-widget communication code using Eventing StoryBoard with simple drag and drop. To use this feature you need to download the latest nightly build of Generic Portlet Builder which is linked from the WebSynergy plug-in download location. Check these blog and screencast for more details.
  

Posted at 08:09PM May 08, 2008 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[0]

Portal Pack 2.0 is now available

 
Some highlights of this release are :

• Support for New JSR 286(Portlet 2.0) specification
• Eventing StoryBoard for JSR-286 Eventing
• Visual Portlet Builder to build JSF portlet using WYSIWYG editor.
• Portlet 1.0/2.0 taglib code completion.
• Portlet Filter support
  
• Drag & Drop Support for Filter and Public Render Parameter.
  
• Deployment support on OpenPortal Portlet Container 2.0 and Portlet Container 2.0 bundled with Java Application Platform SDK U5
• Deployment support on Sun Java System Portal Server 7.2 .
  
• Support for new WebSynergy (Early Access)

To know how to develop portlet using Portal Pack 2.0 read this article.

In the next few days, I will be blogging about some specific features in Portal Pack 2.0 . So keep watching this space :)

Posted at 03:08PM May 08, 2008 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[0]

New Visual JSF Portlet Builder in Portal Pack Beta 3

         A new plug-in called "Visual Portlet Builder" has been added to the recently released Portal Pack Beta 3 plug-ins list. Sometime back I had written a blog entry on how to create a JSF based portlet using NetBeans 6 + Portal Pack through some manual steps. This new plug-in eliminates all those manual steps and provides JSF portlet building capability inside Netbeans. It uses the existing VisualWeb's WYSWYG editor and enables portlet developers to design their JSF portlet through drag & drop components. You can use OpenPortal Portlet Container 2.0 RC1 to test your jsf based portlets.

Steps to create a JSF Portlet :

• Create a Web Application with "Portlet Support" framework.
• Right click on the project node, select New > Visual Web JSF Portlet Page
• Enter page detail and press Finish.
• Now you can drag & drop jsf components and design your jsf portlet page.
• You can create more than one jsf portlet pages in the project and set them as VIEW/EDIT/HELP mode page for the jsf portlet.

To select jsf portlet pages for different modes of the portlet

• Right click on the visual web jsf portlet page.
• Select "Set as Initial" and select VIEW/EDIT/HEP mode page

Now you can build and deploy your project on OpenPortal Portlet Container from your NetBeans IDE.

The Portal Pack Beta 3 plug-ins are now available on both Portal Pack project site and NetBeans Beta Auto Update Center.

Posted at 10:54PM Mar 17, 2008 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[9]

Portal Pack 2.0 Beta is now available

Portal Pack 2.0 Beta  for NetBeans 6.0 Beta 1 is now available. This version of  the Portal Pack supports portlet application deployment on both OpenPortal Portlet Container 1.0 and OpenPortal Portlet Container 2.0 Beta bundled with Java Application Platform SDK Update 3 Beta.

 (Check out Deepak's blog for more on Portlet Container 2.0 Beta in Java Application Platform SDK U3 Beta)

Some of the New Features in this release are 

• Support for both Portlet 1.0(JSR 168) and 2.0 (JSR 286 Public Draft 1)
  
• A new wizard to create portlet filters
  
• Option for adding a new Public Render Parameter through UI
• Drag and drop support to map Public Render Parameters/Filters to portlets

Useful resources :

• Installation Instructions 
• Article : Developing Portlets with NetBeans Portal Pack 2.0 Beta
  

Portal Pack 2.0 Beta Plug-ins can be downloaded as a zip archive from here.

These plugins are also available on NetBeans 6.0 Beta 1 auto update center.

Posted at 03:14PM Sep 27, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[0]

Migrate to Freemarker from Velocity template engine in your NetBeans Module

In Portal Pack Plug-ins, earlier Velocity template engine was used for all type of code generations and templating. But after going through some NetBeans doc I found that NetBeans 6 (Currently under development) bundles FreeMarker template engine with it. But FreeMarker apis are not exposed directly rather those can be used through JSR 223 Library Integration (JSR223: Scripting for Java Platform) in NetBeans Module.

Posted at 02:07AM Sep 07, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

New Feature: Resource Serving in JSR 286

Recently the JSR 286 draft was available for public review which can be downloaded from this link. It includes some of the major features which were missed in the JSR 168 spec. You can visit Deepak's blog  to  get a list  of  all those major changes.  One of the major feature introduced  in this  new Portlet  specification is "Resource Serving"  .  In this blog I will  explain  this  feature in detail.

In one line "The resource serving feature provides the ability for a portlet to serve a resource".

Posted at 10:19PM Aug 13, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Build JSF Portlet with NetBeans Visual Web Pack and NetBeans Portal Pack

In this blog I will explain how  NetBeans 6.0 M10 with Visual Web Pack and Portal Pack 2.0 preview plug-in can be used to develop & deploy JSF Portlet application.

Posted at 02:16AM Jul 26, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[32]

Portal Pack IPC Story Board - Tutorial

Posted at 12:54PM Jun 19, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

Portal Pack 2.0 preview for NetBeans 6 M9

The Portal Pack 2.0 preview is now available for download here. Though in this version there are no functional changes in the serverplugin modules, but there are some changes in the portlet builder (Generic Portlets) module. Unlike earlier version, in this version of the Portal Pack, there is no separate "Portlet Application" project type. In this version Portlet application is supported through web framework. So  "Portlet Support" can be added to a new/existing web application  through web framework. In other word you can say an existing/new web application can be extended to support Portlets inside it. To know how to create portlet application in this version click here. 

Posted at 09:09PM May 29, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in Sun  |  Comments[0]

InterPortlet Communication Made Easy with IPC Story Board in the Portal Pack Plug-ins for NetBeans

In my last blog, I had mentioned about the IPC Story Board which is an upcoming feature in the next version of the Portal Pack. In brief IPC Story Board in Portal Pack will help developers to implement Inter Portlet Communication/Eventing in their portlets in a visual manner.  More importantly it also generates most of the eventing related code automatically for you. In my last demo I had also linked to a screen cast which gives an idea how this IPC Story Board will work in future. But now there is a new flash demo available which shows a full functional IPC Story Board in action. This feature will be supported in the next version of the Portal Pack for NetBeans 5.5/5.5.1. The new binaries are not yet available on the Portal Pack project site, but those will be available very soon. In this flash demo I have created a simple shopping cart portlet application using Portal Pack + NetBeans 5.5 with IPC Story Board support. The application developed using IPC Story Board can be deployed/run on Open Portal Portlet Container / Sun Java System Portal Server 7.x . The future version of the IPC Story Board will also be supporting  JSR-286 portlet eventing.

If you are interested to see the fully functional IPC Story Board in action then check this screencast. 

Let me know if you have any suggestions & feedbacks or you want to see any new features in the Portal Pack. 

Posted at 08:04PM May 17, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Upcoming Feature in Portal Pack - IPC Story board for Eventing to visually wire the portlets

Now a days I am working on some new features for Portal Pack. One of the features I am working on is "IPC Story Board"  for Eventing. Portal Pack IPC Story board will be useful for all portlet developers who want to make their portlets consume events thrown by other portlets. Though  eventing is not part of the current portlet specification, but it will be part of the next portlet specification. IPC Story board will be providing drag and drop support where the developers will be able to drag and drop their portlets and then visually wire them with each other. If you want to see an early preview of IPC Story board in the Portal Pack then check this small flash demo. 

Posted at 02:03AM May 08, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Easy Steps to Set up Portlet Development Environment

This blog will help

• All new portlet developers who don't know how to start writing portlets and test them
• Developers looking for open source softwares to develop and test their portlets
• Developers looking for an integrated portlet development environment

You can use the Java EE Tools Bundle U3 Preview which comes with pre-configured GlassFish appserver, Open Source Portlet Container and NetBeans IDE with Portal Pack Plug-ins to start portlet development.

But Alternatively if you want to use latest versions of mentioned components to set up your portlet development environment then go through this blog. 

The following open source components are required to set up your portlet development environment

1. Glassfish Application Server
2. Open Source Portlet Container
3. NetBeans 5.5/5.5.1 Beta IDE
4. Portal Pack Plug-ins
   

1. GlassFish Application Server

GlassFish is an open source application server. Download the latest version of GlassFish Application server from here.  GlassFish installation is very easy. Just follow the steps mentioned here

2. Open Source Portlet Container

The Open Source Portlet Container  is an Enterprise Class Open Source Portlet Container which is free and available for download here. This can be used to deploy/test your JSR 168 portlets. To install Open Source Portlet Container on the GlassFish AppServer run the following command which opens an GUI installer. The whole installation process completes within a few seconds

java -jar portlet-container-configurator.jar

Alternatively you can check installation instructions here 

3. NetBeans IDE 5.5 and above

Download and Install NetBeans IDE from https://www.netbeans.org 

4. Portal Pack Plug-ins

The Portal Pack NetBeans Plug-ins for Portlet development is  available in NetBeans 5.5 Beta Auto Update Center.

But if you want to try latest version of Portal Pack Plug-ins then download them from here . You can find the installation instructions for the plug-ins in download page.

As all of the above components are installed and configured properly, you can now start your portlet development. You can check user guides and documents available in portal pack doc page. If you want a short/quick tutorial on Portlet development using Portal Pack check this.

Posted at 01:38PM Mar 31, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in NetBeans  |  Comments[5]

Portal Pack 1.1 (NetBeans Portlet Plug-ins) Plug-ins are now available with Java EE 5 Tools Bundle Update 3 Preview

The Portal Pack 1.1 Plug-ins (NetBeans Portlet Plug-in) are now available in the Java EE 5 Tools Bundle Update 3 Preview. The Java EE 5 Tools Bundle is a complete,developer-friendly environment with all necessary runtimes installed
and fully configured to start portlet application development.

The Java EE 5 Tools Bundle includes following fully configured and ready to use components for Portlet Application development:

• NetBeans IDE 5.5.1 Beta
• NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5.1 Beta
• Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Beta
• Portlet Container 1.0
  
• Portal Pack 1.1 Plug-ins

Detail list of components in Java EE 5  Tools bundle  can be found here. Check Deepak's blog to know more about Portlet Container 1.0 .

Note: Incase you are already using Portal Pack Plug-ins in your NetBeans IDE, you can update to the latest version of Portal Pack plug-ins.The latest version of the Portal Pack  plug-ins are available for download here.

Some highlights of this release are

• Supports all features supported by Portal Pack 1.0.
• Some critical bug fixes.
• Supports to create a new Portlet Application from existing sources.

Here are the links to the resources and docs for Portal Pack 1.1 Plug-ins (Netbeans Portlet Plugin)

• Portal Pack 1.1 (NetBeans Portlet Plugin)  Release Notes


• Portal Pack 1.1 (NetBeans Portlet Plugin) Installation Instructions


• Article on Developing Portlets using NetBeans Portlet Plugin


• Other Articles and User guides available on netbeans.org

Posted at 03:28PM Mar 14, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in Sun  |  Comments[3]

Portal Pack Plug-ins are now also available at NetBeans Auto-Update Center Beta

Portal Pack Portlet Plugins are now also available at NetBeans Auto Update Center Beta. To install/update latest version of these plugins 

> Go to Tools > Update Center menu of NetBeans 5.5 IDE

> Select "NetBeans Auto Update Center Beta" check box in the list of update centers

> Click Next

The following modules of Portal Pack are required for Portlet Development support in NetBeans IDE

• Generic Portlets - This module provides wizard based supports to create JSR 168 based portlet applications.
• OpenSource PC - This module provides support to deploy/undeploy portlet applications on Portlet Container available on http://portlet-container.dev.java.net or bundled with Java EE SDK
• Sun Java System Portal Server 7.x - This module provides support to deploy/undeploy portlet application on Sun Java System Portal Server 7.x
• Base PSFramework - This is a library module which is required for the above two server plug-ins modules.
  

The same modules are also available as a zip archive at http://portalpack.netbeans.org/download.html
 

Posted at 12:58PM Feb 21, 2007 by Satya Ranjan in Sun  |  Comments[0]