Viewing the Portlet Register the provider in Oracle Portal. Ensure that you select the User radio button

Enhancing Java Portlets 7-37 ■ Section 7.2.7.3.1, Partner Application . In this case, the application user is the same authenticated user used by Oracle Portal. ■ Section 7.2.7.3.2, External Application . In this case, the Oracle Portal user is different from the application user, but the application user name and password are managed by the Oracle Portal user. ■ Section 7.2.7.3.3, No Application Authentication . In this case, the communication between provider and Oracle Portal is not protected at all. For more information about Single Sign-On, refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle Portal.

7.2.7.3.1 Partner Application A partner application is an application that shares the

same OracleAS Single Sign-On Server as Oracle Portal for its authentication. Thus, when a user is already logged in to Oracle Portal, their identity can be asserted to the partner application without them having to log in again. Partner applications are tightly integrated with OracleAS Single Sign-On Server. When a user attempts to access a partner application, the partner application delegates the authentication of the user to OracleAS Single Sign-On Server. Once a user is authenticated that is, has provided a valid user name and password for one partner application, the user does not need to provide a user name or password when accessing other partner applications that share the same OracleAS Single Sign-On Server instance. OracleAS Single Sign-On Server determines that the user was successfully authenticated and indicates successful authentication to the new partner application. The advantages of a partner application implementation are as follows: ■ Provides the tightest integration with Oracle Portal and OracleAS Single Sign-On Server. ■ Provides the best single sign-on experience to users. ■ Provides the most secure form of integration because user names and passwords are not transmitted between Oracle Portal and the provider. The disadvantages of a partner application implementation are as follows: ■ The application must share the same user repository as Oracle Portal even though the applications user community may be a subset of the Oracle Portal user community. While worth some consideration, this issue is a minor one because the portal pages that expose the application can be easily restricted to the applications user community. ■ The application can only be tightly integrated to one or more OracleAS Single Sign-On Server instances if they share the same user repository. ■ The application must be written such that it delegates authentication to OracleAS Single Sign-On Server. ■ You must have access to the application source code.

7.2.7.3.2 External Application An external application uses a different authentication

server than Oracle Portal. The application may use a different instance of OracleAS Single Sign-On Server than that used by Oracle Portal or some other authentication method. However OracleAS Single Sign-On Server does store the user name and password of the external application for that user. This means that when a user is already logged into Oracle Portal, they will be logged into the external application without having to type in their user name or password.