The Portlet Technologies Matrix

2-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Developers Guide for Oracle Portal The other sections in this chapter provide further detail on the characteristics listed in Table 2–1 . Use the table to quickly scan all the features and characteristics, then see the subsequent sections for more in-depth information. Note: While these are the primary tools for building portlets, additional tools and technologies exist, such as other Oracle products, including Oracle Reports and Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer. These other tools are not covered in this guide. Table 2–1 Portlet Building Technologies Comparison Matrix Web Clipping OmniPortlet PDK-Java Standards Portlet Builder PDK-PLSQL General Suitability A simple wizard-based tool that helps you retrieve and present Web content, originating from other Web sites, in your portal. Wizard-based tool, accessible from the browser. Capable of retrieving and presenting data from a wide variety of data sources. APIs for portlets built specifically for Oracle Portal. Portlets that should work with portals of other vendors. Oracle supports both WSRP and JSR-168. Wizard-based tool, accessible from the browser. Best suited for simple, DB-centric applications or portlets. APIs for portlets built specifically for Oracle Portal. Expertise Required No expertise required. Basic understanding of one or more supported data sources and the concepts of portlet and page parameters and events. Java, Servlet, JSP knowledge. Java, Servlet, JSP knowledge. Basic understanding of relational DB concepts. Optionally SQL, PLSQL. SQL, PLSQL, PLSQL Web Toolkit. Supported Data Sources for details, see Section 2.3, Expertise Required Any Web site accessible on the network over HTTP or HTTPS. CSV, XML, Web Service, SAP, SQL, Web site, JCA. No limitations. No limitations. SQL local DB or remote DB through DB link SQL local DB or remote DB through DB link Deployment Type Web provider Web provider Web provider WSRP Database provider Database provider Caching Style Expiry-based caching, invalidation-based caching auto invalidate when personalized. Expiry-based caching, invalidation-based caching auto invalidate when personalized. Expiry-based, validation, and invalidation caching, ESI. Validation and expiry-based caching. Expiry-based caching. Expiry-based, validation, and invalidation caching. Development Tool Browser - wizard. Browser - wizard. Oracle JDeveloper - Java Portlet Wizard or any other Java development environment - without the Wizard. Oracle JDeveloper - Java Portlet Wizard or any other Java development environment - without the Wizard. Browser - optionally PLSQL development environment. PLSQL development environment. Portlet Creation Style Portlet Technologies Matrix 2-3 Develop in place. Develop in place. No in-place portlet building experience. Add portlet to page, edit defaults, and personalize. No in-place portlet building experience. Add portlet to page, edit defaults, and personalize. Develop first, then add and develop in place. No in-place portlet building experience. Add portlet to page, edit defaults, and personalize. User Interface Flexibility NA Very flexible, by using the HTML layout. Very flexible. Very flexible. Limited. Very flexible. Ability to Capture Content from Web Sites Yes, by its nature. Yes, by using the Web Data Source. Yes, by using the java.net package. Yes, by using the java.net package. No Yes, by using the UTIL_HTTP package. Ability to Render Content Inline Yes. Supported by Web Clipping 9.0.4.0.2 or later. No URL rewriting support, but can be achieved by using public portlet parameters and events. By using private portlet parameters. Include servlets and JSPs using the PortletContext.getR equestDispatcher method. Pagination in reports and charts is rendered inline. By using private portlet parameters. Charting Capability NA Yes, 2D-3D charts. By using BI Beans. By using BI Beans. HTML charts. Programmatically, HTML charts. Public Portlet Parameters Support Yes. Supported by Web Clipping 9.0.4.0.2 or later. Yes Yes No Yes Yes Private Portlet Parameter Support NA NA Yes Yes No Yes Event Support Yes Yes Yes Portlet private events actions. No No Ability to Hide and Show Portlets Based on User Privileges No, though it is possible to apply security managers that are not exposed through the UI. No, though it is possible to apply security managers that are not exposed through the UI. Yes, by using the Security managers. Yes, the Servlet security model is supported by using methods such as PortletRequest.isUs erInRole and PortletRequest.get UserPrincipal. Yes Yes, by using the Security APIs. Multilingual Support NA Yes Yes Yes No Yes Table 2–1 Cont. Portlet Building Technologies Comparison Matrix Web Clipping OmniPortlet PDK-Java Standards Portlet Builder PDK-PLSQL 2-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Developers Guide for Oracle Portal

2.2 General Suitability

This section describes each portlet-building technology in terms of its usage characteristics for example, wizard-based or programmatic.

2.2.1 Web Clipping

Web Clipping is a simple wizard-based tool that helps you retrieve and present Web content, originating from other Web sites, in your portal. Web Clipping does not require you to have any technical background. Examples of portlets you can build using Web Clipping You can build the following portlets using Web Clipping: ■ Stock chart portlet ■ Personalized weather portlet ■ Web mail portlet

2.2.2 OmniPortlet

OmniPortlet is an easy-to-use, wizard-based tool for presenting information from a wide variety of data sources in a variety of formats. OmniPortlet runs completely in the browser. Drop OmniPortlet on a portal page, click the Define link, and choose a data source and presentation format. Select from a wide variety of data sources including the following: ■ Spreadsheet ■ SQL ■ XML ■ Web Service ■ Web page OmniPortlet does not require you to use an additional development tool or have a strong technical background. Even so, you can use it to build reusable and high-performing portlets. Pagination Support NA No Programmatically Programmatically Yes Programmatically Single Sign-On and External Application Integration Web Clipping 9.0.4.0.2 and higher supports external application integration. Basic authentication support if the data source requires it. External application integration supported. LDAP integration is supported when the portlet is running behind the same firewall as the LDAP server. No. Feasible through custom user attributes. LDAP integration is supported. No. It runs in the Oracle Portal repository; it does not require SSO integration. SSO is enabled by using mod_oso. Table 2–1 Cont. Portlet Building Technologies Comparison Matrix Web Clipping OmniPortlet PDK-Java Standards Portlet Builder PDK-PLSQL Portlet Technologies Matrix 2-5 Examples of portlets you can create with OmniPortlet You can create the following portlets using OmniPortlet: ■ RSS news feed portlet ■ Sales chart portlet ■ SAP Business Suite portlet

2.2.3 Java Portlets

If the wizard-based portlet building tools do not satisfy your needs, you can build your portlets programmatically using Java. The Java Community Process standardized the Java portlet APIs in 2003. Portlets built against the Java Specification Request JSR 168 standard are interoperable across different portal platforms. The Java Portlet Wizard, an Oracle JDeveloper plug-in, helps you get started with your Java portlets. Examples of portlets you can build using Java You can build the following portlets in Java: ■ Discussion forum portlet ■ E-mail portlet

2.2.4 Portlet Builder

Portlet Builder is a wizard-based tool to create data-driven portlets, where the data resides in an Oracle database. You can build interactive forms to insert, update, and delete database records. You can create flexible reports and HTML bar charts to display information from the database. Portlet Builder also enables you to pass parameters and navigate between your data-driven portlets by using dynamic links. Examples of portlets you can build using the Portlet Builder You can build the following portlets using Portlet Builder: ■ Data entry portlet ■ Dynamic list of partners portlet ■ Sales results portlet

2.2.5 PLSQL Portlets

Similar to Java portlets, PLSQL portlets provide a flexible approach to build Web applications that cannot be satisfied by built-in portlets. For example, your application may require implementation of special business rules or logic or meet custom-designed authorization requirements. PLSQL portlets are commonly used when you need to perform data intensive operations by using SQL and PLSQL. Oracle Portal offers a rich set of PLSQL APIs, such as programmatic provider registration, object level privilege management, user interface control, or multilingual support. For example, any information provider can create custom portlets to display an application to users through Oracle Portal. Developers simply build their portlets Note: When building portlets in Java, you have full control over your portlets functionality. For example, you can control what it looks like and how it behaves.