IBM press rapid portlet developme with websphere portlet factory step by step guide for building your own portlets sep 2008 ISBN 0137134460 pdf

WebSphere Business Integration Primer Process Server, BPEL, SCA, and SOA by Ashok Iyengar, Vinod Jessani, and Michele Chilanti ISBN: 0-13-224831-X Using WebSphere ® Business Integration

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Service-Oriented

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Step-by-Step Guide for Building

Your Own Portlets

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Chapter 6 Adding Basic User Interface Controls to Your Portlets 149

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Introduction to the WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer 13

Chapter 2 Providing and Consuming Services 37

Applying the Service Provider/Consumer Pattern 49

Testing the retrieveContactsView Operation 61

Chapter 4 Using Domino Data 77

Testing the readSupplierDocument Operation 89 Testing the updateSupplierDocument Operation 90 Testing the createSupplierDocument Operation 90 Testing the deleteSupplierDocument Operation 90

Adding an Action to Retrieve a List of Assets 112

Consuming the Service 114

The Benefits of Inter-Portlet Communication 166

Adding an Action to Retrieve a List of Loans 169

Adding a Method to Retrieve a Specific Loan 170

Testing the Service Provider 171

Defining the Portlet as a Cooperative Source 176

Defining the Portlet as a Cooperative Target 180 Handling an Inter-Portlet Communication Event 181

Java Beans 210

Testing the addShoppingCartItem Operation 225

Testing the viewShoppingCartItem Operation 225 Testing the updateShoppingCartItem Operation 226 Testing the deleteShoppingCartItem Operation 226 Testing the clearShoppingCart Operation 226

Implementing the updateShoppingCartItem Operation 228 Implementing the addShoppingCartItem Operation 229 Implementing the clearShoppingCart Operation 229 Implementing the deleteShoppingCartItem Operation 230

Chapter 9 Using Web Services and Manipulating XML 239

Testing the orderStockWebService Web Service 252

Creating a Model and Defining the Service 255

Creating a Variable to Store the Request 260

Adding an Action to Retrieve Sales Data 271

Creating a Sales Chart Portlet 273

Specifying a Method to Get the Current Sales Item 282 Specifying an Action for the getSalesArea Operation 283

Adding an Action to Display the salesAreaPage 285

Testing the Drill-Down from the salesChart Model 287

Validating, Translating, and Formatting Fields 293 Schema Typed and Non-Schema Typed Fields 294

Adding a Submit Button 299

Adding a Link to Return to the Project Form 301

Adding Formatting, Validation, and Translation 303

Changing Messages for Regular Expressions 318

Profiling the hrHeader Based on Department 339 Profiling the itHeader Based on Department 340

Profiling the hrAnnouncements Based on Department 340 Profiling the itAnnouncements Based on Department 340 Configuring the userDepartment Profile Set 340 Testing the companyAnnouncements Portlet 341

Adding Functionality for Retrieving Performance Data 348 Specifying the getPerformanceData Operation 350 Adding Functionality for Updating Performance Data 351 Specifying the updatePerformanceData Operation 352

Testing the getPerformanceData Operation 353

Responding to a Change in the Checkbox Value 358

Adding Division Variables 374

Creating a Terms & Conditions Builder 401 Defining Builder Inputs for the Custom Builder 403 Generating the Custom Builder Artifacts 404 Modifying the Custom Builder’s Functionality 405

Using the Terms & Conditions Builder 407

Chapter 16 More Techniques for Domino 413

Notes Formulas, Validation, and Translation 414

getDominoSession() and getDominoDatabase() 435

Enable HTTP Clients to Browse Databases 444

Setting Up a DB2 Database Driver Provider 452 Setting Up a SQL Server Driver Provider 453

Using Properties 464

Avoiding Errors Caused by File Length Limitations 468

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Foreword

Building good software applications is hard Improvements in languages, frameworks, and tools

do make things easier, and there are more of these improvements each year

But at the same time, the technology landscape that developers live in keeps changing andgetting more complex Just when you get productive with one set of tools and technology, there’ssomething new that you have to adapt to or integrate with And there’s a perpetual demand for

“more software quicker”—organizations can never get all the software they want as soon as theywant it

WebSphere®Portlet Factory was created to apply concepts of software automation to help

address this ongoing problem of software development complexity This software automationmoves the developer up a level, above the level of individual code artifacts Instead of directlymanipulating elements such as JSP, Java™, JavaScript, and XML files, the developer interacts

with builders in a model, and the builders then generate all the necessary code artifacts in

response to the developer’s high-level instructions

You can think of builders as encapsulations of software features or design patterns Each

builder implements one feature of an application, controlled by instructions provided by thedeveloper in a wizard-like user interface An application is built by successively adding and mod-ifying features (builders) until the application works as intended The net effect for developers isthat they can rapidly develop complex applications without having to learn (and remember) allthe underlying technology

In the past several years working with this technology, we’ve found that developers canconsistently get big productivity gains from this software automation We’ve seen the technologyadopted by an ever-increasing customer base, first at Bowstreet (where the software was initiallydeveloped), and now at IBM, which acquired Bowstreet in late 2005 At IBM, the technology has

also been adopted by a number of other product groups that build products on top of Portlet tory technology and take advantage of its software automation For example, the Lotus®

Fac-ActiveInsight Dashboard Framework is built on Portlet Factory and provides a set of builders thatimplement high-level design patterns tailored for dashboard-style applications

We’ve also found that automation makes it possible to quickly add support for new ogy, such as integrating new back-end services or generating new user interface technologies.One example is support for Ajax (Asynchronous Java and XML) user interfaces Implementing

technol-an Ajax user interface through htechnol-and-coding is quite complex technol-and involves coordinated client-sidecode (JavaScript) and server-side code Using builder technology, a small team with Ajax exper-tise was able to capture their expertise in a set of builders that automate common Ajax patternsand generate the necessary client and server code Once the builders were created, those Ajax pat-terns became easily accessible to any developer using Portlet Factory

In this book, David Bowley gives a clear “soup-to-nuts” guide to building applications withPortlet Factory, from creating your first project, to back-end integration, to user interface andAjax techniques Each chapter tackles one aspect of application development, and for each taskDavid shows you which builders you need and how to use them In his examples, I think you’llsee that David has found just the right level of complexity—the examples are simple enough toeasily understand, but not unrealistically simple or trivial

Portlet Factory development—using builders and models instead of working directly withcode—represents a different development paradigm than with other tools I hope you find asmuch value in this automation paradigm as we have You can use this book as your guide as youlearn your way around Portlet Factory and get comfortable with this way of working

Preface

Portlet development can often be arduous and complicated; indeed, the word “rapid” is not mally associated with building portlets IBM’s award-winning1 WebSphere Portlet Factory(WPF), however, provides developers with a wizard-based development environment that greatlyexpedites the process of building, testing, and deploying portlets WPF shields developers frommuch of the complexity of traditional portlet development, and portlets built using WPF oftenrequire little or no coding—enlarging the potential pool of people who are able to build portletapplications Having said this, WPF developers also have the full power of Java 2 Enterprise Edi-tion (J2EE) available to them should they choose to use it, making WPF a flexible (and powerful)development tool

nor-This book is about how to use WPF to rapidly build portlets No previous developmentexperience is required to understand this book, and anyone with a remote interest in portlet devel-opment should find something of interest here The book is structured to facilitate rapid portletdevelopment: It is a collection of independent chapters, each walking through the process of cre-ating a portlet while focusing on a particular aspect of WPF Due to the independent nature of thechapters (and the nature of portlet development using WPF), you can skip to the chapters thatinterest you without needing to read chapter after chapter of abstract theory and/or backgroundinformation beforehand For example, if you want to learn how to build a portlet that displays agraphical chart, skip to Chapter 10, “Using Charts in Portlets;” if you want to find out how towork Ajax into your portlets, skip to Chapter 13, “Using Ajax and Dojo.” If you are completelynew to WPF (or portals and portlets) and are looking for some basic information to get youstarted in WPF, Chapter 1, “Introduction to WebSphere Portlet Factory,” provides an overview of

1 WebSphere Portlet Factory won the 2006 JavaPro readers’ choice award for “Best Java Enterprise Portal Technology” (www.fawcette.com/javapro/).

portal terminology, WPF architecture, and the WPF Designer interface Chapter 1 also walks youthrough the process of creating, testing, and deploying a simple Hello World! portlet Other intro-ductory information is available in Appendix A, which contains some useful information for set-ting up your WPF development environment, and there is a glossary at the back of the book thatdefines common WPF terms

This book also contains useful tidbits that I have picked up during my time with WPF—thesort of things developers need to know but normally wouldn’t without a great deal of experimen-tation and frustration These snippets of information are highlighted as follows:

By walking through each example, you will learn how to build portlets in WPF by actually

build-ing them, and not just readbuild-ing about it; so, by the end of each chapter, you should have a practical

understanding of how to work the discussed features into your own portlets

Although this book does discuss the theory of WPF portlet development, this information isdiscussed in the context of the practical examples in the book, which gives you a more concrete

understanding of how the abstract side of portlet development is applied Readers unconcernedwith what is going on under the covers can skip the theory sections without adversely affectingtheir portlets Indeed, one of the advantages of using WPF is that you don’t need to learn vastamounts of theory to begin development—you can start building portlets right away The focus ofthis book, then, is on the practical side of portlet development, with an emphasis on rapidly build-

ing portlets with certain functionality—this is not intended as a book of theory Similarly, given

its short length, this book is not intended to cover every aspect of portlet development—onlythose areas that are deemed most useful to portlet developers (and WPF developers, in particular)

I hope you find this book useful and enjoyable to read; I certainly enjoyed writing it At theleast, I would like this book to go some way toward expediting your portlet development processand increasing your understanding of WPF If you have any comments about the content or struc-ture of the book, feel free to drop me a line at dave.bowley@gmail.com

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Acknowledgments

I’d like to extend my sincerest appreciation to everyone who supported me during the process ofwriting this book In particular, I’d like to thank John Bergland and Dee Zepf for their early sup-port of the concept, and Jonathan Booth and Louise Simonds for their insightful comments andadvice I’m eternally grateful to Katherine Bull, my acquisitions editor, for her continual supportand direction throughout the project; and to Kevin Howard, my development editor, who care-fully surveyed each chapter and made many helpful suggestions Thanks also to Carlos Llopartfor the Spanish translations in Chapter 12, and to my sister Kirsten for providing several of thediagrams that appear in this book

Of course, a thank you is also due to you, the reader, for purchasing this book and investingthe time to read it I hope that this book increases your understanding of WebSphere Portlet Fac-tory and provides you with a valuable portlet development resource

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About the Author

David Bowley is a consultant for e-Centric Innovations, an e-business solution provider in

Mel-bourne, Australia Over the last nine years, David has worked extensively with IBM technologies,particularly WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Portlet Factory David has a bachelor’s degree incomputing and holds numerous I.T certifications in areas such as WebSphere Portal, WebSpherePortlet Factory, Java, Lotus Notes, Net, DB2, Rational, SOA, and RUP David is a frequent con-

tributor to various technical publications, including The View and Lotus Advisor.

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9780137134465 under the Chapter 1 folder (instructions for copying these files into your projectare included in a readme.txt file in the same folder); however, to increase your understanding ofthe topics discussed, it is recommended that you create these files yourself by following theexample in this chapter Doing so will give you a good understanding of the basics of WPF andposition you to tackle some of the other chapters in this book.

The following topics are covered in this chapter:

• What is a portal and what are portlets?

• Portal key benefits

• What is WebSphere Portlet Factory?

• WebSphere Portlet Factory key benefits

• WebSphere Portlet Factory architecture

• Introduction to the WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer

• Building your first portlet

What Is a Portal and What Are Portlets?

A portal is a user interface (UI) for people to interact with information and processes, often via

Web pages accessed using a Web browser (such as the portal shown in Figure 1.1) Portals are

provided by a portal server, such as WebSphere Portal Server, in a similar way to how Web pages

are provided by an ordinary Web server Portals usually aim to streamline business operations bybringing together information and processes from disparate parts of an organization Forexample, an online bookstore may provide a portal for customers to preview new releases, pur-chase new books, check the status of any current orders, and even chat with other customers toshare their thoughts on a particular book Portal functionality is normally provided through one

or more portlets, which are UI components of the portal that serve a particular function (similar

to how a window offers a particular function—or suite of functions—within a Microsoft®dows® application) In the case of an online bookstore, then, a portal might include a NewReleases portlet and a Forum portlet

Win-2 Chapter 1 Introduction to WebSphere Portlet Factory

Figure 1.1 An example portal at www.ibm.com/developerworks/.

Portlets are laid out onto various pages within the portal, each page effectively containing a

set of portlets that serves a common purpose So, a Purchase page might contain portlets for

browsing a catalogue and for buying new books, and a Community page might contain portletsthat facilitate communication with other customers Portals don’t necessarily have to be customerfacing; for example, an intranet portal might be available only to employees, and an extranet por-tal might be available only to suppliers A portal can be anything from a simple front-end to abackend data source, to a complex collaborative tool integrating several different departmentsacross an enterprise

Due to the current bandwidth limitations of the Web, portals are usually kept relativelysimple in comparison with more traditional rich clients (like Microsoft Word, for example) Sim-ilarly, portlets are not normally as packed with features as their rich client cousins, and they offer

a more focused service As a result, portlets normally satisfy some key business requirement orprocess (either individually or in conjunction with other portlets) Having said this, portals avail-able through a Web browser can be accessed on a wide variety of platforms, using a number ofdifferent devices, and from anywhere in the world; so, potential exposure to a portal availablethrough a Web browser is vastly superior to that gained through a rich client Careful considera-tion, then, needs to be applied to the portal design process, and a portal should aim to supplementrich client applications rather than replace them

Portal Key Benefits

Depending on its exact nature, a portal usually offers one or more of the following key benefits:

• Integration of Business Functions—Probably the most common use for a portal is as

an integrator of business functions, usually across departmental or technological aries within an enterprise For example, a portal might provide portlets for accessingaccounting applications in SAP, reports on a SQL server, and email capabilities fromLotus Domino®, and it can enable you to use these portlets (and even send informationbetween them) as if they were all part of the same system This sort of integration pro-motes standardization of business processes and discourages the practice of viewing anorganization as a collection of isolated business units

bound-• Aggregation of Information—Another popular use for a portal is as an aggregator of

information—that is, as a means to bring together information from disparate locations

or data sources into a single interface (again, giving the impression that all of the mation is stored in the same place) A portal can save users from needing to use severaldifferent programs to hunt through multiple systems in search of information

infor-• Collaboration between Users—Portals often provide functionality that facilitates

communication and information sharing across an enterprise (such as document ing, email, blogs, and project team rooms)

shar-• Accessibility of Information and Services—One of the greatest features of the Web is

how it quickly and easily facilitates communication between people from vastly ent locations and backgrounds As a result, portals often provide an experience tailored