TLC1: Introducing the Sun Java System Portal Server

Project Requirements

• File Sharing
• Wikis
• Task management
• Community Calendaring
• Survey and Polls
• Discussion Groups
• Blogs (with the installation of the open source blogger Roller which I will write about later).

Why Sun Java System Portal Server?

Sun Java System Portal Server is a powerful server application that can provide millions of users with custom desktops tools. It works in conjunction with other Sun software: Directory Server to handle the user database, Access Manager to handle user rights and authentication, and an Application Server such as Sun Web Server or Sun Application Server to contain the portal.

The Sun Java System Portal Server (and its open source counterpart which I'll explain a little later, OpenPortal) are great tools for connecting employees on Intranet and serves to increase productivity by allowing firms to deploy a wide variety of applications for use by their staff.

Sun Java System Portal Server is considered one of the best on the market. It is ranked as one of the top five portal server offerings, alongside products by Oracle, BEA, IBM and Microsoft. Sun's portal server is a technically savvy offering with a simpler installation that automatically integrates all the required components (this can be a daunting tasks with other products). As the Sun java System Portal Server is built from its foundation up on Java, it provides for powerful deployment usage, and integrates with latest Web 2.0 and Java technologies including Ajax. The Portal Server is used today by a broad range of clients in such industries as healthcare, telecom and entertainment.

When you install Sun Java System Portal Server you don't have to separately install a lot of individual components such as identity servers, databases, application servers and then configure them to all work together. The Sun installation program integrates all required components seamlessly and makes it easy to get up-and-running. My next Learning Curve article will include a tutorial on this process.

OpenPortal

You should also know that Sun participates in standards committees at many levels to drive new technologies. Portal technology is no exception, and Sun contributes an open source version of their portal server for community development. This version is called OpenPortal. Both the Sun Java System Portal Server and OpenPortal run on Sun's operating system, Solaris, as well as Linux and Windows. OpenPortal also runs on the community-driven open-source Java application server, GlassFish. GlassFish is the open source version of the Sun Java System Application Server.

By exposing the Portal Server code to the entire industry, Sun enables community involvement, contribution and support. For example, the community enhanced Portal Server to accommodate Microsoft FrontPage extensions.

Sun Java Composite Application Suite

Sun also bundles its Portal Server product in the Sun Java Composite Application Suite (Java CAPS). This is a popular product with large corporations that integrates Portal Server along with web services and additional components to allow business to easily setup a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

OpenPortal versus Sun Java System Portal Server

I was curious how OpenPortal and the Sun Java System Portal Server differ. I discovered that they are not each developed independently of the other. Rather, Sun takes code from OpenPortal and standardizes it to produce a new release of Sun Java System Portal Server. This allows each system to benefit from the other. The procedure goes like this: At a given point in time, Sun takes the latest open portal code and produces a comprehensive product by integrating it with other Sun products: Directory Server, Access Manager, Application Server, etc. Sun then produces a fully tested product and provides comprehensive engineering support. This value-add then makes it an excellent offering for clients who need to rely on the latest code that has been functionality tested, and support is only a phone call away. In addition, Sun provides reference, architecture and deployment guides, and configuration support.

Developers who want the latest code can install the OpenPortal portal server (which is free). Those clients that need a fully tested and stable product that is backed by Sun with paid engineering support can download Sun Java System Portal Server.

As a developer who runs a comprehensive hosting service, I'll have an opportunity to install and experiment with these two portal servers. I have had some experience with Solaris since 2003, as my firm hosts Sun's collaboration service (share.java.net) which operates on Sun Java Communication Suite software. We host and manage this system on a load-balanced network of Sun servers at our hosting facility in San Francisco.

It's an exciting opportunity to now bridge my knowledge of the Sun Communication Suite with the Sun Java System Portal Server. I will use this Learning Curve series to share the process of building a powerful application using the Sun Java System Portal Server.

Portal Server requires a number of applications to work side-by-side within it. But Sun makes it very easy to get up-and-running by including them all packaged together with a single installation program that greatly simplifies the process. I will also gain additional experience with these programs as I work with Directory Server, Access Manager and a couple of Application Servers. In addition, I'll explore advanced load-balanced deployment and discuss integration with the Java DB (Sun's version of the Apache open-source project, Derby), and MySQL.

Stay tuned for the next article as I install Sun Java System Portal Server on a Solaris system.

References:

Acknowledgements

I want to give special thanks to Bill Green at Sun Microsystems who provided valuable information about the Sun portal product line. Bill is Sun's U.S. Product Lead between sales and engineering on the Portal Server as well as Java Ambassador.

Posted at 11:48AM Nov 20, 2007 by Walter Hardy in Sun Java System Portal Server  |  Comments[1]