JBoss Portal 2.6.1-CR1

The binary download is available from our download page .

Once downloaded and extracted, the folder hierarchy should look like this:

We will be using files contained in this download in the further sections, so please download and extract it first.

Of course you will need to install JBoss Application Server prior to installing JBoss portal, if you didn't do so yet, please install JBoss 4.0.5+ from here .

You will need a database for JBoss Portal to function, you can use any database supported by Hibernate.

The JBoss Portal download you extracted in Section 2.2.1.1, “Getting the Binary” contains pre-configured datasource descriptors, you can use for most popular RDBMS under the setup directory.

At this point, you should configure the one that suits you best with your Database and JDBC driver.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<datasources>
  <local-tx-datasource>
    <jndi-name>PortalDS</jndi-name>
    <connection-url>jdbc:postgresql:jbossportal</connection-url>
    <driver-class>org.postgresql.Driver</driver-class>
    <user-name>portal</user-name>
    <password>portalpassword</password>
  </local-tx-datasource>
</datasources>
                  

Please verify that the username, password, url, and driver-class are correct for your flavor of DB. You can deploy the datasource file by itself to test, in advance.

Of course you will need to install JBoss Application Server prior to installing JBoss portal, if you didn't do so yet, please install JBoss 4.0.5+ from here .

For the build targets to work, you must first set the JBOSS_HOME environment variable in your operating system, to the root directory of the JBoss Application Server installation.

In Windows, this is accomplished by going to Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Environment Variables . Now under the System Variables section, click New . You will be setting the JBOSS_HOME environment variable to the location of your JBoss Application Server installation:

On a Unix-like Operating System, you would accomplish this by typing: export JBOSS_HOME=/path/to/your/jboss/directory

You will need a database for JBoss Portal to function, you can use any database supported by Hibernate.

You will need a valid datasource descriptor, for JBoss Portal to communicate with your database. Having obtained the sources and having set your JBOSS_HOME environment variable ( Section 2.3.2.2, “Operating System Environment Setting” ), you can now have the JBoss Portal build system generate preconfigured datasources for you.

Navigate to JBOSS_PORTAL_HOME_DIRECTORY/core and type:

build datasource

Once complete, the datasource build should produce the following directory and file structure:

At this point, you should configure the one that suits you best with your Database and JDBC driver.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<datasources>
  <local-tx-datasource>
    <jndi-name>PortalDS</jndi-name>
    <connection-url>jdbc:postgresql:jbossportal</connection-url>
    <driver-class>org.postgresql.Driver</driver-class>
    <user-name>portal</user-name>
    <password>portalpassword</password>
  </local-tx-datasource>
</datasources>
                  

Please verify that the username, password, url, and driver-class are correct for your flavor of DB.

Now copy your datasource descriptor to JBOSS_HOME/server/default/deploy

Names of few core bundled portlets changed. To update them you need to:

In JBP_INSTANCES table:

NavigationPortlet from JBP 2.4 is not present anymore. Its functionality is now realized by PageCustomizerInterceptor so all references to NavigationPortlet should be removed from all portal pages. You can do it either by cleaning up database content or by using AdminPortlet in Portal interface. In database you should remove:

This is probably the less trival part to do directly in database. In JBP 2.6 version the way that CMS content is being displayed changed significantly. Please refer to Content Integration and CMS Portlet chapters for more information. Basically currently there is no need to have more than one instance of CMSPortlet and the portlet window displays CMS content not by referring to that portlet instance but by having proper content-type defined. In "default-object.xml you will find following configuration:

                  
<window>
   <window-name>CMSWindow</window-name>
   <content>
      <content-type>cms</content-type>
      <content-uri>/default/index.html</content-uri>
   </content>
   <region>center</region>
   <height>0</height>
</window>
                  
               

Open JBP_OBJECT_NODE table in your database schema. By looking at PATH column you will easily find any occurances of CMS in your portal deployment

For any row you will identify as referring to CMSPortletWindow in your system remember the number in PK column. It will be needed in next steps

Go to JBP_WINDOW table and find row with the same PK value like the one from JBP_OBJECT_NODE table. In such row replace "CMSPortletInstance" with a path to your CMS resource. For example by default portal is displaying "/default/index.html".

Go to JBP_PORTAL_OBJECT_PROPS table and add a row containing:

This section will introduce the reader to deploying his first portlet in JBoss Portal. It requires you download the HelloWorldPortlet from PortletSwap.com, using this link .

Portlets are packaged in war files, just like other JEE applications. A typical portlet war file can also include servlets, resource bundles, images, html, jsps, and other static or dynamic files you would commonly include.

Included in the download bundle you should have one java source file: HelloWorldPortlet\src\main\org\jboss\portlet\hello\HelloWorldPortlet.java , and it should contain the following:

package org.jboss.portlet.hello;

import javax.portlet.GenericPortlet;
import javax.portlet.PortletException;
import javax.portlet.RenderRequest;
import javax.portlet.RenderResponse;
import javax.portlet.UnavailableException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

public class HelloWorldPortlet extends GenericPortlet
{
   protected void doView(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      rResponse.setContentType("text/html");
      PrintWriter writer = rResponse.getWriter();
      writer.write("Hello World!");
      writer.close();
   }
}
               

Now lets dissect our simplest of portlets:

JBoss Portal requires certain descriptors be included in your portlet war, for different reasons. Some of these descriptors are defined by the Portlet Specification, and some are specific to JBoss Portal.

Now lets explain what each of these does:

To illustrate the relationship between the descriptors , we have provided this simple diagram

If you have downloaded the sample, you can execute the build.xml with ANT or inside your IDE. Executing the deploy target will compile all src files and produce a helloworldportlet.war under HelloWorldPortlet\helloworldportlet.war.

If you want to create an expanded war directory, after executing the above deploy target, you should execute the explode target.

The above target will produce the following:

This will deflate the helloworldportlet.war, and allow you to deploy it as an expanded directory. It will work just the same, with some additional benefits noted below:

The advantage to expanded war deployments is that you can modify xml descriptors, resource files jsp/jsf pages easily during development. Simply touch the web.xml to have JBoss Application Server hot-deploy the web appllication on a live-running server instance

Deploying a portlet is as simple as copying/moving the helloworldportlet.war in to the server deploy directory. Doing this on a running instance of the portal and application server, will trigger a hot-deploy :

18:25:56,366 INFO  [Server] JBoss (MX MicroKernel) [4.0.5.GA (build:
             CVSTag=JBoss_4_0_5_GA date=2006000000)] Started in 1m:3s:688ms
18:26:21,147 INFO  [TomcatDeployer] deploy, ctxPath=/helloworldportlet,
             warUrl=.../tmp/deploy/tmp35219helloworldportlet-exp.war/

Pointing your browser to http://localhost:8080/portal/ , should yield a view of our HelloWorldPortlet:

This section will introduce the reader to deploying a simple JSP portlet in JBoss Portal. It requires you download the HelloWorldJSPPortlet from PortletSwap.com, using this link .

This portlet will introduce you to using JSPs for view rendering and the portlet taglib for generating links.

Portlets are packaged in war files, just like other JEE applications. A typical portlet war file can also include servlets, resource bundles, images, html, jsps, and other static or dynamic files you would commonly include.

Included in the download bundle you should have one java source file: HelloWorldPortlet\src\main\org\jboss\portlet\hello\HelloWorldJSPPortlet.java , and it should contain the following:

package org.jboss.portlet.hello;

import javax.portlet.ActionRequest;
import javax.portlet.ActionResponse;
import javax.portlet.GenericPortlet;
import javax.portlet.PortletException;
import javax.portlet.PortletRequestDispatcher;
import javax.portlet.RenderRequest;
import javax.portlet.RenderResponse;
import javax.portlet.UnavailableException;
import java.io.IOException;

public class HelloWorldJSPPortlet extends GenericPortlet
{
   protected void doView(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      rResponse.setContentType("text/html");

      String sYourName = (String) rRequest.getParameter("yourname");

      if(sYourName != null)
      {
         rRequest.setAttribute("yourname", sYourName);
         PortletRequestDispatcher prd = getPortletContext()
            .getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/jsp/view2.jsp");
         prd.include(rRequest, rResponse);
      }
      else
      {
         PortletRequestDispatcher prd = getPortletContext()
            .getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/jsp/view.jsp");
         prd.include(rRequest, rResponse);
      }
   }

   public void processAction(ActionRequest aRequest, ActionResponse aResponse)
                  throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {
      String sYourname = (String) aRequest.getParameter("yourname");

      // do something

      aResponse.setRenderParameter("yourname", sYourname);
   }

   protected void doHelp(RenderRequest rRequest, RenderResponse rResponse)
                     throws PortletException, IOException, UnavailableException
   {