Managing portlets, portlet applications, and iWidgets

You must perform some preparatory tasks before you make your portlets, portlet applications, or iWidgets available to your users by putting them on portal pages. This includes installing, deploying, and configuring portlets, applications, and iWidgets.

You can further work with portlets by using the administration portlets that are available under the portal Administration > Portlet Management. Refer to the portlet helps for details. After you have completed preparing your portlets or iWidgets, you can make them available for your users.

Web modules, portlet applications, and portlets
A web module represents a web application. It is used to assemble servlets and JSP files as well as static content, such as HTML pages, into a single deployable unit.
Installing a portlet
Installing a portlet makes it available to portal users. Adding a portlet to a page makes the portlet accessible to users with the appropriate rights.
Deploying J2EE resources
You can manually pre-deploy portlet application WAR files using the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console and later register them into WebSphere Portal, together with other J2EE resources and artifacts.
Activating and deactivating portlet applications or portlets
By default, portlet applications and portlets are set to an active state after installation. You can deactivate a resource to prevent users from accessing it without changing their user roles. When a portlet application or portlet is in the active state, portal users with appropriate access can include it on their personal pages and customize it. Users that have active references to those inactive portlets on a portal page will see a message stating that the portlet is temporarily disabled.
Modifying portlet applications and portlets
You must perform some preparatory tasks before you make your portlets and portlet applications available to your users by putting them on portal pages. This includes installing, deploying, and configuring portlets and applications.
Copying portlet applications
Using the Manage Portlet Application, you can copy a portlet application, which includes some or all of the portlets from the original portlet application. If you want additional instances of a portlet application, use the Manage Portlet Application to make copies.
Copying portlets
Use Manage Portlets to copy a portlet. If a portlet is copied or a remote portlet is integrated, a new portlet application is created by the portal that holds the new portlet.
Editing portlet unique names on a page
You can change the unique name of a portlet on a page. The unique name that you set only affects the portlet instance on the page.
Updating Web modules, portlet applications, and portlets
Update a portlet application by updating the WAR file in Manage Web Modules. The newer version of the resource in the WAR file updates the existing portlet application, without breaking the links between user data and the resource. User-specific settings for portlets within the updated resource remain unchanged.
Deleting Web modules, portlet applications, or portlets
Web modules can be deleting or uninstalled in Manage Web Modules and portlet applications can be deleted using Manage Applications. Portlets can be deleted using Manage Portlets.
Disabling anchors in portlet URLs
When you access a portlet in IBM® WebSphere Portal, the portal appends an anchor to the portlet URL. If several portlets are arranged vertically on a page, this appended anchor forces the browser to scroll down to the portlet rather than display the start of the page. You might prefer to have the start of the page displayed, even if the link that was clicked points to a portlet which is placed further down on the page. To achieve this, you can disable the anchors.
Managing iWidgets in your portal
You can add iWidgets to your IBM WebSphere Portal.

Parent topic: Administering