portalpack: User Guide for Portal Pack Portlet Plugin for Portlet Container (https://portlet-container.dev.java.net)

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Portal Pack Plugins Frequently Asked Questions

Portal Pack Plugins FAQs

About this Guide

This guide is intended to help portlet developers to get acquainted with Portal Pack plug-ins for Netbeans IDE.

What is Portal Pack ?

Portal Pack has a set of plugins for Netbeans IDE which provide portlet development and deployment support inside Netbeans IDE. To use Pack 2.x plug-ins, you need to use NetBeans 6.x IDE. Portal Pack 1.x plug-ins work with NetBeans 5.5.x IDE.

Configuration steps to configure a Portlet Container in Netbeans

Prerequisite : Portlet Container needs to be installed. Portlet Container can be downloaded or installed in following ways

To configure a new Portlet Container Instance in Netbeans IDE

Select Tools > Server Manager
Click on "Add Server"
Select "OpenPortal Portlet Container" from the list of servers
Select "GlassFish" from the dropdown
Enter "GlassFish Home"

- $sdk_home, if you are using bundled Portlet Container with Application Platform SDK
- Glass Fish/Sun Java System Application Server 9 installation directory, if you are using stand alone Portlet Container downloaded from https://portlet-container.dev.java.net

Enter Domain Dir as "$GlassFish Home/domains/$domain". Click on the browse button to select Domain Dir. Default domain is "domain1"
Enter GlassFish/Sun Java System Application Server 9 admin password. Default password is "adminadmin"
Click on "Next"

Enter "PC Home" as

- $sdk_home/domains/$domain/portlet-container, if you are using bundled Portlet Container with Application Platform SDK.
- $glassfish_home/domains/$domain/portlet-container, if you are using stand alone Portlet Container deployed on Glassfish.

Create a JSR 168/286 based Portlet Application

Using this plugin one can create JSR 168/286 based portlet application and can add JSR 168/286 portlets to an existing portlet application. This functionality is supported by "Generic Portlet" module of Portal Pack plugin . In order to create a new JSR 168/286 Portlet Application

In NetBeans 6.x IDE

Unlike earlier versions of NetBeans, in NetBeans 6.x IDE Portal Pack provides portlet support through web framework. In NetBeans 6.x you can add portlet support to an existing/new web application by adding "Portlet Support" framework.

To create a new web application with the Portlet Support

Click New Projects > Web > Web Application.

Enter all project related informations.

Click Next.

In "Frameworks" panel, select "Portlet Support" framework. Select "Create Portlet" check box to create a default portlet in the new application.
Select Portlet Vesion. (1.0 for JSR 168 and 2.0 for JSR 286)

In NetBeans 5.5/5.5.1 IDE

Click New Projects > Portlet Application > JSR 168 Portlet Application
To create a new portlet in a Portlet Application right click on Project.
Select New > File Folder > Portlets > JSR168 Portlet

How to Create a JSF Portlet

You can create JSF based portlet in NetBeans 6.1 IDE using Portal Pack 2.0.

To create a JSF Based Portlet

Create a New WebApplication with/without Portlet support framework. Don't Select "Visual Java Server Faces" framework.
Right click on the project node. Select New > Visual Web JSF Portlet Page
Enter JSF Portlet Page name
This will create a JSF Portlet Page. You can now drag and drop Visual Web Components and design you JSF Page inside NetBeans IDE.

How to Set VIEW/EDIT/HELP page of a JSF Portlet

Right click on a Visual Web JSF Portlet jsp page node
Select "Set as Initial"
Set the page as initial page for VIEW/EDIT/HELP mode

Select Target Server as Portlet Container

User can select a particular target server for a Portlet Application project from a list of all configured servers. By doing so deployment/undeployment can be done on the selected target server.

Right click on the project node.
Click "Properties" in pop up menu.
Select "Run"
Select Target Server as "Open Source Portlet Container"

Deploy Portlet Application

If you have already configured a Portlet Container instance inside your Netbeans IDE and your project is ready to deploy, then follow below steps to deploy your portlet application on Portlet Container.

Right click on "Project" name
Click "Deploy Project" in pop up menu

Note: "Run" option in pop-up menu of project doesnot work for Portlet type application.

View Single Portlet

While developing portlet application inside Netbeans IDE, developer can deploy and see the output of a single deployed portlet

Go to Runtime window
Go to Server
Expand target "Open Source Portlet Container" instance.
Expand it further to see list of deployed portlets.
Right click on a single portlet and select "Show Portlet".

View All portlets / Admin Tool

If you want to see the output of all the portlets deployed on the Portlet Container

Go to Runtime > Servers
Right click on the target "Open ource Portlet Container" instance and click on "Admin Tool"

Issues

    Though following issue has been resolved in the current version of the binary available for download, you may face this problem if you have an old binary of the plugin.

    Description :
     Incorrect "context" (hardcoded /mypath) for a portlet application which results deloyment failure for a portlet application.

    It occurs if you select the run time target server of a portlet application as "Sun Java System Application Server" and then switch back to
    "Open Source Portlet Container". Due to this an incorrect context(/mypath) is set in sun-web.xml which results an error in deployment.

    To check context of your portlet application

Right click on Project node in Project window
Select "Properties" in pop up menu
Select "Run" in pop up dialog
Check the value of "Context Path"
Everything is ok if the context path is either "/[portletapplicationname]" or blank .

To fix the issue if you have context path set to "/mypath"