Getting Portlet Description

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Getting Portlet Description
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Current Options

• Using Service Description interface,
• Obtain the full ServiceDescription from the
  Producer
• Search offeredPortlets array for descriptions of
  specific portlets
• Using Portlet Management interface,
• Get the description of a POP or CCP

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Motivation

• Not all Consumers cache full Service Description
• Must get full ServiceDescription every time a
  PortletDescription is needed
• Consumers must search for description of a given
  portlet
• Time consuming with large Producers
• Slows down user interfaces
• Portlet registry
• Must get full Service Description once a portlet
  is found in a registry

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Use Case 1

• Get minimal description of portlets
• 1. Consumer provides a user interface for
  portlets offered by a Producer
• 2. Consumer does not need the full description of
  portlets to display a list of portlets
• 3. When a user selects a portlet, Consumer would
  like to obtain the full description of the portlet

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Use Case 2

• Registry Use Case
• 1. Consumer user searches for portlets in a in a
  registry (UDDI or ebXML) using some search
  criteria
• 2. User selects a portlet to view its
  capabilities and properties
• 3. Consumer would like to obtain the full
  description of the portlet based on its
  portletHandle

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Misc Use Cases

• 1. Producer can choose to provide minimal Portlet
  Description. But the Consumer has no choice to
  specify whether it needs full/minimal description
  of some or all portlets
• 2. Get portlet description without supplying a
  user context. The getPortletDescription operation
  requires a user context.

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Goals

• 1. Get descriptions of one or more portlets
• 2. Get minimal or full descriptions
• 3. No dependency on a portlet registry for
  minimal description of a portlet
• 4. Piggy-back on existing operations

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Proposal - getServiceDescription
ServiceDescription getServiceDescription(
RegistrationContext,desiredLocales,
portletDescriptionLevel,
portletHandles)

• portletDescriptionLevel filter
• minimal Producer SHOULD return minimal
  description of portlets
• full Producer SHOULD return full description
  of portlets
• Soft filter (SHOULD)
• Defaults to full (i.e., WSRP1.0 behavior)
• portletHandles one or more portletHandles
• Producer limits the offeredPortlets array to the
  supplied portletHandles
• Hard filter
• If not supplied, defaults to WSRP1.0 behavior

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Proposal - getPortletDescription
PortletDescriptionResponse getPortletDescription
( RegistrationContext,PortletContex
t, userContext, desiredLocales,
portletDescriptionLevel)

• portletDescriptionLevel filter
• minimal Producer SHOULD return minimal
  description of portlets
• full Producer SHOULD return full description
  of portlets
• Defaults to full (i.e., WSRP1.0 behavior)

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Open Questions 1

• What is minimal portlet description?
• Currently, PortletDescription must include
  portletHandle and at least one mimeType with at
  least one windowState and mode.
• Does not require descriptive information such as
  description, title, keywords etc.
• Option 1 Spec to specify minimal description to
  include some descriptive elements (such as
  description and title)
• Pros
• Consistent behavior across Producer
  implementations
• Cons
• More work for Producers
• Migration of portlets from WSRP1.0 to WSRP2.0
• Option 2 Producer chooses some minimal
  attributes
• Pros
• Simpler for Producer implementations
• Cons
• Does not fully meet the use cases

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Open Questions - 2

• Move getPortletDescription from Portlet
  Management interface to Service Description
  interface
• Pros
• Addresses some of the use cases
• Will have to enhance for other use cases
• portletDescriptionLevel
• portletHandles
• Cons
• Interface change
• Will have to account for CCPs as well