What makes a website - a portal?

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,

Gartner Group refers to "portal" as the "most abused term in IT." I was wondering what could be done (extra work) on a simple wesbite to make it (convert it) a portal?

In other words, both non-portal and portal wesbite runs within browser over http(s). Suppose, a non-IT person visits a website; Now how this person will decide whether, I am visiting a portal or non-portal website?

Thanks.

Bye,
Viki.

[Biswanath Ghosh]

Hi There are few things you have to remember between a normal website and a Portal.

----> A Portal provides Single Sign on Facility(It is avalable in yahoo)
----> It provides User specific/community specific customization.
----> It is a interface of remote application from a Portal.
----> A intranet Portal mainly B2A type provides Crawler and job shedulign feature.

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

Form dictionary.com:

por‧tal
1.a door, gate, or entrance, esp. one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.
2.an iron or steel bent for bracing a framed structure, having curved braces between the vertical members and a horizontal member at the top.
3.an entrance to a tunnel or mine.

A portal can be many things, but in Java, it has to do with a website that is backed up by the Portal API. That means built in user customizations, single sign on, and edit features, for the most part.

I did a tutorial to answer just the very question you are asking. It's very popular, and demonstrates what a Portal, such as WebSphere Portal, is all about. Enjoy:

http://www.technicalfacilitation.com/multimedia/portal/01%20intro/portalintro.html

-Cameron