Websphere 6.0 Query

[Lalit mishra]

From where can we download websphere portal 6.0
do we also need RAD for development
and does it supports Windows XP ?

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

IBM's passport advantage is the standard download place, if you have a password.

WebSphere is JSR168 compliant, so you can develop your portlets anywhere, using any tool, but IBM's Rational Application Developer plugs into the WebSphere Portal Server the best.

As far as XP goes, it's fine for development and testing. People ususally use server software in production, but I've got the whole thing installed locally on my Windows XP box running on a Dell with a gig of RAM.

I have some free portal development tutorials if you'd like to check them out. They demonstrate how to create standard JSR168 compliant portlets with IRAD.

Have fun!

-Cameron McKenzie

[Lalit mishra]

Hi Cameron,
I was not able to find link for websphere 6.0 portal download
the site is bit confusing

Thanks
Lalit

[Shailesh Joshi]

Indeed Lalit,
the site seems to be confusing..but I believe you can download WPS5.1/6.0 only when you have IBM Passport Advantage / Express. For IBM ID only IRAD is available without WPS. One more thing if you can get hold of Rational Software Architect 6, it has standalone WPS5.1 installable bin there but I could not find that either.

Let me know if you find out that..I am also in same boat.

Good Luck
Shailesh

[Shailesh Joshi]

Hi Lalit,
why don't you try following thing, download JetSpeed-2 server from Apache site and deplot all your portlets to this server instead of WPS.

I would you to visit Cameron's website and see the JetSpeed-2 tutorials. those are pretty cool and very informative, surely give you a headstart.

cheers
Shailesh

[Lalit mishra]

Hi Shailesh,
I am interested in IBM portal certification since IBM portal provides some advance feature , that is not provided by Jetspeed
Correct me if i am wrong

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

A good portion of the IBM Test 399 and Portal test 829 has to do with development. All of the correct development answers have to do with JSR168, although I did see some references to the JetSpeed PortletData as some incorrect options.

Some of the extra WebSphere Portal Server specific stuff has to do with skins and themes, namely the various wps custom tags you can use in a skin.

There were also a few questions on the IBM Struts Portlet, which is a little different from the Apache Struts Portlet Bridge.

There is probably one question on the WebSphere Portlet Catalog, a question or two on the personalization engine, and a little on WebSphere configuration, where you need to know a little about XMLAccess exports.

So yes, to really kill the certification, you need to know WebSphere Portal Server (WPS), but having said that, developing on JetSpeed2 and learning the JSR-168 API is not a bad way to start.

Good luck!

-Cameron McKenzie

[Jignesh Patel]

you need to know WebSphere Portal Server (WPS), but having said that, developing on JetSpeed2 and learning the JSR-168 API is not a bad way to start

Infact Websphere portal's intenteded goal to remove properiatery IBM technology and do follow JSR-268 in near future.

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

The next version of WebSphere Portal did you say? I'm just waiting for a version of the WebSphere Application Server that will support EJB 3. Yes, dare to dream.


<smart a** comment>
However, I'm really not sure what the Smart Card I/O API has to do with the next version of Portal.

JSR 268: JavaTM Smart Card IO API

I think JSR 286: The Portlet Specification 2.0 will have a much greater impact on how IBM designs their next version of portal.

</smart a** comment>

Actually, I'd been saying JSR268 myself until I headed over to Sun's website to do a little research.

Cheers!

-Cameron McKenzie
[ March 11, 2007: Message edited by: Cameron W. McKenzie ]