Stefan Zoerner

Today I passed the SpringSource Core Spring Certification with 82%. I was a a “grandfathered” candidate and therefore did not attend the course provided by SpringSource.

I have long experience with Spring (> 4 years), but some of the topics from the objectives were totally new to me, because I have never used them (e.g. JMX support). As a learning tool, I highly recommend going through the official documentation AND create simple examples for every relevant feature. Besides that I used the JavaBlackBelt exams for Spring -- this for instance, and the book "Spring Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach" from Apress, which is a bit verbose w.r.t. basics of general topics (like testing, JMS, ...), but contains nice examples for most of the features which occur in the test.

The questions themselves were (from my point of view) both fair and carefully elaborated by the exam team.

It is not possible to define a new custom portlet mode by a portlet. Only a portal may introduce its own modes (like WebSphere Portal, which introduces the "config" mode).

Greetings, Stefan

There may exist a vendor specific API. Wich portal solution/product do you use?

This functionality is normally provided by the portal. The administrator can configure, which user group is allowed to change to edit/config etc. mode. Which portal server do you plan to use?

Fabrice,

the term concrete portlet, and its underlying concept, is specific to IBM WebSphere Portal. Learn more about it at developerWorks, e.g. in this document Understanding the Portlet Component Model in IBM WebSphere Portal

Greetings, Stefan

Hello Raj,

first of all I would recommend you to concentrate on standard compliant portlets (JSR 168), because you can deploy them on both portals you mentioned. For detailed reading tips a skill assessment would be great (e.g. how much do you know about Java web apps ...).

A good starting point for WebSphere Portal Server is the portal zone at developerWorks.

Greetings,
Stefan
[ January 25, 2006: Message edited by: Stefan Zoerner ]

Hi,

I am not 100% sure, but I assume the Problem is JRE 1.2.

Class javax.naming.ldap.InitialLdapContext is avaliable since 1.3, and the same is true for interface javax.naming.ldap.LdapContext. These types are probably needed if your com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory tries to load.

Some options that may work:
1) upgrade your JRE
2) use existing JRE but install a new version of JNDI
http://java.sun.com/products/jndi/downloads/index.html

I hope this helps,
Stefan

Syed,

If your portal is WebSphere (the API calls and your former postings suggest that) I assume that data ist stored in the WPS database (depends on your installation, whether DB2, Cloudscape, Oracle ...). I don't recommend to manipulate it directly, use the API for that.

Btw. for WebSphere specific questions the IBM formums are an alternative to this one, which concentrates on the JSR 168 programming model.

Greetings,
Stefan
[ January 20, 2006: Message edited by: Stefan Zoerner ]

Rohit,

just a few ideas:

1) I would recommend to use JSTL tags instead of implementing your own custom tags for loops etc. they work quite well in conjunction with JSR 168 and JSP, and you may use them within Struts WebApps, too (learning effort).

2) A quite easy way to offer your Java objects in the JSP, if stored in the portlet session (portlet scope), is to put them as an attribute in the render request as well (in your doView etc. method, before including the JSP). This way you can get them as an attribute from the normal implicit object "request" in the JSP, and you do not need renderRequest for that.
Another advantage is that you can access them easily from JSTL tags with its EL-expressions.

3) It is possible to access the render request from within a custom tag class. I am not sure whether I should recommend to do so in your case(see 1 + 2) but you can. See Java Portlet Specification PLT.16.3.2 for details (it is advertised as request attribute with standardized key).

Greetings,
Stefan

Raminaa,

I do not know your requirements in deatail (e.g. are looking for an open source library or commercial etc.?), therefore it is not that eays to recommend you something.

But have you tried Cewolf, which is based on JFreeChart?

Greetings, Stefan
[ January 19, 2006: Message edited by: Stefan Zoerner ]

Take a look at this IBM Redbook, especially chapters 4-6.

Chapter 5 contains an example with different portlet modes.
Greetings, Stefan

Hi Syed!

Do you implement JSR 168 compliant portlets (i.e. your component implements javax.portlet.Portlet) or do you use a vendor specific programming model (e.g. IBM Portlet API or Jetspeed-1)?

I ask because you mention doConfigure, which is not part of GerenicPortlet in JSR 168 (it sounds IBMish to me).

Greetings, Stefan
[ January 17, 2006: Message edited by: Stefan Zoerner ]

The Info center provides answers to most of these ...

e.g.

Which of the following transcoding plugins is NOT provided by IBM WebSphere Portal V5.1?
A. HTML to VXML
B. HTML to WML
C. Text
D. Image

see Transcoding plugins

Greetings, Stefan

John,

portlet services are vendor specific (IBM WebSphere Portal). Learn more about them in chapter 19 of this redbook (complete content available online in PDF and HTML).

The most useful predefined portlet service from my point of view is "Credential Vault Service", which allows you to access the crendential vault of portal server.

Greetings, Stefan

Hello,

"business process portlet" seems to be a vendor specific term (IBM, WebSphere Portal in conjunction with WebSphere Process Server). Check out this article. But these portlets will generate markup (HTML, WML, ...) just as other portlets do. Just a web (portal) based frontend for human interactions which are controlled by a workflow engine.

WebSphere Portal supports "portlet services", but I have no idea what a "service portlet" is. Where did you find this term?

Greetings,
Stefan
[ January 09, 2006: Message edited by: Stefan Zoerner ]