Diving into portals’ distinguishing characteristics

Portals are no longer just jazzed-up intranets. Now that many applications are Web-enabled, portals are becoming the enterprise desktop and replacing the familiar browser. Dive below the surface, and you’ll find a portal’s distinguishing characteristics: Rich functions that enable swift information exchange for employees, partners, and consumers.

According to Gartner, a wise portal deployment can help enterprises realize millions of dollars in productivity savings, because it often reduces days of employee workload to a few hours. Further, Meta Group reports that portals can return your investment in 18 months or less.

Yet for IT managers, reaching this nirvana is far from certain; there’s a long list of information- and system-architecture issues to be resolved first. In the end, choosing a portal isn’t about infrastructure — it’s about how a portal addresses and handles the tasks your business deems most crucial.

For example, a basic portal won’t automatically lessen information overkill; that takes support for strong identity management along with role-based customization and personalization. If this support is executed properly, users log in once and interact with information tailored to their jobs — whether that data is fed from a legacy database; content- or document-management system; another portal; or a new, Internet-based application.

Moreover, portals are redefining the way new applications are created, deployed, and managed. At the core of this movement you’ll find Web services and related open standards. Microsoft .Net, Sun’s Java System, WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets), and a number of Java Portlet Specifications — JSR (Java Specification Request) 168, 170, 188, and 207 — may help disparate systems freely interact (see “PortletStandard Predicament”). This openness and modularity provides the option of purchasing third-party portlets for specific functions. Development efforts — based on existing .Net and Java skills your staff likely holds — can then be focused on an enterprise’s unique portal requirements.

The top portal solutions will run on common J2EE app servers, such as IBM WebSphere or BEA WebLogic, or .Net, or both. Here’s what differentiates otherwise closely matched products: whether a portal runs best on a vendor’s own platform and how well it truly integrates with existing enterprise systems, such as directory and security.

There are three portal formats. One favors a tightly integrated APS (application platform suite) approach. Here, the application server, integration framework, and portal are combined into one platform. BEA, Oracle, Sun, Microsoft, and IBM(reviewed in October) follow this model.

With the APS approach, developers can more easily leverage existing databases and reuse business logic. However, you can get locked in to a particular vendor’s method of deploying applications or server management.

An alternate method — fusing diverse systems through the portal application — is the path Vignette and Plumtree(reviewed in February) follow. With this method, you may sacrifice some ability to manage applications throughout their life for the freedom to choose the best application server and other components to meet specific needs.

Lastly, ERP vendors such as SAP provide portal access to their own application along with some additional integration capabilities. SAP was invited to participate in this roundup but declined.

BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1

By folding WebLogic Portal (and the optional WebLogic Integration product) into its WebLogic Platform 8.1, BEA delivers an outstanding unified platform for building and integrating not just portals but also enterprise applications. Developers can work on familiar programming turf and deploy their apps to the portal using Web services, while Web-based tools let business users quickly assemble and configure new portals.

A single installer loads all parts of WebLogic Platform 8.1 for quick and trouble-free startup. Using the included Portal Designer, I assembled prebuilt elements into a portal and programmed portlets; the Design view made it easy to insert, rearrange, and remove portlets.

Common services, such as collaboration and search, are available, along with several specific to e-commerce that make storefronts relatively easy to build. If you need more, WebLogic Integration Server, which wasn’t available for testing, has adapters for a long list of third-party applications and legacy mainframe systems.

The WebLogic IDE (integrated development environment) Application palette exposed the Java elements of my portal, which simplified adding navigation to portlets and performing related jobs. I also liked the unified user profile; it let me construct a single sign-on for users that allowed access to the general portal and passed their credentials to a custom content-management system and Oracle financial system.

Because WebLogic Portal is XML-based, you have great flexibility in changing a portal’s look and feel. I easily altered themes, menu structures, and layout in WebLogic Workshop. More complex tasks, such as building Java portlets from the ground up, are equally straightforward; Workshop automatically generates JSP code based on information entered in a Java control’s palette.

The Web interface is clearly organized into major tasks, such as portal and content management, which should reduce training. Plus, resources may be customized by user roles, decentralizing portal management. Skilled developers can use Workshop to code portlets and perform elaborate portal template design, and the WebLogic Administration portal allows business users to build and modify portals in parallel.

WebLogic Portal’s content management is adequate. Users can view a folder hierarchy and upload various types of files. Similarly, search locates information within the BEA repository — but it doesn’t extend to as many external sources as some of the other portal products, such as Microsoft SharePoint Portal.

On the flip side, the Administration portal doesn’t skimp on what BEA terms “interaction management” or personalization. For instance, using the Content Selector Editor, I had no trouble specifying which documents appeared in the portal based on a visitor’s role and other criteria. End-users also receive traditional portal functions, such as customizable My Pages.

For rapid assembly of custom-fit portals, especially those that need to integrate with existing commerce and other complex apps, WebLogic Portal 8.1 is a good fit.

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003

For organizations invested in Microsoft technology, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (and underlying Windows SharePoint Services) provides the best out-of-box experience of the portal products tested.

Installation requires Windows Server 2003 and works best with SQL Server 2000 and Active Directory. With those requirements met, the portal installs in less than an hour, yielding a functional site complete with search, topics, and news. What’s more, setup loads various Web Parts (portlets) that end-users can immediately hook up to desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel 2003, thereby lowering development costs.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003’s usability is apparent from the outset. I had no trouble assigning roles to domain users and defining audiences imported from Microsoft Exchange distribution lists. Similarly, molding the default portal required little more than switching to edit mode and dropping Web Parts into place.

You’ll find multiple ways to structure a SharePoint-built portal. I began filling out my portal by creating topics and areas, which appear in a site map hierarchy listing. Or you can build a new site that becomes searchable from the Sites Directory and is automatically integrated with the portal’s navigation. In either case, uploading files from the default document library can start immediately.

Like most Microsoft products, SharePoint Portal provides a rich end-user experience thanks to especially accessible functions. A MySite is built for each user when they first access this feature, and users can easily populate a MySite by dragging and dropping Web Parts. MySites may either be private or have a public view with shareable information — the tenet of teamwork. 

Microsoft’s proprietary search engine performed very well in returning relevant results for documents in SharePoint Portal sites, Lotus Notes, Exchange public folders, and file shares. And because SharePoint is deeply integrated with Office 2003, I was able to create a new Word document and save it directly to my portal’s Document Workspace. This opens up a world of basic content management features, including versioning, simple routing, and approvals.

Likewise, the portal sites are basically FrontPage 2003 Web sites, so I could change the look of my portal with minimal effort. For developers, FrontPage 2003 is a good option for creating SharePoint site templates; I also used FrontPage 2003 to build a data-driven Web Part that displayed information from a SQL 2000 customer database.

At the next level, IT professionals can create Web Parts with Visual Studio .Net to interact with applications and Web Services. The .Net object model helped me build a custom Web Part more quickly and with fewer lines of code than with ASP. Furthermore, SharePoint stores user credentials so you can create a single sign-on for users to access multiple applications.

On the downside, JSR 168 is not supported. And of course, it helps to be a Windows shop: The Office 2003 focus means there’s a list of functions that won’t work (or are of limited value) with Office 2000 and Office XP. However, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 can use any of the 300 Microsoft BizTalk Server application connectors, and SharePoint ships fairly complete code samples to integrate with SAP, Siebel, and PeopleSoft.

Overall, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has advanced significantly from the last release. The seamless integration with familiar Microsoft desktop and development tools helps offset the potentially higher cost of implementing this solution if you don’t already use the latest Microsoft client and back-end products.

OracleASPortal 10g

Oracle has built an interesting software deployment model. Instead of an à la carte approach, Oracle Application Server 10g includes OracleAS Portal and a variety of complementary tools and services, including OracleAS Reports, Oracle Single Sign-On, Oracle Ultra Search, OID (Oracle Internet Directory), and OracleAS Integration.

Even with all these parts, the system remains simple to manage and use. The only caveat is that because Portal 10g is so closely tied to all the other pieces of the package, there’s not a lot of flexibility to pick and choose alternate components.

OracleAS Portal’s built-in portlets allowed me to apply different levels of security to different pages so I could hand over section administration to others. Because Application Server has so many components, Oracle takes responsibility for core service if you use its directory server, which can then integrate with third-party apps. (But you’re on your own with a third-party ID product.)

For example, OID stores user and group information; in turn, OID interacts with third-party security management products, including Netegrity SiteMinder. This interaction sometimes means extra administration steps compared to other portal solutions because it creates an extra layer versus just tying directly into an existing directory. However, I didn’t have trouble controlling user privileges and synchronizing with an external LDAP directory.

An initial Oracle portal can be populated with little or no programming. A simple wizard walked me through creating pages, assigning layouts, and adding portlets. From there, I specified the amount of customization available to end-users — entitlements that ranged from rearranging portlets to full page-building options. Built-in functions such as smart links helped me quickly create navigation bars for a pleasing end-user experience.

Similar to the Sun and IBM offerings, Portal 10g allows page templates specifically for mobile devices. Moreover, Oracle has top international options, supports 28 languages, and allows authors to maintain multiple translations of their content.

There’s no lack of ways to populate an OracleAS portal. I started with the basics — WebClipping portlets that display information from a Web page within the portal — and quickly graduated to a dynamic portlet that charted sales data in an Oracle database.

Building this function and passing data from one portlet to another was relatively easy and codeless. Adding HTML and JSP content to portal areas requires just a few steps. Oracle’s remote provider let me include data from outside sources using Web Services by simply searching a public directory for the service I wanted.

The OracleAS Integration tool helps developers create portlets that interact with SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and other common environments. For pure J2EE application development, there’s Oracle JDeveloper 10g; in addition to its nice visual environment for hard-core programming, a wizard helps nonprogrammers create uncomplicated, custom portlets. And Oracle has arguably one of the stronger partner programs, resulting in a library of more than 400 pre-built and supported portlets.

This portal offers decent content management. Browser-based wizards make it easy for page designers to publish information, and business users can use the same process to upload documents that automatically flow into a predefined content taxonomy. Although it doesn’t match Vignette’s prowess, Oracle content management goes beyond the basics with check-in/out, item-level permissions, and automatic content expiration.

Oracle Ultra Search indexes documents in databases, file systems, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) mail systems, and Web servers. Yet unlike many search engines, Ultra Search explores more than one repository at a time — resulting in better speed and more complete results. OracleAS Portal can initiate a search when users view a page and then display the results of the search automatically — an interesting twist on customizing content for users (Plumtree is the other portal I reviewed with this capability).

Underneath this lies Oracle Application Server. The servlet engine retrieves portlet content, manages caching, assembles pages, and delivers completed pages in parallel, resulting in very fast response times. Oracle Application Server has a good, industrial-strength design, and because it’s included in the package, you’ll get decent value from it. 

Sun Java System Portal Server 6.2

Sun has adeptly applied its Java leadership and hardware technology to the portal area, yielding a secure, extensible, high-performance solution. Additionally, Java System Portal Server 6.2 runs on non-Sun app servers and allows substitution of other third-party components, including content-management and development tools.

Sun engineers clearly put a lot of effort into making administration foolproof. A single installer loaded the most up-to-date versions of the portal and related servers; afterward, a common console facilitated the management of both identity and portal services. 

I started my portal project at Sun’s identity server, which handles building of role and organization structures. The only weakness I found was the difficulty in adding users, but Sun’s late 2003 acquisition of Waveset Technologies may remedy that problem. The Waveset Lighthouse software wasn’t available for my tests, but it appears to boost Sun’s identity management, filling gaps in password maintenance while adding automatic user provisioning. 

Security, a traditional Sun strength, was very evident; I tied in several types of authentication, including LDAP directories. Sun’s support of the Liberty Alliance 1.1 specification (and the upcoming 2.0 release) means you get secure single sign-on throughout multiple portals — not just those that are Sun based — as well as business intelligence and other enterprise systems. Of particular note, Sun includes a secure, remote access gateway and unique VPN on demand; this keeps security management within the portal and reduces infrastructure complexity.

Java System Portal Server doesn’t skimp on enterprise-class management, from delegating administrators by organization to system tasks such as versioning and rollback. It also has one of the more sophisticated content delivery designs; you can finely target what appears within page sections to specific audiences.

This solution is also at the forefront of delivering personalized content to mobile devices, because the portal supports the JSR 188 specification and J2ME. However, creating the various containers, making portlets available to particular users, and defining rules that aggregate content requires a number of steps spread throughout the administration portal — not the most streamlined of processes.

Sun’s prebuilt portlets cover typical business needs, including Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft e-mail, collaboration, secure instant messaging, and bulletin boards. Sun includes a basic version of FatWire Content Server (a popular J2EE content-management package), giving users above-average document publishing functions. Integrated Search uses Sun’s robot technology and covers major document and file types. As an extra touch, the search functions also leverage Java System Portal Server authentication, making search results germane to a user’s role.

For linking to back-end systems and enterprise applications, Sun relies on connectors from its ISV community, where you’ll likely find prebuilt adapters. However, some are sold by outside developers, such as Librados’ JCA Plus Adapter for PeopleSoft, so you may need to budget for these extras.

As expected, creating, testing, and deploying JSR 168 and Web services portlets (with the plug-in for the included Sun Studio) is a snap for experienced Java developers. By June, Sun is expected to release Sun Java Studio Creator, with wizards so less-experienced users may create portlets.

Vignette Application Portal 7.0

VAP (Vignette Application Portal) 7.0 is based on open standards, which allow standardized custom portlet development as well as portals that run across heterogeneous technology platforms. Yet the product doesn’t require an expert technology background to perform most administration tasks, reducing the time required to launch portals and saving ongoing maintenance costs.

The Server Console’s hierarchical menus let me manage all aspects of many Vignette portals, from adding components and delegating administration to building new portlets. Wizards walk you through these tasks, contributing to quick site setup. For example, the Site Creation Wizard helped me create new pages, repurpose exiting portlets, and tailor the appearance of each portal.

VAB (Vignette Application Builder), which is part of the enterprise suite (one of three portal configurations Vignette sells), adds an intranet application bundle of more than 100 portlets — many that I feel are very valuable. My test portal employed the event calendar, internal job posting, help desk, and knowledge-base portlets. These 100 bundled portlets are in addition to the discussion forums, search, and e-mail portlets available in all configurations. 

Portal administration with Vignette is superb. I delegated control over different portals to various administrators by merely checking off permitted options.

All administrators use the common console, which is available in multiple languages. Plus, the application bundles are translated for 144 locales, a major achievement that may reduce site development for multinational companies.

Another VAP differentiator is its “multitenancy” architecture, a structure sometimes used for hosting outsourced IT services. In this case, it allows multiple portals to run on one server rather than an entire server farm. Along with the aforementioned administration partitioning and capability to scale for multiple sites, it positions VAP well for large enterprise deployments.

VAP supports a tremendous range of application servers, databases, and OSes, and the companion Vignette Application Builder is just as open. For example, with the Vignette IDE plug-in for JSR 168, I created a portlet using BEA WebLogic Workshop in a few drag-and-drop motions. As you might expect, Application Builder also reduces development work on portals that integrate content from other Vignette products, such as Vignette Content Management and Collaboration Services.

The company also takes a realistic approach to third-party integration. Although there’s standard connectivity to SAP and Siebel systems, they aren’t hardwired as in a typical solution. Consequently, the inevitable customization of these portlets requires less work compared to other vendors’ implementations.

The Web Services Manager makes adding Web services into a portal even easier. This tool stepped me through searching for a service (which can be based on Microsoft .Net or J2EE) and wrapping it in an intuitive interface.

Taken as a whole, VAP 7.0 is a scalable solution that permits quick deployment and easy extension of initial portals through integration with existing applications. 

Portal Proliferation

After hefty testing, it’s clear that each of these portals have their strengths and weaknesses.

BEA WebLogic Workshop lets developers build apps for the entire BEA enterprise platform and reuse business logic with WebLogic Portal 8.1. Sun Java System Portal Server has the strongest technical foundation and standards support, including security and mobile enablement, but its setup and maintenance will require Java skills.

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has the fastest out-of-box setup and best user experience when allied with Office 2003, but its standards support isn’t as robust as other portals. OracleAS Portal 10g evolved from a simple database application into a full-fledged portal with pleasant administration and strong permissions to target content to various audiences.

Vignette’s just-released Application Portal 7.0 has a proven J2EE architecture that lets you reclaim investments in application servers, and its easy management and packaged applications enable quick portal deployment.

The two previously reviewed portals also stack up nicely. IBM recently shipped a point release to WebSphere Portal, infusing it with more platform support, improved content management, and ability to run JSR 168 portlets. Although not formally re-tested in this review, I feel these changes put WebSphere Portal 5 in close running with the other top portal offerings.

Plumtree, the traditional pure-play portal leader, maintains its overall top spot. Although it is one of the most expensive products per user, it gets top grades in the most critical test: ease of integrating with other apps, which means reduced IT costs and well as the highest bottom-line return on your investment.

Don’t be dismayed if you can’t find a perfect portal solution at first glance; often, there isn’t one. The close scores of these seven products prove there’s no absolute leader. In fact, some of the most successful portal projects combine technology from several vendors for true customization, as long as you keep the fundamental requirements in mind (see “Checklist for enterprise portals”). Once you get below surface similarities, portals are one of the best ways to gain better value from your complex technology infrastructure.