IBM WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms V5 Handbook

Chapter 2. Portal technology 15

(maximize) and shrink (minimize) the application. Portlets function within the

Portal framework where Windows applications function in the Windows

framework. From the portal user’s perspective, a portlet is a window on a portal

site that provides access to a specific service or resource.

A portal also provides the runtime environment for the portlets that make up the

portal implementation. This runtime environment is the portlet container. The

portlet container, in the J2EE sense of a container, is responsible for

instantiating, invoking and destroying portlets. The portlet container provides the

life cycle infrastructure for the portlets. Portlets rely on their container to provide

the necessary infrastruc ...