IBM Workplace Forms: Guide to Building and Integrating a Sample Workplace Forms Application

210 IBM Workplace Forms: Guide to Building and Integrating a Sample Workplace Forms Application

6.1 Goal of integrating the application with WebSphere Portal

Up until this point in the redbook, we have developed and used a J2EE application that

processed the form (as described in Chapter 4, “Building the base scenario: Stage 1” on

page 53, and Chapter 5, “Building the base scenario: Stage 2” on page 145.) While this

method has its advantages, it still requires Java development skills and time to create the

servlets and JSPs to handle the processing and viewing of the forms.

WebSphere Portal provides a standards-based, composite application framework that allows

Workplace Forms to work with other applications through Portal’s extended presentation

layer. For example, a Portal Administrator can easily add a form viewer portlet to a page and

place it among other portlets. This allows a user to have a contextual view of their form, and

interact with the other portlets on the page to supplement the information that they have in

front of them.

Figure 6-1 illustrates how the portlets fit together on a Portal page. There are a number of

elements working together that make up the complete page on the portal. Each portlet

window is pointing to an independent application; for example, you can use the People Finder

portlet to search for users without needing to refresh any of the other portlets. You can

incorporate interportlet communication to allow two portlets to send and receive data to each

other. The ClicktoAction Sender portlet and the WPFRedpaper portlet use interportlet

communication to display the correct form that a user selects.

Figure 6-1 How portlets will work together on the Portal page

Portlet to select profile

Form rendered as a portlet based on profile