Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Access the HttpServletRequest object in websphere portal

HttpServletRequest req = (HttpServletRequest)request.getAttribute("javax.portlet.request");
HttpServletResponse res = (HttpServletResponse)request.getAttribute("javax.portlet.response");

The request object can be a PortletRequest Object or a ActionRequest object.

Monday, February 9, 2009

IBM Eyes $122 Billion In Stimulus-Backed Tech Spending

IBM Eyes $122 Billion In Stimulus-Backed Tech Spending


Big Blue hopes government-funded projects will spur construction of physical assets that rely heavily on smart technologies and software.


1932's Emergency Relief & Construction Act, championed by President Herbert Hoover, envisioned workers fanning out across America to build roads, bridges, and other vital infrastructure in an effort to get the economy moving and end the Great Depression. Called into service were the unemployed, from lowly bricklayers to skilled engineers and architects, who were hired on by construction firms and other companies receiving funds under the bill.

President Barack Obama's proposed $800 billion-plus economic stimulus package would, similarly, fund a wave of new construction. Obama's program, however, could help revitalize a sector that hadn't even been born in Hoover's time -- the computer industry. Not only does the act, in its present form, provide direct funding for IT projects, such as a $400 million computing system for the Social Security Administration, it would also kick off numerous multimillion-dollar public-works efforts that, while heavy on bricks and mortar, would also include hefty doses of high tech.

"Our country must compete in a world that isn't just getting smaller and 'flatter,' but is also becoming smarter," IBM (NYSE: IBM) CEO Sam Palmisano recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

Indeed, unlike in the 1930s, the bridges, roadways, tunnels, dams, and other structures that could be built with today's stimulus funds will make heavy use of so-called smart chips -- embedded sensors that allow managers to stay atop maintenance, track usage patterns, and make operational changes on the fly -- and the software that's needed to make sense of the mountains of data they produce. Pricey consulting and integration services will also be required. All told, it's a boon waiting to happen for the IT industry.

Looking to position itself at the head of the pack for an opportunity that IDC says is worth $122 billion by 2012, IBM on Monday rolled out more than 10 new offerings designed to make it easier for businesses and governments to marry data culled from real-world physical infrastructure with the virtual infrastructures that inhabit corporate data centers.

"Infrastructure has always been how you stimulate business, but it's not just roads and bridges anymore," said Pete McCaffery, head of strategy for IBM's Systems and Technology group, in an interview. "It's roads and bridges coupled with IT."

IBM's new wares include the Service Management Industry Solutions package, which helps organizations build IT systems that can centrally manage internal and external infrastructures; new Tivoli Key Lifecycle Manager software, designed to automate and strengthen infrastructure security; and a new governance consulting practice that aims to help customers design systems that can help reduce risks related to changing business and market conditions, as well as shifts in the regulatory environment.

"It's about using IT to bring more intelligence and automation into the management of this expanded infrastructure," said McCaffery.

Also new is IBM's Systems Director software, which is designed to "bring order to the jumble of physical and virtual assets that characterize today's data center," the company said. IBM also unveiled upgrades to its XIV and DS8000 storage systems that are meant to enhance speed and security.

The new products and services, McCaffery said, should help businesses "retool their infrastructure for the 21st century." They could also make IBM one of the largest beneficiaries of the economic stimulus package.

InformationWeek has published an independent analysis of IT governance models and metrics. Download the report here (registration required).

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

IBM acquires the ILOG rules Engine

IBM Completes ILOG Acquisition, Opens Door To Event Processing -- Business Process Management: IBM Completes ILOG Acquisition, Opens Door To Event Processing. The purchase is expected to equip IBM with automated process intelligence for its business process management products. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has completed its purchase of ILOG, the Paris-based business rules engine maker, which is expected to equip IBM with automated process intelligence for its business process management products. IBM paid $340 million for ILOG, the leader in the business rules engine market. Market researcher IDC reported last fall that ILOG had displaced Fair Isaac, the business rules-based credit-checking system, as the dominant rules engine supplier.

IBM Completes ILOG Acquisition, Opens Door To Event Processing -- Business Process Management

IBM Completes ILOG Acquisition, Opens Door To Event Processing -- Business Process Management: "IBM Completes ILOG Acquisition, Opens Door To Event Processing

The purchase is expected to equip IBM with automated process intelligence for its business process management products.

By Charles Babcock
InformationWeek
January 6, 2009 05:20 PM

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has completed its purchase of ILOG, the Paris-based business rules engine maker, which is expected to equip IBM with automated process intelligence for its business process management products.

IBM paid $340 million for ILOG, the leader in the business rules engine market. Market researcher IDC reported last fall that ILOG had displaced Fair Isaac, the business rules-based credit-checking system, as the dominant rules engine supplier."

IBM WebSphere Portal Page Derivation Concepts

IBM WebSphere Portal Page Derivation Concepts

Page derivation concepts of the IBM Websphere Portal. Portal pages present content and collaboration elements through portlets along with additional elements such as navigational information and branding aspects. Pages are protected through the standard WebSphere Portal access control mechanism (PAC).

You can customize WebSphere Portal pages and build hierarchies of pages to share common content. Parts of a page can be specialized and you can administer these parts individually. Your portal's users can customize pages to fit their needs and taste.

This article shows how to make the best use of these capabilities including the administrative UI, scripting, and using XML Access for the administration capabilities. It is appropriate for a broad audience. WebSphere Portal administrators learn how to set up page derivation hierarchies and they get an understanding of the resulting user experience. WebSphere Portal architects see how to use page derivation to achieve a desired behavior. WebSphere Portal users can get a deeper understand of what the portal does when they customize their pages.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

IBM Redbooks | WebSphere Portal Version 6 Enterprise Scale Deployment Best Practices

IBM Redbooks | WebSphere Portal Version 6 Enterprise Scale Deployment Best Practices

IBM® WebSphere® Portal Version 6.0 is an enterprise portal solution with the complete portal services necessary to deliver a single point of personalized interaction to applications, content, business processes, and people for a unified user experience. WebSphere Portal provides the following:
- Enhanced Web content management, portal workflow, electronic forms integration and collaboration to help deliver improved operational efficiency and productivity.
- Powerful new tools and application templates, enabling the quick building of business services and applications that help accelerate application and content deployment, which innovatively deliver on the promise of a service oriented architecture (SOA).
- A responsive and reliable portal platform from a leader in the enterprise portal market.

How to find the list of portlets on a page

developerWorks : WebSphere : Portal and Portlet Development : Tag for listing portlets on page ...:

Context ctx = new InitialContext();
ContentModelHome home = (ContentModelHome) ctx.lookup('portal:service/model/ContentModel');
if (home != null) {
ContentModel model = home.getContentModelProvider().getContentModel(aRequest, aResponse);
...
}

then with a ContentModel you can call the method getLayoutModel(contentnode)"