eXo Platform 3.0

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## Chapter 6. Working with Applications

## Application integration

To add a portlet to one of your portal's pages, you should configure the `pages.xml` file located in `/war/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/conf/sample-ext/portal/portal/classic/`.

Here is an example of a portlet configuration inside `pages.xml`:

    <portlet-application>
      <portlet>
        <application-ref>presentation</application-ref>
        <portlet-ref>SingleContentViewer</portlet-ref>
        <preferences>
          <preference>
            <name>repository</name>
            <value>repository</value>
            <read-only>false</read-only>
          </preference>
          <preference>
            <name>workspace</name>
            <value>collaboration</value>
            <read-only>false</read-only>
          </preference>
          <preference>
            <name>nodeIdentifier</name>
            <value>/sites content/live/acme/web contents/site artifacts/Introduce</value>
            <read-only>false</read-only>
          </preference>
          <!-- ... -->
        </preferences>
      </portlet>
      <title>Homepage</title>
      <access-permissions>Everyone</access-permissions>
      <show-info-bar>false</show-info-bar>
      <show-application-state>false</show-application-state>
      <show-application-mode>false</show-application-mode>
    </portlet-application>

Here are details of this configuration:

XML tag name | Description | Example
--- | --- | ---
`application-ref` | The name of the webapp that contains the portlet. |
`portlet-ref` | The name of the portlet. |
`title` | The title of the page, HTML speaking. |
`access-permission` | Who can access the portlet. | *:platform/users (membership:group)
`show-info-bar` | Show the top bar with the portlet title. |
`show-application-state` | Show the collapse/expand icons. |
`show-application-mode` | Show the change portlet mode icon. |
`preferences` | Contain a list of `preferences` specific to each portlet. Each `preference` has a `name` and a `value`. You can also lock it by setting the `read-only` element to true. To learn more, refer to eXo JCR and Extension Services Reference |

## Developing your own applications

### Gadget vs Portlet

It is important to understand distinctions between gadgets and portlets. Portlets are user interface components that provide fragments of markup code from the server side, while gadgets generate dynamic web content on the client side. With Gadgets, small applications can be built quickly, and mashed up on the client side using lightweight Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA) technologies, like REST or RSS.

More information on developing gadgets and portlets can be found in the GateIn Reference Guide:

- Portlet development

- Gadget development

### Gadget development quickstart with IDE

eXo Platform facilitates easy gadget development, via its powerful, web-based IDE. You can learn more about the basic principles of gadget development here.

### Portlet Bridges

The Portlet Bridge is:

- An adapter for a web framework to the portlet container runtime.

- Works ideally with framework that do not expose the servlet container.

- Limited support for the full portlet API

The JavaTM Specification Request 168 Portlet Specification (JSR 168) standardizes how components for portal servers are developed. This standard has industry backing from major portal server vendors. A Portlet Bridge allows you to create a JSR-168 compliant portlet with very little change to your existing web application.

For example, the JSF Bridge allows you to transparently deploy your existing JSF Applications as a Portlet Application or Web Application.

http://wiki.apache.org/myfaces/PortletBridge

The JBoss implementation of the Portlet Bridge has enhancements to support other web frameworks, such as RichFaces and Seam.

http://jboss.org/portletbridge/docs.html

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