Re: Spec question: portlet window id?

[Stefan Hepper <st...@hursley.ibm.com>]

Hi Glenn,
no we explicitly avoided to define portlet window and portlet entities 
for the first spec version as there were many different ideas on this 
and the consensus was to first take a look at different implementations 
of the spec before deciding anything on this matter, as it goes into the 
direction of aggreagation.

You can share attributes with servlets by using the application scope. 
Then no prefixing is done.

I think what you are looking for is a grouping mechanism. That was also 
discussed but delayed for a future spec version as it was considerate a 
special case of the app scope that you can do by hand.

Stefan


Glenn R. Golden wrote:

> The spec mentions that each portlet window gets a unique id from the 
> portal, used to form the portlet scoped session attributes:
> 
> javax.portlet.p.<ID>?<attribute name>
> 
> I'm looking for how the portlet can find out this <ID> value for the 
> current request being processed.  Is there a standard way?
> 
> The spec talks about servlets being able to share attributes with the 
> portlet... but without this ID a servlet will have a hard time finding 
> the attributes... of course, I'm not sure how the servlet will find it 
> even if the portlet can know.
> 
> I guess the portlet could use the application scope, so the name it uses 
> for an attribute can be shared with the Servlet, but then we have to 
> re-invent the portlet-window concept to keep attributes from one 
> portlet-window separate from another.
> 
> Ideas?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> - Glenn
> 
> 

Re: Spec question: portlet window id?

[Stefan Hepper <st...@hursley.ibm.com>]

You're right and I think this will change for the next spec version. 
Actually the ID was introduce very late in the spec with the only reason 
to re-use the servlet session listners (before we had duplicated them in 
order to aviod defining this ID).

Stefan

Glenn R. Golden wrote:

> What I'm looking for is the ability for a servlet and a specific portlet 
> window instance to communicate.  The spec goes 99% of the way to make 
> this possible - it dictates exactly how the portlet scoped attribute 
> name gets constructed, calling for that <ID> in the middle.  It just 
> doesn't have a way for the portlet to get the ID.  Well, not a direct 
> way...
> 
> But the spec also leverages the full Servlet spec, which has session 
> attribute listeners, which are called when they are placed into the 
> session, and are told as part of the call what the attribute name is.  
> It's a simple matter to place a special object into the portlet's 
> session in portlet scope, and have that object tell the portlet exactly 
> what it's ID is.
> 
> All 100% standard, just not 100% direct.
> 
> Since the spec gets so close, I'd consider this a hole in the spec.  Not 
> providing a method to get that portlet - window ID doesn't really 
> acomplish anything.
> 
> But it's easily dealt with.
> 
> - Glenn
> 
> On Monday, November 10, 2003, at 04:08  PM, Stefan Hepper wrote:
> 
>> Hi Glenn,
>> no we explicitly avoided to define portlet window and portlet entities 
>> for the first spec version as there were many different ideas on this 
>> and the consensus was to first take a look at different 
>> implementations of the spec before deciding anything on this matter, 
>> as it goes into the direction of aggreagation.
>>
>> You can share attributes with servlets by using the application scope. 
>> Then no prefixing is done.
>>
>> I think what you are looking for is a grouping mechanism. That was 
>> also discussed but delayed for a future spec version as it was 
>> considerate a special case of the app scope that you can do by hand.
>>
>> Stefan
>>
>>
>> Glenn R. Golden wrote:
>>
>>> The spec mentions that each portlet window gets a unique id from the 
>>> portal, used to form the portlet scoped session attributes:
>>> javax.portlet.p.<ID>?<attribute name>
>>> I'm looking for how the portlet can find out this <ID> value for the 
>>> current request being processed.  Is there a standard way?
>>> The spec talks about servlets being able to share attributes with the 
>>> portlet... but without this ID a servlet will have a hard time 
>>> finding the attributes... of course, I'm not sure how the servlet 
>>> will find it even if the portlet can know.
>>> I guess the portlet could use the application scope, so the name it 
>>> uses for an attribute can be shared with the Servlet, but then we 
>>> have to re-invent the portlet-window concept to keep attributes from 
>>> one portlet-window separate from another.
>>> Ideas?
>>> Thanks.
>>> - Glenn
> 
> 
> 

Re: Spec question: portlet window id?

["Glenn R. Golden" <gg...@umich.edu>]

What I'm looking for is the ability for a servlet and a specific 
portlet window instance to communicate.  The spec goes 99% of the way 
to make this possible - it dictates exactly how the portlet scoped 
attribute name gets constructed, calling for that <ID> in the middle.  
It just doesn't have a way for the portlet to get the ID.  Well, not a 
direct way...

But the spec also leverages the full Servlet spec, which has session 
attribute listeners, which are called when they are placed into the 
session, and are told as part of the call what the attribute name is.  
It's a simple matter to place a special object into the portlet's 
session in portlet scope, and have that object tell the portlet exactly 
what it's ID is.

All 100% standard, just not 100% direct.

Since the spec gets so close, I'd consider this a hole in the spec.  
Not providing a method to get that portlet - window ID doesn't really 
acomplish anything.

But it's easily dealt with.

- Glenn

On Monday, November 10, 2003, at 04:08  PM, Stefan Hepper wrote:

> Hi Glenn,
> no we explicitly avoided to define portlet window and portlet entities 
> for the first spec version as there were many different ideas on this 
> and the consensus was to first take a look at different 
> implementations of the spec before deciding anything on this matter, 
> as it goes into the direction of aggreagation.
>
> You can share attributes with servlets by using the application scope. 
> Then no prefixing is done.
>
> I think what you are looking for is a grouping mechanism. That was 
> also discussed but delayed for a future spec version as it was 
> considerate a special case of the app scope that you can do by hand.
>
> Stefan
>
>
> Glenn R. Golden wrote:
>
>> The spec mentions that each portlet window gets a unique id from the 
>> portal, used to form the portlet scoped session attributes:
>> javax.portlet.p.<ID>?<attribute name>
>> I'm looking for how the portlet can find out this <ID> value for the 
>> current request being processed.  Is there a standard way?
>> The spec talks about servlets being able to share attributes with the 
>> portlet... but without this ID a servlet will have a hard time 
>> finding the attributes... of course, I'm not sure how the servlet 
>> will find it even if the portlet can know.
>> I guess the portlet could use the application scope, so the name it 
>> uses for an attribute can be shared with the Servlet, but then we 
>> have to re-invent the portlet-window concept to keep attributes from 
>> one portlet-window separate from another.
>> Ideas?
>> Thanks.
>> - Glenn