WebLogic Portal - Create a Remote Portlet
Now it's time to create a remote (proxy) portlet. To do so, click the IBM WebSphere Portal v6.0 link. You can also click the IBM WebSphere Portal v6.0 node under Portal Resources->Library->Remote Producers.

Click the Selected Portlets link or tab. Click the Add Portlets button. In the Add Portlets dialog, click the checkbox next to IBM Java Portlet. Then click the Add button to move the portlet to the Portlets to Add list. Finally, click the Save button to save the changes and close the dialog. The portlet will appear in the Browse Selected Portlets table.

You'll also see the remote portlet (IBM Java Portlet) you created listed underneath the Portal Resources->Library->Portlets node. Notice that the remote portlet has a special icon to distinguish it from local portlets.

WebLogic Portal - Add the Remote Portlet to a Page
Adding a remote portlet is just like adding a local portlet to a page.(See Figure 3) If you're unfamiliar with how to do so, refer to the Portal Development Guide (http://edocs.bea.com/wlp/docs92/portals/index.html).

In our case, we've added the local portlet to the left column and the remote portlet to the right column.

Test the Portlets
Open a browser and navigate to your portal desktop (http://localhost:7001/BEAPortalWeb/appmanager/BEAPortal/SampleDesktop).

Notice that the remote portlet, IBM Java Portlet, has the same look and feel as the local portlet, BEA Java Portlet. The look and feel for a remote portlet can be modified the same way as the look and feel for a local portlet.

Now try out the two portlets.

In the BEA Java Portlet (local portlet), input a message in the text box. Click the Update Message button. (See Figure 4) The message should be echoed back inside the portlet.

In the IBM Java Portlet (remote portlet), click the Add Address link.(See Figure 5) Enter in a new address and click the Add Address button. The new address should appear in the list.

Notice that the remote portlet behaves like a local portlet. This is what we want. It should be transparent to the end user that the IBM Java Portlet isn't hosted by the consumer.

Congratulations! You've successfully consumed a WebSphere Portal, producer offered portlet using WebLogic Portal.

Conclusion
In this article, we saw how to use WSRP 1.0 to create portals consisting of both local portlets and remote portlets. We examined the first of two scenarios, where WebLogic Portal served as a consumer and WebSphere Portal served as a producer. In the next article, we'll explore a scenario where WebSphere Portal serves as a consumer and WebLogic Portal serves as a producer.

We used each vendor's portal administration console to configure a producer, create a remote portlet, and add the remote portlet to a page. We also tested the resulting portal pages and saw that the remote portlets looked and acted like local portlets.

One thing that we neglected to do was to try making a change to one of the producer offered portlets. Had we done so, we would have seen that the change would have been picked up the consumer automatically, without requiring any redeployment of the consumer's portal application. This helps reduce the cost of deployments, which is an important benefit of WSRP.

References
  •   WSRP 1.0 Specification (www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/3343/oasis-200304-wsrp-specification-1.0.pdf)
  •   BEA WebLogic 9.2 Federated Portals Guide (http://edocs.bea.com/wlp/docs92/federation/index.html)
  •   WebSphere Portal 6.0 Information Center (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r0/index.jsp)

Sample Code
  •   BEAPortalEAR.ear - Contains the BEA Java Portlet
  •   IBMPortletWeb.war - Contains the IBM Java Portlet