I’ve blogged on how to surface portlets before. I wanted to hit the topic again because this question comes up time and time again. When should you link to a site, use WSRP, iframe it, create a custom portlet from scratch, etc. The answer is it depends. Before you make a decision, you need some key information:
- How are you going to achieve SSO? This question has to be answered because users demand it.
- How complex is the application? If it’s really complex, then follow the 80/20 rule. Leave at least 80% of the UI in the original application and surface no more than 20% of the application on the portal. That up to 20% should be the high value items that can be complex for novice users in the original application.
- Does the application have an API?
- Does it need to be shown in context of other content or information
Once you have the answers to it, you can use a simple decision framework to start down that path. Dave Jones, a Senior Architect and guru extraordinaire, put this simplified decision model together.
Portlet Decision Framework
