Posts Tagged ‘best practices’

I recommend using a maven plugin to package your logic. The reason is that the ANT antcall and XSLT tasks require file inputs (and do not support URIs). When you package these file resources into a jar (as you do with a plugin) then you can extract them to the correct relative filesystem locations as […]

So far you have a compiled portlet and an XSLT capable of producing an xmlaccess request input file based on your specific portlet.xml file. Next you create an ANT script that is capable of submitting your request to the portal server. The script presented below diverges to distinguish between local portlet deployments (when you are […]

A colleague presented me with this question today:  Under what conditions does it make sense to use JSF portlets and when doesn’t it?  This is a good question and can be applied to several frameworks, such as Struts and Spring MVC. Now before I answer, let me give you some of my background. I’ve been […]

The deployment of a portlet to a portal server is accomplished using xmlaccess (also called the XML configuration interface). At this point I need to point out that the deploy goal of maven is a separate concept from a portlet deployment. The maven deploy goal is intended to move your packaged maven artifact to the maven […]

This post assumes that you have installed an automated build stack (which consists of maven, a maven compatible repository server, and a continuous integration (CI) server). This post also assumes that you have installed and configured the m2eclipse plugin for your RAD/Eclipse IDE. The details of these installations are beyond the scope of this series of posts. A maven […]

This is the third entry in a series on what constitutes good requirements, regardless of how they are written, stated, shown, or otherwise intended.  In this entry, we cover how language affects the ambiguity of requirements. When requirements are unambiguous it means that they have one and only one interpretation by everyone involved. How would […]

“Well it works on my machine” is the single most frustrating developer quote you will hear while working on a portal project. The open source world has experienced great success with automating builds and server deployments using apache maven and continuous integration (CI) servers like hudson, continuum, cruise control and others. Investing time in the beginning of […]

Configuring a SharePoint 2010 Farm is a non-trivial undertaking. Each of the servers in the farm must have the correct software installed. In addition, a myriad of accounts, databases, applications, and services must be correctly installed, created, and configured on each server. Typically, a project team requires three or four different farms (development, integration, validation/test, […]

This is the second entry in a series on what constitutes good requirements, regardless of how they are written, stated, shown, or otherwise intended.  In this entry, we cover two characteristics that go hand in hand and are generally the responsibility of the customer and user: correct and complete. You probably haven’t tried my grandmother’s […]

When IBM created their new JSR 286-based Web Content portlet they included only a local rendering version.  This means you have to have IBM WCM installed on the same server as Portal to render WCM content.  In IBM’s previous versions, they shipped both a local rendering and a remote rendering portlet.  The remote rendering portlet […]

Over the last 3 weeks Mike Porter and I have covered a number of topics to consider when trying to accelerate your speed to production for a portal project.  In case you missed any of the installments, here they are.  Good luck on your project! Previous Installments Dependency Management Ramp Your Resources Don’t Forget Your […]

Mention of the word, “methodology” need not elicit groans.  Without a repeatable approach to projects it’s easy to miss key requirements, expectations, errors, etc.   So use a software developer methodology for your project. Which methodology to use? Frankly, I don’t care which methodology you use as long as it’s not a waterfall methodology.   I’ve been […]