Create and deploy JSR168/JSR286 with Eclipse Wizard



This quick guide to successfully deploying a Portlet has following steps :

  • install Eclipse
  • install Eclipse Portal Pack plugin
  • install Sun GlassFish Web Space Server
  • configure portlet container on GlassFish
  • configure Eclipse to use the OpenPortal Portlet Container (Webspace)
  • use Eclipse wizard to create Portlet Hello World project
  • use Eclipse wizard to deploy Portlet on the OpenPortal Portlet Container
  • verify Portlet runing on server
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    This guide is using a very scaled down example, where it makes no difference whether going for Portlet 1.0 (JSR168) or 2.0 (JSR286) specifications. The Portlet container used supports both specifications.

    Installing Eclipse with Eclipse Portal Pack plugin

    Get Eclipse and select the Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers, since this edition includes features for creating Web applications. In this case have been specificly used eclipse-jee-galileo-SR1-win32.zip

    Get Eclipse Portal Pack plugin . In this case have been specificly used portlet-container-configurator.jar. Plugin pack installation is done by unpacking the zip contents into the appropriate ./plugins directory.

    Installing Sun GlassFish Web Space Server 10 with Portlet container

    Download Sun GlassFish Web Space Server. In this case has been used webspace-10-fcs-gfv2-windows.zip and the procedure has been: The ant -f setup.xml should result in "BUILD SUCCESSFUL" as visible at the top of the subsequent screenshot. The subsequent start and stop of the server should result in returned statements Domain listens... and Domain ... stopped, which can be seen visible at the lower part of the subsequent screenshot. Download portlet configurator. In this specific case have been used portlet-container-configurator.jar.

    Install with command : java -jar portlet-container-configurator.jar . This will result in a pop-up dialog, where is required to enter the absolute paths for the server installation. This is displayed in the middle of the subsequent screenshot.




    Proceed to:
    Inside the Glassfish installation you should now have (not available before) :

    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\ccpp.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\commons-fileupload.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\commons-io.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\container.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\portlet-container-context.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\portlet-container-installer.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\portlet-container.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\portlet.jar
    <gf-install-dir>\glassfish2\domains\domain1\lib\portletadmin.jar

    The trace after intallation of Portlet container (configurator).




    Configuring Eclipse to use Sun GlassFish Web Space Server

    Proceed to start Eclipse (selcting workspace to work in) and add server in the Server part of the lower Eclipse view.




    Proceed to specify type of server as Sun Microsystems OpenPortal Portlet Container 2.x.



    Proceed to specify JRE (default will usually do) and Glassfish location




    Proceed with same procedure for the webspace server










    Use Eclipse Wizard to create a Portlet project

    Proceed to create project from the top menu using : File -> New -> Dynamic Web Project .

    The project will be named "PortletHelloWorld".




    Specify the container used (OpenPortal) and the configuraition (Portlet 1.0 / 2.0 standard). For this scaled-down example it makes no difference if selecting Portlet 1.0 (JSR168) or 2.0 (JSR286). The other parts of this setup remain exactly the same.




    The context root is normally the extension name to the hostname in the url used to specify a web application. In this case it is the default address used by Eclipse to display the deployed project. Since this is a Portlet and not a normal standard web application (servlet, jsp, ..) it might be better to ask Eclipse to open the project up with the Portlet overview container view.




    The project should have been successfully cerated at this point and fully expanded look like the screenshot as below.






    Use Eclipse Wizard to create a Portlet

    With selection fokus on the project, proceed to right-click on the project and create the Portlet using the wizard New -> Other.







    The Portlet will be named "PortletHello".




    Add a print statement inside the Portlet to return a visible result.




    (ok... an out.close() might have been required, but this is a scaled down example).

    Eclipse wizard deployment of Portlet

    Before deploying, it is necessary to have a running server. To accomplish this, proceed to rigth-click on the "OpenPortal Portlet Container 2.x at localhost" in the bottom view of the Eclipse window. Select "Start"




    To deploy and run the portlet, proceed to right-click on the project and select Run as -> Run on server




    Proceed to select the "OpenPortal Portlet Container 2.x at localhost" as deployment target. Subsequently press "Finish".




    Please observe the console output "BUILD SUCCESSFUL". Notice that deployement has been done to c:\eclipse-webspace\glassfish2\domains\domain1\portlet-container\autodeploy. The deployment is a war file of size 3455 bytes.

    Eclipse test of Portlet



    Proceed to the url http://localhost:8080/portletdriver/dt. Observe the Portlet output message "Hello, World" which is the result of the two added lines to the HelloPortlet.




    This dialog allow displaying the 3 possible rendering modes of the portlet (as defined by the JSR-288 specification) :

    Window states indicates of how much page space a portlet consumes on any given page. This dialog also allow displaying the 3 possible window states of the portlet (as defined by the JSR-168 specification) :


    Undeployment of the Portlet is available from:




    In fact multiple .war files have been created with different size 3455 and 7200 bytes.



    The difference is whether (or not) the war file contains tag library definitions :
    According to JSR 168: "The portlet-container must provide an implementation of the portlet tag library." Actually inspecting the portlet container lib portlet-container.jar these files are indeed already in the portlet container. Checking the PortletHelloWorld.war shows the files included to be exactly the same as otherwise included in the portlet container lib .jar files. So including the files is probably just an internal 'service' peformed by the portlet container.

    So bottom line is that the taglib definitions are unnecessary when you do a normal export of the .war files as shown below:











    This conludes the Portlet build and deployment session on Glassfish Web Space Server.


    Ressources :