Installing portlet

When you deploy a portlet two things should happen first the portlet should get deployed on the underlying WebSphere Application Server as enterprise application and second thing is the portlet information should be stored in the database. How this works depends on how to deploy portlet there are two different ways of deploying portlets

• As .war file using Manage Web Modules portlet or using xmlaccess script. You can use Manage Web Modules Portlet by going to Portal Admin Console and clicking on Portlet Management -> Web Modules. Once on this page click on Install button and on next screen enter path of the portlet .war file.
  
  


• As .ear file, you can deploy a portlet as enterprise application, which might be useful if your portlet wants to use EJB and as a result you want to package .war file and ejb in same .ear file. You can deploy .ear file through WAS Admin console or wsadmin script. But once the application is deployed you will have to execute xmlaccess scritp to register it as portlet i.e. do the part of reading portlet.xml configuration and storing that information in the database.

Important Note: You need at least Manager role on the Portal to be able to deploy portlet on it. The user who deploys the portlet automatically gets owner role on that portlet.

1. You can register predeployed applications into the portal only by using the XML configuration interface. Once you have registered a predeployed application, the Manage Web Modules portlet shows this application.
2. You can later use the portal administration portlets to remove the portlet definitions from the portal database. However, this does not remove the EAR file from WebSphere Application Server.
3. You can update a predeployed portlet application only by using the XML configuration interface.
4. You cannot update a deployed portlet application WAR file with a predeployed EAR file and vice versa. If you want to change between the two types of files, you need to delete the existing portlet application and deploy the new one. However, deleting the existing portlet application will also delete all configuration data of that application. A predeployed application can only be updated via update of the EAR file in WebSphere Application Server and subsequent update of the contained WAR file in portal by using the XML configuration interface. Cross updates of a predeployed EAR file with a real WAR and vice versa are not possible.
5. The WebSphere Application Server administrator must take care of correctly configuring the dispatch mechanisms for these applications.