Patent ID: 7716665
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for automatically deploying a Portal Application into a Portal Server Application environment, wherein the Portal Application is provided to the Portal Server Application environment as a Portal Application Archive which includes all application components in machine-readable code for forming the Portal Application, wherein the all application components include portlets, each portlet containing a specific function, and the Portal Application Archive also includes an application component assembly descriptor in machine-readable code which specifies how the application components need to be assembled to provide the Portal Application on the Portal Server Application environment, the method comprising: providing the Portal Application Archive to a deployment mechanism within the Portal Server Application environment which is able to directly deploy the Portal Application Archive into the Portal Server Application environment by using the deployment mechanism's Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to properly handle the all application components, evaluating the application component assembly descriptor included in the Portal Application Archive by means of the deployment mechanism to determine a desired layout of how the application components need to be assembled and interaction information of all the application components, wherein the application component assembly descriptor includes a topology schema definition, the topology schema definition including an application tree that lists and describes all application components, a layout tree that defines the desired layout by defining which windows application components are inserted into, and a navigation tree that defines navigation elements that map the application components to a particular window in the desired layout, and automatically deploying the application components into respective parts of the Portal Server Application environment according to the desired layout and interaction information included in the application component assembly descriptor.