Patent ID: 7519987

Claim:
A method to allow for credential vault usage in a portal, said method comprising: a portal-based product implementing a security component for said portal running on a portal server; said security component managing authentication and authorization to resources within said portal; wherein said security component comprising a credential vault; wherein multiple portlets are configured to access said credential vault; wherein said multiple portlets are hosted in said portal; using said credential vault for a templated portal application; a credential vault manager associating with said multiple portlets; during each instantiation of said templated portal application, configuring said credential vault only once; said credential vault manager allowing a user to configure said credential vault access at a composite application scope, for one or more portlet applications; wherein a template corresponding to said templated portal application comprising said multiple portlets, from said one or more portlet applications; said template aggregating said multiple portlets into a logical application; said credential vault manager associating with said logical application; each of said multiple portlets associating with one of credential vault configuration types; wherein a pre-configured portion of each of credential vault configurations is associated with one of said credential vault configuration types; wherein said pre-configured portion is defined in said template; instantiating said one or more portlet applications, using said template, so that a first plurality of portlets associated with the same credential vault configuration type share one credential vault configuration which has its pre-configured portion associated with the same credential vault configuration type as that of said first plurality of portlets; wherein said pre-configured portion corresponding to each of said first plurality of portlets is stored separately in said credential vault and only shared for said first plurality of portlets; and said credential vault manager accessing credentials at said credential vault, based on said credential vault configuration, to allow said multiple portlets access said resources within said portal environment.