Patent ID: 8463852

Claim:
A system for integrating groupware functionality into a portal, comprising: one or more microprocessors; a groupware portlet deployable on the portal, wherein the groupware portlet executes on the one or more microprocessors, and allows one or more users to access groupware functionality on the groupware portlet; a plurality of collaboration servers, wherein each collaboration server provides the groupware functionality for the groupware portlet; an application programming interface that includes a schema and one or more provider components, wherein the schema defines the groupware functionality provided by the plurality of collaboration servers used at the groupware portlet, wherein a particular one of the one or more provider components is used by the schema to interact with one of the plurality of collaboration servers to allow the groupware portlet to access the groupware functionality provided by the one of the plurality of collaboration servers, and wherein each collaboration server is associated with one of the one or more provider components, and wherein each provider component is a specific implementation of the schema for one of the plurality of collaboration servers, and wherein the groupware portlet connects to any one of the plurality of collaboration servers via the schema by using one of the one or more provider components; and wherein the groupware portlet switches from a first collaboration server of the plurality of collaboration servers to a second collaboration server of the plurality of collaboration servers for groupware functionality by replacing a first provider component associated with the first collaboration server, with a second provider component associated with the second collaboration server.