Patent ID: 7281217

Claim:
A method for integrating portlets within a portal infrastructure, said method comprising: registering one or more target portlet actions for one or more portlets within the portal infrastructure, the registering including receiving the target portlet actions and a target portlet name corresponding to each of the received target portlet actions; assembling a portal page for a user, wherein the assembling further includes: identifying a source data type for one of the portlets; determining that a match exists between the source data type and a data type corresponding to one of the registered target portlet actions; in response to the determining, displaying a visual control proximate to a displayed data value that corresponds to the matched source data type; determining that the source data type matches a plurality of data types corresponding to the registered target portlet actions; creating a broadcast action adapted to perform each of the plurality of matched target portlet actions; and storing the broadcast action in a menu data store associated with the source portlet data type; receiving a user request that selects the visual control; in response to receiving the user request, displaying a pop-up menu that includes the target portlet name corresponding to the target portlet action whose data type matches the source data type; receiving a request from the user corresponding to the broadcast action that was associated with one of the source portlet data types; and performing each of the plurality of target portlet actions included in the menu data store associated with the associated source data type, wherein the performing includes passing the data value corresponding to the selected displayed visual control to each of the plurality of target portlet actions.