Patent ID: 8312170

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a portal server for operating a web portal to provide access to a web application, wherein the portal server comprises a hardware storage device; and a portlet application for operating on said portal server, for managing a collection of associated portlets, wherein the portlet application is stored on the hardware storage device; said portlet application configured to: initiate portlets on requests of a user to access said web application; manage a portlet application session object for said portlets, wherein the portlet application session object comprises a data store object shared by a plurality of the portlets in the portlet application, wherein the data store is controlled by said portlet application session object for saving parameters from user requests for associating said portlets with said portlet application session object, wherein the control allows for exchange of data among the associated portlets of the portlet application; and assign a common key to each of the portlets associated with said portlet application session object, wherein the common key is for controlling the associated portlets' access to the portlet application session object, wherein the common key is further for matching http sessions owned by the portal server with further http sessions owned by the web application; said portlet application comprising a portlet application communication client for communicating between said portlet application session object and said web application to convey requests received at the portlet application session object from said associated portlets to said web application, wherein the portlet application communication client comprises: a request buffer for storing and serializing the requests from the associated portlets to enable the portlet application communication client to generate serialized requests relative to the web application.