IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory Application Builder Technology Preview

Hmmm, this looks rather interesting: -

• With Application Builder, you can create new database list and multi-page form applications directly from the WebSphere Portal interface in a browser. You simply add the desired application template to a page, then click through a wizard to configure the application.

The Application Builder tool is built entirely on WebSphere Portlet Factory builder and model technology. This tech preview focuses on database list and forms functionality. However, the technology is extensible and can support building any kind of application.

Key features in this tech preview release:

• Custom portlet applications can be built entirely from within Portal, running in a browser
• Create and deploy nice-looking CRUD (create/read/update/delete) and multi-page form portlets using database lists for storage
• Create database lists from spreadsheet or by specifying field names
• Select from application templates for common list application types, then customize to meet specific needs
• Enable event source support to fire Portlet Factory client events to other portlets
• Enable live name support for person card display for registered Portal users
• Simple install and deploy: just install one portlet WAR on any Portal 6.1.5 server.

Database lists can be created in a few different ways:

• You can import a spreadsheet and automatically create a database table based on the columns in the spreadsheet.
• You can specify the columns you want in your database list.
• You can start with one of the predefined templates, such as "contact list" or "task list," and you can customize the list of fields.

Application Builder is built on the Portlet Factory framework, leveraging all of Portlet Factory's model and builder technology and runtime framework. This provides some very important benefits and features:

• Generated code can be further customized in the Portlet Factory IDE. Applications built through the browser interface can be brought into the Portlet Factory IDE for additional customization by developers. This means that when particular applications become more widely used and critical to the enterprise, they can be seamlessly moved into the hands of IT for complete customization using the full range of Portlet Factory capabilities. Note: For this tech preview, this capability is only available internally for IBM users.
• Extensibility. The available application patterns and templates can be easily extended using Portlet Factory models and builders. Templates can be created for any kind of application, implementation any horizontal or vertical functionality. Note: For this tech preview, this capability is only available internally for IBM users.
• Proven performance and scalability. Portlet Factory is a proven, mature, scalable framework that has been deployed in mission-critical applications for large customers and is proven to have good performance. Each Application Builder portlet runs as a Portlet Factory model.