* Dr. Internet columnist Steve Blass explains what a portlet is
What is a portlet?
A portlet is a Java Web component that processes requests and generates dynamic content. Portlets run inside portals and are managed by a portlet container similar to the way Web services are managed by Web containers in the Java world.
Java Specification Request (JSR) 168 defines a set of APIs for portlets and addresses standardization for preferences, user information, portlet requests and responses, deployment packaging, and security. This lets the same portlet deliver services through any standards-compliant portal installation. Oracle and others offer commercial portal servers that support the portlet specification, and there are a number of open source portal servers available.
The portlets group on Yahoo (https://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlets/) is quite active and you can find open source portlet examples at the Portlet Open Source Trading (https://portlet-opensrc.sourceforge.net/) site on sourceforge, which is sponsored by Plumtree, Documentum, BEA and Sun.
JBoss (https://www.jboss.org/products/jbossportal) provides a complete JSR 168-compliant portal server bundle with a collection of sample portlets for download.
