Method and apparatus for using business rules or user roles for selecting portlets in a web portal

Apparatus for displaying to a user a web page session for a web application, said web page session displaying a plurality of associated collaborative portlets, sharing information with each other, accessible by said user comprising:

• a portal server for operating a web portal to provide access to said web application;
• a portlet application, for managing a collection of associated portlets, for operating on said portal server;
• roles access means to access a roles database;
• said roles database containing rules controlling display of sets of portlets, pages, page groups to users based on user roles;
• and
• role selection means to select a set of portlets, pages, and page groups to be displayed to a user based on an identified role of said user as required.

Apparatus for supporting the selection of portal resources for a user based on business rules for a collection of associated portlets operating on a portal server comprising:

• a rules database for storing display rules;
• access means to access said rules database;
• said rules comprising rules controlling display of sets of portlets, pages, page groups to users;
• selection means to select a set of portlets, pages, and page groups to be displayed to a user based on information provided by said user as required.

Apparatus for supporting the selection of portal resources for a user based on business rules for a collection of associated portlets operating on a portal server comprising:

• a portlet application, for managing a collection of associated portlets, for operating on said portal server;
• a roles database;
• said roles database containing rules controlling display of sets of portlets, pages, page groups to users based on user roles;
• roles access means to access said roles database;
• role selection means to select a set of portlets, pages, and page groups to be displayed to a user based on an identified role of said user.

A method for displaying to a user a web page session for a web application, said web page session displaying a plurality of associated collaborative portlets, sharing information with each other, accessible by said user comprising:

• operating a web portal or a portal server to provide access to said web application;
• managing a collection of associated portlets with a portlet application, for operating on said portal server;
• accessing a rules database storing rules;
• said rules comprising rules controlling display of sets of portlets, pages, page groups to users;
• selecting a set of portlets, pages, and page groups to be displayed to a user based on information provided by said user as required.

A method for supporting the selection of portal resources for a user based on business rules for a collection of associated portlets operating on a portal server comprising:

• providing a rules database for storing display rules;
• said rules comprising rules controlling display of sets of portlets, pages, page groups to users;
• accessing said rules database;
• selecting a set of portlets, pages, and page groups to be displayed to a user based on information provided by said user as required.

A method for supporting the selection of portal resources for a user based on business rules for a collection of associated portlets operating on a portal server comprising:

• for managing a collection of associated portlets with a portlet application operating on said portal server;
• providing a roles database;
• said roles database containing rules controlling display of sets of portlets, pages, page groups to users based on user roles;
• accessing said roles database;
• selecting a set of portlets, pages, and page groups to be displayed to a user based on an identified role of said user.