WebSphere Portal development: where to start?

You have probably noticed at this time, the portals are all the rage. Figures for some time, I am rather paid on WebSphere Portal, and it is not displeasing to me after 3 & a half years devoted almost exclusively to the Lotus Domino Development (with a bit of PHP between the two). However, it is a world wide and very different from the latter, and the beast is not necessarily easy to master or even to address. Here are some links that I collected throughout my adventures, which could be of interest to those entering the field:

• What is a portlet part I et part II . What is a portlet part I and part II. A good introduction to portals and portlets development.
• The JSR-168 specification. The standard describes how portlets standards. Lotus Component Designer ) Is essential reading for anyone who wants to develop portlets (unless you are using WebSphere Portlet Factory, and, if I followed the Lotusphere, Lotus Component Designer)
• Understanding and developing portlets in Java (PDF), a technology watch of the company SQLI. Very good.
• Guidelines for Writing JSR-168 Portlets , Guidelines for Writing JSR-168 Portlets, a compilation of small mistakes and helpful tips.
• Best Practices for Applying Ajax to JSR 168 Portlets. Best Practices for Applying Ajax to JSR 168 Portlets, or how to properly AJAX with portlets, pending spec JSR-286.

Not directly related to WPS, but an excellent resource for anyone wanting to understand the JSP tag libraries (and WPS, a full y'en).

• Introducing JSTL and expression language. Même remarque. Same.
• Info Center : Designing your portal a very detailed section on how the themes and skins WPS 5.1. Necessary to customize the interface and the browsing experience of your portal (note: it has changed a lot with WPS 6).
• XMLAccess 101 part I et part II . XMLAccess 101 part I and part II. An excellent introduction to XMLAccess, which is just what WPS DXL is Domino. It is an XML dialect that describes the overall structure of the portal (pages, labels, portlets, portlet applications, web modules, users, etc) and allows convenient operation of import / export. His mastery is essential if one wishes to avoid the admin interface unfriendly to any operation which requires a dozen clicks.
• Info Center: XMLAccess reference. The reference XMLAccess.
• WPS. Tech Spot, a very interesting blog that talks about everything related to WPS.
• WebSphere Portal Security. A presentation of the Lotusphere 2006 on security of WPS 5.1 and 6.
• Table access rights. A reference for managing rights to pages and portlets.
• Change the titles and labels by default. Making changes to NLS .properties containing translations denominated system.
• Authentication in WebSphere Portal
• Customizing the WebSphere Portal Login / Logout mechanism
• Exploiting the WebSphere Portal 5.1.0.1 programming model: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
• Caching techniques in WebSphere Portal

That's all for now, I probably will complete this list as & as my discoveries. In general, your first instinct should be to consult the Info Center (v5.1, v6.0) because it is very comprehensive and full of lots of info needed.