| Each type of portal offers a unique set of features. Most of this book is devoted to explaining portal architecture and offering practical guidance on how to build portals using Microsoft .NET. I am proposing a single overarching architecture for all portals, assuming that you may pick and choose the features you would like to include in your portal. This unified architectural approach simplifies application development within the enterprise and shares investments in hardware, software, and security architecture. It also lends itself to Microsoft's portal strategy, which takes a holistic view of the portal in the context of larger information technology (IT) initiatives. These combined portal features include: -
A consistent user interface for users. Users should know that they are in the portal, and they should be able to navigate easily. As much as possible, consistent look-and-feel should be enforced in all the nooks and crannies of the portal. -
Better access to structured and unstructured data. Portals can unify data access and provide reports , searches, and ad hoc queries. They should allow searching across multiple, heterogeneous sources. -
A powerful and comprehensive search engine. Full-text searching is essential, with a wide variety of document formats included such as HTML, text, word processing (Word, WordPerfect), Adobe Acrobat (PDF), and others. -
Tools to maintain the portal (typically content management). It is expensive to maintain a portal if all changes must be filtered through a help desk and a programming staff. Content management transfers the burden of updates from programmers to content owners . The net result is timelier refreshing of content and elimination of bottlenecks in the workflow. Content management also allows implementation of review processes to prevent content from being published without one or more reviewers approving it. -
Improved security and simplified management of security. Moving applications to a portal framework allows a single security framework to be used in place of the many and incompatible security schemes used by individual applications. Security policies such as password length and expiration can be enforced globally. -
Personalization at department and individual levels. The portal lets users and departments create pages with their favorite content and applications to streamline their access and provide a custom window into data they need to manage operations. -
Shared architecture to support transactions rather than a stovepipe application approach. The portal provides the transactional backbone for e-commerce transactions, both internal and external. It includes catalogs, shopping carts, payment processing, and other business processes that relate to these transactions. -
Minimal client footprint and hence reduced cost to deploy and update. Browser-based applications typically require less desktop configuration than traditional Windows32 client-server applications. This is particularly important when desktop configurations are standardized and "locked down." -
Accessibility through multiple channels. The portal can facilitate reuse of content and applications on desktop and laptop computers, Pocket PCs, cell phones, and tablet PCs. -
Consolidation of multiple applications and data sources. Ideally the portal would provide one-stop shopping for data and application needs. Instead of connecting many users to many applications, you face the challenge of integrating the applications with the portal. |