Dashlet vs Portlet

[muralidharand]

Hi,
I'm new java technologies and Alfresco.

What is the difference between Dashlet and portlet and when to use portlet and dashlet ?

[jpotts]

"Portlet" refers to a specific feature of Java Portal Servers. A portlet is often, but not always, compliant to the JSR-168 portlet specification. A portlet is essentially an extension of a servlet that provides a standardized way to define application "windows" that are displayed within a portal server's user interface.

Portlets are most commonly coded in either Java or JSP.

When you are coding a user interface using a portal server you will most likely be writing portlets.

"Dashlet" is an Alfresco-specific term that is used to describe a "window" of data that is displayed in Alfresco Share. Alfresco Share displays dashlets on either the Global Dashboard or the Site Dashboard. Dashlets are not governed by any specification.

Dashlets leverage Alfresco web script framework which is a Model View Controller implementation. The view, or presentation, is typically rendered using FreeMarker. The controller, or logic, is typically implemented using server-side JavaScript. Java can also be used.

When you are coding using Alfresco Share, you will most likely use dashlets because Alfresco Share is not a portlet container.

So the two are really only common in that they typically render as a box or window-like thing containing some data.

It is possible, however, to write a dashlet and wrap that in a portlet so that your Alfresco dashlet can be displayed in a Java portal server.

Hope that clears it up.

Jeff

[muralidharand]

Thanks.

For Dashlet development, Can I use HTML 5/ASP.net / ASP.net MVC/PHP/ frameworks also or only it is litmited to server-side javascript and java?

[jpotts]

Server-side JavaScript and Java is what the framework supports out-of-the-box. The view is rendered using FreeMarker, so that FreeMarker could produce HTML5 if needed.

Jeff

[ddraper]

Each Dashlet on the Dashboard is a Surf Component which can be rendered by any number of renderers. Alfresco exclusively uses WebScripts (which comprise of a JavaScript or Java controller along with a FreeMarker template) to render its dashlets but Surf also supports vanilla FreeMarker and JSP renderers out-of-the-box. It is possible to plug-in additional renderers into Surf and I believe that some work was done on a PHP renderer but I have no idea if it is complete or has ever been used in anger. Depending upon much more effort you want to put in your options are fairly limitless, however for simplicity it would be recommended to use the WebScript option,

Regards,
Dave

[muralidharand]

If apache is able to process asp.net request, then can I develop pages on asp.net ?

http://weblogs.asp.net/israelio/archive/2005/09/11/how-to-make-apache-run-asp-net-asp-net-2-0.aspx