Essentials

Novell exteNd Director
WHAT'S NEW

This page summarizes the new features of Novell^® exteNd Director^TM and provides links to more detailed information in help.

For the latest and most complete information on software and hardware requirements for exteNd Director, see the Release Notes.

What's new in Version 5.0

Release highlights
Visual tools and wizards
Standards-based development
Interaction and personalization services
Enhancements to the Framework and other subsystems
Utility tool features

Release highlights

Feature Description

Pageflows A pageflow defines the flow of control for a set of pages that execute within a single portlet. Each page presents a set of controls that allow for user interaction. For example, the pages in a flow might provide a way for the user to display stock quotes or weather forecasts, or access corporate data such as employee information.
In addition to presenting pages for user interaction, pageflows can perform background processing tasks. For example, a pageflow might invoke a Web Service or access a database. Although you can execute custom Java code within a pageflow, you often do not need to.

Pageflows contain two key components: activities and links. An activity is an object that represents a task. A link is an object that represents a path in the routing logic of the flow. A link points to an activity.

Pageflows rely on portlet technology. To execute a pageflow, you need to use the prepackaged Page Flow Runner portlet.

    For more information, see the overview of pageflows chapter in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Forms This release introduces the next generation of Web forms. Based on XForms technology, Web forms you create in exteNd Director overcome many of the limitations of HTML. They provide a robust, standards-based way to define the layout, presentation, and user interactions associated with forms.
XForms do not run as standalone applications. They are designed to run as components within a host language like XHTML. In the Novell implementation, they run within the context of a pageflow.
    For more information, see the overview of XForms chapter in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Portlets This release includes comprehensive support for portlets, as well as extensions that offer more flexibility in developing and running portlets.
A portlet is a specialized Java class that processes requests from Web clients and generates dynamic content on a portal page. Portlets are defined in Java Portlet specification. You can think of portlets as pluggable user interface elements that provide a presentation layer for portal applications. Users can personalize the content and appearance of portlets, based on preferences set by an administrator.

exteNd Director includes the following extensions to the Java Portlet specification:

An additional, optional portlet deployment descriptor—novell-portlet.xml—that allows you to specify options and properties for portlets, such as title bars and preview images

The ability to set and modify portlet preferences at design time, after deployment, and at runtime

Several types of portlet containers to manage local and remote portlets

In addition, many of the portal components (system, base, and sample components) that shipped with previous releases have been converted to portlets.

    For more information, see the introductory chapter about portlets in the Portal Guide.

Express Portal When you install exteNd Director, you get an Express Portal application that you can run right away. You do not need to deploy the application from the exteNd Director development environment to use it.
When the install process has completed, you can simply open your browser and start the application with this URL:

http://server name/ExpressPortal/portal

Shared libraries In this release, exteNd Director lets you place common libraries (JAR files) required by all exteNd Director applications in a shared location on the application server. This reduces the size of EAR and WAR files you build and the time needed for deployment. If you create a project that relies on shared libraries, you can usually deploy the project in a matter of seconds, since the archive created for the project is very lightweight.

Visual tools and wizards

Feature Description

New project wizards The following project wizards have been added:

Portal Application Wizard for creating a new portal WAR

Portlet Application Wizard for creating a new portlet application

Resource Set Application Wizard for creating a new resource set WAR

To use these wizards, select File>New Project and go to the Director tab.

Pageflow Modeler Integrated into exteNd Director is a complete graphing package called the Pageflow Modeler that allows you to quickly and visually create a pageflow process. The Pageflow Modeler allows you to:

Graphically lay out, annotate, and format your pageflow

Create, change, and delete activities and links

Set activity and link properties

Use the XPath Navigator to associate activities and links with data

When you save a pageflow, the Pageflow Modeler translates your document into an XML-based file called a process definition. The process definition saves the layout and format of your workflow and translates the flow logic into a program that the workflow engine can read and execute.

The Pageflow Modeler also saves a portlet descriptor that maps your pageflow to a pageflow runner. The pageflow runner is a Java class that is implemented as a portlet. exteNd Director ships with a prepackaged Page Flow Runner portlet that can run any pageflow.

    For more information, see the chapter on the Pageflow Modeler in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Form Designer The exteNd Director Form Designer provides an environment for developing Web forms that are XForms 1.0-compliant. The Form Designer is a graphical development tool that allows you to quickly create XForms components for use in pageflow applications.
    For more information, see the chapter on the Form Designer in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Database Pageflow Wizard The Database Pageflow Wizard is included with this release to help you create pageflows that give the user a way to find, display, and modify records in a database. The Database Pageflow Wizard generates a set of forms (XHTML pages that use XForms technology) as well as one or more pageflows that tie the forms together into an integrated user interface.
    For more information, see the chapter on the Database Pageflow Wizard in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Web Service Pageflow Wizard exteNd Director also provides tools for creating pageflows that invoke Web Services. To help you create these kinds of flows, exteNd Director provides the Web Service Pageflow Wizard.

Composer Pageflow Wizard exteNd Director also provides the Composer Pageflow Wizard to help you take advantage of exteNd Composer^TM services.

Scoped paths A typical pageflow process includes data that is manipulated by pageflow users or program logic. To access data in a pageflow, you use scoped paths. exteNd Director includes a group of predefined scoped paths that are available from the Pageflow Modeler and the Workflow Modeler and through the Scoped Path API. These give you an easy way to refer to data in various locations. For example, you can use them to access data in the Request and Response objects, as well as files in the resource set or in the Content Management subsystem.
You can use scoped paths to associate objects with activities in a page flow or a workflow. You can also use scoped paths to copy data from one location to another. You can perform scoped path copies before and after activities, as well as on links.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with scoped paths and XPaths in Developing exteNd Director Applications.

Dynamic submit buttons A button link in a pageflow can be used to create a dynamic submit button on a form. At runtime, a navigation button is placed on the rendered form for each button link that comes out of the Form activity. The primary benefit of the button link is that it allows you to add navigation to forms dynamically. Whenever you want to change the navigation paths from a form, you can simply add links to the pageflow; you do not need to edit the XHTML form.

Smart linking You can use smart linking to reduce clutter in a pageflow diagram. Smart links do not actually appear on the pageflow diagram; instead, they are resolved dynamically at runtime. Smart linking is particularly useful when many activities link to a common activity. For example, you might want to use smart linking to allow all activities within a flow to link dynamically to a common Help page.
    For more information, see the chapter on working with links in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Simple links In this release, many of the links that were required in a workflow have been replaced by the simple link, a single link that represents a simple path from one activity to another. Simple links are supported in pageflows as well as in workflows.
Simple links (also known as XOR links) allow you to specify expressions that evaluate to true or false. When the expression for a simple link evaluates to true, the link is followed to the next activity. When the expression evaluates to false, the path is not followed.

Simple links provide an easy way to choose between multiple target activities. When an activity fiinishes processing, you can use expressions on simple links to determine which activity should be executed next.

Note: The functionality of the XOR, OR, AND, and simple links (previously used in workflows) have been combined into the new simple link.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with links in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Integration between pageflow and workflow When a workflow process needs to display a user interface, it can launch a pageflow. This greatly reduces the development effort required to support user interaction within a workflow. It also eliminates the need to create User activities for most kinds of user interactions.
    For more information, see the chapter on working with activities in the Workflow Guide.

XPath Navigator The XPath Navigator dialog is a new feature provided to help you specify valid XPath expressions visually. You can access it from various exteNd Director tools when an XPath is called for. For example, you can use the XPath Navigator dialog to specify scoped paths.
    For more information, see the chapter on working with scoped paths and XPaths in Developing exteNd Director Applications.

Portlet Wizard Although you can implement most of your portlet application logic using pageflows, there are situations in which you may want to write custom portlet classes. The Portlet Wizard simplifies the process by providing a graphical user interface for automatically generating a barebones portlet class with the appropriate imports and method signatures.

Pageflow validation You can validate a pageflow at design time whenever you choose. The Page Flow Modeler analyzes the process structure and displays any errors encountered. For example, if an activity in a pageflow refers to an object in the resource set that does not exist, an error message informs you of the problem.
Note: The validation applies to the design-time process structure only.

Dynamic loading of pageflows, forms, and portlets When you modify pageflows, forms, and portlets in the exteNd Director development environment, your changes are automatically reflected on the server so that you can test them right away.

Single point of access for administration This release provides a single point of access for administration. When you launch the Director Administration Console (DAC), you now have access to all of the administration tools:

Portal Management

Portlet Management

User Profile Management

General Configuration

Security Management

Directory Management

Content Management

Workflow Administration

Note: The DAC replaces the PAC (Portal Administration Console).

Standards-based development

Feature Description

Java Portlet compliance exteNd Director is fully compliant with Java Portlet 1.0, which defines the portlet standard.
For more information, see the introductory chapter about portlets in the Portal Guide.

XForms support exteNd Director provides an environment for developing XForms 1.0-compliant Web forms.
The advantages of the XForms standard include:

Separate data, logic, and presentation modules

A powerful event model (so that you don’t have to use a lot of scripting for client-side validation or calculations)

A way to process data in XML formats

For more information, see the overview of XForms in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

WSRP support Although this release does not include full support for Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP), the product architecture contains many of the features that will be required to offer complete WSRP support in a subsequent release.

SAML support exteNd Director is integrated with the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) capabilities provided by Novell iChain^®. A SAML authentication in iChain is an HTTP authorization header with the encoded credentials of a mapped user. exteNd Director decodes that information and logs the user in under the covers.

Interaction and personalization services

Feature Description

Portal Personalizer The Portal Personalizer has been enhanced to support container pages and shared pages.

Container pages Container pages provide fixed content suitable for particular groups of users. Administrators use container pages as blueprints for synthesizing images, logos, and text into a proprietary corporate identity that can be enforced in an organization.
Container pages must be defined by a portal administrator—a user who is a member of the PortalAdmin group. The administrator uses the Portal Administration portlet to specify the contents and layout of container pages and to assign container pages to groups of users.

Groups are assigned to container pages with View permission only, allowing them to access container pages—but not modify them.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.

Shared pages Shared pages provide content to be shared by multiple users. Shared pages must be created by a portal administrator—any user who belongs to the PortalAdmin group.
The administrator uses the Portal Administration portlet to specify the contents and layout of shared pages and to assign shared pages to users and groups. There are two types of permissions for shared page access:

Users with the View permission can access the shared page, but not modify its content or layout.

Users with the Ownership permission can access and modify the content and layout of the shared page.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.

Portal Administration portlet The Portlet Administration portlet allows administrators to create and modify shared and container pages. It also allows administrators to assign these pages to users and groups.
The administrator uses the Portal Administration portlet to specify the contents and layout of container pages and to assign container pages to groups of users.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.

Navigation portlet The Navigation portlet provides a graphical user interface that lets users easily navigate to all container, shared, and user pages they are authorized to access.Typically, the portal administrator places this portlet in a Navigation Pane on a container page. The Navigation portlet automatically creates a set of links to the pages available to the logged-in user.
The Navigation portlet is often included in a container page.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.

Header portlet The Header portlet provides a mechanism for creating a customized look and feel for Web pages in an organization. Typically, the portal administrator places this portlet at the tops of container pages to establish a corporate identity.
    For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.

Other portlets To increase productivity, exteNd Director also provides the following portlets:

HTML portlet provides a wizard-driven UI to wrap existing Web sites and present them in the Portal.

IFrame portlet presents existing Web content in an iFrame.

Message portlet lets you input HTML content quickly and easily.

ShortCuts portlet provides links to existing content and different options for representing links.

Bookmark portlet displays links to Web content.

Security/Directory inheritance model API exteNd Director now supports the notion of user-based security inheritance. This means that exteNd Director provides the ability to set security at a container level and have descendant entities inherit those settings.
User-based inheritance is the ability to use a hierarchical, LDAP-based directory service to set security on exteNd Director artifacts (elements). A new principal type called Container has been exposed. A container represents an organizational unit within the LDAP tree and can be used in setting access control lists (ACLs) on elements.

Note: This release does not provide support for object-based inheritance, which implies inheritance of security settings (ACLs) in hierarchical environments, such as the Content Management subsystem.

    For more information, see the chapter on using ACL-based authorization in the User Management Guide.

Logging This release includes enhanced logging capabilities. exteNd Director can now log the following information:

The time that each user logged in or logged out

Each page request made by a user

The Framework config.xml file has a property called EboAuditLog.LoggingLevel that determines whether this information is logged. To take advantage of the enhanced logging capabilities, you need to set this property to 5.

Multiple portlet instances exteNd Director allows you to run multiple instances of a single portlet definition on the same page.

Component support This release provides complete support for portlets, as well as backward compatibility with portal components. exteNd Director continues to provide runtime support for portal components created in previous versions.

Portlet preferences At runtime, portlets are associated with a preferences object, whose attributes determine how a portlet behaves and what content it produces.
In exteNd Director, portlet preferences can be applied at four levels. Preferences can be:

Created by a user for a given portlet instance, after deployment, registration, and page assignment

Created when portlets are assigned to a page, usually by an administrator after deployment and registration

Created when a portlet is registered, usually by an administrator after deployment

Deployed with the portlet

Preferences specified at registration time override the deployment settings. Similarly, preferences specified at page assignment time override the registration settings. Preferences specified by the user override all other settings.
    For more information, see the introductory chapter about portlets in the Portal Guide.

Portlet settings Portlet settings are similar to preferences in that they relate to portlets. Settings differ in that they are defined by the portal and not by the portlet descriptor, as preferences are.
For example, a portlet setting called requires-authentication indicates to the portal that the portlet requires authentication. This setting may be applied at various levels, just as portlet preferences are. It can be applied in the novell-portlet.xml file, at registration time, or at page assignment.

Enhancements to the Framework subsystem and other subsystems

Feature Description

Event model
This release includes a powerful event model. The exteNd Director event model is an extension of the event listener/producer model in Java. An event is a lightweight notification object that contains information relevant to one or more event listeners. The listener responds to the event in an appropriate way.

The primary user of events in exteNd Director is the Content Management (CM) subsystem, which defines event objects for various CM operations. For example, you can register a listener for the "document added" operation that generates an event carrying information about the document's author, title, and other data. You can handle this event any way you choose -- like making a log entry, generating a print stream, or e-mailing interested parties.

exteNd Director provides an extensible event framework with a full set of predefined events for content management, WebDav, and CM task management operations.

    For more information, see the chapter on working with events in Developing exteNd Director Applications.

Dynamic group support for Novell eDirectory^TM Dynamic groups allow group membership to be determined dynamically via a query. Dynamic groups are not an LDAP standard but are implemented by various directory vendors. exteNd Director 5.0 support for dynamic groups is specific to eDirectory and may require modification when exteNd Director supports additional directory products.
Dynamic groups are read-only in the PAC.

    For more information, see the chapter on managing users and groups in the User Management Guide.

User/group list filtering The Directory service provides a means for clients to retrieve a subset of users and groups from the underlying realm without initially retrieving the entire set of users or groups. This improves initial performance and reduces memory requirements for realms that support partial data retrieval.
This applies to LDAP, PersistManager, exteNd Server LDAP, exteNd Server (compatible), WebLogic LDAP, WebSphere, and WebSphere LDAP.

FireRule condition With this release, the Rule subsystem allows you to use the successful firing of a rule as a condition.

Workflow clustering support Workflows can now be deployed and managed in a clustered environment.

Multithreaded portlet rendering The Portal supports multithreaded rendering of portlets. To enable this feature, the Portal Aggregator processes a render request in three major steps:

Determines which portlet should receive an ActionRequest, and which portlets need to be rendered.

Splits the list of portlets by threading support and starts the render methods. The asynchronous portlets are started first, and then the synchronous portlets run.

Collects the render responses and handles XSL style sheet transformations if requested.

The aggregation process splits up the work over the available threads provided by a thread pool. A portlet can signal to the Portal that it can be called in a separate thread via a flag in the novell-portlet.xml file. To enable multithreading for a portlet, set the synchronous property to 0, as follows:

    <synchronous>0</synchronous>

Utility tool features

Feature Description

Toolset integration With this version, the programming facilities and other utility tools of the former Novell exteNd Workbench^TM product have been rolled into the Novell exteNd Director development environment. The result is a dedicated, comprehensive, and well-integrated toolset that launches under the name exteNd Director.
Most Novell exteNd product configurations include the full exteNd Director development environment and application framework (with or without optional subsystems). However, some minimal configurations include only a subset of the development environment: the exteNd Director utility tools (for generic J2EE and Web Service programming). The title bar of the development environment window indicates whether you have exteNd Director or just the exteNd Director utility tools.
    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

XML Editor The XML Editor now includes the following enhancements:

An XPath control on the Tree View tab to help you navigate through your XML document

Layout improvements on the Tree View tab, including new icons as well as separate namespace and attribute nodes

An improved Find dialog in the Tree View tab that's easier to use and that includes text search support

Improved context menus (when you right-click) in the Tree View and Source View tabs, providing more complete and consistent command selections

Menu item XML Editor>Well-formedness Check, which checks syntactic well-formedness without validating your XML document (the Validate command does both)

Menu item XML Editor>CSS Styling, which displays the CSS Style Manager so you can attach and edit a style sheet for your XML document

A check box (in the Attach Schema or DTD dialog) for permanently attaching a Schema or DTD to your XML document

In the Schema Guide, elements in a Choice group display in a single column instead of two

    For more information, see the XML Editors chapter in Utility Tools.

Schema Editor The following features have been added to help you develop and maintain XML Schema files:

An XML Schema File Wizard for creating a new Schema file. To use this wizard, select File>New>File and go to the XML tab.

A Schema Editor for examining and editing a Schema file. The Schema Editor is a specialized variation of the XML Editor. (In previous versions, you had to use the XML Editor itself to edit a Schema file.)

    For more information, see the XML Editors chapter in Utility Tools.

XSL Editor The following features have been significantly enhanced to help you develop and maintain XSL style sheet files:

The XSL File Wizard now prompts you for several panels of information about the style sheet to create, including name, location, and source/result documents for transformations. To use this wizard, select File>New>File and go to the XML tab.

The XSL Editor now adds visual development of XSLT transformations to its existing XSL source editing capabilities:

The new Designer tab provides four interactive panels for developing and testing your transformations: Source Tree(s), Result Tree(s), Transformation, and Debugging. (The Designer tab replaces the simple Result tab provided in previous versions.)

The XSL Source View tab (formerly the XSL tab) provides improved support for editing your style sheet's source code.

The XSL Editor menu includes new commands for importing source/result documents and getting a new style sheet.

    For more information, see the XSL Editors chapter in Utility Tools.

CSS Editor The following features have been added to help you develop and maintain CSS style sheet files:

A CSS File Wizard for creating a new style sheet. It prompts you for several panels of information about the CSS file, including name, location, template, vocabularies, and various style properties to set. To use this wizard, select File>New>File and go to the Portlet tab.

A CSS Editor for examining and editing a CSS style sheet file. It provides:

A CSS View tab where you can work on your style sheet in a visual environment (by manipulating a list of selectors and choosing style properties for them)

A Source View tab where you can edit the source code for your style sheet

A CSS Style Manager dialog that you can access from other exteNd Director tools when CSS styling is called for (such as while you're editing an XML file or XHTML file). This dialog enables you to:

Attach a new or existing style sheet

Detach a style sheet

Edit a style sheet (either in the dialog or by opening the CSS Editor)

    For more information, see the CSS Editor chapter in Utility Tools.

Novell exteNd Web Services SDK This release includes Version 5.0 of the Novell exteNd Web Services SDK (formerly jBroker^TM Web), which provides core facilities for developing and running Web Services in the Novell exteNd^TM environment. In this version, note that:

The jbroker-web.jar file is renamed wssdk.jar. You'll find wssdk.jar in the Novell exteNd tools\compilelib directory.

The following supporting JARs have been rolled into wssdk.jar (so they're no longer needed in your deployments): saaj-api.jar, saaj-ri.jar, and jaxrpc-api.jar.

The Web Services SDK compilers and other executables have been moved to the Novell exteNd Common\WSSDK\bin directory.

The list of JARs required by the Web Services SDK when compiling and running Web Service classes is now as follows:

A Web Service consumer (anything that invokes a Web Service) needs these JARs:

activation.jar

agrootca.jar (when using SSL and the Novell exteNd trusted root certificates)

commons-httpclient.jar

commons-logging.jar

CSHelper.jar

jakarta-regexp-1.2.jar (when using a pre-1.4 JDK and XML Schema with patterns)

mail.jar (when using attachments, particularly javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart)

wssdk.jar

wssdk-ssl.jar (when using SSL)

xercesImpl.jar

xmlParserAPIs.jar

xmlsec.jar (when using XML Signature)

A Web Service needs these JARs (on the application server's classpath or in the WAR's WEB-INF/lib directory):

jakarta-regexp-1.2.jar (when using a pre-1.4 JDK and XML Schema with patterns)

wssdk.jar

xercesImpl.jar (when using SilverStream^® eXtend Application Server 4.x)

xmlParserAPIs.jar (when using SilverStream eXtend Application Server 4.x)

xmlsec.jar (when using XML Signature)

All of these JAR files are now provided in the tools\compilelib directory. (The jaxp-api.jar file from earlier versions is no longer needed; use xmlParserAPIs.jar instead.)
    For more information (including new features of the Web Services SDK), see the Web Services SDK help.

Web Service test environment The Novell exteNd Web Services SDK provides a new feature to help you test your Web Services from a Web browser. Once you develop and deploy a Web Service, you can browse to the URL for that service to access test forms for each available method. From there you can enter any required parameters, invoke the service, and see the result.
Runtime availability of this testing feature is controlled via an environment entry named wssdk.test.disable in your WAR's deployment descriptor (or deployment plan). When you create a generic WAR project in exteNd Director, the Project Wizard automatically includes wssdk.test.disable and sets it to true. To enable the feature, you must set wssdk.test.disable to false before you deploy.
    For more information, see the chapter on generating Web Services in Utility Tools.

Web Service Wizard When you generate a Web Service and its WSDL file, the Web Service Wizard displays two new panels that prompt for Schema information to include in that WSDL. This information is used to map method parameters (arguments and return values) of type Element to qualified names in one or more Schemas.

On the Schema Includes panel, you specify the path or URL of zero or more Schema (XSD) files to include in the generated WSDL.

On the Method Type Mapping panel, you specify how each applicable method parameter maps to one of those Schemas.

As an alternative, you can map a parameter to a sample instance data file. In that case, the wizard generates the Schema information for you based on the instance data.

To be in line with the WSDL 1.2 specification, the Web Service Wizard now disallows overloaded method names in Web Service interfaces. If you're generating from:

A JavaBean or other Java class, the method selection panel lets you pick no more than one method with a given name.

An EJB, remote interface, or earlier WSDL file, you must remove any overloaded method names defined in that file before you start the wizard. Otherwise, you'll get an error.

    For more information, see the Web Service Wizard chapter in Utility Tools.

Registry Manager The following features have been added to the Registry Manager in this version:

Support for WSIL (Web Services Inspection Language, also known as WS-Inspection)

Support for ebXML (Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language)

A new button you can click to publish an organization to a registry

A new button you can click to delete an organization from a registry

    For more information, see the Registry Manager chapter in Utility Tools.

WSDL Editor The WSDL Editor is now NetBeans-based and includes the following enhancements:

An XML Tree View tab (just like the one in the XML Editor) where you can work on your WSDL file in a visual editing environment

Context-sensitive code completion on the XML Source View tab (just as in the XML Editor); it follows the appropriate Schema to display valid choices as you edit your WSDL file's source

    For more information, see the WSDL Editor chapter in Utility Tools.

Exclude/include for files in projects This version enhances your control over project contents by letting you exclude individual files from any directory you've added to a project. You can operate this feature in a couple of different ways:

On the Project tab of the Navigation Pane, you can go to a directory you've added, right-click any of its files, then select Exclude from Project from the popup menu. Once a file is excluded, it is no longer used in the project; it appears gray (and in parentheses) on the Project tab.

To bring an excluded file back into the project, you can right-click it and select Include in Project from the popup menu.

In the Project Settings dialog, you can go to the Contents tab, select a project directory entry from the list, and click the Edit Excludes button. Then you can use the Edit Exclude Definitions dialog to manipulate the list of files to exclude.

    For more information, see the chapter on projects and archives in Utility Tools.

J2EE server profiles and deployment This version updates the built-in support for J2EE servers (reflected in the Profiles dialog and Deployment Settings dialog) to include the following choices. You'll have access to one or more of these choices, depending on your Novell exteNd product configuration (see the exteNd Release Notes for details).

Apache Tomcat 4.1

BEA WebLogic 6.1

BEA WebLogic 8.1

Novell exteNd 5.1

SilverStream 4.0

    For more information, see the chapter on archive deployment in Utility Tools.

General usability The following user interface enhancements have been introduced to improve the general usability of the exteNd Director development environment:

New product look and feel (icons, colors, fonts, controls)

More informational text in wizards, dialogs, and throughout the development environment

One-touch splitters, which collapse or restore panes with a single click

Mouse wheel support for easier user interface navigation

Edit Pane layout changes to optimize your work area:

The header line of file information has been removed from inside the pane

File information now displays on the tab for each open file: name, modification flag (*), Close button, and path (appears as a tool tip)

Output Pane tab consolidation to simplify viewing:

The Build, Validate, and Deploy tabs have been replaced by a single new tab named Output

The standard lineup of tabs in the Output Pane is now: Todo, Output, Find, Version Control (if enabled)

    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

Menus The menus on the standard exteNd Director menu bar have been reorganized for easier use, added functionality, and improved consistency. The new menu bar lineup is:

File Edit View Project Tools current-editor's-menu Window Help

Menu changes include the following:

The New File and New Project dialogs are now accessed via:

File>New>File File>New>Project

The Text Tools items have been moved from the Edit menu to the current editor's menu (where appropriate). You can also right-click in an editor and select Text Tools from the popup menu.

The Launch Debugger, Profiles, and Preferences items have been moved from the Edit menu to the Tools menu:

Tools>Launch Debugger Tools>Profiles Tools>Preferences

The Find, Find Next, and Replace items have been moved from the Search menu to the Edit menu:

Edit>Find Edit>Find Next Edit>Replace

The Find in Files, Next Occurrence, and Previous Occurrence items have been moved from the Search menu to the Tools menu:

Tools>Find in Files Tools>Next Occurrence Tools>Previous Occurrence

The Run Web Service Client Class item has been moved from the Project menu to the Tools menu:

Tools>Run Web Service Client Class

The Next Document, Previous Document, and More Documents items have been moved (and renamed) from the Documents menu to the Window menu:

Window>Next Window Window>Previous Window Window>More Windows

The Registration dialog is now accessed via:

Help>About Director

Then click the License info button.

The Help menu has been updated with various informational items for this version.

A new item for toolbar management has been added to the View menu:

View>Toolbars

    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

Toolbars This version adds the following features for managing toolbars in the exteNd Director development environment:

The View>Toolbars menu item lets you show or hide any available toolbar.

You can access a popup menu by right-clicking any toolbar. It provides:

A list of all available toolbars, which lets you show or hide any of them

The Configure command, which displays the Toolbar Configuration dialog for the current toolbar

The Toolbar Configuration dialog lets you customize a selected toolbar by:

Manipulating toolbar buttons (move or delete existing buttons, choose buttons to add from several predefined categories, insert a separator from the Miscellaneous category)

Manipulating toolbar tabs (rename, move, or delete existing tabs, add your own tabs)

Toolbars with one tab display as regular toolbars. Toolbars with more than one tab display as tabbed toolbars.

The Main Toolbar (which appears below the menu bar) is the global toolbar for the development environment. Individual tools can have their own toolbars as well (in the Edit Pane).

In this version, the default set of buttons on the Main Toolbar has been streamlined for typical use. You can add buttons (or make other customizations) according to your needs.

    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

Preferences The Preferences dialog (now accessed via Tools>Preferences) has been enhanced in several ways:

Consolidated and reorganized the Preferences tabs for easier use:

Renamed the File Types tab to the File Associations tab

Renamed the Text Editing tab to the Editing tab

Moved the Abbreviations tab into an Abbreviations section of the Editing tab

Moved the Backup tab into a Backup section of the Editing tab

Moved the Editor Setup tab into an Editor Associations section of the Editing tab

Moved the Netbeans Directories tab into a Code Completion section of the Editing tab

Moved the XML colors tab into an XML colors section of the Editing tab

Added a new Help documentation location setting to the General tab. It specifies a path (typically on your local disk) or URL (typically on the Novell Web site) to the Novell exteNd help system. The default value is established during installation.

Added a new Reset "Don't show me..." dialogs setting to the General tab. Pressing the Reset button causes all dialogs that have a "Don't show me this message again" checkbox to resume displaying.

Added a new Use Windows color scheme setting to the Display tab. Check this setting if you want your color choices in Windows to apply in the Novell exteNd Director development environment. By default, the development environment uses its own color scheme. (If you change this setting, you must restart the development environment to see the result.)

Changed the default for the Generated class version setting (formerly the Compiler version setting) on the Build tab to: JDK 1.4 (or above). You can switch this choice if you want your compiles to target an earlier JRE version (1.3).

    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

New File and New Project dialogs The New File dialog (now accessed via File>New>File) includes these enhancements:

Reorganized tabs in the dialog make it easier to find the file wizard you want.

For example, general-purpose wizards (for generic text, HTML, Java, and J2EE files) appear on the General tab (which replaces the J2EE tab).

Informational text displays to explain the purpose and use of each file wizard.

New wizards have been added (such as the XML Schema File Wizard and the CSS File Wizard).

The New Project dialog (now accessed via File>New>Project) includes these enhancements:

The Generic tab has been added to organize the existing wizards for generic J2EE and Java projects.

Informational text displays to explain the purpose and use of each project wizard.

    For more information, see the chapter on projects and archives in Utility Tools.

Product directory and file changes A number of product directories and files have been reorganized and renamed for this version of the exteNd Director development environment (to support toolset integration and improved installation). Noteworthy changes include the following:

These files are now located in the Novell exteNd Common directory (typically C:\Program Files\Novell\exteNd5\Common):

The JRE (Java 2 Runtime Environment) installed with exteNd products

Product JARs and supporting standard JARs

Various resources, including:

Schema and DTD catalogs

CSS classifications

Database profile definitions (Common\Resources\Preferences\database-profiles.props)

Registry profile definitions (Common\Resources\Preferences\registry-profiles.props)

Server profile definitions (Common\Resources\Preferences\server-profiles.props)

The Novell exteNd Web Services SDK (WSSDK)

These files are now located in the Novell exteNd tools directory (typically C:\Program Files\Novell\exteNd5\tools):

Executables and configuration files (in tools\bin) for the exteNd Director development environment, including:

xd.exe to start the development environment (formerly xwb.exe)

xd.conf to configure the development environment (formerly xwb.conf)

xdant.exe and xdbuild.exe to build from the command line (formerly xwbant.exe and xwbbuild.exe)

install.conf for additional configuration settings

The compilelib directory of product and standard JARs for compiling your projects (these JARs have been updated to newer versions where appropriate)

The agrootca.jar file of CA certificates is now included in the compilelib directory

The lib\ext directory where you can put JDBC drivers and other JARs you want the development environment to use

Various resources, including:

Your preference settings for the development environment (in several different properties files)

Version control configuration files

    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

Environment variables When the exteNd Director development environment is installed on Windows, the environment variable NOVELL_EXTEND_DIRECTOR_DEV_HOME is created to point to C:\Program Files\Novell\exteNd5\tools. This replaces the earlier NOVELL_EXTEND_WORKBENCH_HOME (which is now deprecated, but still provided for backward compatibility).
The earlier SILVERSTREAM environment variable names are no longer provided. When upgrading older projects, you might need to replace these variable names in your project files (via the Project Settings dialog).
    For more information on upgrading, see the Release Notes.

JRE requirement The exteNd Director development environment now requires Version 1.4.2 of the JRE (Java 2 Runtime Environment), which is included in the Novell exteNd product installation. (However, you can still choose to compile your projects for either JRE 1.4.x or 1.3.x as needed.)
    For more information on system requirements, see the Release Notes.

Jikes compiler The Jikes compiler (jikes.exe) is no longer provided when you install the Novell exteNd Director development environment. However, Jikes is still a valid compiler choice (specified on the Build tab of the Preferences dialog). To use Jikes, you must first obtain jikes.exe yourself and add it to your system PATH.
    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

MySQL support The MySQL Connector/J driver is automatically included when you install MySQL along with Novell exteNd. Access to the driver JAR file from the development environment is set up for you.
To start using this driver, you just need to create a database profile for it (go to the Databases tab of the Profiles dialog and click New). In the Create a New Database Profile dialog, fill in the JDBC Driver setting with the Connector/J driver's class name:
com.mysql.jdbc.Driver

    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

Debugging The exteNd Debugger (SilverDebugger.exe) is no longer included. Instead, you can run the debugger of your choice by selecting Tools>Launch Debugger. It prompts for a debugger command, then executes it.
You can specify your default debugger command on the General tab of the Preferences dialog.
    For more information, see the development environment chapter in Utility Tools.

Feature	Description
Pageflows	A pageflow defines the flow of control for a set of pages that execute within a single portlet. Each page presents a set of controls that allow for user interaction. For example, the pages in a flow might provide a way for the user to display stock quotes or weather forecasts, or access corporate data such as employee information. In addition to presenting pages for user interaction, pageflows can perform background processing tasks. For example, a pageflow might invoke a Web Service or access a database. Although you can execute custom Java code within a pageflow, you often do not need to. Pageflows contain two key components: activities and links. An activity is an object that represents a task. A link is an object that represents a path in the routing logic of the flow. A link points to an activity. Pageflows rely on portlet technology. To execute a pageflow, you need to use the prepackaged Page Flow Runner portlet. For more information, see the overview of pageflows chapter in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Forms	This release introduces the next generation of Web forms. Based on XForms technology, Web forms you create in exteNd Director overcome many of the limitations of HTML. They provide a robust, standards-based way to define the layout, presentation, and user interactions associated with forms. XForms do not run as standalone applications. They are designed to run as components within a host language like XHTML. In the Novell implementation, they run within the context of a pageflow. For more information, see the overview of XForms chapter in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Portlets	This release includes comprehensive support for portlets, as well as extensions that offer more flexibility in developing and running portlets. A portlet is a specialized Java class that processes requests from Web clients and generates dynamic content on a portal page. Portlets are defined in Java Portlet specification. You can think of portlets as pluggable user interface elements that provide a presentation layer for portal applications. Users can personalize the content and appearance of portlets, based on preferences set by an administrator. exteNd Director includes the following extensions to the Java Portlet specification: An additional, optional portlet deployment descriptor—novell-portlet.xml—that allows you to specify options and properties for portlets, such as title bars and preview images The ability to set and modify portlet preferences at design time, after deployment, and at runtime Several types of portlet containers to manage local and remote portlets In addition, many of the portal components (system, base, and sample components) that shipped with previous releases have been converted to portlets. For more information, see the introductory chapter about portlets in the Portal Guide.
Express Portal	When you install exteNd Director, you get an Express Portal application that you can run right away. You do not need to deploy the application from the exteNd Director development environment to use it. When the install process has completed, you can simply open your browser and start the application with this URL: `http://server name/ExpressPortal/portal`
Shared libraries	In this release, exteNd Director lets you place common libraries (JAR files) required by all exteNd Director applications in a shared location on the application server. This reduces the size of EAR and WAR files you build and the time needed for deployment. If you create a project that relies on shared libraries, you can usually deploy the project in a matter of seconds, since the archive created for the project is very lightweight.

Feature	Description
New project wizards	The following project wizards have been added: Portal Application Wizard for creating a new portal WAR Portlet Application Wizard for creating a new portlet application Resource Set Application Wizard for creating a new resource set WAR To use these wizards, select File>New Project and go to the Director tab.
Pageflow Modeler	Integrated into exteNd Director is a complete graphing package called the Pageflow Modeler that allows you to quickly and visually create a pageflow process. The Pageflow Modeler allows you to: Graphically lay out, annotate, and format your pageflow Create, change, and delete activities and links Set activity and link properties Use the XPath Navigator to associate activities and links with data When you save a pageflow, the Pageflow Modeler translates your document into an XML-based file called a process definition. The process definition saves the layout and format of your workflow and translates the flow logic into a program that the workflow engine can read and execute. The Pageflow Modeler also saves a portlet descriptor that maps your pageflow to a pageflow runner. The pageflow runner is a Java class that is implemented as a portlet. exteNd Director ships with a prepackaged Page Flow Runner portlet that can run any pageflow. For more information, see the chapter on the Pageflow Modeler in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Form Designer	The exteNd Director Form Designer provides an environment for developing Web forms that are XForms 1.0-compliant. The Form Designer is a graphical development tool that allows you to quickly create XForms components for use in pageflow applications. For more information, see the chapter on the Form Designer in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Database Pageflow Wizard	The Database Pageflow Wizard is included with this release to help you create pageflows that give the user a way to find, display, and modify records in a database. The Database Pageflow Wizard generates a set of forms (XHTML pages that use XForms technology) as well as one or more pageflows that tie the forms together into an integrated user interface. For more information, see the chapter on the Database Pageflow Wizard in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Web Service Pageflow Wizard	exteNd Director also provides tools for creating pageflows that invoke Web Services. To help you create these kinds of flows, exteNd Director provides the Web Service Pageflow Wizard.
Composer Pageflow Wizard	exteNd Director also provides the Composer Pageflow Wizard to help you take advantage of exteNd Composer^TM services.
Scoped paths	A typical pageflow process includes data that is manipulated by pageflow users or program logic. To access data in a pageflow, you use scoped paths. exteNd Director includes a group of predefined scoped paths that are available from the Pageflow Modeler and the Workflow Modeler and through the Scoped Path API. These give you an easy way to refer to data in various locations. For example, you can use them to access data in the Request and Response objects, as well as files in the resource set or in the Content Management subsystem. You can use scoped paths to associate objects with activities in a page flow or a workflow. You can also use scoped paths to copy data from one location to another. You can perform scoped path copies before and after activities, as well as on links. For more information, see the chapter on working with scoped paths and XPaths in Developing exteNd Director Applications.
Dynamic submit buttons	A button link in a pageflow can be used to create a dynamic submit button on a form. At runtime, a navigation button is placed on the rendered form for each button link that comes out of the Form activity. The primary benefit of the button link is that it allows you to add navigation to forms dynamically. Whenever you want to change the navigation paths from a form, you can simply add links to the pageflow; you do not need to edit the XHTML form.
Smart linking	You can use smart linking to reduce clutter in a pageflow diagram. Smart links do not actually appear on the pageflow diagram; instead, they are resolved dynamically at runtime. Smart linking is particularly useful when many activities link to a common activity. For example, you might want to use smart linking to allow all activities within a flow to link dynamically to a common Help page. For more information, see the chapter on working with links in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Simple links	In this release, many of the links that were required in a workflow have been replaced by the simple link, a single link that represents a simple path from one activity to another. Simple links are supported in pageflows as well as in workflows. Simple links (also known as XOR links) allow you to specify expressions that evaluate to true or false. When the expression for a simple link evaluates to true, the link is followed to the next activity. When the expression evaluates to false, the path is not followed. Simple links provide an easy way to choose between multiple target activities. When an activity fiinishes processing, you can use expressions on simple links to determine which activity should be executed next. Note: The functionality of the XOR, OR, AND, and simple links (previously used in workflows) have been combined into the new simple link. For more information, see the chapter on working with links in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
Integration between pageflow and workflow	When a workflow process needs to display a user interface, it can launch a pageflow. This greatly reduces the development effort required to support user interaction within a workflow. It also eliminates the need to create User activities for most kinds of user interactions. For more information, see the chapter on working with activities in the Workflow Guide.
XPath Navigator	The XPath Navigator dialog is a new feature provided to help you specify valid XPath expressions visually. You can access it from various exteNd Director tools when an XPath is called for. For example, you can use the XPath Navigator dialog to specify scoped paths. For more information, see the chapter on working with scoped paths and XPaths in Developing exteNd Director Applications.
Portlet Wizard	Although you can implement most of your portlet application logic using pageflows, there are situations in which you may want to write custom portlet classes. The Portlet Wizard simplifies the process by providing a graphical user interface for automatically generating a barebones portlet class with the appropriate imports and method signatures.
Pageflow validation	You can validate a pageflow at design time whenever you choose. The Page Flow Modeler analyzes the process structure and displays any errors encountered. For example, if an activity in a pageflow refers to an object in the resource set that does not exist, an error message informs you of the problem. Note: The validation applies to the design-time process structure only.
Dynamic loading of pageflows, forms, and portlets	When you modify pageflows, forms, and portlets in the exteNd Director development environment, your changes are automatically reflected on the server so that you can test them right away.
Single point of access for administration	This release provides a single point of access for administration. When you launch the Director Administration Console (DAC), you now have access to all of the administration tools: Portal Management Portlet Management User Profile Management General Configuration Security Management Directory Management Content Management Workflow Administration Note: The DAC replaces the PAC (Portal Administration Console).

Feature	Description
Java Portlet compliance	exteNd Director is fully compliant with Java Portlet 1.0, which defines the portlet standard. For more information, see the introductory chapter about portlets in the Portal Guide.
XForms support	exteNd Director provides an environment for developing XForms 1.0-compliant Web forms. The advantages of the XForms standard include: Separate data, logic, and presentation modules A powerful event model (so that you don’t have to use a lot of scripting for client-side validation or calculations) A way to process data in XML formats For more information, see the overview of XForms in the Pageflow and Form Guide.
WSRP support	Although this release does not include full support for Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP), the product architecture contains many of the features that will be required to offer complete WSRP support in a subsequent release.
SAML support	exteNd Director is integrated with the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) capabilities provided by Novell iChain^®. A SAML authentication in iChain is an HTTP authorization header with the encoded credentials of a mapped user. exteNd Director decodes that information and logs the user in under the covers.

Feature	Description
Portal Personalizer	The Portal Personalizer has been enhanced to support container pages and shared pages.
Container pages	Container pages provide fixed content suitable for particular groups of users. Administrators use container pages as blueprints for synthesizing images, logos, and text into a proprietary corporate identity that can be enforced in an organization. Container pages must be defined by a portal administrator—a user who is a member of the PortalAdmin group. The administrator uses the Portal Administration portlet to specify the contents and layout of container pages and to assign container pages to groups of users. Groups are assigned to container pages with View permission only, allowing them to access container pages—but not modify them. For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.
Shared pages	Shared pages provide content to be shared by multiple users. Shared pages must be created by a portal administrator—any user who belongs to the PortalAdmin group. The administrator uses the Portal Administration portlet to specify the contents and layout of shared pages and to assign shared pages to users and groups. There are two types of permissions for shared page access: Users with the View permission can access the shared page, but not modify its content or layout. Users with the Ownership permission can access and modify the content and layout of the shared page. For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.
Portal Administration portlet	The Portlet Administration portlet allows administrators to create and modify shared and container pages. It also allows administrators to assign these pages to users and groups. The administrator uses the Portal Administration portlet to specify the contents and layout of container pages and to assign container pages to groups of users. For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.
Navigation portlet	The Navigation portlet provides a graphical user interface that lets users easily navigate to all container, shared, and user pages they are authorized to access.Typically, the portal administrator places this portlet in a Navigation Pane on a container page. The Navigation portlet automatically creates a set of links to the pages available to the logged-in user. The Navigation portlet is often included in a container page. For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.
Header portlet	The Header portlet provides a mechanism for creating a customized look and feel for Web pages in an organization. Typically, the portal administrator places this portlet at the tops of container pages to establish a corporate identity. For more information, see the chapter on working with portal pages in the Portal Guide.
Other portlets	To increase productivity, exteNd Director also provides the following portlets: HTML portlet provides a wizard-driven UI to wrap existing Web sites and present them in the Portal. IFrame portlet presents existing Web content in an iFrame. Message portlet lets you input HTML content quickly and easily. ShortCuts portlet provides links to existing content and different options for representing links. Bookmark portlet displays links to Web content.
Security/Directory inheritance model API	exteNd Director now supports the notion of user-based security inheritance. This means that exteNd Director provides the ability to set security at a container level and have descendant entities inherit those settings. User-based inheritance is the ability to use a hierarchical, LDAP-based directory service to set security on exteNd Director artifacts (elements). A new principal type called Container has been exposed. A container represents an organizational unit within the LDAP tree and can be used in setting access control lists (ACLs) on elements. Note: This release does not provide support for object-based inheritance, which implies inheritance of security settings (ACLs) in hierarchical environments, such as the Content Management subsystem. For more information, see the chapter on using ACL-based authorization in the User Management Guide.
Logging	This release includes enhanced logging capabilities. exteNd Director can now log the following information: The time that each user logged in or logged out Each page request made by a user The Framework config.xml file has a property called EboAuditLog.LoggingLevel that determines whether this information is logged. To take advantage of the enhanced logging capabilities, you need to set this property to 5.
Multiple portlet instances	exteNd Director allows you to run multiple instances of a single portlet definition on the same page.
Component support	This release provides complete support for portlets, as well as backward compatibility with portal components. exteNd Director continues to provide runtime support for portal components created in previous versions.
Portlet preferences	At runtime, portlets are associated with a preferences object, whose attributes determine how a portlet behaves and what content it produces. In exteNd Director, portlet preferences can be applied at four levels. Preferences can be: Created by a user for a given portlet instance, after deployment, registration, and page assignment Created when portlets are assigned to a page, usually by an administrator after deployment and registration Created when a portlet is registered, usually by an administrator after deployment Deployed with the portlet Preferences specified at registration time override the deployment settings. Similarly, preferences specified at page assignment time override the registration settings. Preferences specified by the user override all other settings. For more information, see the introductory chapter about portlets in the Portal Guide.
Portlet settings	Portlet settings are similar to preferences in that they relate to portlets. Settings differ in that they are defined by the portal and not by the portlet descriptor, as preferences are. For example, a portlet setting called requires-authentication indicates to the portal that the portlet requires authentication. This setting may be applied at various levels, just as portlet preferences are. It can be applied in the novell-portlet.xml file, at registration time, or at page assignment.

Feature	Description
Event model	This release includes a powerful event model. The exteNd Director event model is an extension of the event listener/producer model in Java. An event is a lightweight notification object that contains information relevant to one or more event listeners. The listener responds to the event in an appropriate way. The primary user of events in exteNd Director is the Content Management (CM) subsystem, which defines event objects for various CM operations. For example, you can register a listener for the "document added" operation that generates an event carrying information about the document's author, title, and other data. You can handle this event any way you choose -- like making a log entry, generating a print stream, or e-mailing interested parties. exteNd Director provides an extensible event framework with a full set of predefined events for content management, WebDav, and CM task management operations. For more information, see the chapter on working with events in Developing exteNd Director Applications.
Dynamic group support for Novell eDirectory^TM	Dynamic groups allow group membership to be determined dynamically via a query. Dynamic groups are not an LDAP standard but are implemented by various directory vendors. exteNd Director 5.0 support for dynamic groups is specific to eDirectory and may require modification when exteNd Director supports additional directory products. Dynamic groups are read-only in the PAC. For more information, see the chapter on managing users and groups in the User Management Guide.
User/group list filtering	The Directory service provides a means for clients to retrieve a subset of users and groups from the underlying realm without initially retrieving the entire set of users or groups. This improves initial performance and reduces memory requirements for realms that support partial data retrieval. This applies to LDAP, PersistManager, exteNd Server LDAP, exteNd Server (compatible), WebLogic LDAP, WebSphere, and WebSphere LDAP.
FireRule condition	With this release, the Rule subsystem allows you to use the successful firing of a rule as a condition.
Workflow clustering support	Workflows can now be deployed and managed in a clustered environment.
Multithreaded portlet rendering	The Portal supports multithreaded rendering of portlets. To enable this feature, the Portal Aggregator processes a render request in three major steps: Determines which portlet should receive an ActionRequest, and which portlets need to be rendered. Splits the list of portlets by threading support and starts the render methods. The asynchronous portlets are started first, and then the synchronous portlets run. Collects the render responses and handles XSL style sheet transformations if requested. The aggregation process splits up the work over the available threads provided by a thread pool. A portlet can signal to the Portal that it can be called in a separate thread via a flag in the novell-portlet.xml file. To enable multithreading for a portlet, set the synchronous property to 0, as follows: `<synchronous>0</synchronous>`

Novell exteNd Director WHAT'S NEW