IBM's new portal release improves the UI
Quietly IBM last month released version 6 of their WebSphere Portal Server. New in the release is a stronger embrace of SOA and composite application capabilities, but remember that the product still only runs on, and requires the application server from IBM. Contrary to our earlier commentary on the new release, it does indeed use AJAX, e.g. for contextual menus and the "Portlet Factory" uses AJAX to implement a "type-ahead" capability and to refresh UI fragments within a page. The embedded Web content management system has been re-based on the JSR-170 compliant Java Content Repository included with the portal. What's missing from the release is any news on performance improvements, as existing WebSphere Portal implementations has been plagued by excruciating performance issues. While we wish a smooth migration for existing customers, make sure...