PSML is an acronym for Portal Structure Markup Language. It was created to
allow content structure and abstraction within Jetspeed.
PSML is actually composed of two different (but related) markups:
the registry markup which describes all the available
resources to the Jetspeed engine. The Registry now supports more than a Portlet Registry. It also has a CapabilityMap Registry, a MediaType Registry, PortletControl Registry, and a PortletController Registry.
the site markup which describes which portlets, available
in the registry, are actually displayed for a given user, as well
as how they are organized on screen and what presentation properties
they should use.
Portlet Registry
The PortletRegistry is a central store where Jetspeed can obtain further
information about a given Portlet.
The Registry is organized like a flat list of portlets (identified in the markup
but the entry element. All Portlets within the Registry must have a unique
name.
The portlets are described in the registry by an Entry description. These
entries may be of three distinct types:
instance
This is the basic entry type. An instance entry should provide all the
necessary informations to instanciate the portlet (at least the classname).
This type of entry is instanciated as is by the Jetspeed engine.
abstract
An abstract entry is a entry which can't be instanciated directly because
it misses some required information. It acts as a portlet template, useful
for defining common properties for a group of related portlets.
This type of entry is never instanciated by Jetspeed.
ref
The ref entry is an entry that define a new entry based on some other
entry definition, thus the ref entry definition must reference another
registry entry which may be of any type, even other ref entries. The engine
will cascade all refs until it finds either an abstract or instance entry.
It will then override all the parameters found in the abstract or instance
definitions by those found in the ref(s) definition and try to instanciate
this portlet.
Whereas the registry describes all the Portlets in a single file, the
markup uses one different file per registered user, thus providing
customizability of the interface. With the new profiling service, users can have multiple markup files.
A default site description is used for anonymous access
The site markup uses 4 main type of elements which correpsond directly to
layout classes.
Entry
Entries describe Portlet elements, just as in the registry markup.
However, in the site markup, all entries are of type ref and can't
define some basic properties (such as classname or url) for security
and performance reasons. These entries may however define some
additional properties not available in the registry such as skin and
layout properties.
Portlets
Portlets describe a group of Portlet elements (PortletSet). Such groups
are useful for setting common layout and presentation properties for
the contained portlets. Each portlets may contain either entry elements
or nested portlets.
Controller
The contoller element describes the PortletController associated with
a given PortletSet. The PortletController implements a layout strategy for
the portlets contained in the PortletSet.
Control
The control element which can be found in portlets or entry elements
describes the PortletControl associated with object. The PortletControl
may provide additionnal functionalities to a portlet and may also add
some graphical decorations around the portlet content.
In PSML, all properties defined for an element are local to this element,
except for the skin properties which are inherited in the component
hierarchy.
