Deploy War Portlet Help

This portlet is used to deploy new portlet applications to Pluto packaged in a war file. Deployment involves unzippling the war file into Pluto's webapps directory and adding records to the registry files located in /webapps/pluto/WEB-INF/data ( portletentityregistry.xml, pageregistry.xml and portletcontexts.txt).

Deploying portlets

1. Build a valid war file containing the portlet application to be deployed including a portlet.xml and web.xml file in the WEB-INF directory.
2. Select the war file using the Browse button in the Deploy War portlet.
3. Click submit. The war will be deployed to Pluto's webapps directory and a record added to portletentityregistry.xml and portletcontexts.txt.
4. Fill in the portlet's title, which will be used as a navigation link, and the number of rows and columns needed to display all portlets in the application. If the portlet app only contains one portlet, then keep the default one row, one column. The description field on that page is optional. JavaScript validation is done on this page to make sure that the layout (rows and columns) can accomodate the number of portlets in the portlet application that is being deployed
5. Click submit. The Define Page Layout page should be displayed next.
6. In each row/column cell, select the portlet that will be displayed there.
7. Click Submit. The pageregistry.xml file should be updated and the first page of the Deploy War portlet displayed. You will also notice new records in the Portlet Entity Registry and Page Registry portlets.
8. Restart Pluto and you will notice a link to the new portlet on Pluto's navigation bar.

Redeploying portlets

Redeployment of previously deployed portlets can be done, but the results can be somewhat flaky due to caching of portlet content by the Pluto portal. To redeploy select the war file with its new contents using the Browse button and click Submit. The new war file will be uploaded, but no changes will be made to the porletentityregistry.xml or portletcontexts.txt. You should skip the following two pages that set page layout because they cannot be changed at this time.

Once the portlet has been redeployed, we have found that clicking on the Admin link in Pluto's menu will cause the cache to be refreshed. Then you can click on the portlet's link. If the portlet is not refreshed, try clearing your browser cache and/or restarting Pluto. Pluto's portal, which uses Tomcat, also contains a cache of the portlet contents within its 'work' directory. This can be deleted after the portal is shutdown to clear the old content.