Chapter 10. Personalizing portlets
This chapter covers
- Personalizing portlet content and behavior
- Defining portlet preferences
- Validating portlet preferences
- Using the portletPreferences implicit variable
How many times have you Googled something, been directed to a website that you hope will provide the information you’re looking for, and find a website that’s so cluttered with information that it’s useless and you close the browser out of frustration?
Often you’ll find information on websites that isn’t relevant or that doesn’t pique your interest. For instance, if you’re a Java developer interested only in Java books, you probably found yourself losing interest when the Book Portal in chapter 5 showed books from other categories, like .NET and software engineering. Or imagine looking at a website that provides stock quotes for all stocks, regardless of which stocks are in your portfolio. In this case, you’re usually only interested in the prices or news related to your stocks.
The extraneous information on a portal or website not only has the potential to adversely affect the user experience, but it may also drive customers away to websites that provide personalized content.