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portlets in a Portal Interface user account. Portlets created in thePortal Studio can be arranged into pages that are automaticallyadded to portal user accounts or made available through a catalog ofpages. Alternatively, instead of selecting an entire page of portlets,portal users can add individual portlets to their own account from aportlet catalog. Finally, users can define their own pages and portletsin Portal Interface that are not managed in the Portal Studio. PortalInterface and Portal Studio are completely integrated. Changes madeto portlets, catalogs, or pages from Portal Studio are updated to PortalInterface.Other Features and FunctionsPage tabs let you name your pages so you can navigate betweenthem. The number of page tabs in a page group varies, depending onthe length of the page tab names you choose. If you run out of space,Portal Interface activates the page group’s feature.Page groups help you to group your pages in sets, which lets you toadd more pages to your account than you can view in a single browserwindow.The toolbar, located below your page tabs, contains some of themajor functions necessary to create and manage your pages. Additionalfunctions display as icons above the page tabs.Sybase EP Evaluation VersionThe current major version of Sybase EP is 5.1.1. But there exists asmall version, the evaluation version, which is easy to install and greatfor playing around with and getting used to the Sybase EP and the ideabehind it (and it’s free). The installation only takes a few minutes, andyou’re up and running. You can start with your own portal and buildyour own pages in the portal on your machine.Of course, you won’t have the full power of the full version. Youwon’t be able to use the security architecture for single sign-on,the search service, and you don’t have the full power of SybaseEAServer with its J2EE features and component archi¬tecturebehind it.The evaluation version comes with Apache’s Tomcat, the servletcontainer used in the officialReference Implementationfor the Java Servletand JavaServer Pagestechnologies developed bySun. That’s good enoughfor playing around anddeveloping some simpleportlets. The users accessrights are stored in anAdaptive Server Anywheredatabase, which isFIGURE 1 | Enterprise Portal: Portal Interface already delivered bySybase (so you don’t haveto create your own). You have had a lot to read so far; it’s time to takean up-close look at it now.Download the evaluation version from http://crm.sybase.com/sybase/www/eBD/EP5EvalDnld.jsp. It’s a ZIP file about 37MB in size.This evaluation version is designed for a single-machine install onWindows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. These are the platforms onwhich it will run.The following browsers are supported: IE 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0. Knownstability issues arise with Netscape because the Sybase Enterprise Portalis heavily based on JavaScript, which doesn’t work very well withNetscape. Sybase didn’t take care of this issue, maybe because mostusers nowadays use Internet Explorer anyway.Major FeaturesTo sum it up, the major features of the evaluation version are as follows:• Very easy installation. We will start installing it in the next paragraph;you will see that this takes only a few minutes.• Users can create their own pages and portlets. You will immediatelyget the idea what’s behind a portal, even if you are totally new to thistype of application and you will be prepared to use the full blownversion.• The version is free. It doesn’t cost you a cent. This is the cheapest wayto get a portal up and running. I’m sure you’ll have fun with it. Thewhole example provided in this chapter (which we will start withsoon) has been created with this version. You’ll agree that you cancreate professional-looking pages in minutes.Keep in mind that for a real production environment you shoulduse the Enterprise version. Sybase EAServer and Sybase EnterprisePortal with all its services (search, authentication, clustering) is developedand tested by Sybase for a lot of page hits and where stabilityand uptime is an issue. The evaluation version is more for playingaround.Installing the Evaluation VersionWhen I was installing an Enterprise Portal for the first time, I lockedmy door for the whole day and turned off the telephone to be alone. Iwanted it to be just the machine, some CDs, and me. Yes, I was reallyafraid. But now with the availability of the Evaluation Version, theinstallation is so easy that we can’t really speak about installing something,it’s more of unzipping it and running it without any configuration.But decide for yourself if that’s true. This section covers the pertinentsteps to alleviate the fear you might also feel when it comes toinstalling a portal. After playing around with this product, you mightfeel prepared to have a look at the “big brother,” the full-blown versionof the Sybase Enterprise Portal.Installation Steps1. Extract the file to your hard drive (I recommend using the directoryc:\EP5-InfoEd so you won’t have to change anything on the sampleavailable on the book’s Web site).2. The evaluation version uses the name demo.sybase.com in the URL.To make your machine recognize it, edit your hosts file. You will findit on your hard disk at \winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Open thefile with your preferred editor and add this line: 127.0.0.1demo.sybase.com3. Go to the directory where you unzipped the files and run the filestartdb.bat. You will initially see a few messages with “Ping serverfailed—Database server not found.” This is okay because the scriptpings the database during startup. Wait until you see the message“Ping server successful.” The icon of the SQL ASA database thenappears in your taskbar.4. In the same directory, run the file starttomcat.bat. A new window islaunched, and you will see several messages starting with “Startingservice Tomcat-Standalone.” You will also see “Tomcat connecting toour ASA database.” Wait until you see the message “Apache Tomcat/4.0.4.”You can minimize this window.5. To run the evaluation version of the Sybase Enterprise Portal go tohttp://demo.sybase.com:4040/onepage/index.jsp.After these steps your browser should come up with a page like theone displayed in Figure 1.You might also use theURL http://demo.sybase.com:4040/onepagebecause index.jsp is thedefault page. That’s it —this downloads the Webapplication installed inTomcat. If you click on theJoin Now link, you can registerfor the portal (see FigureFIGURE 2 | Self-registration page2).18PBDJ volume12 issue4www.SYS-CON.COM/pbdj/