Method and system for non-intrusive portlet rendering for printing

• US 20070016857A1
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Published: 01/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ramamoorthy, Varadarajan, Polleck, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US11/170,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20070016857A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1219 with regard to consumables, e.g. ink, toner, paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/122 with regard to computing resources, e.g. memory, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1272 Digital storefront, e.g. e-ordering, web2print, submitting a job from a remote submission screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1287 via internet

Abstract

A system for printing data in a portlet. A portal server receives a request for a portal page from a requestor. In response to receiving the request for the portal page, the portal server retrieves the portal page, which includes a set of portlets. Subsequent to retrieving the portal page, the portal server renders an appearance that includes a print control for each portlet in the set of portlets. The print control is used to control a print functionality when the print control is manipulated by a user input. The print functionality is inserted into the retrieved portal page by the portal server to form a modified portal page. After the portal server modifies the portal page by rendering an appearance and inserting a print functionality, the portal server sends the modified portal page to the requestor.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for printing data in a portlet, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a requestor for a portal page to form a received request;

retrieving the portal page using the received request to form a retrieved portal page, wherein the retrieved portal page includes a portlet;

rendering an appearance for the portlet, wherein the appearance includes a print control in the portlet contained within the retrieved portal page;

inserting a print functionality into the portlet contained within the retrieved portal page to form a modified portal page, wherein the print control is used to control the print functionality to print data in the portlet when the print control is manipulated through a user input; and

sending the modified portal page to the requestor.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the steps are performed by a network portal server.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the requestor is a client browser.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the portal page is retrieved from a database.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein tags are inserted into the retrieved portal page, and wherein the tags are <

div>

tags.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the <

div>

tags define a portlet content.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the appearance is a skin, and wherein the skin defines an appearance of the portlet.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the print control is at least one of a print icon and a print link.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the portlet is part of a plurality of portlets, and wherein the appearance is rendered for each portlet, and wherein the print functionality is inserted in each portlet.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the client browser performs the portlet rendering for printing.

11. A data processing system comprising:

a bus system;

a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes a set of instructions; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to receive a request from a requestor for a portal page to form a received request;

retrieve the portal page using the received request to form a retrieved portal page, wherein the retrieved portal page includes a portlet;

render an appearance for the portlet, wherein the appearance includes a print control in the portlet contained within the retrieved portal page;

insert a print functionality into the portlet contained within the retrieved portal page to form a modified portal page, wherein the print control is used to control the print functionality to print data in the portlet when the print control is manipulated through a user input; and

send the modified portal page to the requestor.

12. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the steps are performed by a network portal server.

13. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the requestor is a client browser.

14. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the portal page is retrieved from a database.

15. A computer program product for printing data in a portlet, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therein, the computer usable medium comprising;

computer usable program code configured to receive a request from a requestor for a portal page to form a received request;

computer usable program code configured to retrieve the portal page using the received request to form a retrieved portal page, wherein the retrieved portal page includes a portlet;

computer usable program code configured to render an appearance for the portlet, wherein the appearance includes a print control in the portlet contained within the retrieved portal page;

computer usable program code configured to insert a print functionality into the portlet contained within the retrieved portal page to form a modified portal page, wherein the print control is used to control the print functionality to print data in the portlet when the print control is manipulated through a user input; and

computer usable program code configured to send the modified portal page to the requestor.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein tags are inserted into the retrieved portal page, and wherein the tags are <

div>

tags.

17. The computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the <

div>

tags define the portlet content.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the appearance is a skin, and wherein the skin defines an appearance of the portlet.

19. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the print control is at least one of a print icon and a print link.

20. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the portlet is part of a plurality of portlets, and wherein the appearance is rendered for each portlet, and wherein the print functionality is inserted in each portlet.