文档介绍：1. Introduction
Excerpts from Enterprise Information Portals

2 © 2001 – Owendo technology
1. Introduction

Definition

In the general sense of the word, ‘portal’ can be defined as a web application
that offers a single interface and access to various information sources. This
definition has the virtue of clearly positioning the problem and representing
quite concisely the manner in which each person may interpret this term
within a context linked to information systems.

However, such a definition may seem a tad simplistic for many reasons.
Firstly, a portal is not dedicated exclusively to a web interface. New
communication modes such as the WAP interface and PDAs can also offer
portals, albeit portals limited in terms of content. Secondly, the notion of
information source is up for discussion as well. While portals were originally
designed to deliver information, their ability to federate applications obviously
contributed to their ess within enterprises as well. These applications
e from one of three different sources: legacy applications that are
inserted directly into the portal, “closed” legacy applications for which the
interface must be adapted, and applications offered by portal-solution
vendors.

As we have just explained, a portal is little more than an application interface.
However, the term has been abused and e to describe the tools used
for building and executing portals as well. Indeed, today the term Enterprise
Information Portal (EIP) represents both the product enabling the creation and
execution of a portal and the portal application itself. In fact, a portal-
creation/execution tool tends to be a web application running on an
application server. These tools posed of frameworks enabling the
management of various aspects (user management, personalization modules,
authentication, etc.) and a web interface that enables designers to finalize and
c