Portlets have additional characteristics that make them different from Servlets
- Portlet Modes
- Window States
- Portlet Preferences
Portlet Modes
- Each portlet has a current mode, which indicates the function the portlet is performing.
- All JSR 168 compliant portals should support the View, Edit and Help modes.
Window States
- Window states indicate the amount of portal page space that will be assigned to a portlet.
- All spec compliant portals should support the minimized, maximized and normal window states.
Portlet Preferences
- Portlets can be configured to provide a custom view or behavior for different users.
- For example, a weather portlet can show the temperature in Chicago for one user and the temperature in LA for another user.
- These configurations are represented as a persistent set of name-value pairs and are referred to as portlet preferences.
