Programmatically integrate a custom Domino DB with a JSR 168 portlet

There are lots of ways to create portlets that integrate with Domino. The answer to this question really depends on whether or not multiple portlets will need to access the Domino database. From a performance perspective, retrieving and caching the information so that it can be used again by the portlet (or multiple portlets) is one of the ways to maximize the performance aspect of the design.

One way to do this is to create a portlet service that accesses the Domino database (or any other back-end application/data store for that matter) so that the specifics of accessing Domino applications are not embedded in the portlet code. Portlet services are shared by all portlets and are, therefore, a great place to implement logic (and caching) that is shared by multiple portlets.

I just finished editing an article for the premier edition of The Sphere (WebSphere version of the highly respected The View magazine), which describes exactly how to implement a portlet service that accesses a Domino database.