Abstract: The present invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing a portal having a plurality of portlets providing information from an application. Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for providing a portal including a first portlet and a second portlet, each of which retrieves information from a service or an application.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for storing and using customization data. A repository contains one or more repository objects, one or more variants for each repository object, and one or more layers for each variant. Each repository object has one or more model entities. The variants for each repository object are arranged in a first hierarchy, and the layers for each variant are arranged in a second hierarchy. Each layer includes a set of customization values, each customization value corresponding to one of the model entities. Customization values can be (but need not be) provided for each model entity in each layer and in each variant. The variants and layers can be arranged in order of specificity. A customization value for a model entity can be retrieved by locating the most specific variant and the most specific layer that contains a customization value for the model entity.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for providing a portal including a first portlet and a second portlet, each of which retrieves information from a service or an application. In one exemplary embodiment, the method may include receiving, at the portal, a first response from the first portlet, the first response including a first portion of information from an application, the first portion of information retrieved by the first portlet based on metadata describing the application; receiving, at the portal, a second response from the second portlet, the second response including a second portion of information from the application, the second portion of information retrieved by the second portlet based on metadata describing the application; and generating a page for the portal, the page including the first portion of information and the second portion of information retrieved by the first and second portlets from the application.