Identity and Directory Structure Design
large amount of processing to display the data in the Portal Desktop. If you use this type of provider, push as much data processing logic to the database as possible. Also, benchmark your portal performance with and without database channels in the user profile.
Client Support
Portal Server supports the following browsers as clients:
•Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0
•Netscape™ Communicator 4.7x or higher
See the Portal Server 6 Release Notes for updates to this list.
Multiple client types, whether based on HTML, WML, or other protocols, can access Access Manager and hence Portal Server. For this functionality to work, Access Manager uses the Client Detection service (client detection API) to detect the client type that is accessing the portal. The client type is then used to select the portal template and JSP files and the character encoding that is used for output.
NOTE Currently, Access Manager defines client data only for supported HTML client browsers, including Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator. See the Access Manager documentation for more information.
Sun Java System Portal Server Mobile Access 6.3 software extends the services and capabilities of the Portal Server platform to mobile devices and provides a framework for voice access. The software enables portal site users to obtain the same content that they access using HTML browsers.
Mobile Access software supports mobile markup languages, including xHTML, cHTML, HDML, HTML, and WML. It can support any mobile device that is connected to a wireless network through a LAN or WAN using either the HTTP or HTTPS protocol. In fact, the Portal Server Mobile Access software could support any number of devices, including automobiles,
Chapter 5 Creating Your Portal Design 131
