Working in IT is a dream for lot of people and the reasons for the same more then just the money. I found a nice article that detailed the 10 things you must know when you start working in IT and I must say some of the things mentioned opened my eyes also.

1. IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up
   
2. Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business
   
3. Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies
   
4. You’ll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones
   
5. Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong
   
6. Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
   
7. Certifications won’t always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
   
8. You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
   
9. It will be your fault when users make silly errors
   
10. The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
    

Check out the complete details here.

IBM has put together a demo that highlights the enhanced Web 2.0, rich Internet application development features in Rational® Application Developer for WebSphere® Software V7.5.



It shows how to build a simple AJAX application that displays data from a database using Java™ Persistence API (JPA), Create a responsive Web user interface using Rational Application Developer features such as code generation, wizards and integrated test servers to develop applications faster than ever before.

Check out the Demo here

Find some usefull links on WebSphere Portal Factory here.

IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Best Practices (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=889)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Databases and Data Sources (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=890)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Getting Started (Installation, Configuration and Deployment) (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=888)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Legacy Bowstreet Forum Posts (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=989)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Lotus Collaboration Extension (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=892)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - PeopleSoft Extension (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=895)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - SAP Extension (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=894)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Siebel Extension (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=893)
IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory - Web Services and XML Schema (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=891)

This is a summary of the most recently added content (technotes, flashes and downloads) to the Websphere Portal support site.

Unable to create user when populating Email field

After configuring WebSphere® Portal security with LDAP, you are unable to create a new user via the "Edit My Profile" portlet when populating the "Email" field. You receive the following error message in the browser: [<tt>] EJPSG0015E: Data Backend Problem com.ibm.websphere.wim.exception.WIMSystemException: CWWIM4520E The 'javax.naming.directory.SchemaViolationException: [LDAP: error code 65 - Entry (cn=test user,o=ibm) failed schema check]; remaining name 'cn=test user,o=ibm'; resolved object com.s

Unable to use multiple object classes when configuring user registry

Unable to configure LDAP security with WebSphere® Portal when attempting to use multiple object classes for the entity type properties in wkplc.properties.

URL mappings fail due to usage of relative URL in the WASReqURL cookie

After enabling security in WebSphere® Portal, URL mappings no longer work. When attempting to hit a URL mapping via http://<hostname>:10040/wps/myportal/TestMapping,the user is prompted with the login page. However, after submitting the user credentials, the user receives a 404 error in the browser.

Portal Database Transfer from Cloudscape to SQL Server 2000 Fails

IBM® WebSphere® Portal v5.1.x is installed successfully on a Microsoft® Windows® operating system. When attempting to execute the database-transfer script from Cloudscape™ to SQLServer™ 2000, the transfer fails with Java returned: 4 and 'WMMDBUSR.WMMDBACMPV' because this table does not exist in database 'WPSDB ' errors. This technote describes a workaround to provide a successful database transfer.

Key Content Resources for WebSphere Portal

The following key content resources, such as Information Centers, system requirements, wikis, discussion forums, support technotes and product documentation, are available for WebSphere Portal.

Portlet deployment fails from Rational Application Developer to WebSphere Portal 6.0.1.4

Portlet deployment fails from Rational® Application Developer 7.0.0.x to WebSphere® Portal 6.0.1.4.

CONFIG-WP-PTF-5103 task fails with missing index

Attempts to run the CONFIG-WP-PTF-5103 task for the WebSphere® Portal upgrade fail with the following error: BUILD FAILED file :../config/includes/PK11961.xml:8: Java returned: 4 In the ConfigTrace.log, you see that there is a missing index: [java] DROP INDEX wpsdbusr.IX930A [java] Error during statement execution! [java] java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01418: specified index does not exist

Recommended fixes and updates for WebSphere Portal and Web Content Management

A comprehensive list of recommended, generally available (GA) fixes for current IBM® WebSphere® Portal and Lotus/Workplace Web Content Management™ server releases. Tables are organized by version in the order they were released.

WebSealTrustAssociationInterceptor no longer updated via configuration task

The WebSphere® PortalInformation Center states that the "enable-tam-tai" configuration task creates and configures the TAI: [<tt>]com.ibm.ws.security.web.WebSealTrustAssociationInterceptor[</tt>]. But when executing the task on WebSphere Portal 6.0.1.3 or 6.0.1.4, the only TAI to be configured is: [<tt>]com.ibm.ws.security.web.TAMTrustAssociationInterceptorPlus[</tt>] even though [<tt>]WebSealTrustAssociationInterceptor[</tt>] is created as well. Why?

Client sees increase in processing when a WebSphere Portal page is rendered

When your client machine is rendering a CSA (Client-side aggregation) theme, you might notice a large spike in CPU processing on the client machine.

While using a Web 2.0 theme the column widths set in the admin portlet are not honored

Setting the column width for portlets displayed on the page is a common practice to obtain the desired look and feel of the page. This feature works fine with SSA (server-side aggregation) themes but does not work with CSA (client-side aggregation).

Java heap OutOfMemory due to large StateManagerImpl objects in the heap

How to avoid a java heap OutOfMemory error caused by large StateManagerImpl objects in the heap

MustGather: Read first for IBM WebSphere Portal

MustGather documents aid in problem determination and save time resolving Problem Management Records (PMRs).

6.0.1.4: Readme for IBM WebSphere Portal 6.0.1 fix pack 4 (6.0.1.4) - stand-alone

IBM® WebSphere® Portal fix pack stand-alone installation instructions for all editions, including WebSphere Portal Express.

6.0.1.4: Readme for IBM WebSphere Portal 6.0.1 fix pack 4 (6.0.1.4) - cluster

IBM WebSphere® Portal fix pack cluster installation instructions for all editions, including WebSphere Portal Express - Idle Standby.

Every WebSphere Portal based application needs to handle the Session Time outs. The current solutions advocated by the Developer works usually involve usage of customization of LogOut Auth mechanism.

What I am proposing is the use of the standard J2EE mechanism of creating a HttpSessionListener. This HttpSessionListener can be weaved into the web.xml of the wps.war file ( careful as this is part of the wps.ear which is the core of the WebSphere Portal deployment). So, now whenver the session gets timed out, the listener will catch the session destroyed event and the application can handle the event.

Remember, this customization is at your own risk. IBM does not support this.

Check out the WebSphere Portal V6 Tuning Guideline here.

IBM has release a list of paper's detailing the migration steps for migrating from WP V5.1 to WP V6.1

The first paper describes the steps and best practices for migrating an existing standalone WebSphere Portal 5.1.0.4 environment to a standalone WebSphere Portal V6.1 and should be followed by the majority of customers, even those in a Web Content Management environment.

The purpose of the second document is to provide a step by step guide for migrating IBM Workplace Web Content Management (WCM) version 5.1.0.4 to WebSphere Portal v6.1 – Content Build for Lotus® Web Content Management (also WCM). The foundation for this document is the initial release of the V6.1 Information Center with additional information based on the outcome and experiences of our pre-release testing. With this document, we provide more comprehensive guide and highlight some of the common pitfalls and mistakes when migrating.

This article covers about the second version of the Java Portlet Specification (JSR 286). In Version 2.0, the specification and the APIs have more than doubled, and it allows you to implement most use cases without the need to use lot of vendor extensions. The portlet programming model also provides events and public render parameters so that you can build larger composite applications out of your portlets and reuse your portlets in different scenarios. Check out the article here.

You can check the complete JSR 286 specification here.

IBM Support hosted a Support Technical Exchange Open Mic call with customers on the topic of migration from v5.1 to v6 for WebSphere® Portal on May 7, 2008. Check out the same here.

There is a nice article published here that talks of exposing SOA as RESTFUL services and using them to create your applications. Nice reading.

IBM has released a Web 2.0 Developer kit. The Kit can be downloaded from here. The kit covers the following

Web 2.0 podcast series:

• What is Web 2.0?
• What is Ajax?
• What is REST?
• What are Atom/RSS feeds?
• Using Web 2.0 in IBM Lotus Domino
• Using Web 2.0 in IBM WebSphere Portal

Plus a developerWorks interview with Tim Berners-Lee and Taking Web 2.0 into the enterprise

developerWork articles

• Using Ajax to add document preview functionality to your IBM Lotus Domino site
• Java EE meets Web 2.0

White papers

• Developing Enterprise Web 2.0 Applications

Demos

• Lotus Connections product demo
• Lotus Connections business demo
• Lotus Quickr product demo

Webcasts

• Introducing IBM Lotus Quickr - The Fastest Way To Share Content With Your Teams
• Taking Web 2.0 to Work