Lotus Notes integration with a Java Portal Platform

Question

I am using a Java based Portal Platform. I need to show within my portal information stored in Lotus Notes. Considering security issues, what are the recommended ways to do this?

Are there any open source JSR 168 portlets out there that integrate with Lotus Notes?

From my portal platform, I can call web services to get this information. Is this recommended? If so where can I find information about web service API´s available for Lotus Notes?

Are there any java components that I can install on my portal platform that will make available a java API to access Lotus Notes information?

Answer 1

You have two main options.

First you can talk to Domino (Notes is the client, Domino is the server) directly using the CORBA java interface over IIOP. This will give you full access to the Domino object model and allow you to write the code to do whatever it is you need to do in your java platform.

Secondly you could go over web services. This will be much easier to set up, but you will have to deploy code for what ever it is you want to do on the Domino server. In ND7 and up Domino will build all the web service elements for you from a WSDL or method stub.

From a security point of view, the user connecting to the service will need to be authenticated with Domino. This could be a system account or the actual user if you can proxy the login through.

Another angle I've seen is to just proxy HTTP calls through the portlet to Domino.

Answer 2

Assuming you have SSO setup between portal and domino the simplest solution is to use the Notes View Portlet included with portal. If you need to show the data in a more customized format then I would suggest to use portlet factory. If neither of the previous work for you then you should be able to develop a custom portet using RAD and the notes java api.