Architecture 

The content provider architecture is composed of the following layers:

 

·        Connectivity: Built-in portal and J2EE services that provide HTTP and SOAP connectivity.

·        Transformation: A built-in portal service that enables XML transformations. The portal provides several generic transformers. This layer provides a framework to enable developers to package and deploy their own transformers, either XSL stylesheets or SAX handler classes.

·        XML iView: A built-in portal component that transforms and renders XML content with the help of the transformation service.

·        Content Provider Framework: A built-in set of portal classes that enables content providers to write code to render their content in the portal. The framework provides the following components:

¡        Content Provider iView: A portal component, based on the XML iView component, that can render XML content in the portal.

¡        Abstract Implementations: A set of classes that provides default implementations for most of the classes that a content provider must implement.

¡        Content Provider Utility Service: A service that helps create or initialize helper objects for a default implementation of a content provider. For example, this service can create a default source properties handler, the object that manages parameters for HTTP and SOAP requests for XML sources.

For information on this service, see Content Provider Utility Service.

·        Proprietary Content Provider Implementation: The code that a content provider must write in order to create iViews that display its content.