Hi all,
with this article, you can upgrade from any version to desired version of IBM Portal and WAS...
here we start...

The starting point
Checking WAS version: - WebSphere Application Server's Administration Console, WAS reported that it was version 6.0.2.9.
Checking Portal version: - <portal-root>*/wps.properties it reported WPS to be at version 6.0.0.

Important NOTE:

When I write  <portal-root>, I mean the root WebSphere Portal installation directory. In my system that would be C:\program files\IBM\WebSphere\Portal\.

When I write <was-root>,  I mean the root WebSphere Application Server installation directory. In my system that would be C:\program files\IBM\WebSphere\Appserver\.

Take a backup of your WAS and Portal folder before going to next step. Just for a safer side.

For Linux, you will have to download the appropriate fix pack for WAS and Portal. The procedure will be same only the command will change as per the Operating System.

Overview of what needs doing

First we will upgrade WAS to version 6.0.2.17.
Then we will upgrade WPS to version 6.0.1

Information and download resources

Here are the sites that held both the downloads and the information that made it possible to upgrade my installation:

-->  6.0.2.17: WebSphere Application Server V6.0.2 Fix Pack 17 for Windows platforms
--> Readme for IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.0.2.17
--> 6.0.1: WebSphere Portal version 6.0 refresh pack 1.

What you need to download

First WAS-upgrade:
We will start out here:
6.0.2.17: WebSphere Application Server V6.0.2 Fix Pack 17 for Windows platforms

(the same way you can also find for Linux platform)
Of course, you will need to read it all; your server and environment might not be like mine.

Scroll down to the table below the text that says "Download package". Here you need to download the file that's described with this text: "32-bit x86 AMD/Intel AppServer".
The file name is 6.0.2-WS-WAS-WinX32-FP00000017.zip

Secondly moving on to WPS:
Go here to download the needed WPS file:
6.0.1: WebSphere Portal version 6.0 refresh pack 1.

What you need is a file named 6.0.1-WP-Multi-RP001.zip.

You also will need the PortalUpdateInstaller for V6: WebSphere Portal Update Installer.

You need the one for version 6. Scroll down till you find the text "PortalUpdateInstaller for V6"; that's the one. File name is PortalUpdateInstaller.zip.

WAS upgrade Starts here:-

The upgrade ran for about 10-15 minutes.

. Make sure that WAS is not running.

. Unzip 6.0.2-WS-WAS-WinX32-FP00000017.zip to . This will overwrite some files in <was-root>/updateinstaller.

. Open a command Prompt and switch directory to  <was-root>/bin

. Run: setupcmdline.bat

. Switch directory to /updateinstaller

. Run this command: update -silent

Leave the Command Prompt open as it is. You may feel that command has completed but it won. Please read the next 5 lines.

Now we will need to wait till the upgrade is done.
Have a look at  <was-root>/logs/update/tmp. While the upgrade is running, there will be temporary log files here.
When the upgrade has completed successfully, there will be a log at
<was-root>//logs/update/6.0.2-WS-WAS-WinX32-FP00000017.install

In order to check if you upgraded successfully, you can start WAS, log on to the Administrative console. On the first page you will see what version WAS is running at. Here's what mine is reporting:

Leave WAS running. We will be needing it shortly.

WPS upgrade Starts here:-

The upgrade process ran for about 1 and half hour.

. Open <portal-root>/config/wpconfig.properties for editing.

. Find the password entries for waspassword= and portaladminpwd= and insert the current passwords for both.

. Save it.

. Create a new subdirectory called updateinstaller inside <portal-root>.

. Now unzip the WebSphere Portal Update Installer (PortalUpdateInstaller.zip) into the <portal-root>/ updateinstaller directory.

. Inside the <portal-root>/updateinstaller directory create a new subdirectory called fixpacks.

. Unzip the refresh pack (6.0.1-WP-Multi-RP001.zip) in
<portal-root>/updateinstaller/fixpacks.
You will now have a .jar file there called WP_PTF_601.jar.

. Find the Profiles directory. On my system that is
C:\ibm\WebSphere\profiles\wp_profile\properties. Note that this is a directory different from where WebSphere and WebSphere Portal are installed.

. Edit the file called soap.client.props.
Find com.ibm.SOAP.requestTimeout= and make sure that the property is set to 6000.

. Save it.

. Open a browser to the WAS Administrative Console.
1. Click Servers > Application Servers > WebSphere_Portal > Web container settings > Web container transport chains.
2. Increase the timeout values for each entry listed in the web container transport chains section. Click HTTP Inbound Channel and make the following changes:
* Read timeout value to 180
* Write timeout value to 180
3. Save your changes. 

. Now stop WAS. 

. Open a command Prompt and switch directory to <portal-root>/bin
Run: setupcmdline.bat
in the same Command Prompt window switch to <portal-root>/updateinstaller
Run the command updateportalwizard 

. A graphical updateinstaller launches. select the obvious defaults. Basically its just the defaults all the way

Portlet specification 2.0 Proposed Final draft is out for documentation.

A Quick look at the major changes that you will find in the JSR 286 are:-

- Event bus concept for Interportlet Communication ( In JSR 168 we use PortletSession with APPLICAION_SCOPE for IPC )which will allow portlets in two different war to communicate each other.

- Render parameter sharing will allows to share render parameters with portlets.

- Portlet Filter

- New request type introduced.Event Request, Resource Request, Fragmanet Request.

- creating different url like createFragementURL, createRresourceURL by invoking methods on portletResponse interface.

- Security

- Caching.

and many more....

download here

Here is one JSR 168 Portlet framework called PORTIONS.

This framework is very similar to Struts that we use for developing web application in J2EE.

Hope you will find it useful.

Read the Portions Framework

Around 4000+ google gadgets are available which are more relevant to business environment.

And Now we can use these gadgets into IBM WebSphere Portal to get lots of lots of benefits....hmmmm okay, let us read an Article here

IBM has come up with Portlet Factory and Rational Application Developer V7.0.
Portlet Factory allows developers to quickly create and deploy portlets.
With this version of RAD 7.0, a developer will have an excellent look and feel,Web Services wizard in addition with AJAX coding with the help of drag and drop components.

In this New version of Portal,You will see how WebSphere Portal helps you achieve a service-oriented architecture (SOA) environment and excellent AJAX implementation and many more.

Stefan Hepper and team members has written an excellent article.

click here for detail.

Here is a latest portlet framework based on MVC which includes Spring technology.

see details of the framework Spring Portlet MVC

It has always been a topic of discussion about file uploading in portlet specially with JPDK portlet on Oracle Portal server.

I also faced some technical challenges while working with this but now come up with a solution and wants to share with portal world using this article.

You will find numerous post on OTN (Oracle Technology Network) regarding File upload in Portlet technology.
So finally I though about why not to write an article on my blog for the same.

And now...Here we go.......

1. Create a portlet application from your JDeveloper and just write a new servlet into any of your package. This servlet will be doing the actual file uploading functionality.

2. Make a entry for this servlet in your web.xml.

Sample code for the servlet entry in web.xml :-

<servlet>
<servlet-name>UploadFile</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.util.UploadServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>UploadFile</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>FileUploadServlet</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

3. Let us say you will be having two JSP one is MyProfile.jsp and other is FileUpload.jsp. The FileUpload.jsp will be opened in a pop up window using window.open(<pass required parameters> ) once you click on a link from MyProfile.jsp.

(Note:- off course you might be having other Business and DB related classes and some other JSP also)

4. In the pop up window OR FileUpload.jsp , use the following as your form tag entry

<form method="post" action="<%=request.getContextPath()%>/FileUploadServlet" name="fileuploadform" enctype="multipart/form-data">

5. Once done with development and configuration , deploy your portlet application from the JDeveloper.

You can use application server connection from within your JDeveloper for deployment of your Portlet Application.

Let us understand complete scenario in a more practical way

Let us say you are creating a Matrimonial Portlet , where user will be entering his profile detail and will also upload his photograph.

Matrimonial Portlet must be having these minimum files as follows:

Two Java files , MatrimonialPortlet.java , FileUploadServlet.java and Two JSP files , UserProfile.jsp and FileUpload.jsp.

Again , some other files might be there for your DB and Business related operations.

Now the Functional approach will be like this

1. From MatrimonialPortlet.java , the UserProfile.jsp will be rendered. In this jsp user will enter his profile detail and at the end he will upload his photograph.

2. It means some where (On some link )on this UserProfile.jsp , you will call window.open(<pass required parameters> ) , which will result in opening FileUpload.jsp in a pop up window and this is the jsp where user will upload his photograph.

3. Once the photograph is uploaded , pop up window will be closed and user will come back to UserProfile.jsp and finally press the submit button for submitting his complete profile detail.

I hope , this article will help you to understand about File Uploading in JPDK portlet for Oracle Portal Server.

You can have a look on the thread called File Upload function in Portlet on OTN for the same.

Feel free to post your comment if you have any queries.

Oracle is going to launch a new Portal Product called

Oracle Workplace Suite.

First Public Draft for Portlet 2.0 Specification has been released.

Portlet 2.0 Specification Public Review Draft

Download JSR 286 Spec

Portlet 2.0 Spec ,TSS thread