Book excerpt: Liferay Portal is the leading open-source enterprise portal framework that uses Java and Web 2.0 technologies. Web portals often function as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web. Web portals, such as Yahoo!, present information from diverse sources in a unified way. Aside from the search engine standard, web portals offer other services such as e–mail, news, stock prices, infotainment, and various other features. Portals provide a means for enterprises to supply a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications that otherwise would have been separate entities altogether. So, how do developers bring existing applications, as well as integrate content management systems and search engines, into a portal? And how do developers get started with the Liferay Portal engine? In Practical Liferay: Java–based Portal Applications Development, Dr. Poornachandra Sarang answers these questions and more. This book is for those who want to learn how to use Liferay to develop vertical or company–specific web portals and beyond. The book will serve as a practical guide to learning Liferay and developing real–world web portals.