05 Consuming uPortal User Attributes as JSR-168 User Attributes

General support for user attributes

You need to add to your portlet.xml something like

Declaring a user attribute in portlet.xml

<user-attribute>
  <description>User Family Name</description>
  <name>user.name.family</name>
</user-attribute>

where the <name> attribute is the Key mapped within your PersonDirectory.xml or personDirs.xml (see manual chapter on user attributes).

Then from within your Portlet code you can access the values like this

Accessing a user attribute from JSR-168 Java implementation

Map userInfo = (Map)request.getAttribute(PortletRequest.USER_INFO);
String surname = (String)userInfo.get("user.name.family");

Special support for conveying the end user's password to the JSR-168 portlet

Cache and replay passwords only with sober consideration

Don't use uPortal's password caching and replay features unless you really want these behaviors! Don't expose end user passwords to portlets you don't trust. (Then again, don't install into your portal portlets you don't trust.)

The user attribute "password" is populated with the end user's cached password when a caching security context is used.

Declaring password user attribute in portlet.xml

<user-attribute>
  <description>Specially treated user attribute name that will be populated with the end user's cached password, if available</description>
  <name>password</name>
</user-attribute>

Then from within your Portlet code you can access the password like this

Accessing a user attribute from JSR-168 Java implementation

Map userInfo = (Map)request.getAttribute(PortletRequest.USER_INFO);
String password = (String)userInfo.get("password");