Dynamic URLs for a Liferay Portlet

Question

I am looking for a solution for developing a dynamic content Liferay Portlet with different URLs. I am not going create separate pages in Liferay.All the information are stored in separate database and all pages are generated by using a Liferay Portlet.My current Liferay version is 6.2 CE.

Sample URLs are ,

https://localhost/travel/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/Hotel Beatriz Costa & Spa
https://localhost/travel/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/Club Siroco Apartments
https://localhost/travel/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/El Guarapo Apartments

How do I implement different URLs with out creating separate pages in Liferay? If I need to use Liferay API for generate dynamic URLs , what are the API components do I need to use?

Answer 1

You can get very similar urls with Liferay friendly url mapping:

https://localhost:8080/{page}/-/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/Hotel Beatriz Costa
https://localhost:8080/{page}/-/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/Club Siroco Apartments
https://localhost:8080/{page}/-/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/El Guarapo Apartments

To make it work, you need to configure the mapping in liferay-portlet.xml:

<portlet>
    <portlet-name>my-hotel-portlet</portlet-name>
    <friendly-url-mapper-class>com.liferay.portal.kernel.portlet.DefaultFriendlyURLMapper</friendly-url-mapper-class>
    <friendly-url-mapping>hotel</friendly-url-mapping>
    <friendly-url-routes>friendly-url-routes.xml</friendly-url-routes>
    ...
</portlet>

The hotel part of the url that comes right after /-/ is defined by <friendly-url-mapping>hotel</friendly-url-mapping> value.

The configuration refers to the routes defined in friendly-url-routes.xml. Just one route definition is necessary:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE routes PUBLIC "-//Liferay//DTD Friendly URL Routes 6.2.0//EN" "http://www.liferay.com/dtd/liferay-friendly-url-routes_6_2_0.dtd">

<routes>
    <route>
        <pattern>/{region}/{town}/{hotel}</pattern>
    </route>
</routes>

Sample Liferay MVCPortlet method reading the parameters:

@Override
public void doView(RenderRequest renderRequest, RenderResponse renderResponse) {
    String region = ParamUtil.getString(renderRequest, "region");
    String town = ParamUtil.getString(renderRequest, "town");
    String hotel = ParamUtil.getString(renderRequest, "hotel");
    ...
}

Sample Spring controller method reading the parameters:

@RenderMapping
public String renderHotel(@RequestParam String region, @RequestParam String town, @RequestParam String hotel) {
    ...
    return "hotel/view";
}

See FriendlyURLMapper for detailed coverage.

Answer 2

Another solution is writing a separate servlet filter hook plugin project.The idea is to transfer the current URL into Liferay specific URL.

As an example:

https://localhost/travel/hotel/Lanzarote/Costa Teguise/Hotel Beatriz Costa & Spa

Converted in to,

https://localhost/web/guest/travel/hotel?p_p_id=hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param1=travel&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param2=hotel&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param3=Lanzarote&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param4=Costa%20Teguise&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param5=Hotel%20Beatriz%20Costa%20&%20Spa

First configure the mapping in sample hook project liferay-hook.xml :

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE hook PUBLIC "-//Liferay//DTD Hook 6.2.0//EN" 
"http://www.liferay.com/dtd/liferay-hook_6_2_0.dtd">
<hook>
<servlet-filter>
    <servlet-filter-name>CustomURLPatternFilter</servlet-filter-name>
    <servlet-filter-impl>com.hotel.travel.portlet.customefilter.CustomURLPatternFilter</servlet-filter-impl>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>hello</param-name>
        <param-value>world</param-value>
    </init-param>
</servlet-filter>
<servlet-filter-mapping>
    <servlet-filter-name>CustomURLPatternFilter</servlet-filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/travel/hotel/*</url-pattern>
    <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
    <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
</servlet-filter-mapping>

Sample servlet filter class :

public class CustomURLPatternFilter implements Filter {

@Override
public void destroy() {
    LOG.info("CustomURLPatternFilter.destroy()");
}

@Override
public void doFilter(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res, FilterChain chain)
        throws ServletException, IOException {

    HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) req;
    String requestURI = request.getRequestURI();
    try {

        String[] urlPaths = StringUtil.split(requestURI, StringPool.FORWARD_SLASH);

        System.out.println(urlPaths[0]);
        System.out.println(urlPaths[1]);
        System.out.println(urlPaths[2]);
        System.out.println(urlPaths[3]);
        System.out.println(urlPaths[4]);
        System.out.println(urlPaths[5]);

        if (urlPaths.length == 6) {

            String forwardPath = "/web/guest/travel/hotel?p_p_id=hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view"
                    + "&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param1=" + urlPaths[1]
                    + "&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param2=" + urlPaths[2]
                    + "&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param3=" + urlPaths[3]
                    + "&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param4=" + urlPaths[4]
                    + "&_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param5=" + urlPaths[5];

            req.getRequestDispatcher(forwardPath).forward(req, res);

        } 
        else {
            chain.doFilter(req, res);
        }
      } catch (Exception e) {
           chain.doFilter(req, res);
        e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }

   @Override
   public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) {
       System.out.println("Called SampleFilter.init(" + filterConfig + ")");
   }

   private static final Log LOG = 
        LogFactoryUtil.getLog(CustomURLPatternFilter.class);
}

At the end in your original hotel portlet ,

    HttpServletRequest httpReq = PortalUtil.getOriginalServletRequest(PortalUtil.getHttpServletRequest(req));
    System.out.println( httpReq.getParameter("_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param1") );
    System.out.println( httpReq.getParameter("_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param2") );
    System.out.println( httpReq.getParameter("_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param3") );
    System.out.println( httpReq.getParameter("_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param4") );
    System.out.println( httpReq.getParameter("_hotelsearch_WAR_hotelportlet_param5") );