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Inter Portlet Communication (IPC) is a hot topic nowadays. This was probably the most missed feature of the first version of the portlet spec (JSR-168), but has made it to the second version (JSR-286, supported since Liferay 5.0). Maybe this is the reason why more and more people are becoming interestind in IPC, and even in portlets in General.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, JSR-286 provides two very good methods for communicating portlets: shared render parameters and events. But this post is not about them, it's about the fact that while having standards is very good, it should not inhibit us from using other solutions when they fit. In particular, I think IPC is a very broad topic. There are lots of different scenarios and communication needs for a single solution to be the best for all IPC problems.

If the solutions provided by JSR-286 fit your needs, by all means use them. But it's also good to know other alternatives. In particular I'd like to highlight today a method provided by Liferay to communication portlets using a super-lightweigth JavaScript events system that runs completely in the browser. This method has been available for some time, and it's now documented in Client-side Inter-Portlet Communication. Take a look and let us know how it works for you.