A portlet container owns a collection of portlets.[4] A container manages the life cycle of its portlets and provides a runtime environment with services such as persistent storage for user preferences.[7]
A container supports aggregating (integrating) information from different sources. Via user customization, a container supports a personalized portal user experience.
A container with its portlets can form a web application.[8]
Portlet-based applications are often used for portals focused on news, weather,[6] and Internet forums.
A portlet receives user agent requests as dispatched by the portal server and then the container.
A portlet responds with dynamically generated content.[7]
Its container sends data to the portal for aggregation, but is not responsible for aggregating the content produced by the portlets. The portal itself handles aggregation.[7]
A portal and a portlet container can be built together as a single component of an application suite or as two separate components of a portal application.
