# If Components are going away, how does one build a portal?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/if-components-are-going-away-how-does-one-build-a-portal/119426>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 6, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/if-components-are-going-away-how-does-one-build-a-portal/119426 "2007-11-06T22:55:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ASPNETAddict](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ASPNETAddict](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ASPNETAddict)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/if-components-are-going-away-how-does-one-build-a-portal/119426/1 "2007-11-06T22:55:10Z")

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I will admit (and my nickname will prove it) that I live in the world  
of [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) and that I quite like it there. But I am not a stick in the  
mud, if Ruby on Rails can really do it better then I am more than  
willing to change. But there is one thing I cannot do without (and  
neither can my clients as it is what all of them want / use) and that  
is a portal engine. I use DotNetNuke and I like what it does for me,  
but I don’t like making new components as it is time consuming (Yes, I  
agree this is the part that got my attention with Ruby on Rails), so  
if Ruby on Rails had something like it I would definitely look at  
switching and if one doesn’t exist, I have been looking for a project  
to sink my teeth into with RoR, but I cannot see an easy way of making  
components like DotNetNuke has, and probably I cannot based on the  
whole hierarchy that [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) places upon components that is completely  
lacking in RoR (apart from building one, but then that would basically  
break RoR). This is one part of [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) that I like very much, the  
simplicity with which it allows me to include controls and handles  
directing messages to those controls. So since RoR is based on “real  
world implementations” here is a real world scenario for some input.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ASPNETAddict](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ASPNETAddict](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ASPNETAddict)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/if-components-are-going-away-how-does-one-build-a-portal/119426/2 "2007-11-06T22:57:32Z")

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Well, for a portal I’d go with Plone or something. Rails is not a CMS  
framework.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ASPNETAddict](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ASPNETAddict](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ASPNETAddict)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/if-components-are-going-away-how-does-one-build-a-portal/119426/3 "2007-11-07T04:07:01Z")

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Actually if you go to the widgets site there is the basis of  
doing “components”. Also look at “partials” as well.

I use tabnav for menus, rolerequirement for role based security,  
and active scaffold for crud.

Checkout [mentalpagingspace.blogspot.com](http://mentalpagingspace.blogspot.com), to give you a idea,  
and the links.

I looked at a few cms, but I find almost all of my content is dynamic  
anyway,  
and for most things I need to do its a plugin, and takes me only a day  
to master.

I find .net to be bloated compared to vb6 era, and that ruby (And  
rails)  
returns me to the level of effectiveness of vb6