JSR 168/286 establishes a standard API for creating portlets, the integration component between applications and portals that enables delivery of an application through a portal. Without this standard, each version of an application has needed its own portlet API, and each of the various portals required that these portlets be specifically tailored for implementation through that portal. This has raised portlet developer time, effort, and costs with the net effect that fewer applications have been made available through fewer portals to the detriment of the end-users, ISVs, developers, and portal vendors.