So, you want to know portal, and you want to work with WebLogic.
As far as development goes, there are 27 classes and interfaces in the Portlet API, including objects such as PortletRequest, PortletResponse, Portlet, PortletExcetpion, PortletConfig, PortletContext, PortletSession, etc. You say you know servlets? If you know Servlet and JSP development, learning these classes is about as hard as learning to how to spell the world Portlet.
There is a bit of a mindshift moving to portal. You have to think about your apps in a slightly different way, but it is a more service oriented way, and that's been a trend for years, so it's a good thing, not a bad thing.
As far as administration goes, that ususally takes a bit of time. I come from a WebSphere background, and WebSphere Portal Administration is fairly complicated, if only because you have so many extra features, like document managers, web clipping, search, and other such things. You'd probably need a bit of time with weblogic to master their portal. But as you know, there's a huge difference between being a J2EE developer, and administering a J2EE application server.
I have a bunch of tutorials on my website that demonstrate how to develop a HelloWorld portlet using WSAD, and how to do some basic portal administration tasks. They're multimedia, so you can just sit back and watch:
Portal Development and Administration Tutorials There aren't
alot of great books on Portal. This is one of the latest, and deals with JSR-168. JSR-168 is the standard spec:
Building Portals with the Java Portlet API Happy Portal!
-Cameron McKenzie
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