1. A method for generating a portal, comprising: providing a first development environment having a plurality of portal designer tools capable of simultaneously obtaining portal configuration information; providing a second development environment having an administration tool to construct a portal for a particular user or group of users wherein the plurality of portal designer tools in the first development environment and the administration tool in the second development environment, communicate via a network, and wherein each one of the portal designer tools includes a graphical user interface that obtains the portal configuration information by dragging and dropping a portal component from a palette to a display within the graphical user interface, and wherein the portal component includes one of a portlet, page and book; receiving, by the administration tool, the portal configuration from each one of the plurality of portal designer tools via the network, and preparing a portal description in accordance with the portal configuration information received; wherein the administration tool aggregates the portal configuration information received from the plurality of portal designer tools located in the first development environment to construct the portal for the particular user or group of users; providing a design view, a source view and a hierarchical view as part of the graphical user interface, wherein the design view is a display that gives a graphical indication of the portal components in the portal, the source view is a display of the portal description and the hierarchical view provides a graphical indication of all the portal components arranged in a hierarchy; detecting a modification of the portal description by any of the design tools, wherein the modification is detected by detecting at least one of a drag and drop by one of the plurality of design tools of a new portal component from the palette into the display within the graphical user interface, and editing properties of the selected portal component; and automatically synchronizing the portal description, design view, source view and hierarchical view across the portal designer tools and the administration tool, via the network, to reflect the modification of the portal description, wherein upon detecting the modification of the portal description, the design view, source view and hierarchical view of each one of the plurality of design tools are updated to reflect the modification.
1. A method for generating a portal, comprising: providing a first development environment having a plurality of portal designer tools capable of simultaneously obtaining portal configuration information; providing a second development environment having an administration tool to construct a portal for a particular user or group of users wherein the plurality of portal designer tools in the first development environment and the administration tool in the second development environment, communicate via a network, and wherein each one of the portal designer tools includes a graphical user interface that obtains the portal configuration information by dragging and dropping a portal component from a palette to a display within the graphical user interface, and wherein the portal component includes one of a portlet, page and book; receiving, by the administration tool, the portal configuration from each one of the plurality of portal designer tools via the network, and preparing a portal description in accordance with the portal configuration information received; wherein the administration tool aggregates the portal configuration information received from the plurality of portal designer tools located in the first development environment to construct the portal for the particular user or group of users; providing a design view, a source view and a hierarchical view as part of the graphical user interface, wherein the design view is a display that gives a graphical indication of the portal components in the portal, the source view is a display of the portal description and the hierarchical view provides a graphical indication of all the portal components arranged in a hierarchy; detecting a modification of the portal description by any of the design tools, wherein the modification is detected by detecting at least one of a drag and drop by one of the plurality of design tools of a new portal component from the palette into the display within the graphical user interface, and editing properties of the selected portal component; and automatically synchronizing the portal description, design view, source view and hierarchical view across the portal designer tools and the administration tool, via the network, to reflect the modification of the portal description, wherein upon detecting the modification of the portal description, the design view, source view and hierarchical view of each one of the plurality of design tools are updated to reflect the modification. 9. The method of claim 1 wherein a representation of portal components in the hierarchical display are accessed by clicking on the hierarchical display.