what is the difference between a portlet and a servlet?

Question

I am asked to work on portlets and portals.

I want to know the difference between a portlet and a servlet?

How / where does a portlet differ (may be function

Answer 1

Servlets have a java definition (applications which handle HTTP GET/POST requests), while portlets have a user interface definition.A component performing a specific function similar to the windows vista widgets or a lot of components used in stackoverflow here. They need not necessarily be backed by servlets on the server side. But the Portlet standard was developed alongside java. O'Reilly has a nice tutorial.