GateIn 3.5 is built as a set of services on top of the dependency injection kernel. The kernel provides configuration, lifecycle handling, component scopes, and some core services.
Service components exist in two scopes. The first scope is represented by RootContainer - it contains services that exist independently of any portal, and can be accessed by all portals.
The second scope is portal-private in the form of PortalContainer. Each portal lives in an instance of PortalContainer. This scope contains services that are common for a set of portals, and services which should not be shared by all portals.
Whenever a specific service is looked up through PortalContainer, and the service is not available, the lookup is delegated further up to RootContainer. We can therefore have the default instance of a certain component in RootContainer, and portal specific instances in some or all PortalContainers which override the default instance.
Whenever your portal application has to be integrated more closely with GateIn services, the way to do it is by looking up these services through PortalContainer.
Only officially documented services should be accessed this way, and used according to documentation, as most of the services are an implementation detail of eXo, and subject to change without notice.
See also