I think i see what you both mean, and i think you are slightly diverging. Michael says that preferences are not stored per portlet instance but per user, that's only if you use the Portlet spec API. The portlet spec API doesn't define an API to modify portlet instance preferences. It means that we would need to open that internal API to a public API. Using this API, the first cheap solution would be to use the EDIT mode with that internal API (see portal-admin for how to do it). (As of now you cannot secure a portlet mode for specific roles, so that would let anyone changing the preference for everybody, this is work in progress. You can then use isUserInRole to show part of the GUI for portlet-instance changes, but if your users will still see the edit button, then a blank screen (unless you let them override that preference with a user specific one for example)) To use Julien's (good) idea you would use the same API and create your GUI, you would then be able to change the portlet instance preference from the admin portlet (which can be secured) using the GUI defined by the portlet itself. Overall i think it's a good idea that should go in Jira View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4163999#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...