Peter, Is there any way to manage this outside of the portlet application's portlet-instances.xml file? I.e. in our custom *-object.xml file? The reasoning for us to need this is that our user roles may be dynamic and redeploying our entire system's EAR just to update a single xml file in a single portlication's WAR is a bit heavy handed. We keep our topology in a *-object.xml file in a separate "skeleton" WAR that can be deployed independent of the portlications' EAR. Hence the *-object.xml being an ideal location for us to manage this configuration. thanks, Etienne View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4172095#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...