What essential function does a Portlet serve in Liferay?

A Portlet is an integral component of Liferay, designed to provide specific functionality within a portal environment. Essentially, it acts as a web application that generates content, processes user input, and integrates seamlessly into the larger portal framework. Each Portlet operates in its own space, allowing multiple Portlets to coexist within a single page, enabling diverse features and interactivity tailored to user needs.

By serving this purpose, Portlets facilitate the modular architecture of the portal. They can display various functionalities, such as displaying news articles, processing forms, or providing access to other applications. This modularity supports the development of rich, interactive user experiences by allowing developers to create and deploy Portlets that enhance the overall capability of the portal.

The other options refer to different aspects of a web application environment or development framework but do not accurately capture the primary role of a Portlet. For instance, a Portlet does not function as a database model, manage theme configurations, or handle server-side scripting directly; rather, it is focused on processing specific tasks related to user functionality within the Liferay portal.