Although JSR 168 specifies that portlets do NOT have access to the client request of the portal (JSR 168, p. 16),  Liferay developers will find that they do have access to this URL.  If using the extension environment, take a peek at the JSP source in: [liferay]portal\portal-web\docroot\html\portlet\init.jsp Once there, youl’ll find the following code: String [...]