Portal Guide

Chapter 11 Using the Custom Web Application

This chapter explains the custom Web application. It contains the following sections:

About the custom Web application

The custom Web application is an application Web tier that is included as an optional part of the Portal subsystem in the standard Director project template. It is intended to be customized and used as your own application's Web tier. However, you can also use it as an example of how to design your own Web tier.

The custom Web application uses a set of predefined core components that are provided with the Portal subsystem. These core components are also used to construct the PAC and the PMC. Director includes complete source code, descriptors, and graphics for the core components.

Core component	Description
PortalLogin	Interactive component that asks anonymous users for login information and passes it to the Directory subsystem for authentication. The login page includes a link to NewUserComponent for users who are not already registered in the writable realm.
NewUser	Interactive component that asks anonymous users for registration information and: Calls the Directory subsystem to add the user to the writable realm (if enabled) Calls the User subsystem to create a user profile and attributes
MyPages	Interactive component that displays a header allowing an authenticated user to select pages to view. If no user page exists, it provides access to the Portal personalizer.

Core component

Description

PortalLogin

Interactive component that asks anonymous users for login information and passes it to the Directory subsystem for authentication. The login page includes a link to NewUserComponent for users who are not already registered in the writable realm.

NewUser

Interactive component that asks anonymous users for registration information and:

Calls the Directory subsystem to add the user to the writable realm (if enabled)
Calls the User subsystem to create a user profile and attributes

MyPages

Interactive component that displays a header allowing an authenticated user to select pages to view. If no user page exists, it provides access to the Portal personalizer.

The core components interact through URL redirects managed by the base servlet. Each URL contains the component data needed to render the appropriate page.

Starting the custom Web application

Procedure To start at the Portal home page:

Display the Portal home page (DirectorHome.html) by using this URL:
```
  http://server/DirectorDB/EAR/Portal/main
```
You may need to log in as described in How the custom Web application works.
NOTE The DirectorDB portion of the URL is only necessary if you're using the SilverStream eXtend Application Server and you've deployed your archive to the same database created for Director application data. If you're using another application server or if you've deployed the archive to the SilverMaster database, the URL should not include the name of the Director database.

Procedure To start at a specific page or component:

Display a user page, group page, or component directly. For example,
```
  http://server/DirectorDB/EAR/Portal/main/myportal/MyUserPage
```
To directly access the Portal Personalizer, use this URL:
```
  http://server/DirectorDB/EAR/Portal/main/comp/PortalPersonalizer
```
You may need to log in as described in How the custom Web application works.
NOTE See note above.

The page that actually displays depends on the user session, as explained in How the custom Web application works next.

How the custom Web application works

When the user opens a new session and attempts to access the custom Web application, the user is designated Anonymous (not yet authenticated).

Portal home page

If an Anonymous user requests a specific page or component, the base servlet redirects the browser to the Login page.

If an Anonymous user does not request a specific page or component (.../Portal/main, for example), the base servlet redirects the browser to the Portal home page:

Personalizer1

If the user clicks Personalize or myPortal, the Portal home page directs the user to the Login page.

Login page

The Login page (PortalLogin component) allows an Anonymous user to become authenticated. Only users who already exist in the writable realm can log in. Users who do not already exist in the writable realm can click New User to access the New User page.

LoginComponent

After authentication, the base servlet redirects processing to MyPagesComponent, which returns a Personal page or (if none exists) opens the personalizer (see About the Portal Personalizer).

New User page

The New User page (NewUser component) allows an Anonymous user to add authentication information to the writable realm and to create a profile containing registration information.

NewUser

If the New User page succeeds, the base servlet redirects the browser to the Login page, where the Anonymous user can become authenticated.

Portal Guide