Portal Guide

CHAPTER 12    Personalizing Your Portal

This chapter explains how to use the Portal Personalizer to create user pages and group pages. It contains the following sections:

• About the Portal Personalizer

• Starting the Portal Personalizer

• Working with user pages

• Working with group pages

• Setting the current group page

• Setting the theme for your portal

• Customizing your portal

About the Portal Personalizer

The Portal Personalizer is a Web-based facility that allows users to create pages that show personalized content.

To define a new page using the Portal Personalizer, a portal user needs to specify the page contents as well as the layout for the page. The Component Selector allows the user to specify which components should appear on the page. The Layout Selector provides a user interface for selecting the layout. After using the Portal Personalizer to create one or more pages, a portal user can use the MyPortal facility to display these pages.

Pages created with the Portal Personalizer are not tightly bound to portal layouts. That means users can switch layouts for their pages without disrupting the page contents. When the user applies a new layout to a page, any previously selected components are automatically displayed using the new layout.

The Portal Personalizer lets you create two types of pages:

Starting the Portal Personalizer

To start the Portal Personalizer directly:

• To go directly to 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:   The DirectorDB portion of the URL is only necessary if you're using an 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. The EAR portion of the URL is only necessary for accessing the Portal Personalizer within a deployed EAR.

To start at the Portal home page:

• Simply click the Personalize button on the Portal home page.

  You may need to log in as described in How the custom Web application works.

  

Working with user pages

Any portal user can create a user page. To build a new user page, you first create the page, specifying a page name and description. Once you've created the new page, you need to modify the page contents and (optionally) the layout. After performing these steps, you can display the page right away by using the MyPortal facility.

Creating a user page

To create a user page:

1. Click New in the Portal Personalizer.

   The Portal Personalizer creates a new user page called Untitled.

   

   TIP:   If you're logged on as a portal administrator, you need to click New User Page in the Portal Personalizer.

2. Enter the name of the page in the Page Name field and optionally enter a description in the Description field.

   

3. Click Save.

Modifying the page contents

To modify the contents for a user page:

1. Click Modify Content in the Portal Personalizer.

   The Component Selector displays listing portal components by category.

   

2. Browse the list of categories until you find the components you want to include on the page.

3. Select each component you want to include.

   

4. When you've finished making your selections, click Save Components.

   The Portal Personalizer displays again.

Modifying the page layout

To modify the layout of a user page:

1. Click Modify Layout in the Portal Personalizer.

   The Layout Selector displays showing the default layout for the portal. Each portal component you selected in the Component Selector appears in the left column.

   

2. To use a different layout, click Choose a new layout at the bottom of the page.

   The Layout Picker window displays.

   

3. Select the layout you want to use and click Select Layout.

4. Position the components where you want them to appear.

   You can reorder the components within each section and you can move components from one section to another. To move a component, click the component's title bar and drag it to the desired location.

   

   

5. When you've finished modifying the layout, click Save Layout.

   The Portal Personalizer displays again.

Displaying a user page

To display a user page:

1. Click MyPortal in the Portal Personalizer.

   TIP:   You can also access the MyPortal facility from the Portal Home Page by clicking myPortal.

   The MyPortal facility displays. The page you set as your default displays automatically.

   

2. If the page you want to display is not the default page, click the page in the MyPages list.

   The page you selected displays:

   

Setting the default user page

To set a specific user page as the default page for your portal:

1. Select the page in the Portal Personalizer.

2. Click Set as default.

Deleting a user page

To delete a user page:

1. Select the page in the Portal Personalizer.

2. Click Remove.

3. Click OK.

Working with group pages

To build a new group page, you first create the page, specifying a page name and description. Once you've created the new page, you need to modify the page contents and (optionally) the layout.

To create a new group page, you need to be a group page administrator with the CREATE permission. To view the definition of group pages in the Portal Personalizer, you need to be a group page administrator with the PROTECT, UPDATE, and READ permissions.

Each group page must contain a portal component called Portal User Page Component that displays the currently selected user page. The group page can also contain one or more additional components that display group content.

NOTE:   The default group page for the portal, called DefaultGroupPage, includes a component called MyPages. This component lists all user pages created for the current user. If you want your group page to list existing user pages, you may want to include the MyPages component in the group page definition.

Creating a group page

To create a group page:

1. Log on to the custom Web application as a group page administrator.

       See Starting the Portal Personalizer.

   NOTE:   You must have the CREATE permission.

2. Display the Portal Personalizer. When you log on as an administrator, the Portal Personalizer lists user pages as well as group pages in the User & Group Pages box. Each group page is marked with the (G) prefix.

   

3. Click New Group Page in the Portal Personalizer.

   The Portal Personalizer creates a new group page called Untitled.

   

4. Select the new untitled page and enter a name for the page in the Page Name field. Optionally enter a description in the Description field.

5. Click Save.

Modifying the page contents

To modify the page contents for a group page:

1. Click Modify Content in the Portal Personalizer.

   The Component Selector displays listing portal components by category. For group pages, the Component Selector includes the System Components category.

2. Open the System Components category.

3. Select Portal User Page Component.

   

   TIP:   Be sure to select Portal User Page Component. If you do not include this component, the currently selected user page cannot be displayed inside the group page and the group page will be unusable.

4. Browse the list of categories until you find the other components you want to include on the page.

5. Select each component you want to include.

6. When you've finished making your selections, click Save Components.

   The Portal Personalizer displays again.

CAUTION:   Be sure to select Portal User Page Component in Step 3. If you do not include this component, the currently selected user page cannot be displayed inside the group page and the group page will be unusable.

Setting the current group page

To set the group page for the current user:

1. Select the group page you want to use in the Current Group Page list box.

   

2. Click Set as current.

Setting the theme for your portal

To set the theme for your portal:

1. Click Select another theme.

   Director displays the Portal Themes page in a new browser window.

   

2. Click the radio button for the theme you want to use.

3. Click Save.

Customizing your portal

Director lets you customize many aspects of the user interface for your portal. For example, you can customize the Portal Personalizer as well as the Portal home page.

Customizing the Portal Personalizer

You can customize some aspects of the Portal Personalizer by changing the default settings for the Portal Personalizer component. To do this, you need to edit the PortalPersonalizer.xml file (the component descriptor for the PortalPersonalizer component). The following default settings are particularly useful:

For example, you could disable the facility that allows the user to set the theme for their portal by setting the SHOW_THEME_UI default to false:

  ...
  <default>
   <name>SHOW_GROUP_PAGE_UI</name>
   <value>false</value>
  </default>
  <default>
   <name>SHOW_AVAILABLE_GROUPS_UI</name>
   <value>false</value>
  </default>
  <default>
   <name>SHOW_THEME_UI</name>
   <value>false</value>
  </default>
  <default>
   <name>SHOW_WIRELESS_LAYOUT</name>
   <value>false</value>
  </default>
  ...

Customizing the Portal home page

You can customize the Portal home page in one of two ways:

• You can create your own PID and save it in your resource JAR with the name DirectorHome.html. Your version of this file will then override the one that ships with Director.

  NOTE:   The entry elements in a resource set are scanned from last to first. If duplicate resources or classes exist, the location listed last is the one that gets used.

• You can create your own PID and save it with any name you like. To ensure that your home page is used, you need to change the value of the PortalHomePage context parameter to point to the page you just created.

    ...
    <context-param>
     <param-name>PortalHomePage</param-name>
     <param-value>MyHome.html</param-value>
     <description>The default Home page for the Director. 
       This page must exist in the ResourceSet.
     </description>
    </context-param>
    ...
  

	Portal Guide

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