Portal Guide

CHAPTER 26

Using the Portlet Management Section of the DAC

This chapter describes how to use the Portlet Management section of the Director Administration Console (DAC). It has these sections:

• About the Portlet Management section of the DAC

• Administering portlet applications

• Administering portlet definitions

• Administering registered portlets

About the Portlet Management section of the DAC

The Portlet Management section of the Director Administration Console (DAC) allows portal administrators to view and modify information about portlets in a deployed exteNd Director application.

Using the DAC, portal administrators can monitor the following portlet elements:

Administering portlet applications

The Portlet Management section of the DAC allows portal administrators to perform the following tasks related to portlet applications:

• Access portlet applications on the server

• View information about portlet applications in a read-only panel

• Unregister portlet applications

Accessing portlet applications on the server

To access a portlet application on the server:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Click the Portlet Management button:

   

   A list of all portlet applications deployed to your server appears in the left navigation frame.

   

Viewing information about portlet applications

Using the DAC, the portal administrator can view the following information about each deployed portlet application:

• Name

• Status (whether enabled or disabled)

• Date last modified

• User who last modified the application

• Custom application information: portlet modes, window states, security constraints, and user attributes

  NOTE:   exteNd Director allows you to define this custom information. However, the exteNd Director portal recognizes only standard portlet modes (View, Edit, and Help) and standard window states (Normal, Minimized, and Maximized).

To view information about a portlet application:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet applications, as described in Accessing portlet applications on the server.

3. Select the portlet application of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame, displaying information about the portlet application:

   

Unregistering portlet applications

When you want to remove a portlet application from your server, you must unregister the portlet application before undeploying it. Otherwise, the portlet application is automatically redeployed when the server restarts.

When you unregister a portlet application, all preferences and settings are removed from the exteNd Director database that stores your application data.

NOTE:   You cannot unregister the local portlet container, which is a portlet application that is local to the portal. The local portlet container manages portlets that are contained within the portal application.

To unregister a portlet application:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet applications, as described in Accessing portlet applications on the server.

3. Select the portlet application of interest.

   A tree view of portlet definitions appears in the left navigation frame and a General panel opens in the right content frame:

   

4. Click Unregister.

   A confirmation window appears.

5. Click OK to confirm the action.

   When the process completes, the unregistered portlet application is removed from the list in the navigation window.

6. To remove the portlet application from the server, use your server's tools to undeploy the archive containing the portlet application.

NOTE:   To reregister an unregistered portlet application, you must redeploy it.

Administering portlet definitions

The Portlet Management section of the DAC allows portal administrators to perform the following tasks related to portlet definitions in a portlet application:

• Access portlet definitions in the deployed portlet application

• Register portlet definitions

• View information about portlet definitions in a read-only panel

Accessing portlet definitions in the deployed portlet application

To access portlet definitions in the deployed portlet application:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Click the Portlet Management button:

   

3. A list of all portlet applications deployed to your server appears in the left navigation frame.

   

4. Expand the portlet application of interest.

   A tree view appears in the left navigation frame listing all the portlet definitions in the selected portlet application:

   

Registering portlet definitions

To use a portlet in a portal application, the portal administrator must register the portlet definition with the portal. A registered portlet definition is called a portlet registration. You can create multiple registrations for a single portlet, allowing you to put multiple instances of that portlet on the same portal page.

The portlet registration inherits all the preferences and settings of the portlet class, but the portlet administrator has several opportunities to modify these values:

• At registration time using the Portlet Management section of the DAC, as described in Administering registered portlets.

• At page assignment time using the Portal Administration tool, as described in the chapter on administering your portal.

If the portlet definition provides an Edit mode, the portal user can modify specific preferences of the portlet registration at runtime, according to the logic of the portlet's doEdit() method.

TIP:   exteNd Director also provides a default implementation for Edit mode. If the doEdit() method is not explicitly implemented, a default preference sheet is displayed. This sheet lets the user manage preferences for a given portlet and user.

Auto-registering a portlet

All portlets that ship with exteNd Director are automatically registered. Portal administrators can enable automatic registration for any portlet by setting the <auto-register> property in the novell-portlet.xml deployment descriptor, as in this example:

  <auto-register enabled="true">
     <category>Content Management Portlets</category>
  </auto-register>

When this property is enabled, the portlet is automatically registered with the portal application and assigned to the specified categories at deployment time.

NOTE:   You cannot change the category assignments for an auto-registered portlet by modifying its <category> property in novell-portlet.xml. Instead, the portal administrator must create a new portlet registration by following Procedure for registering a portlet, then assign the desired categories as described in Assigning categories to portlet registrations.

Procedure for registering a portlet

To register a portlet definition:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet definitions, as described in Accessing portlet definitions in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet definition of interest.

   A General tab opens in the right content frame, displaying a panel at the bottom called Register New Portlet Instance:

   

   All existing registrations of the selected portlet are displayed under the definition, marked by this symbol:

   

4. In the panel's text field, enter a unique name for the portlet registration, then click Register.

   

   The portlet definition is registered with the portlet application. The name of the new definition is displayed in the left navigation frame under the portlet class.

5. If you want to modify the preferences and settings of the new portlet registration, see Administering registered portlets.

Viewing information about portlet definitions

The portal administrator can view the following information in the DAC about portlet definitions:

• Display name

• Class name

• Portlet title

• Type of execution (synchronous or asynchronous)

• Short title

• Type of registration

• Style name

• Cache expiration time

• Description

• Initialization parameters

• Keywords

• Supported mime types

• Modes supported by the portlet

• Supported locales

• Supported devices

To view information about portlet definitions:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet definitions, as described in Accessing portlet definitions in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet definition of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame, displaying information about the selected portlet definition:

   

4. Select the Additional Information tab to view more information about the selected portlet definition:

Administering registered portlets

The Portlet Management section of the DAC allows portal administrators to perform the following tasks related to registered portlets in a portlet application (also called portlet registrations):

• Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application

• Viewing information about portlet registrations

• Assigning categories to portlet registrations

• Modifying settings for portlet registrations

• Modifying preferences for portlet registrations

• Assigning security permissions for portlet registrations

• Unregistering a portlet

Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Click the Portlet Management button:

   

3. A list of all portlet applications on your server appears in the left navigation frame, as in this example:

   

4. Expand the portlet application of interest.

   A tree view appears in the left navigation frame listing all the portlet definitions in the selected portlet application:

   

5. Select the portlet definition of interest.

   All registrations of the selected portlet appear in the left navigation window under the definition. Registered portlets are marked with the symbol, as in this example:

   

Viewing information about portlet registrations

The portal administrator can view the following information in the DAC about registered portlets:

• Display name

• Class name

• Portlet title

• Type of execution (synchronous or asynchronous)

• Type of registration

• Description

To view information about portlet registrations:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet registrations, as described in Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet registration of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame, displaying information about the selected portlet registration:

   

Assigning categories to portlet registrations

A single production-quality portal can contain a large number of portlets. To facilitate searching for specific portlets in a portlet application, you can organize portlets by category.

To assign categories to portlet registrations:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet registrations, as described in Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet registration of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame.

4. Select the Categories tab.

   A list of portal categories appears. The list displays only categories that were defined for portlets and legacy components in the portlet application.

5. Choose one of these actions:

   Objective:	Action:
   Assign one or more categories to the portlet registration	Select each category you want to assign Click:
   Assign all categories to the portlet registration	Click:
   Remove one or more category assignments	Select each category you want to remove Click:
   Remove all category assignments	Click:

Modifying settings for portlet registrations

Portlet settings define how the portal interacts with individual portlets. Each portlet is configured with the same settings:

• Title

• Maximum time-out

• Requires authentication?

• Display title bar?

• Hidden from user?

• Option defined in the portlet application

Standard Java Portlet 1.0 settings are defined in portlet.xml; exteNd Director settings are defined in novell-portlet.xml.

The portal administrator can change the values of these settings on an registration by registration basis. In other words, when the portal administrator modifies settings, the new values take effect only for the selected portlet registration.

To modify portlet registration settings:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet registrations, as described in Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet registration of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame.

4. Select the Settings tab.

   A panel opens in the right content pane, listing all the settings defined for the selected portal registration along with their current values. The default values for settings are defined in the portlet definition.

5. Modify settings as desired.

   TIP:   After you modify a setting, the Reset control becomes active, allowing you to revert back to the default value at any time.

6. Click Save Settings.

Modifying preferences for portlet registrations

Portlet preferences are defined by the portlet developer at design time in the portlet deployment descriptors. Preferences vary from portlet to portlet, based on the portlet developer's implementation.

When the portal administrator modifies preferences, the new values take effect only for the selected portlet registration.

To modify portlet registration preferences:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet registrations, as described in Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet registration of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame.

4. Select the Preferences tab.

   A panel opens in the right content pane, listing all the preferences defined for the selected portal registration along with their current values. The default values for preferences are defined in the portlet definition.

5. To get more information about preferences, click the Descriptions button at the bottom of the panel

6. Modify preferences as desired.

   TIP:   After you modify a preference, the Reset control becomes active, allowing you to revert back to the default value at any time.

7. To create a localized version of the preference for each locale specified in the portlet definition, follow these steps:

   1. Click the Detail control next to the preference of interest.

      A new panel appears, displaying the current default values for the selected preference and a list of all locales defined for the portlet definition.

   2. For each locale, select Create New Localized Preference, enter localized values, and click Apply.

   3. When you have created all localized preferences, click OK to return to the main Preferences panel.

8. Click Save Preferences.

Assigning security permissions for portlet registrations

You can assign the following security permissions to users and groups for registered portlet registrations:

When you modify security permissions, the new values take effect only for the selected portlet registration.

To assign security permissions for portlet registrations:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet registrations, as described in Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet registration of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame.

4. Select the Security tab.

5. Choose the List or Execute tab, depending on what type of permission you want to assign

6. Enter the following information:

   Field	What to specify
   Search for	Select Users or Groups from the dropdown menu.
   Starts with	Enter a text string to streamline your search. Click Go.

7. Choose one of these actions:

   Objective	Action
   Assign security permission	Select one or more users (or groups) in the Results list. Click:
   Remove security permissions	Select one or more users (or groups) in the Current Assignments list. Click:
   Restrict List or Execute security permission to the portal administrator NOTE:   The portal administrator is a user assigned to the PortalAdmin administration group	Select List (or Execute) Permission is Locked Down NOTE:   When you enable this option, all other security permission assignments are ignored.

8. Click Save.

Unregistering a portlet

The following procedure shows you how to unregister a portlet.

If you want to delete the portlet from the portal application, unregistering the portlet is just one step in a larger process that is described in Deleting portlets from portal applications.

To unregister a portlet:

1. Start the DAC, as described in accessing the DAC.

2. Navigate to portlet registrations, as described in Accessing portlet registrations in the deployed portlet application.

3. Select the portlet registration of interest.

   A General panel opens in the right content frame.

4. Click Unregister Portlet.

5. If a message box appears, informing you that the portlet is auto-registered, follow these steps:

   1. Click OK to dismiss the message box and unregister the portlet.

   2. Disable auto-registration by changing the preference in the portlet fragment deployment descriptor to:

        <auto-register enabled="false"/>
      

      The portlet fragment deployment descriptor specifies the preferences and settings for a single portlet. For more information, see the section on the exteNd Director portlet fragment deployment descriptor.

      IMPORTANT:   If you do not disable auto-registration, the portlet will be registered again automatically when you restart your server.

Copyright © 2004 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 SilverStream Software, LLC. All rights reserved.  more ...