Portal Guide

CHAPTER 3

Working with Portal Pages

This chapter explains how to use portal pages to personalize content in your portal applications. It covers the following topics:

 
Top of page

About portal pages

Portal pages are customizable pages that you can include in Portal applications to present information tailored to your end-user audience. exteNd Director provides Web-based utilities for creating custom portal pages:

Name of utility

Description

Reference

Portal Personalizer

Lets any portal user create personal pages with personalized content and layout

Chapter on Personalizing Your Portal

Portal Administration tool

Lets portal administrators create:

  • Container pages, used for branding corporate sites

  • Shared pages, used for sharing common information among users and groups

Chapter on Administering the Portal

Each utility provides a graphical user interface to help you build portal pages using portlet technology with minimal if any Java programming required.

In addition, exteNd Director supplies a set of prebuilt portlets that provide out-of-the-box functions to add to your portal pages for rapid development and testing of application logic.

When you need to take a more specialized approach, you can develop your own portlets using the following tools:

For more information    For more information about these tools see the chapter on developing portlets.

For more information    For more information about portlets, see the chapter about portlets.

 
Top of page

Types of portal pages

exteNd Director supports several types of portal pages:

Type

Description

Reference

Container page

Page that wraps shared and personal pages with a consistent look and feel

Container pages often are used for branding Web sites with a corporate identity

See Working with Container pages.

Shared page

Page that provides content that can be shared among users and groups

See Working with Shared pages.

Personal page

Private pages with personalized content for individual users

See Working with Personal pages.

Because each type of page can be bound selectively to users and groups in an organization, portal pages are useful for building intranet sites and other portal applications that require personalized content.

 
Top of section

How page types interact

When you view a portal page, you see content that is aggregated from your container page and the associated shared or personal page, as described in How content is determined for the current user.

Container pages and shared pages provide the mechanisms for branding all content in an organization with a standard look and feel.

Typically, portal administrators use container pages to brand—or wrap—personal pages and shared pages with a corporate identity and with controls for navigating the portal. exteNd Director provides several system portlets to support this functionality:

For more information    For more information, see Working with Container pages and the chapter on system portlets for portal pages.

Administrators use shared pages to disseminate content that is meant to be shared by specific users in an organization. For more information, see Working with Shared pages.

 
Top of section

Default portal pages

The portal administrator must define at least one container page for each portal application. exteNd Director ships with a container page and shared page, which are designated in web.xml as the portal's default pages, as follows:

  <context-param>
  	 <param-name>PortalDefaultContainerPage</param-name>
  	 <param-value>DefaultContainerPage</param-value>
  	 <description>The name of the portal's default container page. A container page is the page he portal uses to display User and Shared pages.</description>
  </context-param>
  <context-param>
  	 <param-name>PortalDefaultSharedPage</param-name>
  	 <param-value>DefaultSharedPage</param-value>
  	 <description>The name of the default shared page.</description>
  </context-param>

As portal administrators create new container and shared pages, they can change these settings to designate their own pages as defaults for the portal.

Users can modify the default container and shared pages for their own portal sessions by using the Portal Personalizer tool, as described in the chapter on personalizing your portal.

IMPORTANT:   As shipped, the default container and shared pages do not require authentication and, therefore, are available to all users. It is recommended that portal administrators NOT lock down or delete these default pages to ensure that all users are able to access the portal.

When you log in to the portal for the first time, you see a default portal page that aggregates the content of the default container page and default shared page.

Default portal page for administrators   If you are a portal administrator or locksmith user, you'll see this default portal page when you first log in to the portal:

pgDefaultPortalPageAdminAnnot

Note that the page includes content designed for portal administrators, including a link to the Portal Administration tool, a utility for creating container and shared pages described in the chapter titled administering the portal.

Default portal page for non-administrators   If you are not a portal administrator or locksmith user, you'll see this default portal page when you first log in to the portal:

pgDefaultPortalPageUserAnnot

Note that the page includes content designed for users who are not administrators, including a link to the Portal Personalizer tool, a utility for creating personal pages (described in the chapter titled Personalizing Your Portal).

 
Top of page

How content is determined for the current user

The exteNd Director Portal provides a Portal Aggregator to render content for the user in the current session. The content rendered is the aggregate of content from the user's container page, and associated personal or shared page.

For example, the following diagram shows how the Portal determines the content to display for a sample container page configuration:

pgTypicalAggregatePage2

In this example, a portal administrator configures a container page with a Header-Navigation-Content layout and three system portlets:

When a user selects the link to My Personal Page from the navigation frame of this container page at runtime, a render request is generated. The Portal responds to the request by:

  1. Determining the user's current container page

  2. Determining the selected personal or shared page—in this case, My Custom Page

    NOTE:   My Custom Page contains four portlets: Sample Message, My Bookmarks, Stock Quote, and Weather Service.

  3. Aggregating content as follows:

    1. Gets the content generated by the Page Header portlet on the user's current container page and displays it in the Header frame

    2. Gets the content generated by the Page Navigation portlet on the user's current container page and displays it in the Navigation frame

    3. Gets the content generated by the portlets on My Personal Page and displays it via the Portal Page Controller portlet in the Content frame.

For more information    To learn more about content aggregation logic, see Determining the container page and Determining the current shared or personal page.

 
Top of section

Determining the container page

When the user makes a request to the Portal, the Portal determines which container page should be displayed, using the following logic:

pgPortalContainerFlow

As the flow diagram shows, the Portal Aggregator checks for the following container pages:

Container page

Description

Current

Container page selected by the user in the current session

User default

Default container page set by the user in the Portal Personalizer, as described in the chapter on personalizing your portal.

First available

First container page assigned to the user

Portal default

The default container page defined in your project's web.xml file as PortalDefaultContainerPage. Here is a sample descriptor:

<context-param>
  <param-name>PortalDefaultContainerPage</param-name>
  <param-value>DefaultContainerPage</param-value>
  <description>Portal's default container page.</description>
</context-param>

 
Top of section

Determining the current shared or personal page

After determining the container page for the current user, the Portal Aggregator uses the following logic to determine which shared or personal page to display in the content area of the container page:

pgPortalUserSharedFlow

As the flow diagram shows, the Portal Aggregator checks for the following shared or personal pages:

Page

Description

Current

Shared or personal page selected by the user in the current session

User default

Default shared or personal page set by the user in the Portal Personalizer, as described in Personalizing Your Portal.

Container default

Default shared page assigned to a container page by the portal administrator in the Portal Administration tool, as described in Administering the Portal.

First available page

First shared or personal page assigned to the user

Portal default shared

The default shared page defined in your project's web.xml file as PortalDefaultSharedPage. Here is a sample descriptor:

<context-param>
   <param-name>PortalDefaultSharedPage</param-name>
   <param-value>DefaultSharedPage</param-value>
   <description>Portal's default shared page.</description>
</context-param>

 
Top of page

Working with Container pages

Container pages are the conduits for displaying shared and personal pages with content suitable for particular groups of users. Administrators create container pages with images, logos, text, and navigation controls to brand the portal with a corporate identity.

Every portal application requires that at least one container page is defined. exteNd Director ships with a default container page, as described in Default container page.

Container pages must be defined by a portal administrator—that is, a user who is a member of the PortalAdmin group. The administrator uses the Portal Administration tool to:

Container pages are not tightly bound to layouts. That means portal administrators can switch layouts for container pages without disrupting the page contents. When the administrator applies a new layout to a page, any previously selected portlets are automatically displayed using the new layout.

For more information    To learn how to use the Portal Administration tool to create container pages, see the chapter on administering the portal.

 
Top of section

Building blocks

The portal administrator can build container pages with system portlets supplied with exteNd Director or with custom portlets. System portlets provide the following out-of-the-box functions:

Container page function:

Provided by:

Required?

Designate a content area

Portal Page Controller portlet

Yes

Navigate available pages in your portal

Page Navigation portlet or Page Header portlet

No, but recommended

Customize page headers

Page Header portlet

No

IMPORTANT:   You must add one Portal Page Controller portlet to every container page to designate an area for displaying the content of shared pages or personal pages.

For more information    For more information about these portlets, see System Portlets for Portal Pages.

 
Top of section

Required content area

The portal administrator must add one Portal Page Controller portlet to every container page to designate an area for displaying the content of a shared or personal page. If this portlet does not appear on a container page, the Portal cannot render the content of shared pages or personal pages on the container page.

For more information    To learn how to add system portlets to container pages, see the chapter on administering the portal.

 
Top of section

Commonly used layouts for container pages

exteNd Director provides pre-built layouts that can be used on all portal pages. This section describes the layouts that are most commonly used for container pages. Portal administrators can change these layouts at any time without losing content.

For more information    To learn how to apply page layouts, see the chapter on working with portal layouts.

Header Nav Content layout

As its name suggests, the Header Nav Content layout provides header, navigation, and content frames. In addition to adding custom portlets to this layout, the portal administrator can add system portlets as follows:

pgContainerLayoutHNC

For more information    For more information, see System Portlets for Portal Pages.

Header Content layout

The Header Content layout provides header and content frames. In addition to adding custom portlets to this layout, the portal administrator can add system portlets as follows:

pgContainerLayoutHC

In this layout, you can enable navigation functionality in the Page Header portlet by setting its navigation-display preference to true.

For more information    For more information, see System Portlets for Portal Pages.

 
Top of section

Default container page

exteNd Director ships with a default container page. When you log in to the portal for the first time, the default container page is displayed:

pgDefaultContainerPage

As you can see, the default container page displays the content of the default shared page Corporate Home in its content frame.

This page is designated in web.xml as the default container page for exteNd Director portal applications. Here is the descriptor:

  <context-param>
    <param-name>PortalDefaultContainerPage</param-name>
    <param-value>DefaultContainerPage</param-value>
    <description>Portal's default container page.</description>
  </context-param>

The administrator can modify the contents and layout of the default container page and change the portal default by editing the PortalDefaultContainerPage parameter in the application's web.xml file.

 
Top of page

Working with Shared pages

Shared pages provide content to be shared by multiple users. Shared pages must be created by the portal administrator—that is, any user who belongs to the PortalAdmin group.

Shared pages are designed to work with container pages. Typically, a portal administrator creates container pages that provide links to the shared pages you are authorized to access and display the content of shared pages you select.

For more information    For more information about how container pages work with shared pages, see How content is determined for the current user and Working with Container pages.

The administrator uses the Portal Administration tool to specify the contents and layout of shared pages and to assign shared pages to users and groups. There are two types of permissions for shared page access:

Share page permission

What it allows

View

User can access the shared page, but not modify its content or layout.

Ownership

User can access and modify the content and layout of the shared page.

Shared pages are not tightly bound to layouts. That means page owners can switch layouts for their pages without disrupting the page contents. When the owner applies a new layout to a page, any previously selected portlets are automatically displayed using the new layout.

For more information    For more information about using the Portal Administration tool for creating shared pages, see the chapter on administering the portal.

 
Top of section

Ownership of shared pages

The portal administrator can designate any number of users and/or groups as owners of a shared page. Owners can modify the content and layout of shared pages, and assign of shared pages to users and groups. When multiple owners make changes to a shared page, the last set of edits prevails.

 
Top of section

Modifying preferences of portlet registrations on shared pages

Portal administrators and shared page owners can modify portlet preferences on shared pages using the Portal Administration tool, as described in the chapter on administering the portal.

At runtime, any user with access to a shared page can modify the preferences of portlet registrations that have been added to that page if:

 
Top of section

Shared page hierarchies

The portal administrator can use the Portal Administration tool to assign a parent page to any shared page. The parent must also be a shared page. When the Page Navigation portlet displays links to shared pages that have parents, the children appear indented under the parent page as a visual indicator of the relationship.

Child pages do not inherit content, preferences, or settings from their parent pages. Conversely, parent pages do not automatically display the content of child pages along with their own content.

Creating shared page hierarchies is helpful for grouping pages, especially when there are a large number of pages in the list of available shared pages.

NOTE:   Portal administrators and locksmith users are authorized to access every shared page defined for a portal. Therefore, when logging in as the portal administrator or locksmith user, be aware that the number of available shared pages in a navigation or selection list will be extremely long.

For more information    To learn how to assign parents to shared pages, see the chapter on administering the portal.

 
Top of section

Default shared page

exteNd Director ships with a default shared page called Corporate Home:

pgDefaultSharedPage

This page is designated in web.xml as the default shared page for exteNd Director portal applications. Here is the descriptor:

  <context-param>
     <param-name>PortalDefaultSharedPage</param-name>
     <param-value>Corporate Home</param-value>
     <description>Portal's default shared page.</description>
  </context-param>

When you log in to the portal for the first time, the default shared page is displayed in the content area of the default container page. The administrator can modify the contents and layout of the default shared page and change the portal default by editing the PortalDefaultSharedPage parameter in the application's web.xml file.

 
Top of page

Working with Personal pages

Personal pages can be created by any portal user to show personalized content. Each personal page is private and can be accessed only by the creator. Portal users can create any number of personal pages by using the Portal Personalizer to specify page contents and layout. You can place multiple instances of any registered portlet on a single personal page.

For more information    For complete details on using the Portal Personalizer to create personal pages, see the chapter on personalizing your portal.

Personal pages are not tightly bound to 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 portlets are automatically displayed using the new layout.

 
Top of page

URLs for accessing portal pages

exteNd Director provides URLs for accessing container pages, shared pages, and personal pages directly, and displaying them in your browser.

NOTE:   Portal page URLs are case-sensitive.

 
Top of section

URL for container pages

You can use the following URL to access container pages on your server:

  http://server/project context/portal/cn/container page name

For example, if your server is localhost and your project context is MyWAR, you can access the default container page by entering this URL in your browser:

  http://localhost/MyWAR/portal/cn/DefaultContainerPage

The exteNd DirectorPortal responds to a container page URL request by displaying the aggregate of content from the requested container page along with content from the associated shared or personal page, as described in How content is determined for the current user.

You can instruct the Portal to display the content of a specific shared or personal page with your container page by using these URLs:

To request:

Use this URL:

Shared page

  http://server/project context/portal/cn/container page name/shared page name
  

Example:

  http://localhost/MyWAR/portal/cn/MyContainerPage/MySharedPage

Personal page

  http://server/project context/portal/cn/container page name/up_personal page name
  

Example:

  http://localhost/MyWAR/portal/cn/MyContainerPage/up_MyUserPage

 
Top of section

URL for shared pages

You can use the following URL to access shared pages on your server:

  http://server/project context/portal/pg/shared page name

For example, if your server is localhost and your project context is MyWAR, you can access the default shared page by entering this URL in your browser:

  http://localhost/MyWAR/portal/pg/DefaultSharedPage

 
Top of section

URL for personal pages

You can use the following URL to access personal pages on your server:

  http://server/project context/portal/pg/up_personal page name

For example, if your server is localhost and your project context is MyWAR, you can access a personal page called MyUserPage by entering this URL in your browser:

  http://localhost/MyWAR/portal/pg/up_MyUserPage

 
Top of page

Categorizing pages

The portal administrator can assign categories to shared and container pages to filter access to content within access control lists (ACLs). See Working with Page Categories.



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