6.10 Troubleshooting Page Creation

I selected a navigation page for my page banner, but the one provided by the template appears instead.

When you apply a Portal Template to a page, this discards any navigation page you selected for a page banner. The assumption is such page elements are always provided by the template.

If you must use the navigation page you selected, then you must either add it to the template or add it as a portlet to the page after the page is created. For information about adding portlets to pages, see Section 15.1, "Adding a Portlet to a Page". For information about templates, see Chapter 12, "Providing a Standard Look and Feel".

Another approach is to use an HTML page skin, which enables you to add HTML around the body of a page. The page's original banner continues to display because it is part of the body of the page. The page skin wraps around the body. For more information on HTML page skins, see Chapter 12, "Providing a Standard Look and Feel".

When I click the Refresh link on a portal page, I get an error message and the page does not refresh.

The page definition may be cached at the system level. When this is the case, the same page definition data is retrieved from cache for all users. For this reason, links on the page that are normally viewed only by authorized users will also be displayed to all users authorized to view the page. However, users can still perform only those actions for which they are authorized, that is, for which they have the appropriate access privileges. When users click a link to a page or function on which they are not authorized, they see an error message and cannot open the link's target.

In this case, the Refresh link refreshes the page by regenerating it from the database—a task available only to authorized users. Try clicking the refresh link on your browser to achieve your desired effect.

My page is taking too long to render.

Check the setting for Page Assembly Timeout on the Main tab of page properties. If the option Wait For All Portlets to Return Before Displaying the Page is selected, it could be that some of the portlets on your page are slow to render. In this case, the entire page rendering is held up until the portlets are assembled and ready to display.

To test this, select the option Limit Time Fetching Portlets to [ ] Seconds, and set a low value. With this selection, page rendering takes place, whether or not all portlets are ready to render, within the specified time limit. Portlets render when ready. If the page renders more quickly, consider making this a permanent change.

If this does not improve page performance, review the page's caching selection. If the page is based on a template, review the template's caching selection. Perhaps the page will benefit from performance tuning. For more information on caching and performance tuning, see Chapter 21, "Improving Page Performance". Template caching options are discussed in Chapter 12, "Providing a Standard Look and Feel".

When I edit a page, I am not given the option to select a style for the page.

If the page is based on a Portal Template that does not allow privileged users to choose their own page style, the style selection screen does not display when you create a page, and the Style tab does not display when you edit a page. If you have sufficient access to the template, you can edit the template and select Enable Pages To Use Different Style on the Style tab of template properties. Once this setting is selected, the Style tab displays in page properties.

Another possibility is that the page group that owns the page is not configured to allow privileged users to manage a page style. This option is available on the Main tab of page group properties. It must be selected for users to select a style for any pages in the page group.

When I edit a page, I am not given the option to specify access settings.

The page may be based on a Portal Template that does not allow the pages based on it to have access rules other than those provided by the template. If this is the case, the page access screen does not display when you create the page, and the Access tab does not display when you edit the page.

If you have sufficient access to the template, you can edit the template and select Enable Pages to Have Different Access on the Access tab of template properties. Once this option is selected, the Access tab displays in page properties for pages that are based on the template.

I want to create a sub-page, but I don't see the Create Sub-Pages link in the page toolbar when I edit the page.

You must have at least the page privilege Manage on a page to be able to add sub-pages to it. Ask the page owner or the page group administrator for a higher level of privilege on the page.

Is there some special trick to publishing a page?

No. Display the page in View mode. Copy the URL from your browser's address bar, and send it to users. Public pages display to any users who enter the URL in their browser address bars. Secure pages will first invoke a login screen, in which users must enter their user name and password before they can access the page.

I want to create a particular type of page, but I don't see it in the selection list; additionally, I don't see the Configure link next to the Page Type list that is mentioned in the documentation.

These two issues may actually be one: your privilege level on the page group must be raised to allow for the selection of additional page types. Once you have at least the page group privilege Manage All, you can perform such tasks.

My page display name is not accepting 256 characters.

The character value discussed in the documentation is equivalent to bytes. If you are entering multibyte characters, the allowable number of characters is reduced to whatever amount is equal to 256 bytes.