13.4 Adding a Navigation Page to a Page

To provide consistent navigation throughout a page group, you can create a navigation page and add it to every page in the page group (or to a Portal Template).

To add a navigation page to a page or a template, the navigation page must be published as a portlet. You'll find information on publishing a navigation page as a portlet in the previous section (Section 13.3). For information on creating a navigation page, see Section 13.2, "Creating or Copying a Navigation Page".

Keep in mind that any Smart Link on the navigation page always renders within the context of the containing page. This is true even when the navigation page is exposed on a page that is published through the Page portlet. For example, add an Edit Smart Link to the Accounts Navigation Page. Place the Accounts Navigation Page on the Blakewell Account Page. Click the Edit link, and the Blakewell Account Page displays in Edit mode. Now place a Page portlet on the General Accounts Page, and publish the Blakewell Account Page through the Page portlet. Click the Edit link in the Accounts Navigation Page. This will render the General Accounts Page (and not the Blakewell Account Page) in Edit mode.

The same is true when you place a Smart Text item on a navigation page. For example, add the Smart Text item, Current Page to a navigation page. Place the navigation page on a page named Human Resources. The Smart Text item displays Human Resources. Publish the Human Resources page as a portlet, then place the portlet on a page named Research and Development. The Smart Text item rendered in the portlet is Research and Development, rather than its original Human Resources. The Smart Text item is rendering within the context of the containing page (Research and Development).

To add a navigation page to a page:

  1. Log in to Oracle Portal.

  2. Click the Build tab to bring it forward.

  3. From the Page Groups portlet Work In drop-down list, select the page group that owns the page on which to add a navigation page.

    By default, the Page Groups portlet is located on the Build tab of the Portal Builder page.

  4. Under the Pages heading in the Layout & Appearance section, click the link to the relevant page.

    This opens the page in Edit mode.

  5. Click the Add Portlet icon in the region to contain the navigation page (Figure 13-3).

    Figure 13-3 The Add Portlet Icon

    Add Portlet icon

    This takes you to the Portlet Repository.

  6. In the Portlet Repository, enter the name of the navigation page in the Search field and click Go.

    Alternatively, if you know the navigation page's page group, click the Published Portal Content node and then the page group's name under this node to locate the navigation page portlet.

  7. In the Portlet Repository Search Results, click the navigation page name to move it to the Selected Portlets list.

  8. Click OK to return to the page.

    Tip:

    You might want to edit the properties of the region that hosts the navigation page. For example, you may want to change the region width to improve the way the navigation page looks on the page. To edit region properties, click the Edit Region icon associated with the relevant region. For more information, see Section 10.2, "Configuring Region Display Options".