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Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Administration Guide

Chapter 4 Managing the Portal Server Desktop

This chapter describes the Sun JavaTM System Portal Server Desktop and how to manage it.

Understanding Portal Server Desktop Management

This section describes the key components of Portal Server desktop. The following topics are discussed:

Understanding the Display Profile

While installing Portal Server, you create an initial organization. The installer then imports the display profile global level document, and the default organization display profile, based on the input parameters you specify.

After that, each time you create a new organization, suborganization, or role, the display profile is not automatically loaded. However, the new organization, suborganization, or role inherits the display profile defined from its parent. If there are specific entries to the newly created organization, suborganization, or role, you must manually load the display profile.

The display profile creates the display configuration for the standard Desktop by defining the following three items:

Provider definition

Specifies the name and the Java class for the provider. A provider is a template used to generate content, which is displayed in the channel.

Channel definition

Specifies the run time configuration of an instance of the provider class. A channel is a unit of content, often arranged in rows and columns. You can also have channels of channels, called container channels.

Provider and channel property definitions

Specify the values for provider and channel properties. Properties defined in a provider usually specify default values for the channels that are derived from the provider. The display configurations for the channels include properties such as the title, description, channel width, and so on. The properties defined in the channel usually specify the specific value for that channel that is different from the default value.

Container properties define the display definition about how to display the contained channels in the container, including: the layout of the container (thin-wide, wide-thin, or thin-wide-thin); a list of the contained channels; the position of the channel (the row and column number); and the window state of the contained channels (minimized or detached).

The display profile exists only to provide property values for channels. It does not actually define the overall layout or organization of what users see on their Desktops. However, the display profile does indirectly control some aspects of channel presentation, such as column layout for a table container or how the table container draws channels in a table.

The system reports errors when you try to save a display profile document containing invalid XML. The error messages appear as a title, a message, and a sub-message. The title of the message box is “Invalid XML document.” The message appears as one of the following:

If you receive an “Invalid XML document” error, you must correct the error to be able to save the XML document.

The display document syntax is as follows:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<DOCTYPE DisplayProfile SYSTEM " jar://resources/psdp.dtd">

<DisplayProfile version="1.0" priority="xxx">
	<Properties>
	...
	</Properties>
	</Channels>
	...
	</Channels>
	<Providers>
	...
	</Providers>
</DisplayProfile>

Understanding Desktop Attributes

The Desktop merges all documents in a user's display profile merger set and uses the result to configure the user's desktop. A display profile merger set consists of all the display profile documents associated with a user. Display profiles are defined at different levels in the Portal Server organization tree. Display profile documents from the various levels of the tree are merged or combined to create the user's display profile.

For example, the user's display profile document is merged with the role display profile documents (if any), the organization's display profile document, and the global display profile document to form the user's display profile.

The Desktop display profile and other configuration data are defined as service attributes such as parent container, desktop type and edit container of the portal Desktop service under the Sun Java System Access Manager service management framework. When an organization adds for the Portal Desktop service from the Sun Java System Access Manager management console, all users within the organization inherit the Portal Desktop service attributes in their user profiles. These attributes are queried by the Portal Desktop to determine how information will be aggregated and presented in the Portal Desktop.

See Managing Desktop Attributes

Managing Portal Server Desktop Content

This section discusses how to manage the desktop content. For more information on the desktop, see Understanding the Standard Desktop in Sun Java System Portal Server 7 Technical Overview.

Administering Portlets

This section describes how to deploy and undeploy portlets, and how to modify portlet preferences.

Portlets are web applications that process requests and generate content within the context of a portal. Portlets are managed by the Portlet Container (an implementation of the Portlet Specification as defined by the JSR 168 Expert Group).

A portlet can only be deployed on a selected DN node once. If a portlet has already been deployed on the same DN node, you should undeploy the portlet and deploy it. If your require a portlet to be on multiple sub organizations or roles, then deploy the portlet on the portal global DN or the parent organization.

ProcedureTo Deploy a Portlet

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server from Portals.

  4. From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Click Deploy Portlet to start the wizard.

    1. Ensure the selected portal and selected DN are the ones where you want to deploy the portlet, and click Next.

    2. Specify a portlet war file, the roles file, and the users file.

      Note –

      The roles file and the users files are optional. The war file, the roles file, and the users file can be located either on the local machine, or on the remote portal server system.

    3. Select the button for either the local system or the remote portal server system.

      • If the upload file is from the local machine, use the browse dialog box to select the file from the local machine.

      • If the upload file is from a remote portal server system, use the file chooser dialog to choose a file from the remote machine

    4. Verify the information provided, and click Next.

    5. An information page appears when the portlet is deployed.

  6. Follow the instructions to deploy a portlet.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin deploy-portlet

ProcedureTo Undeploy a Portlet

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server from Portals.

  4. From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Click Undeploy Portlet to launch the wizard.

  6. Modify the configuration attributes as necessary.

  7. Click Undeploy to record the changes.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin undeploy-portlet

ProcedureTo Modify Portlet Preferences

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Click the Common Tasks tab, then Manage Channel and Containers from the submenu.

  3. Select a portal and the DN where the portlet is deployed.

    The navigation tree with available channels and portlets is displayed.

  4. From the navigation tree on the left frame, select the portlet channel.

    The preferences table and properties table is displayed on the right frame.

  5. In the preferences table, click Edit Values link of a preference you want to modify.

  6. In the preferences wizard, type the new value in the text field, and click OK.

    • To remove a value, select the value from the list and click Remove.

  7. When you done with modifying preferences, click Save.

  8. Click Close.

Managing Channels and Containers

This section describes how to manage portal server channels and containers from the management console.

The following topics are discussed:

Viewing Channels and Containers

The desktop for a user is rendered by starting a desktop parent container. You can customize the parent container attribute at every organization, role and user DNs. The content for a desktop at a particular DN is provided by iterating the child containers and channels that selected to be to be displayed inside the desktop parent container.

Usually, the desktop parent container contains a few tab or table containers. Each tab container under the list of selected nodes of the parent container will display a tab on the user desktop. The channels that appear under the tab are the channels inside the tab container.

The bottom left frame of the Channels and Container Management in the portal management console has two components:

Items in the View Type menu and the nodes displayed in the tree are dependent on content of the merged Display Profile XML.

The tree contains container and channel nodes. There are three types of channels that deliver content to the desktop:

You can click on any of the node links in the tree to display properties and actions on the right frame.

There are two types of items in the View Type menu:

See To View Display Profile XML Tree and Desktop Views

Display Profile XML Tree

The tree displays a complete set of channels and containers in the merged Display Profile (DP) XML. The root element in the DP XML Tree is DP_ROOT, which is the parent of all the channels and containers of the display profile. You can create a channel directly under DP_ROOT, or in a container under DP_ROOT.

The nodes listed under the DP XML Tree is not always displayed on the desktop. Some nodes in the display profile are never referenced or included in the hierarchy of the desktop container.

For example, the desktop default container JSPTabContainer has two containers, tab1 and tab2. If tab1 contains ch1 and ch2, and tab2contains ch3 and ch4, then there are five channels defined in the DP XML Tree. The DP XML Tree references ch1 to ch4 in the container hierarchy, but ch5 is not. So, only ch1 to ch4 will display on the desktop.

Desktop Views

Desktop views are top level containers available in the merged display profile. You can set each desktop views as the parent container for the desktop at the DN. When you select a desktop view, the tree provides a visual hierarchy of the channels and containers that has a role in rendering content to the desktop.

Channels and containers displayed under the desktop views have two states:

You can change the state of channels and containers in a desktop view by clicking the task link on the right frame. To display a tool tip about the state, place the mouse over a container or channel icon. The tool tip also displays the fully qualified name of the node.

ProcedureTo View Display Profile XML Tree and Desktop Views

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server under Portals, then any DN from the Select DN drop-down menu.

    • You can also select the organization from Select DN menu in the Manage Containers and Channels page.

  4. Under Tasks, click Manage Containers and Channels.

  5. From the View Type drop-down menu select DP XML Tree or a Desktop View.

Modifying Channels and Container Properties

This section discusses the properties of channels and containers, and how to modify them.

You can perform the following tasks:

Understanding Properties

The properties displayed when you click on the node in the tree are top level properties or channel level properties. These properties are defined at the provider level and you can customize these properties for a channel. However, new properties added to a channel cannot be added to the provider. This is the reason you cannot add new properties at the channel level.

The properties table displays client type and locale. There is no column to show the type of the property, however, the following convention is followed:

String

Value column has a wide text field for a maximum of 30 characters.

Integer

Value column has a narrow text field for a maximum of 5 characters.

Boolean

Value is a radio button.

Map

Name is a link.

List

Value column has an Edit Values link. Clicking this link opens a wizard to add and remove values.

Empty Collection

The name is a link showing Edit Values link. Name and value pairs may be added to an empty collection to behave like a map, and the Edit Values disappears. If values are added to an empty collection using Edit Values wizard, the collection behaves as a List and the name link disappears.

In addition to the Name and Value columns, the properties table has two more columns:

Category

Displays if the property is advanced or basic. The advanced properties generally are for experienced administrators.

State

Any property may be in three possible states:

  • Default – Value assigned at the provider.

  • Inherited – Values modified at some level above. For example, if the current node is a role, then the property may have been customized at the organization of the role. This organization may be the parent organization, or parent of the parent organization. When the property is inherited it is a link. Clicking this link shows all the possible parent nodes in the hierarchy from where this property was inherited from.

  • Customized – Value defined at this node.

There are buttons in the properties table:

Remove Customization

Removes values defined at this node from the display profile. This may result in properties to be inherited from some parent in the hierarchy if the properties are customized there. If the value has not been customized anywhere in the hierarchy, the value defined at the provider is displayed and the state will show as Default.

Save

Saves additions, deletions, and changes of value.

Reset

Ignores changes and resets values to last saved state from the data store.

Clear All Sorts

Clears all sorts.

Tip –

Table may be sorted by clicking on any column title. When you click the Name button first to sort by name, a + appears next to the Category and State buttons. Click the + to apply the next sort criteria.

Table Preferences

Sets the table preferences.

Unless modified, the client type and locale are set to default.

ProcedureTo Create a Property

From the New Property wizard you can edit the values and save. You can also add new name and value pairs.

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Under Task, click Manage Channels and Containers.

  6. Select a container in the tree on left frame to display Edit Properties page on the right frame.

  7. Click the New Property button to launch the wizard.

  8. Select the property type, and click Next.

  9. Type a Name, select a Value, and specify if the property is advanced or not.

    Note –

    Collection property behaves like a map when it contains name and value pairs. Property of type Collection can be nested. The property path above the table will change to display the current nesting and you can navigate back.

    Any trailing values are optional. For example, the value may be en or en_US, but cannot be US only. The standard Java format for specifying a locale is followed.

  10. Click Finish to create the property.

  11. Click Close to display the new property in the table.

ProcedureTo Edit a List

Collection property behaves like a List when it contains only values.

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Under Task, click Manage Channels and Containers.

  6. Select a container in the tree on left frame to display Edit Properties page on the right frame.

  7. Click the Edit Values link of a property to launch the wizard.

  8. Make your changes.

    • To add a value, type the name of the value in the New Value text box, and click Add.

    • To delete a value, select a value from the Values list, and click Remove.

  9. Click Close.

    The edit properties page will update number of values in the list.

ProcedureTo Modify Channel and Container Properties

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Under Task, click Manage Channels and Containers.

  6. Select a channel or container in the tree on left frame to display Edit Properties page on the right frame.

  7. Change the properties, and click Save.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin modify-dp

Creating and Deleting Channels and Containers

This section discusses how to create and delete channels and containers from the portal management console.

ProcedureTo Create a Channel or Container

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Under Task, click Manage Channels and Containers.

  6. Select a container in the tree on left frame to display Edit Properties page on the right frame.

  7. Under Tasks, click New Channel or Container to launch the wizard.

    In the wizard, ensure that the selected portal and selected DN is where you want to create the channel or container and click Next.

  8. Create a container or channel from the wizard.

    • To create a container, perform the following steps:

      1. Select a provider from the Container Provider drop-down menu, and click Next.

      2. Type a name in the Channel or Container Name text field, and click Next.

      3. Review your selections, and click Finish.

        A message confirms the creation of the container.

      4. Click Close

    • To create a channel, perform the following steps:

      1. Select a channel type.

        Select a channel from the following three types:

        • If you select Provider Channel, a list of provider channels are displayed.

        • If you select JSR 168 Portlet Channel, a list of portlet channels are displayed.

        • If you select WSRP Remote Portlet Channel, select the registered producer and the remote portlet from the drop-down menu.

      2. Type a name in the Channel or Container Name text field, and click Next.

      3. Review your selections, and click Finish.

        A message confirms the creation of the channel.

      4. Click Close.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin add-dp

ProcedureTo Delete a Channel or Container

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Under Tasks, click Manage Channels and Containers.

  6. Select a container in the tree on left frame to display Edit Properties page on the right frame.

  7. Under Tasks, click Select Channels or Containers to Delete.

  8. Under Type, select Channel or Container.

    Available channels and containers are displayed.

  9. Select a channel or container, and click Delete.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin remove-dp

Creating a Tab

This section describes how to create a tab form the portal server management console.

ProcedureTo Create a Tab

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select ay DN.

  5. Under Tasks, click Manage Channels and Containers.

  6. From the tree on the left frame, select a tab container.

  7. Under Tasks in the right frame, click New Tab to launch the wizard.

Displaying Channels and Containers

This section discusses how to display channels and containers on the end-user Desktop. Channels and containers can also be made available on the content page so that the end user can select them to display on the Desktop.

ProcedureTo Display Channels and Containers on Desktop

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal from Portals.

  4. Under Tasks, click Manage Containers and Channels.

  5. Select a container in the tree on left frame to display Edit Properties page on the right frame.

  6. Under Tasks, click Show or Hide Channels and Containers on Portal Desktop.

  7. Under Ready For Use, select a channel or container.

  8. Using the Add button, move the channels to appear on the Content Page or Portal Desktop.

    • Using the Remove button, you can move the channels or containers back to Ready For Use.

  9. Click Save.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin modify-dp.

Managing Desktop Attributes

This section discusses how to manage Desktop attributes. For more information, see Understanding Desktop Attributes.

Desktop attributes for the top level organization is different from different levels of the organization tree. You can change the location bar to TopLevel to see global Desktop attributes, and then select other distinguished names for organization or role Desktop attributes.

ProcedureTo Set Up Desktop Attributes

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server under Portals, then Desktop.

  4. From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Modify the configuration attributes as necessary under Desktop Attributes.

    The following options are available:

    COS Priority

    Sets the conflict resolution level for the Desktop service template used to resolve conflicts when multiple Desktop templates are merged. This attribute applies only to Organizations and Roles and doesn't apply to Users and Global DN.

    Parent Container

    Identifies which default container is rendered when the Desktop is called with an unspecified provider. The value for the Parent Container can be one of the containers which is defined as a TopLevelContainer that can draw a header and footer on the portal page. A container is a Top Level container if the display profile property TopLevel is set to true.

    Edit Container

    Specifies which default edit container to use to wrap the content when one is not specified in the URL. This container will be used by the parent container to draw the edit pages when the edit link is clicked on the channel title bar.

    Desktop Type

    The comma separated list used by the Desktop lookup operation when searching for templates and JSPs. The lookup starts at the first element in the list and each element represents a sub directory under the Desktop template base directory. e.g., "sampleportal,foo" in which case the lookup would be sampleportal directory, foo directory, default directory in that order.

    Desktop Attributes

    Specifies whether the Desktop attributes are displayed to the users associated with the role. This dynamic attribute is mainly used for role-based delegated administration in administration tag library. This attribute enabled to show, allows the delegated administrators to administer channels/containers inherited from the parent organizations. This attribute applies only to Organizations and Roles.

    Display Profile Priority

    Sets the priority of the display profile document. Display profile documents are merged from low priority to high priority. A lower number represents a lower priority. For example, a 1 is a lower priority than a 2. High priority documents override values set in lower priority documents using merge semantics (unless a lower priority document has locked the object for merging).

    Note –

    The display profile priority is not stored as Desktop service attribute.

    The following attributes apply only to Global (top level) DN.

    XML Parsing Validation

    Enables the validation for XML parsing.

    Federation

    Enables Identity Federation so that a user can associate, connect or bind multiple internet service providers, local identities, enabling them to have one network identity.

    Hosted Provider ID

    Specifies the unique identifier of the host that provides the network identity of a user.

    Session Reap Interval

    Specifies the session reap interval in seconds.

    Session Idle Time

    Specifies the idle time in seconds after which the session is terminated.

    Maximum Number of Client Sessions

    Specifies the maximum number of client sessions allowed at any given time.

    Anonymous Desktop

    When enabled, allows anonymous Desktop for the selected portal.

    Anonymous Access for Federated Users

    Prevents users with a network identity on a hosted provided to access the portal Desktop by providing a user name and password.

    Valid UIDs for Anonymous Desktop

    List of User IDs authorized to access the Desktop without authenticating.

  6. Click Save to record the changes.

    Otherwise, click Reset to undo any edits.

    Note –

    To modify global attributes, Change the DN in the location bar drop-down to TopLevel.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin undeploy-portlet

Administering the Display Profile

This section describes how to manage the Sun Java System Portal Server display profile. For more information, see Understanding the Display Profile.

You can perform the following tasks from the portal management console:

ProcedureTo Download a Display Profile

You can download the display profile to a file.

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server under Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Click Download Display Profile under Tasks.

    The browser's download window pops up.

  6. Select a location and Click Save.

    Note –

    This step may vary from browser to browser.

For equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin get-attribute

ProcedureTo Upload a Display Profile

You can upload the display profile to a file.

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server under Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Click Upload Display Profile under Tasks.

  6. Choose a display profile file to upload using the Browse button.

    Note –

    The file should be located on local machine based on the user's browser settings.

  7. Click Upload.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin modify-dp.

ProcedureTo Remove a Display Profile

  1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

  2. Select the Portals tab.

  3. Select a portal server under Portals.

  4. From Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

  5. Click Remove Display Profile under Tasks.

  6. Click OK in the warning dialog box to confirm deletion.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin remove-dp