Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Technical Reference

JSPTabContainer

The JSPTabContainer provides a JSP-based tabbed Desktop.

Sample Desktop

Default Layout

By default, the sample portal Desktop based on the JSPTabContainer includes five tabs, My Front Page, Samples, Search, Collaboration, and Sample Portlet. In the figure below, the channels are shown in numbers.

Figure 37–1 Sample Desktop Based on JSPTabContainer

Sample Desktop Based on JSPTabContainer

Default Actions

The sample JSPTabContainer channel, by default, includes:

Default Display Profile Settings

The provider responsible for generating the JSPTabContainer channel is JSPTabContainerProvider. The provider profile is the template which decides the properties for a container channel, but the container channel profile will ultimately decide the values for the container channel attributes.

The properties that make up JSPTabContainer work as follows by default.

contentPage

Set to tab.jsp. This draws the Content Page for the tab container.

editPage

Set to tabedit.jsp. This displays the Edit page for the tab container where new tabs can be added, and existing tabs removed or renamed.

startTab

Sets the tab that opens first on the Desktop as MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer.

maxTabs

Allows six tabs to be created. As there are currently five tabs, one more can be added.

makeTabProvider

Used when creating a new tab from scratch.

channelNumber

Specifies that a number is appended to a newly created tab as the channel name. This number is increased each time a new tab is created, so that the new tab will have unique name. For example, to create a new tab based on MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer in JSPTabContainer, the new tab channel name would be JSPTabContainer/MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer1. (The new tab name is actually the channelName property in the display profile plus the value of the channelNumber property. The channelNumber is incremented by one each time a new tab is created.)

contentChannel

Specifies JSPContentContainer as the content channel that provides the Content page displaying channels to add to a user-created tab.

presetThemeChannel

Specifies JSPPresetThemeContainer as the channel that is displayed in the Theme - Preset Theme page.

customThemeChannel

Specifies JSPCustomThemeContainer as the channel that is displayed in the Theme - Custom Theme page.

TabProperties

This collection has <Collection name=> entries for each of the available tab defined in JSPTabContainer.

Available

This list describes all available channels for this container. The available channels are displayed in the Content Preference page for users to select from.

Selected

This list describes selected channels for this container. Only selected channels are displayed on the Desktop.

JSPTabContainer Architecture

Figure 38–2 shows the JSPTabContainer architecture. In this figure, tab.jsp is the top-level JSP file. The tab.jsp file makes include calls to the header.jsp, availableTabs.jsp, menubar.jsp, and footer.html files. The availableTabs.jsp file makes an include call to the selectedTab.jsp and tabs.jsp files.

Figure 37–2 JSPTabContainer Architecture

JSPTabContainer Architecture

JSP Files Used by JSPTabContainer

The Portal Server 7.1 software uses JSP files for a channel’s presentation layer. JSPTabContainer references two main JSPs, tab.jsp and tabedit.jsp, through the contentPage and editPage properties.

Content template is responsible for the front page of the container channel and the file name for the tab container channel is tab.jsp. The tab.jsp file extensively uses the Desktop taglibs.

The Edit page is where you can add, remove, and rename tabs. The tabedit.jsp is used to display this page.