Adding Content to the Desktop Using Channels

Portal administrators can add content to the Portal Desktop by adding provider and portlet channels. The following procedures discuss how to create a channel, modify it’s properties, add it to the desktop and then verify that it is being displayed.

Suppose you want to create a channel, named MyChannel, that displays content from an external web page (for example, http://www.google.com). You use the following procedures:

• Creating a URLScraper Channel

• Editing the Channel Properties

• Verifying that the URLScraper Channel Displays on the Desktop

Creating a URLScraper Channel

To Create a URLScraper Channel

The following steps show how to create a URLScraper channel. The same steps can be followed to create other Provider based and Portlet based channels.

Steps

1. Login to the Portal Server management console as administrator (amadmin).

2. Click the Portals tab.

3. Click the Portal-ID in the Portals list.

4. Select Enterprise Sample [Org] in the Select DN list.

5. Click Manage Containers and Channels.

   By default, the View Type is set to ASCTabContainer [Default].

6. Click NewsContainer.

7. Click New Channel or Container in the NewsContainer page.

8. In the New Channel or Container wizard, specify the following and click Close after the channel or container has been successfully created.

   1. Select Portal: portal-ID, DN: Enterprise Sample [Org], and Type: Channel and click Next.

   2. Select radio button Provider Channel for Channel Type and click Next.

   3. Select the URLScraperProvider from the Provider drop down list

   4. Specify Channel or Container Name (for example, MyChannel) in the text field and click Next.

   5. Review the settings and click Finish.

      The channel is now available and visible in the Enterprise Sample News tab and by default, is set to be available and selected.

Editing the Channel Properties

To Edit the Channel Properties

Steps

1. Click MyChannel under the NewsContainer.

2. In the MyChannel tasks and properties page, edit the following properties:

   url

   Change this property to a valid URL such as http://www.google.com.

   title

   Change this property value to the title you want to display on the channel title bar. For example, My Channel.

   description

   Change this property value to a small description of the channel. For example, This is a test channel.

3. Click Save.

Verifying that the URLScraper Channel Displays on the Desktop

To Verify that the URLScraper Channel Displays on the Desktop

After you have added the channel to your desktop, verify that it is visible.

Steps

1. Access the Enterprise Sample anonymous portal.

2. Login as mary with the password mary.

   The MyChannel displays in the center column.