Configuring Custom Portlet Templates

The Configure Portlet Template Wizard enables content administrators to create customized published content portlet templates that community managers can use to create published content portlets. This feature provides the portlet creator with the ability to create published content portlets that fit a greater range of needs than is provided by the delivered published content portlet templates (Announcement, Community Directory, and News) and branding portlet templates (Content Canvas, Header, Footer).

This chapter provides an overview of published content portlet templates and discusses how to create and configure published content portlet templates:

About Published Content Portlet Templates

A published content portlet template comprises the objects in a Publisher folder that get copied when a portlet is created from the portlet template. Creating a published content portlet template therefore requires that you:

Create the Publisher objects (folders, content items, Data Entry Templates, Presentation Templates) that will be copied to create portlets. These objects comprise, in essence, a master portlet that will be copied (and modified) whenever a portlet is created from the template. You accomplish this using the Publisher Explorer.
Specify the way the Configure Portlet Wizard presents the template for portlet creation, and set defaults (such as security defaults) that will be inherited by portlets created from the portlet template. You accomplish this using the Portlet Template Editor and the Configure Portlet Template Wizard.

Publisher provides three delivered published content portlet templates and three branding portlet templates that you can configure to meet your organization's particular needs, using the Configure Portlet Template Wizard. These portlet templates also provide a useful starting point for understanding how to create your own portlet templates.

Creating and Configuring Published Content Portlet Templates

This section discusses prerequisites for creating published content portlet templates and includes the following topics:

Prerequisites

If your portlet template requires any of the following, you must also create these before you create the portlet template:

Note that, although it is typical to have all of a portlet template's content items, Data Entry Templates, and Presentation Templates included in the same portlet template folder, this is not required. You may choose, for example, to use the same header or footer Presentation Template for a number of portlet templates; as long you associate the Presentation Template with the portlet template when you configure the portlet template, the Presentation Template need not be placed in the portlet template folder.

Accessing the Configure Portlet Template Wizard

Click Administration.
Select a folder and, in the Create Object drop-down list, choose Portlet Template to access the Portlet Template Editor.
On the Main Settings page, in the Web Service area, click Browse to the right of Web Service to access the Choose Web Service dialog box.
In the Choose Web Service dialog box, select Published Content web service.
On the Main Settings page, Web Service area, click the Edit button to the right of Configure this Portlet to access the Configure Portlet Template Wizard.

Using the Main Settings Page

To configure portlet templates and make them available for portlet creation using the Configure Portlet Template Wizard:

On the Configure Portlet Template - Main Settings page, click Browse to the right of Folder to select the folder for the portlet template.
Click Browse to the right of Portlet Item to select the main content item (the item that appears as the view or entry-point to the portlet on the portal page) for the portlet template.
(Optional) Click Browse to the right of Default Save to Location for Portlets to choose the folder in which new portlets created from this portlet template will be saved by default. Users can override this selection when they create a portlet.
If you have no additional properties or preferences to add to the template, you can click Finish to save and publish the portlet template. However, you might want to specify more advanced settings. For those settings, use the Advanced Settings, Object Categories, Template Security and Portlet Security pages in the wizard.

Note:

After you click Finish in the Configure Portlet Template Wizard, you must also click Finish and save the portlet template in the Portlet Template Editor to make the template available for portlet creation.

Using the Advanced Settings Page

Use the Advanced Settings page to enable users to specify workflow and security when they create portlets from the portlet template and to choose whether to allow community owners to customize portlets created from the portlet template.

In the Configure Portlet Template Wizard, click Advanced Settings to access the Configure Portlet Template - Advanced Settings page.
Under Portlet Editor Options, Security Folder, click Browse to select the folder that users will use to specify Publisher security when they create a portlet from the template. Users will be able to override inherited security settings for this folder.

For more information on overriding and specifying Publisher security for portlet folders and subfolders, see Setting Publisher Security for Published Content Portlets.

Under Portlet Editor Options, Workflow Folder, click Browse to select the folder that users will use to specify workflow assignments when they create a portlet from the template. Users will be able to override inherited workflow settings for this folder.
Under Customization Rights, choose whether to Allow Community Owners to customize the portlet? Choosing this option enables users with edit rights for a community to customize certain portlet properties in that community only. Enter instructions for community owners to explain why or how the portlet can be customized for the community. These instructions will appear on the Community Preferences page when a user clicks Portlet Preferences in the Community Editor and selects the edit icon next to the portlet name.

For more information on the Community Preferences page in the Community Editor, see the Administrator Guide for AquaLogic Interaction and the online help.

Using the Object Categories Page

To specify the Publisher objects (Data Entry Templates, Presentation Templates, and content items) that will be presented for editing in the Configure Portlet Wizard:

In the Configure Portlet Template Wizard, click Object Categories to access the Configure Portlet Template - Object Categories page.
Enter at least one functional category of objects to be presented for editing, and enter objects for each category. Each category appears as a separate page in the Configure Portlet Wizard. There are two ways to enter categories and objects:

If you want the wizard to create categories and objects automatically, click the Auto button. The system searches for content items in the portlet template folder and detects any objects that have a relationship with these content items (such as Presentation Templates and Data Entry Templates), creating a category for each content item and its associated objects. Click on a category to populate the Objects pane with all of the portal objects in the category.

If you want to create categories and enter objects manually, click Add New Category and click on the New Category to name it and enable the Add Object icon. Click Add Object to choose the objects that you want to include in the category.

Enter a description of each category and object. The description will appear on each category page in the Configure Portlet Wizard, and can provide portlet creators with explanations of the role each category performs in determining the presentation and data structure of the portlet.

Using the Template Security Page

Use the Template Security page to set the security for the portlet template folder in Publisher.

Portal security for the portlet template is maintained separately from Publisher security for the portlet template (that is, for the Publisher items that make up the portlet template: the portlet template folder, subfolders, content items, Data Entry Templates, and Presentation Templates). In general, users with access to the portlet template in Portal administration should have the same level of access to the portlet template in Publisher. Without this mapping of portal security to Publisher security, users who attempt to create a portlet from the portlet template might be denied access to the portlet template's Publisher items and be unable to create the portlet.

To set the Publisher security for the portlet template folder and map the portlet template's portal security to its Publisher security:

In the Configure Portlet Template Wizard, click Template Security to access the Configure Portlet Template - Template Security page.
Under Security Settings, click Edit to access the Content Security page, where you can edit the template folder's security settings.
On the Content Security page:

If you want the portlet template to inherit the Publisher security of the Publisher folder it resides in and you do not want to map the portlet template's portal security to its Publisher security, check the Inherit Security checkbox. This option is checked by default when you create a portlet template.
If you want to specify the Publisher security for the portlet template or you want to map the portlet template's portal security to its Publisher security, clear the Inherit Security check box. This activates the Add Users and Groups and Add Portlet Security Map buttons, along with a shortcut button labeled New Portlet Template. If you have already named and saved the template, this button is labeled with the name of the portlet template.
To specify the Publisher security for the portlet template, use the Add Users and Groups button to select and add users and groups. Use the Role column to assign roles to the users and groups.
To map the portlet template's portal security to its Publisher security, click the New Portlet Template (or portlet template name) button to activate the fields that enable you to map portal access to Publisher roles for the portlet template. The portlet template name appears in the Portal Object column; in the Access Level to Role column, select the appropriate Publisher roles for each portal security access level.
Click Finish to return to the Configure Portlet Template - Template Security page.

For more information on the mapping process, see Mapping Portal Security to Publisher Security.

Click Finish to return to the Configure Portlet Template - Template Security page.

Using the Portlet Security Page

Use the Portlet Security page to set the default Publisher folder security for the portlets created from the portlet template.

As with portlet templates, portal security for the portlet is maintained separately from Publisher security for the portlet. In general, users with access to the portlet in the portal should have the same level of access to the portlet's Publisher security. Without this mapping of portal security to Publisher security, users who attempt to create a content item such as a news article from a portlet might be unable to do so because they have no access to the portlet's Publisher items.

You can map portal security to Publisher security for the portlet folder and any subfolders that will be created within the portlet folder.

To map portal security to the Publisher folder security for the portlets created from the portlet template:

In the Configure Portlet Template Wizard, click Portlet Security to access the Configure Portlet Template - Portlet Security page.
Check Enable for each folder for which you want to set default security.
For each enabled folder, select the Publisher roles that each portal security level should have for the folder.

The Portlet Editor will assign these roles as the default Publisher security for all portlets created with the template. For example, if you map the Select portal access level to the Submitter role for the portlet folder, all users with Select portal access will have Submitter access to the portlet folder in Publisher.

Explicit Publisher folder security settings (the security settings that appear in the Users/Groups and Role columns on the Content Security page) are not affected by the default security you map here. Those settings are copied from the next folder up in the hierarchy, whether or not you enable portlet security defaults here.

If you do not specify default security settings here, the default security settings (mapped and explicit) for any folder created with this template will be inherited from its parent folder. In either case, the portlet creator can override these defaults.

Note:

Portlet creators and editors can change these default security settings from the Configure Portlet Wizard only if the portlet template allows them to set Publisher security for the folder. You use the Advanced Settings page of the Configure Portlet Template Wizard to select the folder for which portlet creators can set Publisher security. If portlet creators want to change the default security for another folder in the portlet, they must do so through Publisher Explorer.

For more information on the mapping process, see Mapping Portal Security to Publisher Security.

For more information on Publisher portlet folder security defaults, see Setting Publisher Security for Published Content Portlets.

Saving the Portlet Template

When you have completed the portlet template configuration using the Configure Portlet Template Wizard, click Finish to return to the Portlet Template Editor.
(Optional) Make any further modifications to the portlet template that you want. These can include:

Entering the name of the portlet template.
Enabling and entering localized names.
Entering and editing global object properties for the portlet template.

Click Finish to access the Save Object dialog box, where you name the portlet template, set its portal security, and save it.

The portlet template is now available for portlet creation for the users to whom you have granted access.

See the Administrator Guide for AquaLogic Interaction and the AquaLogic Interaction online help for more information about the Portlet Template Editor and the Global Object Property Map.