Creating a Portal Using the Example Portal

 

This chapter shows you how to use the Acme Portal to quick start your portal development.

WebLogic Personalization Server includes the Acme Demo Portal, a complete demo portal that is set up for you and ready to run. This demo portal uses the Cloudscape Database Management System (DBMS) to store the Portal Demo data. Use the Acme Demo Portal to quick start your portal development.

Note: The directory name for the Acme Portal is exampleportal. Throughout the documentation "Acme Portal" and "example portal" are used interchangeably.

This topic includes the following sections:

• Introducing the Acme Portal

• Starting the Acme Portal

• Building the Acme Portal Components

• Creating Portlets for Your Demo Portal

• Associating Portlets with Your Demo Portal

• Editing Your Demo Portal Layout

• Editing Your Demo Portal Color Scheme

• Testing Your Demo Portal

Introducing the Acme Portal

When you install the WebLogic Personalization Server, a complete demo portal is set up for you and ready to run. This ready-made demo portal uses the Cloudscape Database Management System (DBMS) to store the Acme Portal data. The demo is ready to run with the Cloudscape database immediately after you complete the WebLogic Personalization Server installation.

Note: The Cloudscape database is included with WebLogic Server under a limited evaluation license. Because of the limitations of the Cloudscape database, other databases should be considered. The database stores all of the portal framework information needed to support the portal components.

The Acme Portal includes the following:

• Portal page JSP templates—header, footer, and portal content layout JSP pages

• Sample portlet applications including portlet JSP pages

• A complete set of end user portal personalization tools, including:

  • User login and new user registration Web forms

  • Change-password and forgot-password Web forms

  • End user personalization tools for customizing portal content

  • Help pages

All of the JSP pages for the Acme Portal are located in the following installed product directory: application/portals/repository.

Starting the Acme Portal

To start the Portal Demo:

1. Start the WebLogic server by executing the StartCommerce command file in your installation directory.

2. Open a Web browser window.

3. In your Web browser, enter the following demo portal page URL, http://hostname:port/exampleportal where hostname is the name of the host running your WebLogic Server, port is the port number at which the WebLogic Server is listening for requests, and exampleportal is the name of the property set.

   Example: http://mybigbox:7501/exampleportal

You can now use the Portal Administration Tool to view the Demo Portal or assemble your own portal, as described in Using the Portal Management Administration Tool.

Notes: Before using the Portal Administration Tool to assemble the Acme Portal, you must install and set up the WebLogic Personalization Server software. For more information, see the Installation Guide.

Building the Acme Portal Components

To create the Acme Portal definition:

1. Click Create in the Portals banner of the Portal Administration Tool Home page to display the Create a New Portal tool.

2. Enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

   Table 2-1 Sample Data

   Field Name	Data
   Portal Name	Acme Portal
   Header URL	header.jsp
   Content URL	portalcontent.jsp
   Footer URL	footer.jsp
   Number of columns	3
   Suspend	Defaults to false. Set to true to suspend the portal during maintenance.
   Suspended URL	Enter suspended.jsp if you want to display the "under maintenance" URL during maintenance.

   
    

3. Click Create.

   If the portal was successfully created, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

4. Click Back to return to the home page. The name of the new portal, "Acme Portal," displays in the Portals section of the home page.

Creating Portlets for Your Demo Portal

You create portlets in the administration tool by associating a URL with each portlet component. When a portlet is created, it is not automatically associated with a portal. You must add the portlets to the demo portal later from the portal view-page.

The Acme Portal includes six portlet applications that you can assemble with the Portal Administration Tool.

To create the demo portlets:

1. Click Create in the Portlets banner of the Portal Administration Tool Home page to display the Create a New Portlet tool.

2. To create the first of the demo portlets, My Bookmarks, enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

   Table 2-2 Creating MyBookmarks Portlet

   Portlet Name	Data
   Bookmarks	Portlet Name: Bookmarks
   	Content URL: portlets/bookmarks.jsp
   	Editable: Select the check box
   	Edit URL: portlets/bookmarks_edit.jsp
   	Maximizable: Select the check box
   	Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_bookmark.gif
   	Login Required: Select the check box
   	Titlebar URL: Enter a URL to display as the portlet titlebar. It can be a JSP or HTML fragment.
   	Mandatory: A mandatory portlet is one that is always available and visible.

   
    

3. Click Create.

   If the portlet was successfully created, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

4. Follow steps 2-3 above to create the remaining five portlets. For each portlet, enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

   Table 2-3 Creating Other Portlets

   Portlet Name	Data
   My Dictionary	Portlet Name: My Dictionary
   	Content URL: portlets/dictionary.jsp
   	Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_dictionary.gif
   	Minimizable: Select the check box
   My To Do List	Portlet Name: My To Do List
   	Content URL: portlets/mytodo.jsp
   	Editable: Select the check box
   	Edit URL: portlets/mytodo_edit.jsp
   	Maximizable: Select the check box
   	Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_my_list.gif
   	Minimizable: Select the check box
   	Floatable: Select the check box
   	Login Required: Select the check box
   My Group To Do List	Portlet Name: My Group To Do List
   	Content URL: portlets/grouptodo.jsp
   	Banner URL: portlets/grouptodobanner.jsp
   	Editable: Select the check box
   	Edit URL: portlets/grouptodo_edit.jsp
   	Maximizable: Select the check box
   	Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_group_list.gif
   	Minimizable: select the check box
   	Floatable: Select the check box
   	Login Required: select the check box
   Stock Quote	Portlet Name: Stock Quote
   	Content URL: portlets/quote.jsp
   	Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_quote.gif
   	Minimizable: Select the check box
   Search	Portlet Name: Search
   	Content URL: portlets/search.jsp
   	Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_search.gif
   	Minimizable: Select the check box
   News Index	Portlet Name: News Index
   	Content URL: portlets/new_index.jsp
   News Reader	Portlet Name:News Reader
   	Content URL: portlets/news_viewer.jsp
   	Titlebar: content_titlebar.jsp

   
    

5. Click Back to return to the home page. The six new portlet names appear in the Portlets section.

Associating Portlets with Your Demo Portal

After creating a portal, you can associate portlets to it. You can also personalize the portal's layout and color scheme, and make changes to the definition. For more information on editing a portal with the Portal Administration Tool, see Editing Portals in this guide.

You choose which portlets are available to a portal by adding and removing them from the system's list of established portlets. From the narrowed list of portlets you associate with a portal, group and end users further define which portlets they want available and visible on their personalized portal page.

To associate the six portlets you just created with the demo portal:

1. On the Portal Administration Tool Home page, click the Demo Portal title link in the Portals section of the screen. The Acme Portal view-page displays.

2. On the portal view-page, click +/- in the Associated Portlets banner to display the Add or Remove Portlets tool.

3. To add a portlet to the portal, select Avail. The portlet is associated with the portal. It does not display on the portal page until it is made visible by you, the Group Administrator, or the end user.

4. To make a portlet visible, select Visible. The portlet is associated with the portal and now displays on the portal page.

5. To remove a portlet from the portal, select Unavail. The portlet becomes disassociated with the portal and unavailable to new groups and end users (including anonymous users). However, if the portlet has already been personalized at a group or user level, it remains associated with those levels.

6. Click Save.

   If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

7. Click Back to return to the Demo Portal view-page. Available portlets appear in the Associated Portlets section of the screen with a gray background. Visible portlets are marked with an X.

Editing Your Demo Portal Layout

You can move a portal's associated portlets left and right between columns and up and down within columns depending on the column layout you selected when you created the portal. You can also change the percentage of the portal page that each column occupies in all portals except group portals. Group Administrators and end users can further personalize the portal layout.

To edit the layout of portlets in the demo portal:

1. On the Demo Portal view-page, click Edit in the Layout banner to display the Edit Portal Layout tool. This layout tool shows each portal column, its span percentage, and the portlets that display within those columns.

2. Select the portlet you want to move by clicking on it. The portlet name is highlighted.

3. Click an arrow to move the portlet up or down within a column, or right or left between columns.

To change the column spans of a portal layout:

1. Click in the percentage field associated with a column and enter a new percentage. The sum of all column spans should equal 100%.

2. When you finish editing the portal layout, click Save.

   If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

3. Click Back to return to the Demo Portal view-page. A table in the Portal Layout section lists the portlets as you arranged them within each column.

Editing Your Demo Portal Color Scheme

You can edit the overall appearance of a portal by changing its background color as well as the portlet's component colors, title colors, and border appearance.

To edit the demo portal colors:

1. On the Demo Portal view-page, click Edit in the Colors banner to display the Edit Color Schemes tool. This tool provides five preset color schemes and a Custom Scheme tool.

2. In the Portlet Color Schemes section of the screen, select a preset color scheme or the custom color scheme. If you selected the custom color scheme, enter a hex color code in each text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color for each field from the Color Picker.

3. Select On to display portlet borders, or Off to omit portlet borders.

4. Select Black, White, or Other to choose the color of the text that will display in the portlet titlebar. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

5. In the Portal Background Color section of the screen, select Gray, White, or Other to choose a background color for the entire portal page. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

6. To preview your color selections, click the "Click here to save changes and preview colors" link. Your color changes will be saved and the Edit Color Schemes tool will redisplay the example portlet at the bottom of the screen to reflect your color preferences.

7. To save your color preferences without previewing them, click Save. The portal view-page displays the new colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

8. To revert the portal appearance to the BEA original color scheme, click Restore Defaults. The portal view-page displays the default colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

Testing Your Demo Portal

Once your portal is operational, you should test it to verify that all the associated portlets are available and visible as you specified them, and that your portal displays the correct color scheme and layout.

Figure 2-1 shows the Acme Portal as it displays with the BEA default color scheme and layout to a registered user named jsmith.

Figure 2-1 Acme Portal

 

To test the demo portal:

1. In a Web browser, enter the Flow Manager URL: http://host:port/exampleportal

   The default portal home page should display all visible portlets and should reflect your default color and layout preferences.

2. To test end user personalization options, sign on to your portal by clicking the Sign On icon in the upper right corner of the home page.

   If you have not created a user profile, you can do so by following the registration wizard. If you have created a profile, enter your username and password, and click Sign On.

   You can now use the personalization tools to customize the portal's color, layout, and visible portlets.