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Tutorials – Getting Started with WebLogic Portal

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Assembling a Desktop in Your Staging Environment

This tutorial helps you learn how to use the WebLogic Portal Administration Console for some basic portal organization tasks.

For more detailed information about each dialog of the wizards used in this chapter, refer to the Portal Development Guide.

 

Before You Begin

The tasks described in this chapter are based on those described in Setting Up Your Portal Development Environment and Creating a Portal in Your Development Environment, so it is important that you complete those tutorials before starting the tasks described here.

 

Introduction to the Administration Console

The WebLogic Portal Administration Console is the tool that portal administrators use to not only control the behavior, content, and appearance of portals, but to perform many traditional system administration activities such as user management and security management as well. This tutorial focuses on basic tasks that assemble portals into desktops.

The WebLogic Portal Administration Console is organized according to the following categories of tasks:

 

Tutorial Steps

Using the tutorial, you will create a portal desktop based on the portal and portlets created previously, make some modifications to your desktop, and then view your results.

The tutorial includes instructions on how to perform these tasks:

Open the Administration Console

Before you can begin using the WebLogic Portal Administration Console, the server must be running. Depending on the state of your Workshop for WebLogic workbench, you might need to start the server before opening the Administration Console.

If you are continuing from Creating a Portal in Your Development Environment, and you have not closed/opened Workshop for WebLogic, you can skip to Step 4.

If you closed Workshop for WebLogic after finishing the tutorial in Creating a Portal in Your Development Environment, follow these steps:

  1. Start Workshop for WebLogic and return to the workspace that you used for the previous tutorials:
  2. In the Servers view, click the server to select it.
  3. Click Start New Page Added to the Portal Resources Tree in the Servers view toolbar.

    4. Wait while Workshop for WebLogic starts the server. This process might take some time, depending on the speed of your system.When the process completes, the Status column in the Servers view displays Started and the square Stop the Server button New Page Added to the Portal Resources Tree becomes active.

  4. Click myPortal.portal in the Package Explorer view to select it.
  5. From the main menu, select Run > Open Portal Administration Console, as shown in the example in Figure 4-1.
    6. Figure 4-1 Menu Selection for Run > Open Portal Administration Console


    Menu Selection for Run > Open Portal Administration Console

    The Administration Console opens in a new tab in the workbench editor view, with the login dialog displayed, as Figure 4-2 shows.

    Figure 4-2 WebLogic Portal Administration Console Login Dialog


    WebLogic Portal Administration Console Login Dialog

Log in to the Administration Console

The Administration Console login dialog requires a WebLogic Server system administrator or a WebLogic Portal administrator user name and password. WebLogic Server system administrators have full security privileges for the entire domain and can log in to and use the WebLogic Server Administration Console tools. WebLogic Portal administrators have full security privileges for a Portal Web Project, which can include multiple portals.

Table 4-1 shows the default system administrator user names and passwords:

Table 4-1 Default User Names and Passwords for the WebLogic Portal Administration Console
User Name
Password
Description
portaladmin
portaladmin
Administrator for the portal domain
weblogic
weblogic
WebLogic Server system administrator with full privileges in the domain

For purposes of this tutorial, you will use the default WebLogic Server login so that you have full privileges.

To log in to the WebLogic Portal Administration Console, follow these steps:

  1. Type the user name weblogic and password weblogic into the dialog and click Sign In.

    2. The main menu of the Administration Console displays.

  2. To get a better view of the console and its functions, click Maximize WebLogic Portal Administration Console Login Dialog in the editor view toolbar. Your display should look like the example in Figure 4-3.
    3. Note: If you set up your Workshop for WebLogic preferences to open external browsers instead of the internal browser, you do not need to perform this step.
    Figure 4-3 Administration Console Main Page, Maximized


    Administration Console Main Page, Maximized

Create a Portal and Desktop

To create a desktop, you first create a portal to contain it.

To create a portal and desktop, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Portal Management menu shortcut on the Administration Console home page.

    2. The Portal Management page displays; the Portal Resources tree displays in the left pane of the page, as shown in Figure 4-4.

    Figure 4-4 Portal Resources Tree in the Administration Console


    Portal Resources Tree in the Administration Console

    Notice that the display is based on the Portal Web Project that you created in Creating a Portal in Your Development Environment. if you expand the Library > Portlets portion of the tree, you can see the portlets that you created earlier.

  2. Click Portals in the tree.

    3. The Portals page displays, with the Browse Portals tab active. Because no portals exist yet, the table containing portals is empty.

  3. Click Create New Portal.

    4. The Create a New Portal dialog displays, as shown in Figure 4-5.

    Figure 4-5 Create a New Portal Dialog in Administration Console


    Create a New Portal Dialog in Administration Console

  4. Enter values for the portal, using Table 4-2 as a guide:

    5. Table 4-2 Create a New Portal Dialog Field Descriptions
    Field
    Value/Description
    Portal Name
    myBEAportal
    Description
    general BEA portal
    Partial URL
    myBEAportal
    URI (default resource)
    (leave blank)

  5. Click Create New Portal.

    6. When the Portals page displays again, the Browse Portals table includes the portal you created, and the Portal Resources tree includes the new portal.

  6. Click myBEAportal in the Browse Portals table to view the details for this portal.

    7. The Portals page displays, with the Browse Desktops tab active. Because no desktops exist yet, the table containing desktops is empty.

  7. Click Create New Desktop.

    8. The Create Desktop wizard displays, as shown in Figure 4-6.

    Figure 4-6 Create Desktop Wizard in Administration Console


    Create Desktop Wizard in Administration Console

  8. Enter values for the desktop in the appropriate wizard pages, using Table 4-3 as your guide:

    9. Table 4-3 Create Desktop Wizard Field Descriptions 
    Field or Selection
    Value/Description
    Step 1: Select how you want to create a desktop...
    1. Select a .portal file radio button.
    2. Click Next.
    Step 2: Search for templates
    1. Click Show All.

      2. The portal you created using Workshop for WebLogic displays in the list.

    2. Click to select myPortal.portal.
    3. Click Next.
    Step 3: Enter desktop properties...
    • Title – myDesktop
    • Description – general desktop
    • Partial URL – desktop1
    • Default Shell – (leave as is)
    • Look and Feel – (leave as is)

  9. Click Next to review the desktop properties, and Next again to create the desktop.

    10. A confirmation dialog confirms that the desktop has been created and displays related information.

  10. Click Finish to return to the main Administration Console page.

    11. The Browse Desktops table includes the desktop you created, and the Portal Resources tree includes the new desktop, as shown in Figure 4-7, which shows the expanded tree.

    Figure 4-7 New Desktop in Portal Resources Tree


    New Desktop in Portal Resources Tree

    Notice that the portlets that you created for this portal (which was used as the template for this desktop) appear automatically in the new desktop.

Update the Desktop Page Contents to Rearrange Portlets

In this task you view the portlets for a desktop page—the portlets that you created using Workshop for WebLogic—and rearrange them on the page. Then you will view your work.

To update your desktop page, follow these steps:

  1. In the Portal Resources tree for myPortalWebProject, expand the tree to display the pages for the desktop, as shown in Figure 4-8.
    2. Figure 4-8 Expanded Portal Resources Tree Showing Desktop Pages


    Expanded Portal Resources Tree Showing Desktop Pages

  2. Click Page 1 to select it.

    3. The Page 1 details display in the right pane of the Administration Console.

  3. Select the Edit Contents tab; it appears, as shown in Figure 4-9.
    4. Figure 4-9 Page 1 Edit Contents Tab


    Page 1 Edit Contents Tab

  4. Drag the BEA Browser Portlet into the same placeholder as the Simple JSP Portlet, as shown in Figure 4-10.
    5. Figure 4-10 Moving the BEA Browser Portlet by Dragging


    Moving the BEA Browser Portlet by Dragging

    When you release the portlet, it displays above the Simple JSP Portlet, as shown in Figure 4-11.

  5. Click Save Changes.
    6. Figure 4-11 Result After Moving the BEA Browser Portlet in the Administration Console


    Result After Moving the BEA Browser Portlet in the Administration Console

  6. In the Portal Resources tree, click myDesktop to display the Details page.
  7. Click View Desktop.

    8. The desktop displays in a browser, with the portlets in their new positions, as shown in Figure 4-12.

    Figure 4-12 Desktop in Browser Showing Moved Portlets


    Desktop in Browser Showing Moved Portlets

Create a New Page on the Desktop

In this task, you will create a new page for your desktop. Follow these steps:

  1. In the Portal Resources tree for myPortalWebProject, expand the Library node in the tree to display the pages, as shown in Figure 4-13.
    2. Figure 4-13 Expanded Portal Resources Tree Showing Desktop Pages


    Expanded Portal Resources Tree Showing Desktop Pages

  2. Click Pages to display the Browse Pages tab, as shown in Figure 4-14.
    3. Figure 4-14 Browse Pages Tab


    Browse Pages Tab

  3. Click Create New Page.

    4. The Create New Page dialog displays, as shown in Figure 4-15.

    Figure 4-15 Create New Page Dialog in Administration Console


    Create New Page Dialog in Administration Console

  4. Enter values for the new page, using Table 4-4 as a guide:

    5. Table 4-4 Create New Page – Field Descriptions 
    Field
    Value/Description
    Title
    Tutorial Page
    Description
    new page for tutorial
    Layout
    Three Column Layout
    Theme
    (leave as is - None)

  5. Click Create.

    6. The new page is added, and is displayed in the Details page for the desktop; the Portal Resources tree updates to include the new page, as shown in Figure 4-16.

    Figure 4-16 New Page Added to the Portal Resources Tree


    New Page Added to the Portal Resources Tree

 

Summary

With the completion of this tutorial, you have created a basic desktop and performed some additional tasks to become familiar with the staging environment and the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.

To get started with actual portal development and desktop staging, refer to WebLogic Portal document library on e-docs.


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