Visitor Options

Portal visitors can use browser-based tools to personalize the content and appearance of their portal. This topic details the portal features that are available to registered and unregistered visitors. It includes the following sections:

• The Home Page

• Registering as a New User

• Changing the Appearance of Your Portal

• Customizing the Portal Layout

• Portlet Controls

 

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The Home Page

The default Portal Example Home page is shown in Figure  2-1.

Figure 2-1 Portal Example Home Page—Default

 

Notice that the default Home Page contains one portlet, two page tabs, and a Login button. After visitors log in, they can change the appearance and layout of the Home and Web pages.

 

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Registering as a New User

A visitor's access and view of the portal is determined by the visitor's group membership. You'll learn much more about this in Portal Management. To see how group membership affects the portal, you'll register as a new user.

To register as a new user, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Login button. The Login page appears, as shown in Figure  2-2.

   Figure 2-2 Portal Login Page

   
    

2. Click Sign up now. The New User Registration Page appears, as shown in Figure  2-3.

   Figure 2-3 Open a New Account Page

   
    

3. Enter the appropriate information in the required fields, and then click the Save button. The Home page opens, as shown in Figure  2-4.

   Figure 2-4 Portal Example Home Page—User Logged In

   
    

Notice that the page now contains a Customize My Portal button and a Change Password button. Also notice that the Login button has changed to a Logout button. In the next step, you will custom the portal.

 

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Changing the Appearance of Your Portal

Changing the appearance of a portal means changing the skin. A skin changes the such elements as the portal logo, portlet control images (such as the minimize or edit icons), default font and size, and colors. Skins consist of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files and directories of images. Five pre-built skins are provided; an HTML developer can create new skins by modifying the CSS files and creating new images.

To change the default skin, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Customize My Portal button. The Customize Your View of the Portal page appears, as shown in Figure  2-5.

   Figure 2-5 Customize Your View of the Portal Page

   
    

2. Click Select Skins. The Select Skins page appears, as shown in Figure  2-6.

   Figure 2-6 Select Skins Page

   
    

Note: The asterisk in the Available Selections list designates the current default.

3. In the Available Selections list, select an item from the list. Notice that a preview of the selection appears, as shown in Figure  2-7.

   Figure 2-7 Select Skins Page—Skin Preview

   
    

4. Click the Save button. The Customize Your View of the Portal page appears with the new skin, as shown in Figure  2-8.

   Figure 2-8 Customize Your View of the Portal—New Skin

   
    

 

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Customizing the Portal Layout

Registered visitors can tailor the layout of a portal to suit their needs and preferences. They can determine which pages are visible, which page is the Home page, which portlets they can see, and how the portlets are arranged on each page.

Changing Which Pages Are Visible

The main content area of the Home page contains one or more pages that are stacked on top of each other. A tabbed navigation bar allows visitors to quickly switch between pages. In this section, you will change which page tabs are visible on the Home page. The default Portal Example displays two page tabs: Home and Web.

To change which page tabs you see, complete the following steps:

1. Click Select or De-select Pages. The Select Pages page appears, as shown in Figure  2-9.

   Figure 2-9 Select Pages

   
    

2. Select Web, and then click the Set As Home button. Notice that the asterisk now appears next to Web.

3. Move Home from Selected Pages to Unselected Pages.

4. To implement your changes, click the Save button.

5. To see your changes, click the Return to Portal button. The new home page appears showing the changes you just made, as shown in Figure  2-10.

   Figure 2-10 New Portal Example Home Page—One Visible Tab

   
    

Changing the Layout of a Page

The layout of a page defines how portlets are arranged on a page. A layout consists of an HTML table that contains JSP tags. The table structure provides for a wide range of possible layouts so that HTML developers can easily create new layouts. WebLogic Portal provides five pre-built layouts.

Important: Before starting this part of the tour, undo the changes you made in Changing Which Pages Are Visible, that is, make the Home page visible again and set it as the default.

To change a page's layout, complete the following steps:

1. From the Home Page, click the Customize My Portal button. The Customize Your View of the Portal page appears.

2. In the Selected Pages section, click the Layouts button for the Home page. The Select Current Layout page appears, as shown in Figure  2-11.

   Figure 2-11 Select Current Layout Page

   
    

3. Click spanning in the Available Layouts list. A preview of the layout appears next to the list.

4. To implement your change, click the Save button, and then in the Customize Your View of the Portal page, click the Return to Portal button. The new Home page appears showing the changes you just made, as shown in Figure  2-12. Figure  2-10 shows what the page looked like before you changed its layout.

   Figure 2-12 Portal Example Home Page—New Layout

   
    

Changing Portlet Position and Visibility

Beside changing the layout of a page, you can change which portlets are visible, which column the portlets are in, and the position of the portlets within a column.

To change which portlets are visible, complete the following steps:

1. From the Home Page, click the Customize My Portal button. The Customize Your View of the Portal page appears.

2. In the Selected Pages section, click the Portlets button for the Home page. The Select and Order Portlets page appears, as shown in Figure  2-13.

   Figure 2-13 Select and Order Portlets for this Page: home

   
    

3. Using the Arrow buttons, configure the Home Page to your liking.

   • To add or remove a portlet from view, select the portlet, and then use the Arrow buttons between the Available Portlets and Visible Portlets sections.

   • To move a portlet between sections, select the portlet, and then use the Next Section and Previous Section arrows.

   • To change the order of portlets within a section, select a portlet, and then use the Move Up and Move down arrows.

4. To implement your changes, click the Save button.

5. To see your changes, click Return to Home Page. Figure  2-14 shows one possible change. Figure  2-1 shows what the Home tab looked like before the changes.

   Figure 2-14 Portal Example Home Page—New Portlet Arrangement

   
    

 

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Portlet Controls

Portlets are specialized content areas displayed within small windows on a portal page that provide specific resources or services. Portlets can be stand-alone, Web-based applications or display legacy or third-party applications. Portlets are implemented using JavaServer Pages (JSP). They range in complexity from static HTML to utilizing JSP tag libraries or JSP scriptlets that access EJB components or other application functionality within the application server.

The appearance of portlets can change based on the selected skin. Additionally, portlets may have more than one view. For example, a portlet may be maximized, minimized, or detached from its portal. The controls for these views are located in the right corner of a portlet's title bar.

The controls for portlets in the Portal Examples are listed in Table  2-1.

Table 2-1 Portlet Controls

Button	Description
	Opens a Help window.
	Maximizes the portlet to the full size of the browser window.
	Returns a maximized portlet to its original size.
	Opens the portlet for editing. For more information, see Portlet Editing.
	Closes the portlet from editing. For more information, see Portlet Editing.
	Opens the portlet in a separate browser window.
	Minimizes the portlet so that only the Title displays.
	Returns the minimized portlet to its original size.

 

Portlet Editing

This section describes how visitors can configure the World News portlet. This portlet links to various news agencies on the internet and displays the new stories they publish. Figure  2-15 shows the World News Portlet before it has been configured.

To edit the World News portlet, complete the following steps:

1. From the Home page, click the Web tab. The Web page appears. Figure  2-15 show the World News portlet before it is configured.

   Figure 2-15 World News Portlet—Not Configured

   
    

2. Click the Edit button in the title bar. The portlet maximizes and is now editable, as shown in Figure  2-16.

   Note: If you do not see the controls in the title bar of the World News portlet, you need to log in.

   Figure 2-16 World News Portlet—Editable

   
    

3. Select a Topic and a Template from their respective drop-down lists, click the Save button, and then click the Finished button (in the title bar). The portlet now shows the topics from the selected news source, as shown in Figure  2-17.

   Figure 2-17 World News Portlet—Configured

   
    

4. To view a news story, click a link. The story is displayed in a new browser page.

This concludes the Visitor part of the tour.