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e-docs > WebLogic Platform > WebLogic Portal > Visitor and Administrator Features > Visitor Options |
Visitor and Administrator Features
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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
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.
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:
Figure 2-2 Portal Login Page
Figure 2-3 Open a New Account Page
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.
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:
Figure 2-5 Customize Your View of the Portal Page
Figure 2-6 Select Skins Page
Note: The asterisk in the Available Selections list designates the current default.
Figure 2-7 Select Skins Page—Skin Preview
Figure 2-8 Customize Your View of the Portal—New Skin
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:
Figure 2-9 Select Pages
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:
Figure 2-11 Select Current Layout Page
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:
Figure 2-13 Select and Order Portlets for this Page: home
Figure 2-14 Portal Example Home Page—New Portlet Arrangement
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.
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:
Figure 2-15 World News Portlet—Not Configured
Figure 2-17 World News Portlet—Configured
This concludes the Visitor part of the tour.
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