Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Technical Reference

Part VI Sample Portal

Chapter 36 Understanding the Developer Sample

This chapter describes the developer sample that you can choose to install on your system during the Sun Java System Portal Server installation. See the Installation Guide for more information on installing the developer sample. This chapter contains the following sections:

Overview

Conceptually, the Desktop is split into the three well-defined components as shown in Figure 37–1.

Base Desktop

This includes Provider Java classes (based on the Provider API), provider display profile definitions and resource bundles (also referred to as properties files), display profile definitions of channels referenced by base Desktop XML or base Desktop JSPs and templates, default templates and JSPs (installed in /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/<portal_id>/desktop/default directory), and help files.

Developer Sample

This includes organization level display profile definitions (such as themes and channel display profile definitions), templates and JSPs for the example Desktops in the developer sample (installed in /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/<portal_id>/desktop/developer_sample directory), and user definition, Desktop display profile definitions, and templates and JSPs for the Authless user.

Other components

This includes the Provider Java classes for their component specific providers, provider display profile definitions for their component specific providers and provider resource bundles (properties files), display profile definition for channels referenced by component display profile XML or component templates and JSPs, default templates and JSPs, and help files.

The developer sample has a dependency on the base Desktop and other components and cannot be installed if the base Desktop and other components are not installed. The base Desktop and other components are installed as part of the Portal Server 7.1 software.

Figure 36–1 Desktop Components

When you install the Portal Server 7.1 software, you can choose to install the developer sample. The developer sample is an authentication-less (authless) desktop that consists of containers, channels, portlets, services, and templates which can be used to demonstrate what the Portal Server 7.1 software is capable of. It includes five example Desktops that show the possibilities of the Portal Server 7.1 software. In this way you can quickly get a feel for the kinds of containers that are possible to design.

Developer Sample Installation Directories

If you choose to install the developer sample, the installer locates the appropriate files in the following directories:

`PortalServer-base`/samples/desktop

This directory contains the following display profile documents:

dp-org.xml: Contains the display profile definitions for channels and containers.
dp-anon.xml: Contains the display profile definitions for channels and containers for the authlessanonymous and anonymous users in the default organization.

The /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/<portal_id>/desktop/developer_sample directory contains the JSP, template, and other support files for the Portal Server 7.1 software developer sample.

The /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/<portal_id>/desktop/developer_anonymous_sample contains the JSP, template, and other support files for the Portal Server 7.1 software Desktop anonymous user.

Note –

Sample Desktops

The table below shows the three sample Desktops, which make up the developer sample.

Table 36–1 Sun Java System Portal Server Sample Desktop Containers


Container (Desktop) Type	Description
JSPTabContainer	Generates a JSP-based tab Desktop.Creates a Desktop that contains multiple containers selected using different tabs. Normally, each tab is constructed by using the corresponding PredefinedTabPanelContainer. This container is JSP-based. Its provider is JSPTabContainerProvider.
JSPTableContainer	Generates a JSP-based table Desktop. Creates a Desktop that arranges a maximum of five sub-containers into the channel arrangement. This container is JSP-based. Its provider is JSPTableContainerProvider.
FrameTabContainer	Generates a frame-based Desktop. Creates a Desktop using frames. The left-hand frame enables you to navigate, and the right-hand frame displays the channels. This container is JSP-based. Its provider is JSPTabContainerProvider.

The developer sample can also serve as a place to start when building your own site’s portal. You can customize the containers and use the building-block providers, such as XMLProvider and JSPProvider, to add customized content. The developer sample also includes content providers, such as BookmarkProvider, that cannot be extended but that can be used to provide content.

If the existing building-block and content providers do not meet your needs, you can either extend an existing building-block provider (content providers are not public and hence not extendible), or develop custom building-block providers. If either of these methods do not suit your needs, you can develop a custom provider.

Note –

The Portal Server 7.1 software distinguishes between building-block providers, which you can extend using the Portal Server 7.1 software APIs, and content providers, which you cannot extend. See the Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Developer's Guide for more information on extending the providers.

Chapter 37 JSP-Based Desktop

This chapter contains the following sections:

JSPTabContainer

The JSPTabContainer provides a JSP-based tabbed Desktop.

Sample Desktop

Default Layout

By default, the sample portal Desktop based on the JSPTabContainer includes five tabs, My Front Page, Samples, Search, Collaboration, and Sample Portlet. In the figure below, the channels are shown in numbers.

My Front Page tab (default) — Login or User Information, Bookmark, Sample JSP, and XML Test channels
1 — Samples tab: Sun Information, URL Scraper, and Notes channels
2 — Search tab: Search channel
3 — Collaboration tab: Discussions Lite and Discussions channels
4 — Portlet Samples tab: Bookmark, Showtime, and Weather portlet channels

Figure 37–1 Sample Desktop Based on JSPTabContainer

Default Actions

The sample JSPTabContainer channel, by default, includes:

Banner links to return Home, tabs to allow the user to remove, rename or select the start tab, and also create a new tab (the URL for this page is action=edit&provider=JSPTabContainer), theme to allow the user to set the color scheme and font type for the Desktop (the URL for the preset theme page is action=edit&provider=JSPPresetThemeContainer), help that displays the Desktop sample online help (the URL is ../docs/locale/desktop/helppage.htm), Log Out link to log the user out of the Desktop (the URL is action=logout), and Search to allow the user to search.

When you click the Tabs link in the Desktop, the Current Tabs Settings Edit page, where you can make changes, is displayed. Start Tab lets you set the starting tab; Tab Name specifies the name of the tabs in the container; and Action lets you rename or delete a tab from the Desktop. (JavaScript handles the action.)

When you click Make a New Tab, the corresponding Edit page is shown. You decide what to name the tab and what the tab topics are. Content Page is displayed only when making a new tab from scratch. When other Tab Topics are selected, a new tab which looks similar to the TabTopic selected, is created and displayed.
Links specific to the contained containers. The channels in each tab depend on the contained container of the JSPTabContainer. In the Sample Portal, these contained containers are JSPTableContainer and the channels are dependant on this container; but this does not have to be the case, they can be any container. The Content and Layout links provide the ability to customize the current selected contained container.
Content and layout links. The top-most JSP in the table container defines the Content and Layout links. JSPContentContainer is the container that displays the Content page, and JSPLayoutContainer is the container that displays the Layout page.

Default Display Profile Settings

The provider responsible for generating the JSPTabContainer channel is JSPTabContainerProvider. The provider profile is the template which decides the properties for a container channel, but the container channel profile will ultimately decide the values for the container channel attributes.

The properties that make up JSPTabContainer work as follows by default.

contentPage: Set to tab.jsp. This draws the Content Page for the tab container.
editPage: Set to tabedit.jsp. This displays the Edit page for the tab container where new tabs can be added, and existing tabs removed or renamed.
startTab: Sets the tab that opens first on the Desktop as MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer.
maxTabs: Allows six tabs to be created. As there are currently five tabs, one more can be added.
makeTabProvider: Used when creating a new tab from scratch.
channelNumber: Specifies that a number is appended to a newly created tab as the channel name. This number is increased each time a new tab is created, so that the new tab will have unique name. For example, to create a new tab based on MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer in JSPTabContainer, the new tab channel name would be JSPTabContainer/MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer1. (The new tab name is actually the channelName property in the display profile plus the value of the channelNumber property. The channelNumber is incremented by one each time a new tab is created.)
contentChannel: Specifies JSPContentContainer as the content channel that provides the Content page displaying channels to add to a user-created tab.
presetThemeChannel: Specifies JSPPresetThemeContainer as the channel that is displayed in the Theme - Preset Theme page.
customThemeChannel: Specifies JSPCustomThemeContainer as the channel that is displayed in the Theme - Custom Theme page.
TabProperties: This collection has <Collection name=> entries for each of the available tab defined in JSPTabContainer.
Available: This list describes all available channels for this container. The available channels are displayed in the Content Preference page for users to select from.
Selected: This list describes selected channels for this container. Only selected channels are displayed on the Desktop.

JSPTabContainer Architecture

Figure 38–2 shows the JSPTabContainer architecture. In this figure, tab.jsp is the top-level JSP file. The tab.jsp file makes include calls to the header.jsp, availableTabs.jsp, menubar.jsp, and footer.html files. The availableTabs.jsp file makes an include call to the selectedTab.jsp and tabs.jsp files.

Figure 37–2 JSPTabContainer Architecture

JSP Files Used by JSPTabContainer

The Portal Server 7.1 software uses JSP files for a channel’s presentation layer. JSPTabContainer references two main JSPs, tab.jsp and tabedit.jsp, through the contentPage and editPage properties.

Content template is responsible for the front page of the container channel and the file name for the tab container channel is tab.jsp. The tab.jsp file extensively uses the Desktop taglibs.

The Edit page is where you can add, remove, and rename tabs. The tabedit.jsp is used to display this page.

JSPTableContainer

The JSPTableContainer provides a JSP-based table Desktop.

Sample Desktop

Default Layout

By default, the sample portal Desktop based on the JSPTableContainer (see Figure 38–3) contains the following channels:

Thin channels: User Information, Sun Information, My Bookmarks, Mailcheck Provider, and My Applications
Wide channels: Sample JSP, XML Test, Notes, Personal Notes, and Preconfigured Web Service

Figure 37–3 Sample Desktop Based on JSPTableContainer

Default Actions

The sample JSPTableContainer channel, by default, includes:

Banner links to return to the Desktop Home page, Desktop theme to allow the user to set the color scheme and font type for the Desktop (the URL for this page is action=edit&provider=JSPPresetThemeContainer), Log Out to allow the user to log out of the Desktop (the URL for this page is action=logout), Help to display the Desktop sample online help (the URL for this page is ../docs/locale/desktop/helppage.htm), and Search to allow the user to search.
Leaf channel. JSPTableContainer does not contain any contained containers, it only has leaf channels. This container uses JSPContentContainer and JSPLayoutContainer to edit the content and layout, respectively.
Content and layout links. The toptable.jsp file defines the Content and Layout links. JSPContentContainer is the container that displays the Content page, and JSPLayoutContainer is the container that displays the Layout page.

The Content link (action=edit&provider=JSPContentContainer&container=JSPTableContainer) allows the user to edit the content on the Content page and the Layout link (action=edit&provider=JSPLayoutContainer&container=JSPTableContainer) allows the user to edit the layout of the channels on the Layout page.

Default Display Profile Settings

The provider responsible for generating the JSPTableContainer channel is JSPTableContainerProvider. The provider profile is the template which decides the properties for a container channel, but the container channel profile will ultimately decide the values for the container channel attributes. The default properties that make up JSPTableContainer work as follows:

contentPage: Set to toptable.jsp. This draws the Content Page for the table container.
categories: This collection defines the categories under which the available channels in the JSPTabContainer will be grouped in the Content page. Here there are three categories: Personal Channels, Sample Channels, and News Channels.
channelsRow: This collection and values that appear in this collection, contain the row number value for channels in this container. For example, the mail check channel is defined as row 4.
channelsIsRemovable: This collection defines a collection to contain the isRemovable value for channels in this container. Only one channel, user information, is defined, with a value of false, so that it cannot be removed.
Available: This list describes all available channels for this container. The available channels are displayed in the content preference page for users to select from.
Selected: This list describes selected channels for this container. Only selected channels shows up in the Desktop.

JSPTableContainer Architecture

Figure 38–4 shows the JSPTableContainer architecture. In this figure, toptable.jsp is the top-level JSP file. The toptable.jsp file makes include calls to the header.jsp, launchPopup.jsp, leafWrapper.jsp, and menubar.jsp files.

Figure 37–4 JSPTableContainer Architecture

JSP Files Used by JSPTableContainer

The Portal Server 7.1 uses JSP files for a channel’s presentation layer. JSPTableContainer references one main JSP, toptable.jsp, through the contentPage property.

Content template is responsible for the front page of the container channel and the file name for the tab container channel is toptable.jsp. The toptable.jsp file extensively uses the Desktop taglibs.

Chapter 38 Frame-Based Desktop

This chapter contains the following sections:

The FrameTabContainer provides a frame-based table Desktop.

Sample Desktop

Default Layout

By default, the sample portal Desktop based on the FrameTabContainer provides a frame-based table Desktop consisting of two frames (see Figure 39–1), My Front Page and Samples, with the following channels:

In the My Front Page frame: My Bookmarks, My Applications, Sample JSP, and XML Test
In the Samples frame: URL Scraper, Notes, and Preconfigured Web Service

Figure 38–1 Sample Desktop Based on FrameTabContainer

Default Actions

The sample FrameTabContainer channel, by default, includes:

Banner links to return to the Desktop Home page, Sections (action=edit&provider=FrameTabContainer) that allow users to rename or select the start page, delete a page, and also create a new page, theme (action=edit&provider=JSPPresetThemeContainer) that allows users to set the color scheme and font type for the Desktop, Help (../docs/locale/desktop/helppage.htm) to display the Desktop sample online help, and Log Out (action=logout) that logs the user out from the Desktop.

The Sections link on the Content page displays the Current Page Settings Edit page where you can make changes. Here, Start page allows the user to set the starting page, Rename allows the user to rename the page, and Delete allows the user to delete a page from the Desktop.
Content and layout links. The top-most JSP in the table container defines the Content and Layout links. JSPContentContainer is the container that displays the Content page, and JSPLayoutContainer is the container that displays the Layout page.

The Content link (action=edit&provider=JSPContentContainer&container=MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer) allows the user to edit the content for this particular page on the Content page and the Layout link (action=edit&provider=JSPLayoutContainer&container=MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer&selected=MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer) allows the user to edit the layout of the channels for this particular page on the Layout page.

Default Display Profile Settings

The provider responsible for generating FrameTabContainer channel is JSPTabContainerProvider. The provider profile is the template which decides the properties for a container channel, but the container channel profile will ultimately decide the values for the container channel attributes. The properties that make up FrameTabContainer work as follows:

contentPage: Set to frametab.jsp. This draws the Content Page for the frame container.
editPage: Set to frametabedit.jsp. This displays the Edit page for the frame container where new pages can be added, or existing pages removed or renamed.
startTab: Sets the page that opens first on the Desktop as MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer.
maxTabs: Allows four pages to be created. As, by default, there are two pages, two more can be added.
makeTabProvider: Specifies JSPFrameCustomTableContainerProvider as the provider to create a new page on the Desktop.
channelNumber: Specifies that a number is appended to a newly created page as the channel name. This number is increased each time a new page is created, so that the new page will have unique name. For example, to create a new page based on MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer in FrameTabContainer, the new page channel name would be FrameTabContainer/MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer1. (The new page name is actually the channelName property in the display profile plus the value of channelNumber property. The channelNumber property value is incremented by one each time a new page is created.)
contentChannel: Specifies JSPContentContainer as the content channel that provides the Content page displaying channels to add to a user-created page.
TabProperties: This collection has entries for each of the four containers that are available in the FrameTabContainer.
Available: This list describes all available channels for this container. The available channels are displayed in the content preference page for users to select from.
Selected: This list describes selected channels for this container. Only selected channels shows up in the Desktop.

FrameTabContainer Architecture

Figure 39–2 shows the FrameTabContainer architecture. In this figure, frametab.jsp is the top-level JSP file. The frametab.jsp file makes include calls to the frametabmenu.jsp, header.jsp, banner.jsp, selectedTab.jsp, menubar.jsp, frameset.jsp, and footer.html files.

FrameTabContainer is made up of two sub-containers, MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer and SamplesFramePanelContainer, as represented by Page 1 (tablecontainer) in the figure.

Figure 38–2 FrameTabContainer Architecture

JSP Files Used by FrameTabContainer

The Portal Server 7.1 uses JSP files for a channel’s presentation layer. FrameTabContainer references two main JSPs, frametab.jsp and frametabedit.jsp, through the contentPage and editPage properties.

Content template is responsible for the front page of the container channel and the file name for the tab container channel is frametab.jsp. The frametab.jsp file extensively uses the Desktop taglibs.

The Edit page is where you can add, remove, and rename pages. The frametabedit.jsp is used to display this page.

Chapter 39 Internally Used Containers

Often, when working with the sample portal, you need to modify the appropriate “contained” container, which is part of the top-level container. The contained containers are:

MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer (parent = FrameTabContainer)
MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer (parent = JSPTabContainer)
MyFrontPageTemplatePanelContainer (parent = TemplateTabContainer)
SamplesFramePanelContainer (parent=FrameTabContainer)
SamplesTabPanelContainer (parent = JSPTabContainer)
SearchTabPanelContainer (parent = JSPTabContainer)

Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 software uses other container providers internally to perform such tasks as creating new tabs and edit containers.

Internally Used Containers

This section lists the internally used containers in Portal Server 7.1 and provides their description.

Table 39–1 Internally Used Containers


Container Name	Description
`JSPTabCustomTableContainerProvider`	`JSPTabCustomTableContainerProvider` is used when a new tab is created in the user’s JSP tab-based Desktop, and is specified in the `makeTabProvider` property of `JSPTabContainer`. `JSPTabCustomTableContainerProvider` is based on the JSP table container provider.
`JSPFrameCustomTableContainerProvider`	`JSPFrameCustomTableContainerProvider` is used when a new frame is created in the user’s JSP frameset-based Desktop, and is specified in the `makeTabProvider` property. `JSPFrameCustomTableContainerProvider` is based on the table container provider.
`PredefinedFrontPageFramePanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedFrontPageFramePanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the predefined tab for MyFrontPage tab when the user creates a new page based on an existing page from the make NewPage page on `FrameTabContainer`.
`PredefinedSamplesFramePanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedSamplesFramePanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the predefined tab for Samples tab when the user creates a new page based on an existing page from the make NewPage page on `FrameTabContainer`.
`PredefinedToolsTemplatePanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedToolsTemplatePanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the Tools tab on `TemplateTabContainer`.
`PredefinedFrontPageTemplatePanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedFrontPageTemplatePanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the predefined tab for MyFrontPage tab when the user creates a new tab based on an existing tab from the make New Tab page on `TemplateTabContainer`.
`PredefinedSamplesTemplatePanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedSamplesTemplatePanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the predefined tab for Samples tab when the user creates a new tab based on an existing tab from the make New Tab page on `TemplateTabContainer`.
`PredefinedSamplesTabPanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedSamplesTabPanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the predefined tab for Samples tab when the user creates a new tab based on an existing tab from the make New Tab page on `JSPTabContainer`.
`PredefinedFrontPageTabPanelContainerProvider`	`PredefinedFrontPageTabPanelContainerProvider` is the provider for the predefined tab for MyFrontPage tab used when the user creates a new tab based on an existing tab from the make New Tab page on `JSPTabContainer`.

Chapter 40 Global Themes

This chapter contains the following sections:

What is a Theme?

The Desktop theme provides the capability of creating a customizable user interface that allows the end users to select different look and feel for their Desktop.

The definition of a theme in Sun Java System Portal Server software Desktop is a collection of user interface attributes that are used in the markup output from the Desktop. The attributes can be colors, fonts, and images. Out of the box, there are eight themes that come with the sample portal and each theme contains thirty eight (38) attributes.

GlobalThemes Display Profile Definition

The display profile document, PortalServer-base/samples/desktop/dp-org.xml file, contains the XML fragment for the eight default themes. See this file for the definition of these themes. See the Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Developer Sample Guide for more information on customizing the Global Themes.

Theme Properties

The following is a list of theme properties that can be defined, modified, and/or customized in the display profile document. Please referthe Glossary of Terms for more detailed description for the theme properties.

activeBulletImage

activeBulletGraphics

inactiveBulletImage

inactiveBulletGraphics

brandImage

logo image

brandImage2

Product name image

brandImageBgColor

header logo bg color

brandImage2BgColor

header product name bg color

brandBgColor

header link box bg color

headerBgColor

header bg color and footer bg color

headerFontColor

header font color

footer font color

headerText

header font size

footer font size

header font face

footer font face

tabNotchImage

tabNotch image

titleText

selected tab font face

selected tab font size

unselected tab font face

unselected tab font size

channel title font face

channel title font size

titleFontColor

selected tab font color

channel title font color

fontSize

channel font size

channel link font size

fontFace

channel font face

channel link font face

titleBarColor

selected tab bg color

channel title bar bg color

content/layout bar color

channel border color

page piping color (bottom)

button bg color

borderColor

border color

tabColor

unselected tab bg color

secondary channel title bar color

tabFontColor

unselected tab font color

bgColor

channel bg color

fontColor

channel font color

borderWidth

channel border width

tableBgColor

table bg color

page piping, top

channelHightlightColor

highlight color for channel content (as seen in the Placida theme JSP channel)

linkSeparatorColor

link separator color (in the toolbar, between Content and Layout)

footer link separator color

channelLinkColor

channel link color

contentLayoutLinkColor

content/layout link color

contentLayoutText

content/layout link font size

content/layout link font face

brandImageWidth

brand image width

previewImage

preview image (on preset themes page)

removeImage

remove image (for the channel title bar)

detachImage

detach image (for the channel title bar)

helpImage

help image (for the channel title bar)

editImage

edit image (for the channel title bar)

minimizeImage

minimize image (for the channel title bar)

maximizeImage

maximize image (for the channel title bar)

normalizeImage

normalize image (in the maximized channel)

attachImage

attach image (in the popup window)

Glossary of Terms

The following table provides description of where the theme attributes are actually used in the desktop.

Table 40–1 Glossary of Terms


Term	Description
Header	The banner area at the top of the portal page. Contains the branding and the global links.
Bullet graphics	The “dot” graphics that go next to the global links in the header
Logo, product name, link	The three areas in the header for the Sun theme
Footer	The narrow banner at the bottom of the portal page. Contains the global links
Tab notch	The graphic that goes in the upper left corner of the tab table cells
Selected tab	The tab whose contents are displayed
Unselected tab	The other tabs whose contents are not seen
Content/layout bar	The tool bar underneath the tabs that contains the content and layout links
Channel	The data containers displayed inside each tab
Page piping	The narrow bands of color at the top and bottom of the portal page
Table background	The areas the channels sit in
Highlight color for channel content	A contrasting color for tables inside channels
Secondary channel title bar	An extra color bar beneath the standard channel title bar
Link separator	A pipe used between links in the content/layout bar