Use Cases

The Blog portlet has the following use cases. These use cases are accomplished through a combination of the portlet's edit mode and the configMode portlet preference.

Admin configured

The portlet is configured by the portal administrator and can not be configured by the user. The admin configured mode expects that the portal administrator has configured the portlet for a group of portal users. For example, a portal administrator can add and configure the Blog portlet in an Access Manager role, giving all users with that role access to post to a shared weblog. No provisioning is performed. It is up to the portal administrator to ensure that the weblog server resources (weblog and weblog user account) exist.

This mode is configured by disabling the portlet's edit mode. If the portlet cannot be edited, the user cannot personalize the portlet in any way. By default, Blog portlet's deployment descriptor enables edit mode. To turn it off, set the value of the isEditableByMimeType property to false for Blog portlet's display profile provider.

For example:

$ cat blogportlet-noedit.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE DisplayProfile SYSTEM "jar://resources/psdp.dtd"> <DisplayProfile version="1.0" priority="0"> <Properties/> <Channels/> <Providers> <Provider name="__Portlet__blogportlet.BlogPortlet" class="com.sun.portal.providers.portletwindow.PortletWindowProvider"> <Properties> <Collection name="isEditableByMimeType" advanced="true"> <Boolean name="text/html" value="false"/> </Collection> </Properties> </Provider> </Providers> </DisplayProfile> $ /opt/SUNWportal/bin/psadmin modify-display-profile -u amadmin -f /tmp/pw -g -p portal1 -m blogportlet-noedit.xml

All of the other configuration modes assume that the portlet is editable.

Manual configured

The portlet is configured directly by the user. The user can point to an existing weblog with an existing weblog account. No provisioning occurs. The manual configured mode allows the user to enter the weblog APP entries URL and their weblog user account credentials into a simple form. The user can personalize the Blog portlet to point to any weblog they wish.

This mode is configured is by making the portlet editable, and by setting the configMode preference (see Portlet Preferences) to manual.

Wizard configured

The portlet is configured by the user, walking them through a wizard to gather the various parameters. The weblog is provisioned based on the user's input. In wizard configured mode, when the user edits the portlet, they are walked through a series of questions and forms. The purpose is to allow them to choose an existing weblog user account or create one, and choose an existing weblog or create one. As opposed to the manual configuration mode, the wizard configured mode allows the user to enter a weblog handle only and not the weblog APP entries URL. The implication is that in wizard configured mode, users cannot vary the weblog server, only the weblog handle within the administrator configured weblog server.

This mode is configured by setting the configMode preference to wizard. This mode assumes that the portal administrator has configured valid APP and AAPP URLs into the portlet. Both are required. If not set, this mode will not be accessible and will default back to manual.

Wizard-user-only configured

The wizard-user-only configured mode is the same as wizard configured mode, but the user is only allowed to provision a weblog user, not a weblog. The wizard-user-only configured mode is the same as wizard configured mode, except that the weblog-related steps in the wizard are skipped; the user can only enter an existing weblog user account, or create a new one. They cannot change the weblog handle, or create a new weblog.

This mode is configured by setting the configMode preference to wizard-user-only. When used in conjunction with Portal Server software's community feature, Blog portlet must be set up in wizard-user-only configured mode.