Sun Java System Portal Server 7.2 Administration Guide

Chapter 16 Managing and Customizing Channels

This chapter explains how you can manage and customize channels using the Desktop Design Layout.

Note –

To configure the Instant Messenger channels, you can refer to http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/OpenPortal/ConfigureIMPortlet72.

Managing Channels

To Move a Channel

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

In the work area, select the tab where the channel that you wish to move is located.

In the Channel title bar, select the:

Up or Down icon

To move the channel up or down on the desktop.

Left (<) or Right (>) icon

To move the channel to the right or left on the desktop. Note that a thin channel cannot be moved into a wide column and a wide channel cannot be moved into a thin column. However, in a three column (thin-wide-thin) desktop, a channel from the thin column can be moved to the left or right thin column using the right or left (<) icon.

To Remove a Channel

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

In the work area, select the tab where the channel that you wish to remove is located.

In the Channel title bar, select the close (x) icon to remove the channel from the desktop.

To Add a Channel

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

In the work area, select the tab where you wish to add the channel.

Select the channel that you wish to add from the Channel Library in the right pane.

Click on Add To Desktop button to add the channel to the desktop in your work area.

If the channel selected in the library area is a library channel, a popup window appears where you must specify the channel name, channel title, and channel width. If the channel selected is a channel instance at the current display profile node, the channel instance is added to the current selected tab.

To Configure a Channel

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

In the work area, select the tab where the channel you wish to configure is located.

Select the Configure Channel link in the channel.

The page with the channel properties pops up to allow you to edit the channel properties.

Click on Close after completing the modifications.

To Set Channel Toolbar Properties

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

In the work area, select the tab where the channel is located.

Select the Set Toolbar Properties link in the Channel window.

The page with the channel toolbar properties for the channel to modify pops up. This page allows you to modify the channel toolbar and display properties (such as minimizable, maximizable, movable, removable) with respect to the tab that the channel resides in.

Click on Save to save the values.

Click on Close to close the pop up window.

To Make a Channel Visible or Invisible to the User

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

In the work area, select the tab where the channel is located.

Select the link to:

Make Channel Not Visible to end user

To make the channel invisible.

Make Channel Visible

To make the channel visible on the user's desktop.

Adding a Channel to a User-defined Tab

Users can add a new tab to their Desktop by using the Tabs link and then by clicking the Make a New Tab link. The channel list that gets displayed on the content page which is shown when the user selects to create a new tab from scratch is picked up from the JSPTabCustomTableContainer’s Available list.

Adding Content to the Desktop Using Channels

Portal administrators can add content to the portal desktop by adding provider and portlet channels. The following procedures discuss how to create a channel, modify it’s properties, add it to the desktop and then verify that it is being displayed.

To Create a URLScraper Channel

Suppose you want to create a channel, named MyChannel, that displays content from an external web page (for example, http://www.google.com). The following steps show how to create a URLScraper channel. The same steps can be followed to create other Provider based and Portlet based channels.

TBD

Click the Portals tab.

Click the Portal-URI in the Portals list.

Select Enterprise Sample [Org] in the Select DN list.

Click Design Desktop Layout.

Select a tab where the new channel will be created. For example, click the News tab.

Click New Channel or Container in the NewsContainer page.

Select URLScraper in the Channel Library list.

Click Add to Desktop in the Channel Library.

A popup window will display. Provide the following info:
1. Specify the channel title.
2. Specify the channel name.
3. Specify the channel width.

click Add Channel. The channel is now available and visible in the work area.

Customizing Channel Refresh Times and Container Caching

The refreshTime property controls how often a channel’s content is reloaded. When refreshTime is set to 0 (the default) for the container, the browser refresh (or reload) causes the page to be reloaded and the getContent() method is called again for every channel.

The following applies to a single channel:

It is not possible to refresh only the content of the single channel within a container because a channel is an HTML table cell.
It is possible to use the DesktopURL() method in the PAPI. The provider can use getDesktopURL() to get the Desktop servlet’s URL, append arguments to it, and generate a new URL (or link).

The following applies to controlling and configuring container caching:

Use the refreshTime property for the container along with the refreshTime for individual channels within the container.
If the refreshTime for the container is blank, it is calculated to be the minimum time for all of the contained channels. If you want to override that calculated time, set a refreshTime for the container and then the content for the whole container will be cached.

Note –

If you have a large number of channels, utilize the provider caching by setting the refreshTime to a large number so that the portal page can use cached content. This makes sense when most of your channels have static content. The way the refreshTime works is if the container’s refreshTime is set, it will use it. If refreshTime is set to an empty string, it will try to get and use the minimum of the refreshTime of its selected channels.

Customizing Window Preference

For channels that include links that launch another browser, you can control how this browser window is opened.

To Customize the Channel Window Preference

Define the display profile (either for the channel, to make the change for only that channel, or for the provider, to make the change for every channel that uses the provider) so that it includes the windowPref property.

For example:
<Properties> ... <String name="windowPref" value="all_new"/> ... </Properties>
Note –
The values are:
- all_new (New window is opened for every link)
- one_new (All links open on the same new window)
- same (Desktop window)

Load the display profile into LDAP using the psadmin subcommand or from the Portal Server management console.

Note –
The intelligence has to be built with the help of JavaScript for that particular channel.

To Customize the Channel Window Preference from the Portal Server Management Console

Log in to the Portal Server management console and select the user, organization, or role for which the windowPref has to be changed.

Select Manage channels and containers and click on the concerned channel. On the right frame, change the windowPref property value for the channel.

The values can be:
- all_new (New window is opened for every link)
- one_new (All links open on the same new window)
- same (Desktop window)

Removing a Button

To Remove a Button From All Channels in a Container

Find the container you want to work with. If you are working with one of the sample portals, you need to modify the appropriate “contained” container, which is part of the top-level container.

Add the appropriate property (within the <Properties></Properties>) tags from Removing a Button to the container’s display profile for the button you want to remove. This two column table lists the button in the first column and the property to hide the button in the second column.

The order of the buttons in this table corresponds to the order they appear in the channel, from left to right: Minimize, Maximize, Help, Edit, Detach, and Remove.

Button	Property to Hide the Button
Minimize	`<Boolean name="defaultChannelIsMinimizable" value="false"/>`
Maximize	`<Boolean name="defaultChannelIsMaximizable" value="false"/>`
Help	`<String name="helpURL" value=""/>`
Edit	`<Boolean name="isEditable" value="false"/>`
Detach	`<Boolean name="defaultChannelIsDetachable" value="false"/>`
Remove	`<Boolean name="defaultChannelIsRemovable" value="false"/>`

Note –

For the Help and Edit buttons, insert the respective property for each channel. You cannot insert the property within the container’s <Properties></Properties> tags.

Make sure the following properties are not defined in the container:

<Collection name="channelsIsRemovable">..</Collection>
<Collection name="channelsIsMinimizable"/>..</Collection>
<Collection name="channelsIsMaximizable"/>..</Collection>
<Collection name="channelsIsDetachable"/>..</Collection>

Load the display profile into LDAP using the psadmin subcommand or from the Portal Server management console.

To Remove a Button From All Channels in a Container From the Portal Server Management Console

Log in to the Portal Server management console and select the user, organization, or role in which the container is defined.

Select Manage Channels and Containers and click on the contained container.

Change the DefaultChannelIsMinimizable, DefaultChannelIsMaximizable, helpURL, isEditable, DefaultChannelIsDetachable, and DefaultChannelsIsRemovable properties to false.

Select Save to save the new values.

To Remove a Button From a Single Channel

For the channel from which you want to remove a button, add the appropriate property to a Collection tag in the container that contains the channel. See Removing a Button, for the button you want to remove. This two column table lists the button in the first column and the property to hide the button in the second column

The order of the buttons in this table corresponds to the order they appear in the channel, from left to right: Minimize, Maximize, Help, Edit, Detach, and Remove.

Button	Property to Hide the Button
Minimize	`<Collection name="channelsIsMinimizable">` `<Boolean name="channelname" value="false"/>` `</Collection>`
Maximize	`<Collection name="channelsIsMaximizable">` `<Boolean name="channelname" value="false"/>` `</Collection>`
Detach	`<Collection name="channelsIsDetachable">` `<Boolean name="channelname" value="false"/>` `</Collection>`
Remove	`<Collection name="channelsIsRemovable">` `<Boolean name="channelname" value="false"/>` `</Collection>`

For the channel in which you want to remove a button, add the appropriate property to a Collection tag in the controlling container.

For example, use the following XML to hide the Remove button for the Sample JSP channel in the JSP table container, MyFrontPageTabPanelContainer, whose container is JSPTabContainer.

<Container name="MyFrontPageFramePanelContainer" provider="JSPTableContainerProvider">
	<Properties>
		...
		<Collection name="channelsIsRemovable">
		<Boolean name="SampleJSP” value="false”/>
		</Collection>
	</Properties>
	...

Load the display profile into LDAP by using the psadmin subcommand or from the Portal Server management console.

To Remove a Button from a Single Channel From the Portal Server Management Console

Log in to the Portal Server management console and select the user, organization, or role in which the container is defined.

Select Manage Channels and Containers and click on the contained container.

Change the channelsIsMinimizable, channelsIsMaximizable, channelsIsDetachable, and channelsIsRemovable properties as follows:
1. Select the property (for example, channelsIsMinimizable) and click on New Property from the Properties table.
2. Create a boolean type property, specify the channel name that does not want that button, and set the value to be false.
3. Follow the steps to finish the wizard.
  
  There will be a new boolean property (for example, for the channelsIsMinimizable property) in the Properties table for the specified channel.

Removing the Title Bar from a Channel

To Remove the Title Bar from a Channel

Add the following to the table container display profile in which the channel is present.

<Collection name="channelsHasFrame">
<Boolean name="channelname" value="false"/>
</Collection>

Load the display profile into LDAP by using the psadmin subcommand or from the Portal Server management console.

Changing the Channel Border Width and/or Color

You can change the borderWidth property and borderColor property for the GlobalThemes collection. This changes the width and the color of the channel borders respectively for a theme. Users can then select the theme from the Themes page.

To Change the Border Width and Color for all Channels in a Container

Log in to the Portal Server management console and select Portals, portal-URI, Enterprise Sample (from the Select DN pull-down menu), and Manage Channels and Containers.

Select DP XML Tree in the View drop-down menu.

Select DP_Root, GlobalThemes, and SunTheme.

Modify the borderWidth and borderColor settings and save.

Managing the Channel Library

To Create a New Library Channel

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

Select the New Library Channel icon from the Channel Library toolbar.

The page to add a new channel to the library pops-up.

Specify whether this is a channel or library channel.

When a library channel is created, the name is prefixed with __Library__ and it is stored in the global display profile. Channels that begin with _ cannot be administered from the Portal Server management console Manage Containers and Channels link. Use the Desktop Design Tool link in the management console to change a library channel's properties.

Specify the Channel Type.

Channels can be Provider-based, JSR 168 compliant portlets, or WSRP remote portlet channels.

Specify the name of the:

Provider

For a provider-based channel.

Portlet

For a JSR 168 or JSR 286 compliant portlet.

Producer

For a WSRP remote portlet channel.

Specify the name for the channel.

Channel names must be unique.

Review your settings and click on Finish.

The results page displays the results of the attempt to create a new channel for the channel library.

To Edit Library Channel Properties

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

Select the channel from the list of channels in the Channel Library.

Select the Edit icon from the Channel Library toolbar.

The page to edit the properties of the channel pops-up.

Make your changes in the page and click on close.

The channel properties are modified.

To Delete A Library Channel

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

Select the channel from the list of channels in the Channel Library.

Select the Delete icon from the Channel Library toolbar.

A window requesting confirmation of deletion pops-up.

Click on OK.

The channel is deleted from the Channel Library list.

To Deploy Portlets

Access the Desktop Design Layout page for the desktop you wish to create or modify in the Portal Server management console.

To access the Desktop Design Layout page, see procedure To Access the Desktop Design Tool in the Portal Server Management Console.

Select the Deploy Portlet icon from the Channel Library toolbar.

The page to deploy portlet pops-up.

Select Portal and DN where you wish to deploy the portlet from the Select Portal and Select DN drop-down lists respectively.

Select the appropriate radio button and specify the path to the portlet WAR and portlet deployment information.

You can specify a WAR file from the local machine or from the Portal Server host. The portlet WAR file is required. You can specify roles and users files from the local machine or from the Portal Server host. The roles mapping file and the users mapping file are optional.

Verify the information and click on Finish.

The results page displays the results of the attempt to deploy the portlet.