Part I

Customizing Portal Look and Feel

The portal UI is designed for customization. The portal includes a range of built-in solutions for customizing look and feel. For an introduction to the layout of the portal page, see Chapter 2, "Portal Page Layout".

If you just want to add your logo and branding to the portal, you can use header and Footer portlets are displayed on most portal pages, and usually contain the company logo and contact information. For details on building custom portlets, see the Oracle WebCenter Interaction Web Service Development Guide.

This section contains the following chapters:

• Chapter 3, "Using Adaptive Page Layouts": Adaptive Page Layouts allow you to customize the entire portal page layout and design using tags .

• Chapter 4, "Using Adaptive Styles (CSS Customization)": Oracle WebCenter Interaction style sheets are fully customizable. The portal comes with a selection of different options to change the style of portal pages, including a range of color schemes, fonts, and other options. The portal CSS template file also allows you to customize the layout of the portal page, including columns, navigation tabs, banners and footers. You can modify the look and feel of individual table controls and form elements, including text box sizing, button colors and fonts. You can also use style sheets to customize portlet content and style. Note: If you are not using Adaptive Layouts, you can still use CSS to customizing the portal page; for details, see Chapter 5, "Customizing Portal Layout Using CSS - Legacy User Interface"

• Chapter 6, "Using String Replacement": All messages displayed in the portal can be customized easily by modifying the portal string files. This is a simple customization that is often overlooked in favor of more complicated methods. All text in the portal is stored in internationalized string files, including login instructions and error messages, with the exception of object names and text generated by portlets.

• Chapter 7, "Customizing Experience Definitions": Experience definitions allow the portal to use different branding for different groups of users, including departments, product teams, or specific customers. By creating multiple experience definitions and communities, you can create focused pages and experiences for distinct groups of portal users.