Portal Registry

Each portal is defined by a portal registry. The portal registry is a set of dedicated PeopleSoft database tables that store every content reference, typically a URL, that is available through the portal. A portal registry has a tree-like structure in which content references are organized, classified, and registered. A portal registry contains folders and content references.

Content references are definitions that have been entered or registered in the portal registry. Content references fall into four categories: homepages , target content, templates, and pagelets. Although each type of content reference differs slightly from the other types, every content reference includes information, such a name, label, creator, effective date, and expiration date.

Content references include a URL, which points to portal content. The content can be PeopleSoft components, iScripts, external web pages, or other external content. The URL can point to any website that responds to HTTP or HTTPS requests with an HTML response—any static or dynamic web page. One example of a content reference is a URL that points to a PeopleSoft application component. Other examples include static HTML pages on an intranet site or dynamic pages created by a reporting system. Access to content references is controlled by basic PeopleTools security through the assignment of permission lists and roles.

Note: The PeopleSoft Administrator role and the Portal Administrator role give full access to all folders and content reference definitions in the portal registry—that is, a user with either of these roles can navigate to all menu folders and menu items in the portal registry even if the portal registry security settings do not specifically include this user or role. For more information on the PeopleSoft Administrator role, see Using the PeopleSoft Administrator Role.

In the portal registry, folders organize content references into a multilevel hierarchy. Each folder can contain content references and other folders. Folders and content references share many of the same properties.

Every portal registry contains a root folder and standard PeopleTools-related folders including My Favorites, Portal Objects, Reporting Tools, PeopleTools, Tools - Hidden, and many others. The Portal Objects folder includes the following folders:

  • Homepage

  • Navigation Collections

  • Pagelets

  • Template Pagelets

  • Templates

  • WSRP Produced Portlets

In addition to these standard folders, there are multiple folders per PeopleSoft application. These application folders contain the subfolders and content references associated with each PeopleSoft application. All application pages in PeopleSoft product line databases are registered, secured, and described in the portal registry.

The hierarchical structure of the registry enables a portal administrator to create a navigation system, in which content references can be registered and managed for all portal users. PeopleTools provides a set of portal administration pages for this purpose. Additionally, a registry API is provided for accessing each portal registry from PeopleCode, Component Object Model (COM), or C programs.

A portal registry can reside in an existing PeopleSoft application database or in an independent PeopleSoft database. A single database can support multiple portal registries, and therefore multiple portals, but only one portal registry is associated with any given portal. To improve performance, a copy of the registry is also stored on the application server in cache files; this is how the portal servlet accesses the registry at runtime.

Maintaining the Portal Registry

Several tools exist to access and maintain the portal registry:

  • Use the portal administration pages to manage portal and node definitions, folders, content references, templates, pagelets, navigation collections, and portlets.

  • Use other portal administration pages to view menu security and structure.

  • Use the portal registry API to programmatically maintain objects in the portal registry.

  • Use the component registration wizard in PeopleSoft Application Designer to register and assign permissions to component-based content references.

  • Use the Menu Import utility to import custom menu group definitions.

  • Use the security synchronization process to reinstate the correct security relationships between objects in the portal registry after you copy a project that contains portal objects.