11 Working with the Portal Browser Task Flow

This chapter describes how to add a Portal Browser task flow to a page, and how to work with the task flow.

This chapter includes the following topics:

• Section 11.1, "About the Portal Browser Task Flow"

• Section 11.2, "Adding a Portal Browser Task Flow to a Page"

• Section 11.3, "Setting Portal Browser Task Flow Properties"

Permissions:

To perform the tasks in this chapter, you need the portal-level permission Basic Services: Edit Page Access, Structure, and Content (standard permissions) or Pages: Edit Pages (advanced permissions). A portal moderator has this permission by default.

For more information about permissions, see Section 29.1, "About Roles and Permissions for a Portal."

11.1 About the Portal Browser Task Flow

WebCenter Portal provides two portal task flows that you can add to a page:

• Portal Members task flow: Shows the portal members and provides controls to add new members, send a mail message to all members, filter the list by role, and search for members. For more information about this task flow, see Chapter 31, "Working with the Portal Members Task Flow."

• Portal Browser task flow (Figure 11-1): Adds an area that operates identically to the Portals page (portal browser) in the Home portal, providing users with the ability to work with their portals on the page, rather than navigating to the Portals page. For information about working with this task flow, see the "Viewing and Accessing Available Portals" section in Using Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Figure 11-1 Portal Browser Task Flow

Description of ''Figure 11-1 Portal Browser Task Flow''

11.2 Adding a Portal Browser Task Flow to a Page

Adding a Portal Browser task flow to a page is the same as adding any other component to a page. See Section 14.2, "Adding a Component to a Page."

Note:

The Portal Browser task flow is not available in the Default Portal Catalog provided with WebCenter Portal, so you will only see an entry for it if it has been added to a custom resource catalog that has been made available to the page.

For more information, see Section 23.5.1, "Adding a Resource to a Resource Catalog" (in the Add Resource Catalog Item dialog, select Task Flows, then Design Time, then Portal Browser). To use the custom resource catalog for editing portal pages, make sure it is Available, and set for use by pages in the portal, as described in Section 7.3.5, "Changing the Resource Catalogs for Pages and the Page Template for a Portal."

11.3 Setting Portal Browser Task Flow Properties

The Portal Browser task flow has associated properties, which users with sufficient privileges can access through the Component Properties dialog in Composer (Figure 11-2).

Figure 11-2 Portal Browser Task Flow Component Properties

Description of ''Figure 11-2 Portal Browser Task Flow Component Properties''

For information about accessing the Component Properties dialog, see Section 14.3, "Modifying Component Properties."

The following sections provide information about properties of the Portal Browser task flow and describe the properties on the Parameters tab:

• Section 11.3.1, "About the Portal Browser Task Flow Properties"

• Section 11.3.2, "Portal Browser Task Flow Parameters"

11.3.1 About the Portal Browser Task Flow Properties

The properties on the Parameters tab of the Component Properties dialog control the default task flow content. For descriptions of the parameters on this tab, see Section 11.3.2, "Portal Browser Task Flow Parameters." For some task flows, parameters on this tab facilitate the wiring of the task flow to page parameters and page definition variables. For more information, see Chapter 19, "Wiring Pages, Task Flows, Portlets, and ADF Components."

Changes to the properties on the Display Options, Style, and Content Style tabs affect the appearance and behavior of the task flow for all users. These properties are common to all task flows. For more information, see Section 14.3.4, "Working with Component Display Options" and Section 14.3.6, "Working with Style and Content Style Properties."

The contents of the Events tab depend on the events supported by the task flow. For more information, see Section 14.3.7, "Working with Component Contextual Events."

All properties on the Parameters and Display Options tabs provide access to an Expression Language (EL) editor, which you can use to select or specify a variable value instead of a constant value. Click the icon next to a property, then select Expression Builder to open the editor.

Note:

When you enter EL in the generic Display Options dialog, the parser reports an error only if it detects invalid syntax, such as a missing closing bracket. Validation is performed only on syntax, not on the expression value. Generic Display Options are those cataloged in Table 14-1, "Display Options Properties".

EL validation is not performed on non-generic display options.

If you need EL assistance, an application developer can provide an EL expression; see the "Expression Language Expressions" appendix in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper.

11.3.2 Portal Browser Task Flow Parameters

Table 11-1 describes the parameters that are unique to the Portal Browser task flow.

Table 11-1 Portal Browser Task Flow Properties: Parameters Tab

Parameter	Description
Advanced Query	Specifies an EL expression to retrieve a list of portals based on custom criteria. The expression may include the population from which to choose, a WHERE clause, and sort criteria. Do not wrap the expression in #{ and }. Optionally, use a backslash as an escape character for quotes and backslashes (expression syntax is valid with or without an escape character). Examples: To display all subportals of a named parent portal: spaceContext.spacesQuery.parentSpaceName['parent_portal_name'] or spaceContext.spacesQuery.parentSpaceName['parent_portal_guid'] To display top-level subportals of a named parent portal: spaceContext.spacesQuery.parentSpaceName['parent_portal_guid'].shape['ROOT_LEVEL'] To sort the results based on certain criteria (in this example, discoverable portals sorted alphabetically, then by date last updated): spaceContext.spacesQuery.unionOf.ALL_QUERIABLE.sort['sp.discoverable']['asc'].sort['sp.lastUpdateDate']['desc'] Note: If you wish to filter the retrieved data, the EL expression used for the advanced query needs to include any filtering required. Any value specified by the Filter parameter is ignored when the Advanced Query parameter is set. For example, if you want to retrieve two portals MyPortal1 and MyPortal2 and only show them if you are a portal member (filter option) then the Advanced Query parameter may be set to: spaceContext.spacesQuery.unionOf.USER_JOINED.where[wCond['sp.displayName']['=' ]['MyPortal1']['or'][wCond['sp.displayName']['=']['MyPortal2']]] For additional examples: In the Expression Editor, select Portal Info, then select from the list of examples to show the associated EL expression. To use an expression, remember to remove any enclosing #{ and }, and any backslash escape characters. If you need EL assistance, an application developer can provide an EL expression; see the "Expression Language Expressions" appendix in Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper and the JavaDoc for oracle.webcenter.spaces.query.SpacesQueryParameters.
Display Tool Bar	Specifies whether the tool bar displays: #{true} (default): Display the toolbar. #{false}: Hide the toolbar.
Display View	Specifies the type of layout in which to display portals in the Portal Browser. Card Layout: Display portals in a card view. Tiled Layout (default): Display portals in a tiled view.
Filter	Specifies which portals should display in the Portal Browser task flow. Show All (default) Show Joined Show Moderated Show Public Show Discoverable (all Public and Private portals) Note: This setting is ignored if the Advanced Query parameter is used. In this case, the EL expression used for the advanced query needs to include any filtering required. See the Advanced Query parameter description for an example.
Portal Launched on Selection	Specifies whether to navigate to a portal when selected in the Portal Browser task flow: #{true} (default): Clicking a portal opens the portal on the Home page. #{false}: Clicking a portal does not navigate to the portal. Instead, allows user to select the portal, staying on the same page with the selected portal highlighted.