Manage pages, layout, and content

 

  1. Portal structure

  2. Manage pages

  3. Customize pages

  4. Choosing themes and skins
  5. Context-sensitive tasks
  6. Show tools
  7. Page access

 

Portal structure

The portal is composed of a hierarchical structure of nodes that can be represented in a parent-child relationship, starting from the content root of the portal. A node is an addressable element in the portal navigation tree belonging to one of the following types:

page

Pages display content in the form of portlets. Pages can contain child nodes, including other pages that provide content. A page can contain column containers, row containers, and portlets. Containers are columns or rows that you can use to arrange the layout of portlets or other containers on the page.

label

Labels do not display any content, but can contain other nodes. They are used primarily to group nodes in the navigation.

URL

URLs can launch any URL-addressable resource, including external Web sites or pages within the portal site.

Nodes are located in a level of the navigation hierarchy relative to the parent node in which they are created. The topmost node in the tree is the content root. After installation, the following nodes are created under the content root.

By default, users without administrative privileges can only access nodes under the My Portal node. Users with administrative privileges can use links in the toolbar to toggle between Administration and My Portal. If other nodes are created directly under the content root, links to these nodes are not seen unless they are specifically added to one of the theme JSPs. For more information, see Work with portal navigation.

 

Manage pages

The Manage Pages portlet allows you to perform the following tasks:

Details about these tasks are explained in the help for this portlet.

 

Opening Manage Pages

  1. Log in to the portal as an administrator.

  2. Click Administration in the portal toolbar.

  3. In the navigation tree, click Portal User Interface then Manage Pages. The nodes belonging to the currently selected node are displayed.

 

Navigate to a node in the portal hierarchy

Manage Pages displays a table showing the hierarchical structure of the portal. The table displays a list of nodes that belong to the selected branch in the tree. The parent nodes are displayed above the list as a breadcrumb trail.

 

Create and deleting pages

Both administrators and users with appropriate access can create and delete pages. Users can only delete the pages they create.

Both of these tasks direct you to the Properties portlet, for setting that page title and advanced options, and the Content portlet, for editing the layout and content of the page. When you are finished, the new page is automatically activated. More detailed information is provided for the help for each of these tasks.

Notes:

 

Set page properties

The Properties portlet is displayed when creating a new page. Users can also set page properties by clicking Edit properties from any portlet in the Page Customizer. The page title is required. It is recommended, but not mandatory, that you specify a unique name. WebSphere Portal uses the page name as an internal identifier for the page, and some administration portlets display it.

You can also set the theme for nodes created directly under the content root (level 1 nodes). All nodes that are level 2 and higher inherit the theme from the parent level 1 node.

The following page properties can be specified by expanding the Advanced options field.

Bookmarks

To allow user's to bookmark a page in the portal, select This page can be added to a user's My favorites list.

Shared page

To use a page as a reference for creating other pages, select: Other pages can share the contents of this page.

Content and layout

You can either setup the page with its own content and layout properties, or designate a shared page in which these properties are inherited.

  • To setup the page with its own content and layout properties,

    1. Select A content page with these properties.

    2. Select one of the predefined layout templates. The layout properties can be modified further using the Edit Layout portlet.

    3. Select one or more supported markups. The default markup for all pages is HTML. The user can set the page to support other markups, for example, Wireless Markup Language (WML) and Compact HTML (cHTML). A markup option is only available for selection if it is supported for the parent node.

  • To designate a shared page in which the initial content and layout properties are inherited, select A page that uses content from a shared page. This option is available only if a page has been created as a shared page. You must select from one of the available shared pages. See Reference existing pages for more information about this option.

Allowed portlets

This property can be set only when editing an existing page. To designate a list of allowed portlets:

  1. Click This page has a list of allowed portlets. An empty list of restricted portlets is displayed.

  2. Click Add.

  3. Set the search properties and text and click Search. For example, to display all available portlets, select All available from the drop-down list and click Search.

  4. Use the checkboxes to select portlets from the list. Click OK when you are finished making selections.

  5. Review list of restricted portlets and select OK when the list is complete.

Titles and descriptions

Use this option for changing the page title or description, or adding or changing titles and descriptions for different locales.

  1. Click I want to set titles and descriptions. A list is displayed of all titles that have been set for this page for each locale.

  2. Click the edit icon for each supported locale that you want to change.

  3. Enter the locale-specific title and description for the page.

  4. Click OK to return to the list of page titles.

  5. When you have finished editing each page title, click OK to return to Properties.

When you are finished setting page properties, click OK to save your changes. When creating a new page, the Edit Layout portlet is displayed to allow you to edit the layout and content of the page. Otherwise, you are returned to the location in the portal from which you opened Properties.

 

Reference existing pages

When a page is created, it can be designated as a shared page. Other pages can be created that inherit the original page's properties. For example:

Use the Properties portlet for setting up pages to reference an existing page. Referencing an existing page allows you to give administrative access to other users while maintaining the content and layout from the original page. Creating a page by referencing an existing page is equivalent to creating a new, specialized layer on the original page. The original page and the new layer are aggregated together at rendering time. The new layer is contained within and controlled by the original page. Therefore, to access the new page, users must have access to the original page as well as the new page.

Changes made to the original parent page are reflected to the pages or layers that reference it. Layers can be created on other layers to create a chain of cascading pages, referred to as delegated page specialization. This process means that a root page can be created, and the top level administrator can decide the initial layout and content of the page. The next level administrator can then control and modify a specialized layer of this page, adding more content and layout. This process can continue down a chain of page managers and submanagers. Manager or submanagers in the chain only see their individual layer of the chain; however, they must have the User role for every layer above theirs in order to see the content of the previous layers. An end user is only able to see a layer of the page if appropriate access is given. Here are some examples to illustrate this concept.

John, the superadministrator, creates a page named Home and titles it Home. Brandy, a subadministrator, manages the next level of this page, named Home_operations, and determines what additional content should be added to the Home page for employees in the operations group. Nick, the next level administrator, manages the next level of the Home page, Home_operations_transportation, and determines the content that should be available on the Home page for employees in the transportation department. Nick, as the transportation page administrator, must have the Manager role for Home_operations_transportation so that he can make changes to this page that will affect all users, as well as the User role for Home_operations and the User role for Home; he must have the User role on every layer that combines to create the Home_operations_transportation level. Desi, an end user of the Home_operations_transportation page, must have the User role for Home_operations_transportation, and she must also have the User role for Home_operations and the User role for Home. When Desi, the end user logs on to the portal, she sees one Home page. This Home page will be an aggregation of all the layers associated with the root Home page.

Notes:

 

Customize pages

The page customizer contains portlets for editing the layout, content, and appearance of pages. You can configure the settings for these portlets to show a certain set of functions, restricting basic users from performing more advanced tasks.

Editing a shared page can have different results, depending on the role assigned to the user editing the page.

See Access rights for more information.

 

Access the Page Customizer

By default, the Page Customizer is hidden. However, users can access portlets in the Page Customizer through one of the following methods.

 

Edit layout and content

The Edit Layout portlet allows you to define the layout and content of a portal page. Use the following methods to access this portlet to edit the layout and content.

Some of the options you can select on the page include:

Layout template: Select from one of several preconfigured page layouts.
Add portlets: Select portlets from a list that you can add to containers on the page. This might require that you enter search criteria for portlets rather than listing all available portlets.
Show layout tools: Shows advanced layout tools for creating and editing page containers. This options overrides the preconfigured layout templates.

Note that moving administrative portlets to custom pages can disrupt administrative functionality. If you place an administrative portlet on a custom page, you do not have to remove it from the original page. However, if you really need to remove the portlet from the original page, be sure to update...

wp_root/shared/app/config/services/AdminUniqueNamesMappingService.properties

...with the custom unique name of the new page where the portlet is located.

The sample page below has the following layout:

The structure of an example page might look like this:

Portal page layout sample

For more information, see the help for the Edit Layout portlet.

 

Set Permissions

Use the Locks portlet to set permissions for moving containers or content, or for deleting portlets. This allows you to lock content to certain locations on a page. If a user has appropriate access rights, the user can determine what other users are able to do with a page. Any element on the page, such as a row container, a column container, or a portlet, can be locked or unlocked for many variations that give a user control of what can be modified. On a page where content and layout should be preserved, both can be locked, preventing other users from altering the arrangement of containers or portlets on the page.

To lock or unlock content on a page, access the Page Customizer and select the Locks portlet.

Notes:

For additional information, see the help for Locks.

 

Derivation behavior in combination with locks and changing access permissions

Use and altering locks in conjunction with access permissions on the parent pages may result in changes on derived pages depending on how complicated the derivation structure is.

The information in this section is only applicable if you are using the WebSphere Portal advanced "A page that uses content from a shared page" feature in the Manage Pages administration portlet.

The following scenario describes the behavior of derived pages:

An administrator with the editor role creates a page with a two-column layout and places a portlet in each column. The blue arrows in the following figure indicate the child-to-parent relationship of the components of the page:

Two column layoutTwo column layout

Then a user with an editor role creates an explicit derivation from this page (option "Advanced Options/A page that uses content from a shared page") and adds two portlets to the explicitly derived page, one portlet in each column as indicated in the following figure:

Two column, four portlet layoutTwo column four portlet layout

The red boxes around the two new controls indicate that these controls are on a new layer of the page. The original page content and the new layer together comprise the complete page.

The user with an editor role creates a third column next to the two existing columns and moves all portlets to the new column. The new column exists on the layer of the derived page (red box); whereas, the original portlets are moved into the column through additional information (green arrows) as indicated in the following figure:

Three column layoutThree column layout

Rendering the explicitly derived page shows all four portlets arranged vertically as shown in the above picture.

Next, the administrator locks all containers and portlets on the original page. This has no impact on the aggregated pages (original page and derived page). The administrator then removes the editor right from the user who created the derived page and assigns only privileged user permissions to that user.

If this privileged user navigates to the derived page, the following issues occur:

If the administrator reassigns editor permissions to the user for the derived page, the layout appears differently to the user from any of the stages of the derived page. The layer of additions to the derived page becomes visible again but the information about moving the original portlets has been deleted as indicated in the following figure:

Three column layout with missing informationThree column layout with missing information about moving the portlets

The same principle applies to other layer scenarios in similar ways. Movement information of elements from the original page is deleted; whereas, actions on the layer of the derived page; for example adding portlets, rows, or columns; may persist after reassigning permissions as described above.

 

Set appearance of portlets

Skins represent the border around a portlet, including its title bar. Users with appropriate access can select skins for individual portlets using the Appearance portlet of the page customizer.

To set a skin for portlets, access the Page Customizer and select the Appearance portlet. See the portlet help for further information.

 

Set up wires

The Portlet Wiring Tool allows you to configure connections, or wires, between cooperative portlets. Cooperative portlets can exchange information, or properties, with each other through the property broker. Properties are exchanged either by prompting the user with a Click-to-Action menu or automatically using preconfigured wires. As a result, portlets on the page can react in an integrated and unified manner to the user's actions.

The Portlet Wiring Tool is not provided with the WebSphere Portal product package. It must be downloaded from the Portlet Catalog This portlet should be placed on a page called Wires under the Page Customizer.

 

Choosing themes and skins

A theme determines the global appearance of a page. The purpose of this is to ensure visual consistency. Themes affect the navigational structure, the banner, the colors and fonts, the available portlet skins, and other visual elements of a page. A skin determines the frame that is displayed around a portlet.

Use the Themes and Skins portlet to do the following:

You find this portlet under Administration, Portal User Interface.

When a theme is removed, all references from pages that have previously been set to this theme are deleted. When a skin is removed, all references to a page or portlet that have previously been set to this skin are deleted.

If you remove a theme, the references to that theme and the links between that theme and the related skins are also deleted. If you want to remove the skins related to the removed theme as well, apply special care to remove only skins that are related to no other theme than the deleted one. The skins are associated to the portlets. Therefore, if you have a skin related to several themes, and you delete one of those themes, then the skin will still show under the other themes.

Deleting a theme or skin does not remove the /theme or /skin directory from the server.

 

Context-sensitive tasks

WebSphere Portal provides context-sensitive links in the toolbar that allow users to perform tasks for the page from which they click the link. These links are added to each theme so that users can access these tasks from any point of origin in the portal. Only those links the user can use are shown. The following links are provided by default:

After completing the task, the user is returned to the original page.

 

Show tools

The portal banner can display an icon that toggles the display of additional controls in the portlet title bar or page tabs. The additional controls allow users to move portlets or delete them from the page or to edit the page itself. The additional portlet controls and page edit icons are not visible all the time. They only appear on the screen if the user clicked the icon. The portlet controls are displayed only if the user has a User role on the portlet and the Privileged User role on the page. The page control is displayed only if the user has the Privileged User role on the page.

In addition to access rights, settings in the Page Locks portlet can affect whether users can move or delete content in a container.

Clicking the edit icon for a page allows users to change the layout and content of the page. After completing this task, users return to the page from which they launched the edit.

 

Page access

A page is a resource to which permissions can be managed by the administrator. Permissions are based on roles, and all of the page creation, deletion, reordering, and customization capabilities can be restricted, based on the role assigned to a user or user group. Please see Authorization for more information.

See also