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Creating and Managing Portals

 

This chapter discusses the WebLogic Personalization Server Administration Tool , and presents instructions for building an example portal, the Acme Demo.

The WebLogic Personalization Server Administration Tool contains a complete set of functions that enable portal administrators to easily create the components of a portal page and personalize the portal's content, layout, and appearance.

WebLogic Personalization Server includes Acme Demo Portal, a complete demo portal that is set up for you and ready to run. This demo portal uses the Cloudscape Database Management System (DBMS) to store the Portal Demo data. Use the Acme Demo Portal to quick start your portal development.

This section includes the following topics:

 

Introduction to Portals and Portlets

Internet portals are a key part of many eCommerce applications. Portals provide an entry point to the Internet as well as value-added services such as searching and application integration. The WebLogic Personalization Server allows you to quickly assemble both Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business portals that require personalized application content on the Internet.

Intelligent portals can act as tour guides to points of interest, tailored for individual user preferences. There are portals that concentrate on collecting and delivering specialized areas of information such as stock trading and finances, emerging technologies, or corporate information. For example, www.boston.com is a specialized news portal and www.schwab.com is a specialized financial portal. Other megaportals provide general channels of information such as health, weather, sports, news, E-mail services, chat rooms, news groups, and so on.

Internet portals are an efficient way to exchange large volumes of information with large groups of people. From the users' perspective, most portals are organized as a hierarchical web site where the main page provides links to a set of pages that provide a more detailed view of the data.

Static portals, like many corporate home pages, provide a standard set of information to everyone who visits the site. In contrast, dynamic personalized portals, where the information presented may differ based on who is viewing the portal, represent a far more efficient and targeted way to do business. Well-known examples of dynamic portals include www.amazon.com, www.ebay.com, www.excite.com, and my.yahoo.com. With the WebLogic Personalization Server, you can quickly build powerful, dynamic portals like these, as well as static ones.

The Portal Framework

WebLogic Personalization Server provides a collection of prebuilt JSP pages that provide the core functionality for portals. They are located in %WL_COMMERCE_HOME%/server/public_html/portals/repository.

When using the framework, your pages will have a common layout. In this layout, a page's real estate will be divided into three main areas: a header, a content area, and a footer. The header resides at the top of the page and typically contains a full-sized logo for the site plus some navigation features. The footer resides at the bottom of the page and typically contains legal notices, copyright information, and a small logo. The middle section, the content area, contains any number of small independent components called portlets. The JSPs included in the Portal Framework manage the layout of these portlets on the page.

What is the Difference Between a Portal and a Portlet?

A portlet is a highly focused channel of information served up by a portal. A portal can contain many of these information channels. For example, an online retail portal could provide a variety of interactive merchandise portlets, each presenting a different specialty category such as mystery books, classical music CDs, and baseball memorabilia.Unlike a static portal page, the deployment of portlets via the Personalization Server gives our online retailer the ability to dynamically respond to customers based on profiles. With this technology, not only can the retailer provide dynamic content, but also the customer can easily select and arrange their e-Commerce portlets.

For example, a returning customer, Samantha, who loves mystery novels and ghost stories could select the "mystery" portlet as central to her standard view of the retailer's home page. This would be done by means of an edit page made available by the retailer. At the same time, the retailer could determine that Sam's purchase choices and portlet selections convey a taste for the unexplained. The Personalization Server lets you incorporate sophisticated rules technology to automatically generate responses to user profiles. A response could be the delivery of specialized information via a portlet. In the case of the mystery hound, our fictitious retailer could offer up recommendations about the latest thrillers and whodunnits on video.

Personalizing a Portal

Personalization allows you to customize your portals and portlets to serve a specific audience and purpose. The WebLogic Personalization Server supports three levels of personalization, all of which can be administered with web-based tools. The three levels or personalization are as follow:

Personalization includes web-based forms for adding and removing portal content, editing the content layout, and customizing the portal content color schemes. The user personalization information includes user information and general user preferences.

 

Setting Up

To properly create and administer a portal using the Portal Administration Tool, you should know how to configure and run the WebLogic Server, and set up database connections.

To create and administer a portal, first you must install and setup the WebLogic Personalization Server software. Then, you must also complete the following tasks:

Logging On to the Administration Tool

Once you have configured the Flow Manager and created a web site directory, you can log on to the Portal Administration Tool.

To log on to the Portal Administration Tool:

  1. Start the WebLogic server configured for portal use.

  2. Access http://hostname:port/tools in your web browser where 'hostname' is the name of the host running your WebLogic Server, 'port' is the port number at which the WebLogic Server is listening for requests, and tools is the name of the webapp in the weblogic.properties file.

    A dialog box appears and prompts you to enter a username and password.

  3. Enter the username administrator and the password password.

    Note: We recommend that after installation you immediately create a new password for the administrator.

  4. Click Ok to display the Administration Tool Home page.

  5. Click the Portal Administration page icon.

Configuring the Flow Manager to Control Portal Access

The Flow Manager controls user access to your portal. The Flow Manager receives all incoming HTTP requests and dispatches each request to the appropriate destination URL. For more information about the Flow Manager, see the topic "Flow Manager" in the Foundation chapter of the WebLogic Personalization Server Developer's Guide.

_DEFAULT_PORTAL_INIT property set

To configure the Flow Manager, create a portal property set based on a default application init property set.

To create a new property set:

  1. Open the Administration Tools Home page. Click the Property Set Management icon to open the Property Set Management screen.

  2. From the main Property Set Management screen, click Create.

  3. Name the new property set you are creating (100 character maximum). The name of the property set should be the same as the name you will use to create the portal, or the name you will use to access the application.

  4. Enter a description of the property set (255 character maximum).

  5. From the Copy Properties From drop-down list, select APPLICATION_INIT._DEFAULT_PORTAL_INIT (for a portal)
    or
    APPLICATION_INIT._DEFAULT_APP_INIT (for a non-portal application).

  6. From the Property Set Type drop-down list, select Application Init.

  7. Click Create.

  8. At the top of the page, in red, you will see the message "Property Set creation was successful." (Or, you will see an error message indicating why the property set was not created.)

  9. Click Back to return to the main Property Set Management screen.

Valid Flow Manager Parmaters

To set parameters for your portal or application:

  1. From the Property Set Management Home page, under the Application Initialization Property Sets heading, click the name of the property set you just created.

  2. A Property Set page comes up, allowing you to set parameters.

  3. Note: For non-portal applications, skip this step.
    To edit the portal name, click the Edit button to the right of the "portal name" property. Change the default value from UNKNOWN to the name of your portal, as you created it in Portal Management.

  4. Edit the destinationdeterminer property. Either accept the default, or edit to provide your own implementation of these classes.

  5. Edit the destinationhandler property. Either accept the default, or edit to provide your own implementation of these classes.

  6. Customize any other properties you choose. For information about customizing properties in portals, see Creating Custom Portals in the WebLogic Personalization Server Developer's Guide.

  7. When you have finished setting properties, click the Finished button at the bottom of the page.

The table below lists valid parameters for the Flow Manager servlet.

Table 2-1 Valid Flow Manager Servlet Parameters

Parameter Name

Required

Description

allowautologin

No

Determines whether a client with valid cookies can automatically login. The default is false.

defaultdest

Yes

The default destination page JSP if there is not a valid session for the user. (This page is qualified from yourDocumentRoot as defined in the weblogic.properties file.)

To display a default portal page for anonymous users, use: defaultdest=/portals/myPortal/portal.jsp

or

to force anonymous users to the login page instead of the portal page use: defaultdest=/portals/myPortal/_userlogin.jsp

destinationdeterminer

Yes

Used by the Flow Manager to determine JSP page navigation.

destinationhandler

Yes

Used by the Flow Manager to determine JSP page navigation.

groupName

Yes

The default group name for this portal instance. (When new users register, they are added to this group. This parameter allows you to register two Flow Managers that are alike except for the groups that they service.) This value defaults to everyone.

homepage

Yes

The home page JSP returned by the system in auto-login or from the portal home button. (This page is qualified from yourDocumentRoot as defined in the weblogic.properties file.) Example: homepage=/portals/myPortal/portal.jsp

portalname

Yes

The name given to the portal you created in the Portal Administration Tool. Example: Acme Demo Portal

repositorydir

Yes

Location of default files, (gifs, JSP, etc.)

refreshworkingdir

No

Number of seconds, defaults to -1, which means check every time.

sessioncomparator

Yes

How to determine if the session is valid.

timeout

No

Timeout for the cookies or session valued in seconds and defaulting to (-1).

If set to (-1), the cookies expire upon exiting the browser. If cookies are disabled, the session invalidates upon browser exit. To retain user login information between browser sessions, set the timeout to a large positive number, such as 999999, and set autologin=true.

ttl

Yes

Number of seconds between Flow Manager reexaming this property set.

workingdir

Yes

The working directory JSP for the portal implementation that tells the portal framework where to find your portal pages and the WebLogic Personalization Server pages. (This page is qualified from yourDocumentRoot as defined in the weblogic.properties file.) Example: workingdir=/portals/myPortal/

Creating a Portal Web Site Directory Under the Server Document Root

As a final step before using the Portal Administration Tool, create a web site directory for your portal pages under your WebLogic server document root. Then copy all the files from the demo portal directory to your portal web site directory.

To copy files from the demo portal directory to your web site directory:

  1. Using the myPortal example in the preceding section, copy the files and subdirectories from:
    yourDocumentRoot/portals/repository

    to
    yourDocumentRoot/portals/myPortal

  2. Verify that the Flow Manager workingdir property value in the weblogic.properties file matches the name of the web site directory to which you just copied the demo portal files. See the Acme Demo Portal Directory and Subdirectories table.

    For example, if your server document root is public_html and your portal working directory is /portals/myPortal/, create the following workingdir:

    public_html/portals/myPortal/

    Table 2-2 Acme Demo Portal Directory and Subdirectories

    Directory

    Description

    /portals/repository

    The portal root directory that contains pages such as header.jsp, footer.jsp, and portalcontent.jsp.

    See Appendix A, WebLogic Personalization Server Framework Files, for an explanation of these and other JSP files provided with the portal framework.

    /portals/repository/images

    A directory of images that support your portal and WebLogic Personalization Server components.

    /portals/repository/portlets

    The directory of all portal JSP and HTML pages and the WebLogic Personalization Server sample portlet applications.

    /portals/repository/portlets/images

    A directory of images that supports your portlets and WebLogic Personalization Server portlets.

 

Using the Portal Administration Tool

Figure 2-1 Administration Tool Home Page

Now that you have access to the Portal Administration Tool, you can use it to administer portlets, portals, and business-to-business portal groups. Administrative functions available in the tool include:

Administering Portlets

To the portal framework, a portlet is a JSP page that knows how to retrieve specialized content and display it in the portal application. To users, a portlet is one of many content modules on a portal page that can be personalized to reflect appearance, content, and layout preferences. Once a portlet is created in the Portal Administration Tool, it can be associated with multiple portals.

You can create, edit, and delete portlets in the Portlets section of the Portal administration tool Home page. All screens in the Administration Tool related to portlet functions are color-coded with teal banners and command buttons. Screens related to portal functions display tan banners and command buttons.

A portlet includes two required components, a titlebar and content area, and several optional components including the banner, header, footer, edit URL, alternate header, alternate footer, maximized URL, and help URL as shown in the following graphic:

Figure 2-2 Portlet Application Decomposed by Components

You can define each portlet application to include any of the following attributes:

Creating Portlets

Before you use the Portal Administration Tool to create a portlet, place all your portlet application files in the following directory: 

yourDocumentRoot/portals/repository/portlets

You create a portlet in the Administration Tool by creating a portlet definition entity (referred to in this document as a portlet) and associating portlet JSP URLs that have been created by a portlet developer with the portlet entity. When a portlet is created, it is not automatically associated with a portal. You need to add portlets to a portal later from the portal view-page.

To create a portlet:

  1. On the Portal Administration Tool Home page, click Create in the Portlets banner. The Create a New Portlet tool displays.

  2. Enter the appropriate information in the following required fields:

  3. If desired, enter the appropriate information in the following optional fields:

  4. Click Create.

    If the portlet was successfully created, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  5. Click Back to return to the home page. The new portlet name displays under the Portlets banner.

Editing Portlets

After creating a portlet, you can redefine it at any time by adding or removing attributes.

To edit a portlet:

  1. On the home page, click a portlet title link to display the Edit Properties tool. The name of the portlet you selected to edit displays at the top of the screen.

  2. Enter the appropriate changes.

  3. Click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  4. Click Back to return to the home page.

Deleting Portlets

You can delete portlets that you no longer need. However, you must first remove (mark as unavailable) the portlet from any portals it is associated with.

To delete a portlet:

  1. On the home page, click Delete in the Portlets banner. The Delete a Portlet tool displays.

  2. Select the portlet from the Portlet Name drop-down list.

  3. Click Delete. A confirmation window displays.

  4. Click Ok to confirm your deletion.

  5. Click Back to return to the home page. The portlet name is no longer listed under the Portlets banner.

Administering Portals

You can create, edit, or delete portals from the Portals section of the Portal Administration Tool Home page. All screens in the Administration Tool related to portal functions are color-coded with tan banners and command buttons. Screens related to portlet functions display teal banners and command buttons.

For procedures on using the Acme Demo Portal components to quick start your portal development, see Creating a Portal Using the Acme Demo.

Creating Portals

To create a new portal:

  1. On the Portal Administration Tool Home page, click Create in the Portals banner to display the Create a New Portal tool.

  2. Complete the following required fields:

  3. Customize your portal display by entering the optional URL files. Make all URLs relative to workingdir:

  4. Click Create to create the portal definition.

    If the portal was successfully created, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  5. Click Back to return to the home page. The new portal name displays under the Portals banner.

Editing Portals

After creating a portal, you can edit it to associate portlets, groups, and users. You can also personalize the portal's layout and color scheme, and make changes to the definition.

To edit a portal:

  1. On the Portal Administration Tool Home page, click a portal title link to see the portal view-page. The name of the portal you selected displays at the top of the screen. Colored banners separate each portal property and contain a command button for that property. See the following procedures for more information on editing portal properties.

    The following image shows the portal view-page.

    Figure 2-4 Portal View Page

  2. When you are done viewing and editing the portal, click Finished at the top or bottom of the portal view-page to return to the home page.

Editing Portal Definitions

You can edit the portal definition you created to reflect any changes to the associated URLs or number of portal columns.

To edit a portal definition:

  1. On the portal view-page, click Edit in the Definition banner to display the Edit Portal Definition tool.

  2. Enter the appropriate changes.

  3. Click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  4. Click Back to return to the portal view-page.

Adding and Removing Portlets

You can choose which portlets are available to a portal by adding and removing them from the system's list of all established portlets. From the narrowed list of portlets you associate with a portal, group, and end-users further define which portlets they want available and visible on their personalized portal page.

To associate portlets with a portal:

  1. On the portal view-page, click +/- in the Associated Portlets banner to display the Add or Remove Portlets tool.

  2. To add a portlet to the portal, select Avail. The portlet is associated with the portal. It doesn't appear on the portal page until it is made visible by you, the Group Administrator or the end-user.

  3. To make a portlet visible, select Visible. The portlet is associated with the portal and now appears on the portal page.

  4. To remove a portlet from the portal, select Unavail. The portlet becomes disassociated with the portal and unavailable to new groups and end-users (including anonymous users). However, if the portlet has been personalized at a group or user level, it remains associated with those levels.

  5. Click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  6. Click Back to return to the portal view-page. Available portlets appear in the Associated Portlets section of the screen with a gray background. Visible portlets are marked with an check mark.

Editing Portlet Display Attributes

Portlet titles, associated with a portal, display as hot links in the Associated Portlets section of the portal view-page. These links open a tool that enables you to further specify how the portlet displays in the portal, overriding the display attributes established when the portlet was created. Group Administrators can further personalize these attributes.

To edit an associated portlet's display attributes:

  1. Click the portlet title link in the Associated Portlets section of the portal view-page.

  2. Enter the appropriate changes in the Edit Portlet Display Attributes tool.

  3. Click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  4. Click Back to return to the portal view-page.

Editing the Portal Layout

You can move a portal's associated portlets left and right between columns and up and down within columns depending on the column layout you selected when you created the portal. You can also change the percentage of the portal page that each column occupies. Group Administrators and end-users can further personalize the portal layout.

To edit the layout of portlets in a portal:

  1. On the portal view-page, click Edit in the Layout banner to display the Edit Portal Layout tool. This layout tool shows each portal column, its span percentage, and the portlets that display within those columns.

  2. Select the portlet you want to move by clicking on it. The portlet name is highlighted.

  3. Click an arrow to move the portlet up or down within a column, or right or left between columns.

To change the column spans of a portal layout:

  1. Click in the percentage field associated with a column and enter a new percentage. The sum of all column spans should equal 100%. For single column portals, you may specify from 1% to 100%.

  2. When you are done editing the portal layout, click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  3. Click Back to return to the portal view-page. A table in the Portal Layout section lists the portlets as you arranged them within each column.

Editing the Portal Color Scheme

You can edit the overall appearance of a portal by changing its background color as well as the portlets' component colors, title colors, and border appearance.

To edit portal colors:

  1. On the portal view-page, click Edit in the Colors banner to display the Edit Color Schemes tool. This tool provides five preset color schemes and a Custom Scheme tool.

  2. In the Portlet Color Schemes section of the screen, select a preset color scheme or the custom color scheme. If you selected the custom color scheme, enter a hex color code in each text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color for each field from the Color Picker.

  3. Select On to display portlet borders, or Off to omit portlet borders.

  4. Select Black, White, or Other to choose the color of the text that displays in the portlet titlebar. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

  5. In the Portal Background Color section of the screen, select Gray, White, or Other to choose a background color for the entire portal page. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

  6. To preview your color selections, click the Click here to save changes and preview colors link. Your color changes are saved and the Edit Color Schemes tool redisplays the example portlet at the bottom of the screen to reflect your color preferences.

  7. To save your color preferences without previewing them, click Save. The portal view-page displays the new colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

  8. To revert the portal appearance to its original color scheme, click Restore Defaults. The portal view-page displays the default colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

Associating Groups with a Portal

You can only associate portal groups from the portal view page. For more information on associating users with a group and personalizing portal groups, see Administering Portal Groups.

To associate a group with a portal:

  1. On the portal view-page, click +/- in the Associated Groups banner.

  2. Expand the hierarchy (or search) to find the desired group.

  3. Check the group.

  4. Click Save to return to the portal view-page. The new group name displays in the Associated Groups section of the portal view-page.

To disassociated with a group:

  1. On the portal view-page, click +/- in the Associated Groups banner.

  2. Expand the hierarchy (or search) to find the desired group.

  3. Uncheck the group.

  4. Click Save to return to the portal view-page. The group name no longer displays in the Associated Groups section of the portal view page.

Deleting Portals

You can delete an existing portal from the Portal administration tool Home page. However, you must first disassociate all portal groups and users from that portal.

To delete a portal:

  1. On the home page, click Delete in the Portals banner to display the Delete a Portal tool.

  2. Select the portal from the Portal Name drop-down list.

  3. Click Delete. A confirmation window displays.

  4. Click OK to confirm the deletion.

  5. Click Back to return to the home page. The portal name no longer displays in the Portals section of the Portal administration tool Home page.

Administering Portal Groups

The Portal Administration Tool enables you to personalize portal groups. You can personalize the layout, content, and color scheme.

Avoid creating portal groups for business-to-consumer portals with an unmanageable number of users.

You can edit portal groups from the portal view-page.

Editing Portal Groups

Editing portal groups allows you to associate portlets with each group. You can also personalize the group's portal layout and color scheme.

To edit a portal group:

  1. On the Portal Administration Tool Home page, click the portal title link the group is associated with. The portal view-page displays.

  2. In the Associated Groups section of the screen, click the group title link you want to edit. The group-view page displays. The names of the portal and group you selected display at the top of the screen. Colored banners separate each group property and contain a command button for that property. See the following procedures for more information on editing group properties.

Adding and Removing Portlets from a Portal Group

As the Group Administrator, you choose which portlets are available to a group by adding and removing them from the portal's list of all associated portlets. From the narrowed list of portlets you associate with a group, end-users further define which portlets they want available and visible on their personalized portal page.

To associate portlets with a group:

  1. On the group-view page, click +/- in the Associated Portlets banner to display the Add or Remove Portlets tool.

  2. To add a portlet to the group, select Avail. The portlet is associated with the group. It does not display on the portal page until it is made visible by you or the end-user.

  3. To make a portlet visible, select Visible. The portlet is associated with the group and displays on the portal page.

  4. To remove a portlet from the group, select Unavail. The portlet becomes disassociated from the group and unavailable to the group and end-users. However, if the portlet has been personalized at the user level, it remains associated with those users.

  5. Click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  6. Click Back to return to the group-view page. Available portlets appear in the Associated Portlets section of the screen with a gray background. Visible portlets are marked with an X.

Editing the Portal Group Layout

You can move a group's associated portlets left and right between columns and up and down within columns. End-users can further personalize the portal layout.

To edit the layout of portlets in a group:

  1. On the group-view page, click Edit in the Layout banner to display the Edit Portal Layout tool. This layout tool shows each portal column and the portlets that display within those columns.

  2. Select the portlet you want to move by clicking on it. The portlet name is highlighted.

  3. Click an arrow to move the portlet up or down within a column, or right or left between columns.

  4. When you are done editing the portal layout, click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  5. Click Back to return to the portal view-page. A table in the Portal Layout section lists the portlets as you arranged them within each column.

Editing the Portal Group Color Scheme

You can edit the overall appearance of a group by changing its portal background color as well as the portlets' component colors, title colors, and border appearance.

To edit group colors:

  1. On the group-view page, click Edit in the Colors banner to display the Edit Color Schemes tool. This tool provides five preset color schemes and a Custom Scheme tool.

  2. In the Portlet Color Schemes section of the screen, select a preset color scheme or the custom color scheme. If you selected the custom color scheme, enter a hex color code in each text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color for each field from the Color Picker.

  3. Select On to display portlet borders, or Off to omit portlet borders.

  4. Select Black, White, or Other to choose the color of the text that in the portlet titlebar. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

  5. In the Portal Background Color section of the screen, select Gray, White, or Other to choose a background color for the entire portal page. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

  6. To preview your color selections, click the Click here to save changes and preview colors link. Your color changes are saved and the Edit Color Schemes tool re-displays the example portlet at the bottom of the screen to reflect your color preferences.

  7. To save your color preferences without previewing them, click Save. The group-view page displays the new colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

  8. To revert the portal appearance to its original color scheme, click Restore Defaults. The group-view page displays the default colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

 

Creating a Portal Using the Acme Demo

This section shows you how to use the Acme Demo Portal to quick start your portal development.

This section includes the following topics:

Introducing the Acme Demo Portal

When you install the WebLogic Personalization Server, a complete demo portal is set up for you and ready to run. This ready-made demo portal uses the Cloudscape Database Management System (DBMS) to store the Acme Demo Portal data. The demo is ready to run with the Cloudscape database immediately after you complete the WebLogic Commerce Server installation.

Note: The Cloudscape database is included with WebLogic Server under a limited evaluation license. Because of the limitations of the Cloudscape database, other databases should be considered. The database stores all of the portal framework information needed to support the portal components.

Note: The file name for the Acme Demo Portal is exampleportal. Throughout the WebLogic Personalization Server documentation, the Acme Demo Portal is refered to by its filename, exampleportal, or simply the "example portal."

The Acme Demo Portal includes the following:

All of JSP pages for the Acme Demo Portal are located in the following installed product directory: public_html/portals/repository.

Starting the Acme Demo Portal

To start the Portal Demo:

  1. Start the WebLogic server by executing the StartCommerce command file in your installation directory.

  2. Open a web browser window.

  3. In your web browser ,enter the following demo portal page URL, http://hostname:port/application/exampleportal where 'hostname' is the name of the host running your WebLogic Server, port is the port number at which the WebLogic Server is listening for requests, application is the name of the Flow Manager servlet in the weblogic.properties file, and exampleportal is the name of the property set.

    Example: http://mybigbox:7501/application/exampleportal

You can now use the WebLogic Personalization Server Administration Tool to view the Demo Portal or assemble your own portal, as described in Using the Portal Administration Tool.

Notes: Before using the Portal Administration Tool to assemble the Acme Demo Portal, you must install and set up the WebLogic Personalization Server software. For more information, see the BEA WebLogic Commerce Server with WebLogic Personalization Server Installation Guide.

You must also set the WebLogic server document root before you are able to log on to and use the tool. For more information, see Creating a Portal Web Site Directory Under the Server Document Root.

For more information on accessing and using the Administration Tool, see Using the Portal Administration Tool.

Building the Acme Demo Portal Components

To create the Acme Demo Portal definition:

  1. Click Create in the Portals banner of the Portal administration tool Home page to display the Create a New Portal tool.

  2. Enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

    Table 2-3 Sample Data

    Field Name

    Data

    Portal Name

    Acme Demo Portal

    Header URL

    header.jsp

    Content URL

    portalcontent.jsp

    Footer URL

    footer.jsp

    Number of columns

    3

    Suspend

    Defaults to false. Set to true to suspend the portal during maintenance.

    Suspended URL

    Enter suspended.jsp if you want to display the under maintenance URL during maintenance.

  3. Click Create.

    If the portal was successfully created, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  4. Click Back to return to the home page. The name of the new portal, "Acme Demo Portal," displays in the Portals section of the home page.

Creating Portlets for Your Demo Portal

You create portlets in the Administration Tool by associating a URL with each portlet component. When a portlet is created, it is not automatically associated with a portal. You must add the portlets to the demo portal later from the portal view-page.

The Acme Demo Portal includes six portlet applications that you can assemble with the Portal Administration Tool.

To create the demo portlets:

  1. Click Create in the Portlets banner of the Portal administration tool Home page to display the Create a New Portlet tool.

  2. To create the first of the demo portlets, My Bookmarks, enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

    Table 2-4

    Portlet Name

    Data

    Bookmarks

    Portlet Name: Bookmarks


    Content URL: portlets/bookmarks.jsp


    Editable: select the check box


    Edit URL: portlets/bookmarks_edit.jsp


    Maximizable: select the check box


    Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_bookmark.gif


    Login Required: select the check box


    Titlebar URL: Enter a URL to display as the portlet titlebar. It can be a JSP or HTML fragment.


    Mandatory: A mandatory portlet is one that is always available and visible.

  3. Click Create.

    If the portlet was successfully created, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  4. Follow steps two through three above to create the remaining five portlets. For each portlet, enter the following information in the appropriate fields:

    Table 2-5

    Portlet Name

    Data

    My Dictionary

    Portlet Name: My Dictionary


    Content URL: portlets/dictionary.jsp


    Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_dictionary.gif


    Minimizable: select the check box

    My To Do List

    Portlet Name: My To Do List


    Content URL: portlets/mytodo.jsp


    Editable: select the check box


    Edit URL: portlets/mytodo_edit.jsp


    Maximizable: select the check box


    Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_my_list.gif


    Minimizable: select the check box


    Floatable: select the check box


    Login Required: select the check box

    My Group To Do List

    Portlet Name: My Group To Do List


    Content URL: portlets/grouptodo.jsp


    Banner URL: portlets/grouptodobanner.jsp


    Editable: select the check box


    Edit URL: portlets/grouptodo_edit.jsp


    Maximizable: select the check box


    Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_group_list.gif


    Minimizable: select the check box


    Floatable: select the check box


    Login Required: select the check box

    Stock Quote

    Portlet Name: Stock Quote


    Content URL: portlets/quote.jsp


    Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_quote.gif


    Minimizable: select the check box

    Search

    Portlet Name: Search


    Content URL: portlets/search.jsp


    Icon URL: portlets/images/pt_search.gif


    Minimizable: select the check box

    News Index

    Portlet Name: News Index


    Content URL: portlets/new_index.jsp

    News Reader

    Portlet Name: News Reader


    Content URL: portlets/news_viewer.jsp


    Titlebar: content_titlebar.jsp

  5. Click Back to return to the Home page. The six new portlet names appear in the Portlets section.

Associating Portlets with Your Demo Portal

After creating a portal, you can associate portlets to it. You can also personalize the portal's layout and color scheme, and make changes to the definition. For more information on editing a portal, see Editing Portals.

You choose which portlets are available to a portal by adding and removing them from the system's list of established portlets. From the narrowed list of portlets you associate with a portal, group and end-users further define which portlets they want available and visible on their personalized portal page.

To associate the six portlets you just created with the demo portal:

  1. On the Portal administration tool Home page, click the Demo Portal title link in the Portals section of the screen. The Acme Demo Portal view-page displays.

  2. On the portal view-page, click +/- in the Associated Portlets banner to display the Add or Remove Portlets tool.

  3. To add a portlet to the portal, select Avail. The portlet is associated with the portal. It does not display on the portal page until it is made visible by you, the Group Administrator, or the end-user.

  4. To make a portlet visible, select Visible. The portlet is associated with the portal and now displays on the portal page.

  5. To remove a portlet from the portal, select Unavail. The portlet becomes disassociated with the portal and unavailable to new groups and end-users (including anonymous users). However, if the portlet has already been personalized at a group or user level, it remains associated with those levels.

  6. Click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  7. Click Back to return to the Demo Portal view-page. Available portlets appear in the Associated Portlets section of the screen with a gray background. Visible portlets are marked with an X.

Editing Your Demo Portal Layout

You can move a portal's associated portlets left and right between columns and up and down within columns depending on the column layout you selected when you created the portal. You can also change the percentage of the portal page that each column occupies in all portals except group portals. Group Administrators and end-users can further personalize the portal layout.

To edit the layout of portlets in the demo portal:

  1. On the Demo Portal view-page, click Edit in the Layout banner to display the Edit Portal Layout tool. This layout tool shows each portal column, its span percentage, and the portlets that display within those columns.

  2. Select the portlet you want to move by clicking on it. The portlet name is highlighted.

  3. Click an arrow to move the portlet up or down within a column, or right or left between columns.

To change the column spans of a portal layout:

  1. Click in the percentage field associated with a column and enter a new percentage. The sum of all column spans should equal 100%.

  2. When you finish editing the portal layout, click Save.

    If the changes were successfully made, a confirmation message appears in red at the top of the screen. If not, an error message notifies you of the required changes.

  3. Click Back to return to the Demo Portal view-page. A table in the Portal Layout section lists the portlets as you arranged them within each column.

Editing Your Demo Portal Color Scheme

You can edit the overall appearance of a portal by changing its background color as well as the portlet's component colors, title colors, and border appearance.

To edit the demo portal colors:

  1. On the Demo Portal view-page, click Edit in the Colors banner to display the Edit Color Schemes tool. This tool provides five preset color schemes and a Custom Scheme tool.

  2. In the Portlet Color Schemes section of the screen, select a preset color scheme or the custom color scheme. If you selected the custom color scheme, enter a hex color code in each text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color for each field from the Color Picker.

  3. Select On to display portlet borders, or Off to omit portlet borders.

  4. Select Black, White, or Other to choose the color of the text that will display in the portlet titlebar. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

  5. In the Portal Background Color section of the screen, select Gray, White, or Other to choose a background color for the entire portal page. If you selected Other, enter a hex color code in the text field, or click the color palette icon to select a color from the Color Picker.

  6. To preview your color selections, click the "Click here to save changes and preview colors" link. Your color changes will be saved and the Edit Color Schemes tool will re-display the example portlet at the bottom of the screen to reflect your color preferences.

  7. To save your color preferences without previewing them, click Save. The portal view-page displays the new colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

  8. To revert the portal appearance to the BEA original color scheme, click Restore Defaults. The portal view-page displays the default colors associated with the portal in the Colors section of the screen.

Testing Your Demo Portal

Once your portal is operational, you should test it to verify that all the associated portlets are available and visible as you specified them, and that your portal displays the correct color scheme and layout.

Figure 2-5 Acme Demo Portal

To test the demo portal:

  1. In a web browser, enter the Flow Manager URL: http://host:port/application/exampleportal

    The default portal home page should display all visible portlets and should reflect your default color and layout preferences.

  2. To test end-user personalization options, sign on to your portal by clicking the Sign On icon in the upper right corner of the home page.

    If you have not created a user profile, you can do so by following the registration wizard. If you have created a profile, enter your username and password, and click Sign On.

    You can now use the personalization tools to customize the portal's color, layout, and visible portlets.

    Figure 2-5 shows the Acme Demo Portal as it displays with the BEA default color scheme and layout to a registered user named jsmith.

 

Where to Get More Information

This chapter presents the basics of portal development using the WebLogic Personalization Server administration tools. For an in-depth look at portals and portlets, see the following sources:

The chapter "Building a Custom Portal Step-by-Step," in the WebLogic Personalization Server Developer's Guide, presents a tutorial for customizing your own e-Commerce portal.

The chapter "Developing Portlets," in the WebLogic Personalization Server Developer's Guide, presents the application developer with essential information about creating custom portlets.

You may need to consult the following documentation when using the WebLogic Personalization Server:

 

 

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