Using the WebLogic Administration Portal, portal administrators ultimately determine which header/footer combination is used for a portal desktop.
Desktop headers and footers are defined by shells. Each shell can reference a JSP or HTML file for displaying content. For example, you can create a campaign with WebLogic Workshop Platform Edition that displays targeted content to users. Then you can reference the campaign in a shell's header. When a user accesses the desktop they see the results of the campaign in the header.
As a portal developer, you can create shells and select a default shell for a desktop.
To select a default shell for a desktop
To view examples of fully functional portals, see the Portal Samples.
Also, when you create a Portal Web Project, a predefined set of shells is added to your project in the <project>\framework\markup\shell directory.