Previous Document Next Document

Designing a Portal

A portal provides a user interface for Web-based applications. It is a single point of access to enterprise data and applications, presenting a unified and personalized view of that information to employees, customers, and business partners.

WebLogic Workshop makes it easy to create a portal: click the target folder and choose File —> New —> Portal. The Portal Designer opens and displays a portal with a default header, body, and footer.

The Portal Designer is a graphic tool that enables you to design portals such as the Employee portal shown in the following figure.

Portal Designer

The following table describes the portal design tools shown in the previous figure.

Tools for Designing Portals 

Callout #
Use this tool...
For these tasks...

1

Application Window

Create, view, and edit portal files in your portal application projects. The names of portal files end in .portal.

The Portlet Designer stores the portal as an XML file. You can view the portal file in XML format within WebLogic Workshop by right-clicking the portal file and selecting Open as XML from the drop-down menu when the Open as XML portal application property is enabled.

To enable the Open as XML portal application property:

  1. Choose Tools —> Application Properties to open the Application Properties window.
  2. Select the Portal folder in the left-hand pane.
  3. Select the Is the Open as XML Option available? Portal option by clicking its checkbox.
  4. Select OK to apply the changes and close the Application Properties window.

2

Design View

Design your portal in this area.

3

Palette Window

Add books and pages to the portal by dragging components from the Palette window and dropping them onto the Design View canvas.

4

Data Palette Window

Add portlets to the portal by dragging them from the Data Palette window and dropping them onto the Design View canvas. You can use the sample portlets provided by WebLogic Portal, or you can create your own, as described later in Designing a Portlet.

5

Property Editor Window

Set properties for the portal component that is currently selected, such as the portal look and feel. You can select a portal component by clicking on it in the Design View canvas or by selecting its name in the Document Structure window (described below).

6

Document Structure Window

View the components of the portal interface in a hierarchical structure (see Figure: Document Structure Window for a Portal).

You can select a portal component in the Document Structure window by clicking on it. The portal component is selected in Design View and you can edit its properties in the Property Editor window.

The following figure shows the hierarchical structure of a portal.

Hierarchical Structure of a Portal

As shown in the previous figure, the following components make up the hierarchical structure of a portal:

The Document Structure window shows the relationship between specific components in the current portal file.

Document Structure Window for a Portal

Note that the Header and Footer components in the Document Structure window represent areas above and below the main body that typically include personalized content, banner graphics, legal notices, and related links.

To learn more about creating and designing portals:


Previous Document Next Document