A shell represents the rendered area surrounding a portal desktop's main content area (books, pages, and portlets). Most importantly, a shell controls the content that appears in a desktop's header and footer regions.
You can configure a shell to use specific JSPs or HTML files to display content—especially personalized content—in a header or footer.
For each set of different header/footer combinations, create a new shell.
To create a shell
Selecting a Shell for a desktop in the Portal Designer simply gives the portal a default Shell setting. Portal administrators can use the WebLogic Administration Portal to change the Shell used for a desktop.
See Portal Samples for instructions on viewing a sample portal file. The Sample Portal also includes an example of a shell that creates a left navigation frame.
The Portal User Interface Framework
Adding Books and Pages to a Portal
Changing the Header and Footer