Chapter 3. Elements of the Portal
3.1. Functional Portlets
Portlets are pluggable user interface components that are managed and displayed within a portal. Functional Portlets support all functions of a Portal. They are built into the portal and are accessed via toolbar links as required when undertaking portal tasks.
Default Portlets
- Account Portlet
- The Account Portlet allows users to register a new account and choose a preferred language for the Portal interface.
- Organization Portlet
- The Organization Portlet is used to manage user information, groups of users and groups memberships.
- Application Registry Portlet
- The Application Registry Portlet is used to manage different application categories. You can add, edit, set permissions and delete a category and its applications.
- Start Toolbar Portlet
- The Start Toolbar Portlet allows you to change the default language, the skin of the portal or to sign out.
3.2. Interface Portlets
The Interface Portlets are the client-side components of the portal. They provide ways for users to interact with the portal. The portal provides the following Interface Portlets:
Default Interface Portlets
- Homepage Portlet
- This Portlet is the home page for a portal. The home page is the first page displayed when you visit the site.
- Banner Portlet
- This Portlet contains the organization's slogan, logo, and icons.
- Navigation Portlet
- This Portlet provides a navigation bar. A navigation bar is a menu that helps users to visualize the structure of a site and provide links to quickly move from page to page.
- Sitemap Portlet
- This Portlet displays a site map page of a web site. It lists pages on a website, typically organized in hierarchical fashion.
- Breadcrumbs Portlet
- This Portlet displays the navigation path the user has taken from the home page to arrive at the current page.
- Dashboard Portlet
- This portlet is used for hosting small applications known as gadgets. The dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening, and using gadgets.
- IFrame Portlet
- This Portlet is used to create in-line frames (IFrame) elements for a site. An IFrame is an HTML element which can embed another document into a parent HTML document. By using IFrames, embedded data is displayed inside a window within the browser window.
- Gadget Wrapper Portlet
- This Portlet allows users to view a gadget in canvas mode.
- Footer Portlet
- This Portlet provides the footer for a site. This footer provides information or links about the site's author/institutional sponsor, the date of the last revision made to the site, copyright information, comments form, and navigational links.
3.3. The Dashboard
The Dashboard is used for hosting small applications known as gadgets. The Dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening and using gadgets.
The active Dashboard can be individually named by double clicking on the default name ("Click and Type Page Name") and entering a new name:
The Dashboard can also be tabbed to create multiple spaces. Open a new tab by clicking the + button beside the Dashboard name.
New tabs can also be individually named and managed.
Gadgets within the Dashboard can be moved and rearranged. New gadgets can be created and unnecessary ones deleted. More than one instance of the same gadget can be opened at the same time and each instance of the same gadget can have different settings. The gadgets instances are completely independent.
3.4. Using the Dashboard Workspace
- Click in the toolbar to access the Dashboard.
- Click to open the Dashboard Workspace.
The Dashboard Workspace lists all available gadgets. The following gadgets are provided by default.
Default Gadgets
- Calendar
- The calendar gadget helps track and plan your events and activities.
- Todo
- This application helps you organize your day and work group. It is designed to keep track of your tasks in a convenient and transparent way.
- Calculator
- This application lets you perform most basic arithmetic operations and can be themed to match the rest of your portal.
- RSS Reader
- An RSS reader, or aggregator, collates content from various feed sources and displays them in one location. This content can include, but isn't limited to news headlines, blog posts or email. The RSS Reader gadget displays this content in a single window on your Portal page.
To use one of the default gadgets, drag it from the Dashboard Workspace onto your Dashboard.
3.5. Add Gadgets
Many more gadgets can be found at the Google Gadgets homepage, located at http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open. Many of the gadgets available from this resource are compatible with the portal.
Important
Only gadgets that have been added to the whitelist by the administrator can be used. To configure the whitelist, see the Gadget Proxy Configuration Chapter of the Installation Guide.
Procedure 3.1. Add Gadgets from External Sources
- Obtain the URL (.xml or .rss) of the gadget you wish to add from the gadget source.The gadgets available from the Google Gadget homepage provide a link to View source. Clicking on this link will open a page showing the gadget's XML source. Use the URL of this page in the Dashboard Workspace, which ends with
.xml. For example, http://www.donalobrien.net/apps/google/currency.xmlNote
Remote gadgets can be only created using an .xml link or RSS URL. If you use a link that generates an RSS feed (for example, http://feeds.feedburner.com/gatein), a new RSS reader gadget is created automatically even if the URL does not end with.rss. - Return to the portal and click in the toolbar.
- Click on in the Dashboard to open the Dashboard Workspace.
- The Dashboard Workspace dialog appears.
- Paste the URL obtained in step 1 into the text box above the gadget list.
- Click the button to add the new gadget to the page.The new gadget will appear on the Dashboard alongside any other gadgets already in use. If required, the new gadget can be dragged to another position on the page.