Chapter 2. Terminology
2.1. What is a Portal
An enterprise portal is a Web application that provides means to aggregate and personalize information through application-specific portlets.
Users and administrators are able to integrate information, people and processes across organizational boundaries through a web-based user interface.
The framework enables aggregation of enterprise content and business applications with flexible management and personalization options.
2.2. What is a Portlet
A portlet is a small, self-contained web application. Portlets are managed and displayed within a Portal. Typically, a portal page is displayed as a collection of non-overlapping portlet windows, with each portlet window displaying a different portlet. Hence a portlet (or collection of portlets) resembles a web-based application hosted in a portal.
Portlets can be configured with differing content. The Red Hat JBoss Portal has a number of default portlets that can be used in any portal built in the application.
2.3. What is a Portlet Container
A portlet container supplies the runtime environment in which portlets are started, run and ended. While portlet containers can allow portlets to inherit data from the main portal they also provide an environment in which portlets can be independently managed. APIs dictate both how a portal interacts with portlet containers and how portlet containers interact with individual portlets.
2.4. What is the Toolbar
The Toolbar spans the top of the portal application and provides links to user and administrative actions.
The Toolbar also contains the portal Navigations, the Menu button (on the far left of the toolbar), and the name of the current user (on the far right).
See Also:
2.5. What are Gadgets
A gadget is a customizable mini web application that portal users can add to their web pages.
2.6. About Navigations
Portal navigations are menus that contain links to other parts of a Portal. Navigations can help users to visualize the structure of a site. The default navigation menus are located in the Toolbar.
Portal Navigation Types
- Site
- This navigation links to separate sites of the parent Portal. Each site has only one navigation and it is automatically generated when the site is created.This functionality allows different sites to administer some Portal aspects (such as portlets) individually while maintaining other content standardized with the parent Portal.
- Group
- The content of this navigation differs depending on the type of account logged in.
- If a user account is active, this navigation holds personal links set up by that user.
- When using a management account, this navigation contains links to pages for registered users as well as administrative tasks and personal links.
- In an administrator account the navigation adds further management abilities, such as community and application management.
- Dashboard
- Each user has their own navigation Dashboard that contains links and portlets (or gadgets) that the user has selected. A user's navigation is created automatically when user is registered. This navigation only can be deleted when the user is deleted.
- Dashboard Editor
- The Dashboard Editor navigation appears when a user is on their dashboard page.The user can add multiple dashboard in new tabs and then edit the layout and content of those dashboards.
When logged in as an Administrator, a fourth navigation appears in the Toolbar:
- Site/Group Editor
- This navigation appears as either Site Editor or Group Editor depending on the administrator's location within the portal.When in areas of the portal displaying content, the navigation shows as Site Editor and in areas pertaining to users the navigation shows as Group Editor.This navigation contains links to add a new pages to the portal, to edit a page or to change the portal's layout. Administrators can use these links to manage the portal.
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2.7. About Modes
- Public
- This mode is for guest users who are not registered with the Portal. It does not require a log in and restricts the visitor to the public pages in the portal. Visitors can register an account to gain access to the restricted pages. After being registered, they can use the Private mode but must still contact the Portal administrator to get more rights or a group manager to become a member and gain access to a group.
- Private
- This mode is for registered users only. Users set a user name and password during registration which they can then use to sign in. This mode offers users more site privileges. Registered users can manage private resources (creating, editing or deleting private pages), "borrow" pages from other users by creating links, and change the site language to suit their individual preference.
2.8. About Permissions
Permission settings control what operations users can perform within the portal, and are set by portal administrators. Depending on these permissions assigned by an administrator, users gain access to various components and actions such as edit portals, pages or portlets.
There are four types of permissions.
- Access Permissions
- Edit Permissions
- Move Apps Permissions
- Move Containers Permissions
See Also:
2.8.1. Access Permissions
Access Permissions allow users to view portal objects through the User Interface. This permission can be granted to multiple user groups.
2.8.2. Edit Permissions
Edit Permissions allow users to change properties of objects in the portal. For example, users can change the title or name of a page, select a default skin or locale for a site, or change the visual layout of the portal object using the Page or Site Composer.
The ability to edit portal object parameters is governed by the Edit permission on the object itself. For example, if the Edit permission of a page is set to the
/organization/management/executive-board group, any members of the Executive Board can change the Access and Edit permission of the given page.
Note
Only one group can have edit permissions for an object at a time.
2.8.3. Move Apps and Move Containers Permissions
Red Hat JBoss Portal 6.1 allows to set user permissions to modify the child objects of a Site, Page or Container.
The term Container refers to a box in the user Interface that allows rendering child objects as per rows, columns, tabs, and so on.
There are separate permissions for Applications and Containers.
Example 2.1. Use of Move Apps and Move Containers Permission
Move Apps and Move Containers Permissions are useful when a portal owner wants to minimize the risk of breaking the page layout while users modify Pages. To mitigate this risk, the Portal administrator can create a Page template with containers and restrict the user permissions as follows:
- Set Move Containers Permissions on the Page and all the Containers in the page to a group. For example, group is
/organization/marketing/content-strategy. - Set Move Apps Permissions on the Page and all the Containers in to page to
Nobody. - Browse to the folder designated for adding applications in the Container hierarchy and set Move Apps Permissions to the group
/organization/marketing/content
The members of
/organization/marketing/content group can create pages with the predefined layout and add Applications to the locations designated by the template creator.
2.8.4. Move Apps Permission
Move Apps Permissions allows users to perform the following operations with child Applications, of the given Site, Page or Container in Page or Site editors.
- Add an Application as a child to the given Site, Page, or Container.
- Reorder child Applications of the given Site, Page, or Container.
- Remove a child Application from the given Site, Page, or Container.
2.8.5. Move Containers Permission
Move Containers Permissions allow users to perform the following operations with child Containers of the given Site, Page or Container in Page or Site editors.
- Add a Container as a child to the given Site, Page, or Container.
- Reorder child Containers of the given Site, Page, or Container.
- Remove a child Container from the given Site, Page, or Container.