An enterprise portal is a Web application that provides means to aggregate and personalize information via application-specific portlets.
Users and administrators are able to integrate information, people and processes across organizational boundaries via a web-based user interface.
The framework enables aggregation of enterprise content and business applications with flexible management and personalization options.
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 to generated differing content and GateIn 3.2 has a number of default portlets that can be used in any portal built in the application.
The Toolbar spans the top of the portal application and provides links to user and administrative actions.
This screenshot displays three Navigations referred to in Section 2.1.4, “Navigation” as well as the main Menu button (on the far left of the toolbar) and the name of the current user (on the far right).
In this example the current user is the site administrator, hence the extra "Site Editor" menu.
Portal navigations are menus that contain hyperlinks to other parts of a Portal. They can help users to visualize the structure of a site. The default navigation menus in GateIn 3.2 are located in the Toolbar (Section 2.1.3, “Toolbar”).
There are three 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 in in effect, 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 Internationalization and community management.
- Dashboard
Each user has 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.
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 of the portal 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.
A gadget is a customizable mini web application that portal users may add to their web pages.
For more information about the gadgets shipped by default with GateIn 3.2, please check out Section 3.3.1, “Using the Dashboard Workspace”
By default GateIn 3.2 offers two access 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 a group.
- Private
This mode is for registered users only. Users set a username 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 hyperlinks and change the language for individual needs.
Permission settings control what users can and cannot do within the portal and are set by portal administrators.
Permission types dictate what a user can do within the portal. Two permission types are available as follows:
- Access
This permission type allows users to utilize portal content, that is; sign in, rearrange portlets, etc. This permission can be set for multiple member groups.
- Edit
This permission type allows users to change portal content. This includes actions such as changing page information, deleting pages etc. The edit permission is set for only one group at a time.
Permission levels dictate where in the portal the user's permission type applies. There are three permission levels:
- Portal
The portal permission level includes all pages within the portal. Therefore, a user with the access permission type can view (but not edit) all the pages within the portal. A user with edit permission at the portal level, can change any page in the portal.
- Page
The page permission level restricts the user to particular pages. Users are only able to see and/or edit (depending on their permission type) pages they have been given access to.
- Portlet
The portlet permission level allows users to create a page by dragging and dropping portlets into a page. Some portlets are only used for administrators while some are used for individuals thus administrators have to set the appropriate access permissions.
Permission types and levels can be used to effectively control who can do what within the portal. For more information on setting permissions refer to Section 4.7, “Manage Permissions”
Unregistered users visiting the portal are limited in the content they can see.
Users who need access to deeper content or who need to perform actions within the portal should register themselves and then contact the portal administrator to gain appropriate access permissions to their account.
Users can quickly and easily register a new account for themselves.
Click Register on the Navigation bar.
The Register New Account page appears:
The required information includes:
- User Name
The name used to log in.
- Password
The password must be between 6 and 30 characters and can contain spaces.
- Confirm Password
Re-type the password above. The Password and Confirm Password fields must be the same.
- First Name
The user's first name.
- Last Name
The user's last name.
- Email Address
The user's email address. This must be in the appropriate format. For example:
username@abc.com.
Fill in the form.
Click the 'find' icon beside the user name field to check whether the chosen username is available.
Enter the text next to
verification:into the text box that appears below it:
Click Subscribe to register a new account or Reset to refresh all entered values. You cannot add a new account if one of the following cases occurs:
The chosen User name already exists or is invalid.
The Password has less than 6 characters or more than 30 characters.
The Password and Confirm Password fields are not the same.
The Email Address format is not valid.
A required field (or fields) is empty.
After adding a new account, you should contact the administrator to set appropriate permissions on your account.
Note
Be sure you enter your email address carefully. Should you forget your user name or password, you can recover it from this email address.
In order to enter the portal in private mode, you should use the account previously registered.
To sign in to a portal, users must complete the Sign in form. This form contains the following elements:
- User name
The registered user name.
- Password
The registered password.
- Remember My Login
Check this box to avoid log in every time
- Forgot your User Name/Password?
To follow some steps to get the forgotten user name or password. Please refer [Portal:Account and Password Retrieval] for more details.
- Sign in
To sign into GateIn 3.2 with user name and password.
- Discard
Close the Sign In form without logging in.
Go to your portal by entering the URL into the address bar of your browser (For example http://localhost:8080/portal).
Click the Sign in link at the top right of the page if you are current in the Classic portal. The Sign in form appears:
Input your registered User name and Password .
Select the Remember My Login check box when you sign in GateIn 3.2 at the first time if you want to automatically return to GateIn 3.2 without signing in again. You can see Section 2.2.3, “Remember User Account” for more details.
Click the Sign in button to submit the form or Discard to escape.
If the user name does not exist or the user name and/or password is invalid an alert message will appear. To attempt the log in again; click the OK button on the alert message to be returned to the Sign In form. Enter the user name and password again.
After signing in, you will be redirected to the homepage and welcomed with your full name in the top right corner of the page.
Users who return to GateIn 3.2 regularly can be automatically authenticated to avoid performing an explicit authentication each time they access the portal.
Input your registered user name and password.
Select the Remember My Login check box when logging in GateIn 3.2 at the first time.
Click the Sign in button to sign in the portal.
Do not sign out when you leave the portal and you will be automatically authenticated next time you visit it.
To change your account information, click on the account name in the top navigation bar:
The Account Profiles form will appear:
To change your Account Profile information:
Select the Account Profiles tab.
Your User Name cannot be changed. You can change your: First Name , Last Name and Email.
Once the desired changes have been made, click the Save button to submit them.
If you want to change your Password :
Select the Change Password tab, it will display the following form:
Input your current password to identify that you are the owner of this account.
Input your new password, it must have at least 6 characters
Re-enter your password in the Confirm New Password field.
Click the Save button to accept changes.
You can recover your username or password should you forget them by following these steps:
Click the link 'Forgot your User Name/Password?'
This form offers two options:
Forgot my password.
Forgot my username.
Select the appropriate option and click Next.
You will be prompted to provide identification information depending on which option you selected:
If you selected the Forgot my password option you will be prompted for your username:
If you selected Forgot my username you will be prompted for your email address.
After you submit the form an email will be send to your email address with the requested information, either your username or password.
If you forgot your password you will be sent a new (temporary) password. Your original password will not be valid after this email is sent. You will be directed to a page to update your password the next time you sign in.
GateIn 3.2 allows users to pick the language of the user interface.
The priority of the interface language setting follows this hierarchy:
User's language
Browser's language
Portal's language
Note that users should pay attention to this order in order to change the language type appropriately.
You may switch the interface language in various places as follows:
You may set the interface language for your account alone and not for the entire Portal as follows:
Open up the Start menu and click on Change Language :
The Interface Language Setting window lists all available languages installed in the Portal:
Click on the desired language. The associated native word is highlighted.
Click Apply to save your change. The site should refresh and display its attributes in the language you've just chosen.
There are two modes to set the interface language for a specific user.
- Public Mode
When accessing the portal in Public Mode, the interface language is dictated by the language setting of your web browser.
If you have set the language of your browser to one that GateIn 3.2 does not support, the displaying language will be the language set at the Portal level (see above).
- Private Mode
The interface language in Private Mode is set when registering each user. See step four of the process to register a new account Section 2.2.1, “Register New Accounts”.
GateIn 3.2 supports Right to Left (RTL) languages.
The Account Portlet
The Application Registry Portlet
The Organization Portlet:
GateIn 3.2 supports a multi-language environment for your portal allowing you to internationalize any menu entry on the navigation.
As the navigation bar is composed of nodes, you have to modify the display names of the nodes to enable this. Instead of entering the display name of the node in a defined language (English, for example) you have to use a language-neutral 'resource key'.
This resource key is then used to define the label that is shown for that node on the navigation bar, the menu and the breadcrumb.
The resource key format is: #{key}
The resource key can contain any text that you consider appropriate to satisfy your business needs. It should, however, be human-readable and must not contain spaces.
There are two ways to create a key for a node:
Open the Site Editor menu and pick Add New Page.
Enter a name for this new page
Enter a resource key in the Display Name field.
Click Next. On the next screen you may define a page layout out of existing templates.
Click Next to finalize the page creation with portlets for instance.
Click on Site in the Toolbar then Edit Navigation
Click on Add Node
The Create/Edit node dialog appears. Enter a resource key in the Label field
Reusing Keys
You can reuse the same resource key in several nodes.