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, “Use 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 permission.
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, “”
As a guest user, you can visit eXo Platform but are limited to a lot of content and applications. To access more content or perform some actions in various applications, you first need to register by yourself and contact the portal administrator to gain certain permissions.
Click Register on the top of the portal if you are in the ACME sample site.
If you are in the ACME Social intranet, click Register at the bottom of the portal.
The Create a New Account form appears as below:
Table 2.1.
Field Description Asterisk (*) This mark next to each field indicates that it is required to input values in this field. Username The name used to log in. The username must be: Lowercase (a - z), digit (0 - 9), underscore (_), and dot (.) characters, but consecutive underscore (_) and dot (.) are not allowed.
From 3 to 30 characters in length.
Lowercase for its first character.
Lowercase or digit for its last character.
Password The authentication string which must be between 6 and 30 characters, including spaces. Confirm Password Retype the password above. Values in both Password and Confirm Password fields must be the same. First Name The user's first name which must start with a character. Its length must be between 1 and 45 characters. Last Name The user's last name which must start with a character. Its length must be between 1 and 45 characters. Email Address The user's email address that must be in the correct form, such as
username@abc.com.There are two parts in the email address, called local part and domain (for example, local_part@domain):
Local part: Only lowercase (a - z), digit (0 - 9), underscore (_), dash (-) and dot (.) characters are allowed, and the first and last characters of this part must be lowercase or digit ones.
Domain: Only lowercase (a - z), digit (0 - 9), dash (-) and dot (.) characters are allowed, and the first and last characters of this part must be lowercase or digit ones. Note that the dot (.) character is required.
Text Validation The text to verify your registration. Fill values into fields.
Click Subscribe to accept your new account, or Reset to clear all your entered values. If your registration is not successful, there will be warning messages which indicate invalid fields.
After adding a new account, you should contact your administrator to get appropriate permissions for your account.
Click
to check if your entered username already exists or not.
Note
Be sure you enter your email address carefully. Should you forget your username or password, you can recover it from this email address.
To enter the portal in the private mode, you just need to use your registered account. In eXo Platform 3.5, you can sign in the portal via two ways:
Click directly one of the default user accounts at the lower of screen right in the welcome page or after entering your selected page.
Or, after entering your selected portal, for example ACME website, click one of the default users at the bottom of body as below.
Click the Login link to open the Sign in form.
Input your registered Username and Password in the Sign in form.
Select the Remember My Login checkbox for the first time if you want to automatically return to this portal without signing in again. This feature enables you to be automatically authenticated to avoid doing an explicit authentication when you access the portal.
Click Sign in to submit the form, or Discard to quit.
Note
After selecting Remember My Login, if you do not sign out when you leave the portal, you will be automatically authenticated for your next visit.
This feature ends your authenticated session and returns you to the anonymous portal. To sign out, simply hover your cursor over your display name at the top right corner of the site, then select Logout from the drop-down menu.
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, hover your cursor over the account name at the top right corner of the site and click My Account from the drop-down menu.
The Account Profiles form appears.
Change your profile information
Select the Account Profiles tab.
Change your First Name, Last Name, Email. Your Username cannot be changed.
Click Save to submit your changes.
Note
The email address changed must be in the valid format. See details about the Email Address format here.
Change your password
Select the Change Password tab to go to the following form.
Input your current password to identify that you are the owner of this account.
Input your new password which must have at least 6 characters.
Re-enter your password in the Confirm New Password field.
Click Save to accept your changes.
Note
If the default accounts' passwords have been changed, you can no longer sign in the portal by clicking the default accounts directly as stated in the first way.
In case you forget your account or password, you can recover your username or password as follows:
Click the 'Forgot your Username/Password?' link beneath the Password field when signing in.
There will be two options for you to select.
Select the appropriate option, then click Next.
You will be prompted to provide identification information, depending on your choice.
If you select the Forgot My Password option, you will be prompted for your username.
If you select the Forgot My Username option, you will be prompted for your email address.
Enter your Username/Email in the form above.
Click Send to submit your entered values.
After you have submitted the form, an email will be sent to your email address with the requested information, either your username or password.
If you forget your password, you will be sent a 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 for your next log-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 account”.
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.