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## Chapter 3. Portlets

## 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 actioning portal tasks.

GateIn 3.2 provides the following portlets by default:

### 3.1.1. Register portlet

This portlet is used to register a new account, including User Name, Password, Confirm Password, First Name, Last Name, Email Address, and Text validation.

### 3.1.2. Account portlet

The Account portlet allows users to register a new account and choose a preferred language for displaying the Portal interface.

### 3.1.3. Organization portlet

The Organization portlet is used to manage user information, groups of users and groups memberships.

### 3.1.4. 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.

### 3.1.5. Group Navigation portlet

The Group Navigation portlet is to manage the navigation of different groups. In this portlet, you can add, edit, or delete a specific navigation.

### 3.1.6. Page Management portlet

The Page Management portlet is used to manage all pages on the portal. In the Page Management portlet, you can add, edit, or delete a specific page.

### 3.1.7. Portal Navigation portlet

The Portal Navigation portlet is to manage all portals in GateIn. In the Portal Navigation portlet, you can add, edit, or delete a portal.

### 3.1.8. Star Toolbar portlet

The Star Toolbar portlet displays a list of actions: Change Language, Change Skin, Sign out.

### 3.1.9. Tabbed Dashboard portlet

The portlet displays Dashboard tabs that you can add gadgets inside by dragging and dropping them.

### 3.1.10. User Info portlet

The portlet displays personal information of a specific user that can be viewed and edited.

### 3.1.11. User Toolbar Dashboard portlet

The portlet displays the main dashboard menu that you can go inside to create dashboard tabs, add, or remove gadgets for each tab.

### 3.1.12. User Toolbar Group portlet

The portlet displays the main group menu that you can go inside to create, edit and delete a specific group and the navigation for each group.

## 3.2. Interface portlets

The Interface portlets are the front-end components of the Portal. They provide ways for users to interact with the portal. GateIn 3.2 provides the following Interface Portlets:

### 3.2.1. Banner portlet

This portlet contains the organization's slogan, logo, and icons.

### 3.2.2. Breadcrumbs portlet

The portlet displays the navigation path of the selected page.

### 3.2.3. Dashboard portlet

This portlet is used for hosting mini-applications known as gadgets. The dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening, and using gadgets.

Refer to Section 3.3, “Dashboard Portlet” or Chapter 5, Category, Portlets and Gadgets Administration for more information.

### 3.2.4. 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.

### 3.2.5. Gadget Wrapper portlet

This portlet allows users to view a gadget in canvas mode.

### 3.2.6. Homepage portlet

This portlet is the home page for a portal. The home page is the first page displayed when you visit the site.

### 3.2.7. IFrame portlet

This portlet is used to create inline 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, the embedded data is displayed inside a sub-window of browser. This does not mean the full inclusion, the embedded document is independent and both documents are considered as separated documents.

### 3.2.8. 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.

### 3.2.9. Sitemap portlet

This portlet displays a sitemap page of website. It is a graphical representation of a website. It lists pages on a website, typically organized in the hierarchical architecture to help visitors find pages on the site quickly.

### 3.2.10. Web Browser portlet

The portlet provides a web-browser-like application for users. It enables you to connect to other sites over Internet.

## 3.3. Dashboard Portlet

The Dashboard portlet is used for hosting mini applications known as gadgets. The Dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening and using gadgets.

Gadgets within the Dashboard portlet 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.

### 3.3.1. Using the Dashboard Workspace

1. Click Dashboard in the toolbar to access the Dashboard portlet.

2. Click Add Gadgets to open the Dashboard Workspace.

The active Dashboard can be individually named by clicking the default name ("Click and Type Page Name")...

...and entering a new name:

The Dashboard Workspace lists all available gadgets. Four gadgets are provided by default with GateIn 3.2, however you can add many more.

Default Gadgets:

Calendar

  The calendar gadget allows users to switch easily between daily, monthly and yearly view and, is customizable to match your portal's theme.

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. Tasks can be highlighted with different colors.

Calculator

  This mini-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, user-specified 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.

More Gadgets

  Many more gadgets can be found at Google Gadgets. GateIn 3.2 is compatible with most of the gadgets available there.

### 3.3.2. Change gadget preferences

The edit icon on gadgets only displays when the gadget has some gadget preferences. This icon enables users to display the edit form and change preferences of gadget.

To change preferences of a gadget, for example RSS gadget, do as follows:

1. Click the edit icon to open the edit form of RSS gadget:

2. Enter your preferred RSS into the FEED URL field and one numeric character (from 1 to 100) in the Items field. The numeric character you entered is the number of items displayed in the RSS gadget.

3. Click Save to accept your changes, or Close to close the edit form without any changes.

### 3.3.3. Add Gadgets

To add more gadgets from external sources:

1. Obtain the URL (.xml or .rss) of the gadget you wish to add from the gadget source.

   The gadgets available at Google Gadget provide a link to View source. Clicking this link will open a page showing the gadget's XML source. Use the URL of this page in the Dashboard Workspace. The URL should end with `.xml`

   For example:

   ## URL Types

   Remote gadgets can be only created using an .xml link or RSS URL. However, if you use a link that generates an RSS feed (for example: http://feeds.feedburner.com/gatein), a new RSS reader gadget will be created automatically even if the URL does not end with`.rss`.

2. Return to your portal and click Dashboard in the toolbar.

3. Click Add Gadgets in the Dashboard to open the Dashboard Workspace.

4. The Dashboard Workspace dialog appears:

5. Paste the URL obtained in step 1 into the text box above the gadget list.

6. Click the plus icon to add the new gadget to the page.

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