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 3.0 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 2.4, “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 3.0 are located in the Toolbar (Section 2.3, “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 3.0, please check out Section 3.3.1, “Using the Dashboard Workspace”
By default GateIn 3.0 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 5.6, “Manage Permissions”