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Publishing and Searching Content

Publishing and Searching Content

This lesson describes how to design OracleAS Portal pages and how to place items and portlets on a page for display.

This module discusses the following topics:

Overview
Prerequisites

Creating a Page

Using Images for Tabs
Adding Items to a Portal Page
Adding Portlets from the Portlet Repository
Adding Content from External Web Sites Using the Web Clipping Portlet
Adding Content to Your Portal Using WebDAV
Searching for Content Using a Custom Search Portlet

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You are now ready to begin adding portlets and items to the page. As a page designer, you might do this yourself, or perhaps ask the content contributors and content managers of your page to add content based on the layout you have built for the page.

In OracleAS Portal, content takes one of two forms: a portlet or an item. A portlet is a reusable building block for easily publishing information and applications to your community. An item is a lower-level building block used to display content, such as documents, URLs, text, and images, or to provide navigation.

For this lesson, assume that you will finish the Home page by yourself.

The steps and privileges required for creating this lesson are listed in the table below.

Step

Privileges Required

Create a Page

Member of Page Designers group, or
Manage All privileges on the page group, or
Create global privileges on all pages

Adding Content Manage Content global privileges on all pages

In order to perform the tasks in this lesson successfully, you must have performed the following:

1.

Completed the Installing the Oracle Application Server 10g Infrastructure lesson

2.

Completed the Installing the Oracle Application Server 10g Portal and Wireless lesson

3.

Downloaded portalOBE.zip and unzip into your working directory

4.

Completed the Building the Portal Site lesson

The Home page contains four regions.

Region 1 contains the reusable navigation banner that you created earlier.
Region 2 shows items and portlets vertically.
Region 3 contains tabs. The tabs control what is shown in Region 4.

Region 4 contains tab-specific content.

1. In the top right of the page, click the Navigator link.

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2. In the Path link, click <YourName> Oracle By Example.

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3. Click the Pages link.

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4. Click the Create New... Page link at the top left of the page.

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5. In the Page Type list, select Standard.

In the Name field, enter <YourName>_OBE_page.

In the Display Name field, enter <YourName> OBE Home Page.

In the Navigation Page For Banner list, select <YourName> OBE Banner. This is the page that you had earlier created in the Creating a Navigation Page topic in the Building the Portal Site lesson.

Accept the default Cache Page Definition Only option button and click Next.

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Note: The contents of a OracleAs Portal page are the various items and portlets that have been added to the page. Page caching enables faster and more efficient means to assemble Web pages dynamically. The Page Caching options enable you to store copies of the page’s definition and contents in memory. The page definition includes information about the page such as its layout and look and feel. You can use the Page Caching options to improve the performance of your page, especially if you expect many users to access it frequently.

6. In the Page Template list, accept the default selection, None. Click Next.

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A page template provides a way of enforcing a particular layout, style, set of privileges, and content for multiple pages. Because you are building only a single page, there is no need for a template. You define the look and feel, privileges, and content on the page itself.

7. In the Choose Style section, choose <YourName> Page Style from the Style list. Click Next.

The Page Style chosen specifies the fonts and colors to be used by all regions on the page. However, item regions on a page can be configured to override the page style.

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8. In the Grant Access section, enter AUTHENTICATED_USERS in the Grantee field and select View from the list containing various privileges.

Click the Add button. This provides all users, who can log in to OracleAS Portal, the privilege to view your portal pages.

Click Finish.

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9. You now define the page layout. On the empty region at the bottom of the page, click the Add Region Right icon.

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Use regions to divide the page into different sections. Each region has settings to determine what type of content it contains and settings to render the content.

 

10. You have two empty regions at the bottom of the page. Click the Add Region Right icon again.

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11.

Now, you should have three empty regions at the bottom of the page.

Click the Edit icon in the bottom-left region.

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12. Set the Region Type to Items. Click Apply.

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After you specify what type of content a region should contain, you can set the properties to define how the content in that region should be rendered.

13. In the Region Display Options section, set the Width to 19%. Click OK.

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14. Click the Edit icon at the bottom region.

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15. Set the Region Type to Items. Click Apply.

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16. In the Region Display Options section, set the Width to 1%. Click OK.

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17. In the bottom-right region, click the Edit icon.

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18. Set the Region Type to Items. Click Apply.

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19. In the Region Display Options section, set the Width to 80%.

In the Item Display Options section, set Space Between Items and Space Around Items to 0 (zero) pixels.

Click OK.

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20. In the bottom-right region, click the Add Tab icon to create a tab.

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Tabs enable you to organize your page content so that it is not all displayed at once. Content placed in a tabbed region is shown only when the tab is active. To add content to a particular tab, ensure that tab is active when you add the content to the region specified by the tab.

21. Click Add Tab to the right of the tab you just created four times to create four additional tabs.

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22. Your page should resemble the following:

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OracleAS Portal provides a default look for tabs. Styles provide the ability to change the tab color, font, and font color. If desired, you may upload custom images for tabs. You can specify both the active and inactive images for a tab. In this lesson, you will use custom images for your tabs, utilizing a rollover effect with both active and inactive tab images.

1. Click the Edit icon to configure the first tab.

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2. In the Display Name field, enter Home.

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3. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\a_home.gif for the Active Tab Image.

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4. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\i_home.gif for the Inactive Tab Image.

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5. Click Apply to see the images refreshed on the page. Click OK.

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Note: You do not see the tab image in edit mode for the page. In order to see the images displayed in context, click the View Page link at the top right. Click the Edit link on the banner to get back to edit mode.

6. Click the Edit icon to configure the second tab.

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7. In the Display Name field, enter HR.

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8. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\a_hr.gif for the Active Tab Image.

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9. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\i_hr.gif for the Inactive Tab Image.

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10. Click OK.

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11. Click the Edit icon to configure the third tab.

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12. In the Display Name field, enter Key Indices.

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13. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\a_keyIndices.gif for the Active Tab Image.

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14. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\i_keyIndices.gif for the Inactive Tab Image.

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15. Click OK.

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16. Click the Edit icon to configure the fourth tab.

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17. In the Display Name field, enter Personal.

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18. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\a_persContent.gif for the Active Tab Image.

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19. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\i_persContent.gif for the Inactive Tab Image.

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20. Click OK.

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21. Click the Edit icon to configure the fifth tab.

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22. In the Display Name field, enter Email.

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23. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\a_myEmail.gif for the Active Tab Image.

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24. Browse for <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\i_myEmail.gif for the Inactive Tab Image.

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25. Click OK.

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Users with an appropriate privilege level can add content to a page by adding items, such as text, hyperlinks, images, and so on to an item region. In addition to the built-in item types available with OracleAS Portal, you can create and configure your own item types within your portal, if needed. Item content and metadata are stored in the Portlet Repository. Items are rendered on the page according to the layout, style, and attribute display properties defined for the item region.

OracleAS Portal provides a few built-in item types. One of these built-in item types is Portal Smart Text. The Portal Smart Text items are self-configuring. For example, if you add a Portal Smart Text item (such as current date, current user, or current page) to a navigation page, the information is published automatically without any coding efforts.

To add the current date, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Add Item icon in the bottom-left region.

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2. Select Portal Smart Text from the Built-In Navigation Item Types list.

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3. Click Next.

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4. For Text Type, choose Current Date.

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5. Click Finish.

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You can add an image of a vertical line to visually separate the navigation area on the left side of the page from the content area on the right side of the page.

1. Click the Add Item icon in the middle region.

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2. Select the Simple Image content item type.

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3. Click Next.

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4. Browse for the image <portal_unzip>\portalOBE\images\vertLine.gif.

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5. Click Finish.

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Add a Text Item Using Standard HTML

Text Items enable you to enter any text that you want to display on a page. You can use the Rich Text Editor to specify the text color or font and HTML tags to further enrich the text displayed.

Note: The Rich Text Editor is available only if you are using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. The Rich Text Editor can be enabled or disabled in the Page Group properties (Item tab).

1. Ensure that the Home tab is the active tab.

Note: OracleAS Portal makes it very easy to place content on different tabs as new items or portlets are always added to the active tab.

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2. In the region directly under the tabs, click the Add Item icon.

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3. Select the Text content item type.

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4. Click Next

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5. In the Item Attribute Text section, click the View HTML source check box.

You can enter the text directly in this text area, or switch to HTML source view where you can have full control over writing any valid HTML. Toggling the View HTML source check box enables you to move between the two views.

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6.

Paste the following code snippet of an HTML table into the text area. This code can also be copied from the <poratl_unzip>\portalOBE\welcomeHTML.txt file. It may be difficult to see when the text box is empty, but ensure the View HTML source check box is selected before you paste the HTML code sinppet into the text area.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="90%">
<tr>
<td width="947" colspan="3"> <font class="inplacedisplayid62787siteid0"><b>
<font face="Arial" color="#663300" size="2">Welcome to Oracle By Example's
Business to Employee (B2EE) Portal</font></b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="230"> <img border="0" src="http://portalstudio.oracle.com/pls/ops/docs/FOLDER/OBE/WELCOMEIMAGE.GIF" width="230" height="100"></td>
<td width="18">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="699"><strong><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#CD6C51">Oracle
By Example</font></strong><font color="#330000" size="2" face="Arial" class="inplacedisplayid43197siteid0"><strong><font color="#cd6c51">
B2E Portal</font></strong> <font color="#663300">is a <strong>single</strong>/global
individualized portal where you can find and use the end-to-end business
solutions needed to support your business responsibilities. The portal eventually
include access to a full complement of common services and tools that help
you manage your work, life and career.</font></font></td>
</tr>
</table>

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7. Deselect the View HTML Source check box. You should see a preview of the HTML code.

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8. Click Finish.

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So far, all the regions created on the page have been item regions. Portlet regions must be created in order to hold portlets. A portlet is a reusable, pluggable Web component that typically displays portions of Web content. The region within which a portlet is contained determines whether the portlet should show information, such as its header and border.

1. Create a region under the current date item by clicking the Add Region Below icon.

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2. Currently, this region is not defined and it has the ability to hold items, portlets, or tabs. Click the Add Portlet icon to add a portlet to this region. The region is then automatically set to be a portlet region.

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3. In the Search field, enter search and click the Go button.

This searches the Portlet Repository for available portlets. The Portlet Repository is a schema within an Oracle database in which content and metadata associated with an instance of OracleAS Portal are stored and managed.

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4.

In the Portlet Repository Search Results section, click the Basic Search link from the Content page.

The portlet is moved to the Selected Portlets section. All the portlets shown in the