# Creating a Portal File

The first step in creating a Portal is creating a Portal file in the Portal Designer. The file, which represents a portal desktop, appears in the Portal Designer as a graphic representation of your desktop, letting you drag and drop books, pages, and portlets and set properties to construct your portal. The .portal file that is created, along with any .portlet files for corresponding portlets added to the portal, supply all the configuration information the portal framework needs to perform the rendering process.

The .portal files you create serve as templates that portal administrators use to create new desktops in the WebLogic Administration Portal.

1. Create a portal application.
2. With your portal application open in WebLogic Workshop Platform Edition, right-click a portal Web project in the Application window and choose New --> Portal.
3. In the New File window, enter the name of the portal file in the File name field. Be sure to keep the .portal extension. Click Create.
   The new portal desktop appears in the Portal Designer with a default header, body, and footer. The main book contains a page.
4. Add books and pages to the Portal Desktop.
5. Apply layouts to pages.
6. Set up navigation for the Portal Desktop.
7. Select the default header and footer you want the desktop to use.
8. Add portlets to your pages.
9. Change the Look & Feel of your portal desktop.
10. In the Document Structure window, select each component and set its properties in the Property Editor window. See Properties for Portal Components for guidance.
11. Save the portal file.
12. To view your Portal in a browser, choose Portal-->Open current portal.

## Samples

See the Portal Samples for instructions on viewing a sample portal file.

Related Topics

The Portal User Interface Framework

Tutorial: Building Your First Portal

Adding Books and Pages to a Portal

Setting up Navigation

Adding Portlets to Pages

Changing Look & Feel