# Portal Designer

Use this window to assemble portlets and other elements into portals.

Table 2-1 Tools for Designing Portals

Callout # | Use this tool. . . | For these tasks. . .
--- | --- | ---
1 | Application Window | Create, view, and edit portal files in your portal application projects. The names of portal files end in .portal.
2 | Design View | Design your portal in this area.
3 | Palette Window | Add books and pages to the portal by dragging components from the Palette window and dropping them onto the Design View canvas.
4 | Data Palette Window | Add portlets to the portal by dragging them from the Data Palette window and dropping them onto the Design View canvas. You can use the sample portlets provided by WebLogic Portal, or you can create your own, as described later in Creating a Portlet.
5 | Property Editor Window | Set properties for the currently selected portal component, such as the portal look and feel. You can select a portal component by clicking on it in the Design View canvas or by selecting its name in the Document Structure window (described below).
6 | Document Structure Window | View the hierarchical structure for the portal interface. You can select a portal component in the Document Structure window by clicking on it. The portal component is selected in Design View and you can edit its properties in the Property Editor window.

The Document Structure window for a portal reveals the elements that comprise a portal:

As shown in the Document Structure window, the following components make up the hierarchical structure of the sample Employee portal interface:

- Desktop—User view of portal components that includes the portal header, footer, and body.
- Header and Footer—Areas above and below the main body that typically include personalized content, banner graphics, legal notices, and related links.
- Book—High-level organizational framework and navigation tool for the content; provides a mechanism for nesting pages and other content.
- Page—Organized collection of portlets and books whose position is determined by a layout.
- Layout—Determines the position of the portlets and books on a page using placeholders within a grid.
- Placeholders—Individual cells in the layout used to organize the portlets on a page.
- Portlets—Windows in which you present your applications, information, and business processes. Portlets are described in more detail in the next section.
- Portal Rendering and Look and Feel Components (not shown in the previous figure)—Stylistic aspects of the desktop appearance. This topic is described in more detail later, in Creating Look and Feels.

## Actions in the Portal Designer

The following actions are available using the Portal Designer:

- Assemble portal elements into a portal, and to add programmatic functionality to portlets.
- Create, Edit, Delete, Save portal elements such as Books, Pages and Portlets.
- Within the Design View, right-click on a placeholder to insert or remove portlets, rearrange portlets and view a simple mock-up of the portal you're designing.
- The Application Palette exposes the construction of the Web application that contains your portal(s), and all the JSPs and other elements used to customize and add functionality. This includes Java Pageflows used to apply complex navigation to portlets.
- The PortalUI Controls include Books, Pages and Portlets you can drag onto a placeholder.
- Preview dynamic content using the Content Preview palette.
- View build results and debugger messages.
- Use the Property Set Designer to set properties on any selected portal element.
- Use the Document Structure palette to determine the hierarchical location of files within the portal desktop being edited.
- Use the Content Preview palette to review the results of content queries against the current document repository.
- The Data Palette exposes the list of currently available portlets that can be inserted into the current portal in design view.

## Designers in the Portal Designer

The following designers can be invoked from the Portal Designer

- Property Set Designer (Use to edit Session Requests, Events, Catalog Structure objects.)
- User Segment Designer
- Portal Placeholder Designer
- Campaign Designer
- Discount Designer
- Content Selector Designer

Related Topics

To learn more about WebLogic Portal, the tools and services it provides, and surfacing your applications in a portal interface, see the following topics:

Developing Portal Applications