Administration Guide 

Enterprise Portal is a scalable portal, with an open architecture capable of integrating unlimited content. Portal content is designed to retrieve information from varied information sources such as Web sites, groupware applications, legacy systems, enterprise applications, databases, and document directories.

Following installation, you use the portal administrator tools to import and create custom portal content, and to build roles which are comprised of specific subsets of portal content for designated groups of enterprise users.

You may also implement the Knowledge Management platform, to allow Portal users to selectively and intuitively target files and documents at varied information sources.

This Administration Guide discusses the authoring, deployment, and administrative aspects of a custom Enterprise Portal implementation.

Note: Portal end users may work from both Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers. Portal administrator tools are accessed only from Internet Explorer.

Important: In a clustered portal environment, all administrative tasks must be performed directly on the primary server machine. Administrators must not use the portal virtual URL. Rather, they must access the primary machine directly.

Portal Content

In the Enterprise Portal environment, objects or components on the portal desktop that directly bring information to portal end users is what we refer to as content.

Portal content consists primarily of iViews (Integrated Views). Each iView brings to the portal desktop specified data from an information resource such as a relational database, ERP system, CRM system, enterprise application, collaboration tool, e-mail exchange system, intranet, or the World Wide Web. iViews return up-to-the-minute information each time they are launched.

You can import iViews into your portal environment from iView Studio (www.iviewstudio.com), you can integrate Yahoo! categories into the portal as iViews, and you can develop your own custom iViews using the Enterprise Portal administration tools.

iViews are displayed on portal Pages. You can import predefined pages or create your own pages. The page definition includes a list of associated iViews and layout specifications. Also available for import from iView Studio are Worksets and Business Packages. Worksets bundle related pages, iViews, and external services. Business Packages are groups of related worksets.

Additional content may include Unifier Projects and Web Components. A Unifier Project integrates into the portal an external application such as a database or enterprise application, or a legacy system, unifying the application data with the other portal information resources. For example, you can create a unifier project that enables a portal end-user to launch SAP system transactions, and to use Drag&Relate to interrelate data from both the SAP system transactions and other portal information resources. You integrate one or more Unifier projects into the portal environment by defining them as portal Data Sources. (The data source tool is also used for user mapping, to enable single sign-on to secured information sources from the portal environment.) Additionally, when integrating a Unifier project or any portal content based on an SAP system (such as an R/3 or BW system), you configure the System Landscape file.

Web Components define a relationship between data in a structured data repository such as a database or an Enterprise Application, and data on the World Wide Web. For example, you can use a Web component to link your CRM application to the web site of an express shipping company in order to enable account managers to easily monitor the status of shipments to customers. Web components are created using the Enterprise Portal administration tools. Web components may also be imported into your Enterprise Portal environment.

Knowledge Management

You implement the Knowledge Management (KM) platform of the Enterprise Portal to enable unstructured content management, and sophisticated search and retrieval functionality over unstructured content in disparate information repositories. The knowledge management platform also provides collaboration functionality, such as sending messages, annotating documents, and setting up discussion groups.

Roles

User access to content is determined by Role definitions. A portal role is a collection of content. While portal content is developed to enable access to information relevant to the organization in which the portal is deployed, roles define the subset of content available to each functional role within the organization. Users are assigned to the role or roles that provide content relevant to them. A user has access to the content that has been assigned to all of his or her roles.

Channels, used to organize iViews into logical groups, are also assigned to roles. While every iView must be assigned to a channel, not every iView is associated with a page. A user has access to the iViews displayed on the pages in his or her portal. When personalizing portal pages, the user will also have access to the iViews in the channels assigned to his or her roles.

The role definition determines the navigation structure within the portal. The navigation structure consists of the top-level navigation bar, and the detailed navigation tree. The top-level navigation bar is a series of tabs in the title area of the portal header. A user navigates portal pages and services by clicking tabs in the top-level navigation bar.

A page may display a detailed navigation tree. The navigation tree presents a hierarchical list of portal pages and services. A user can navigate portal pages and services by clicking on the nodes in the detailed navigation tree. Whether or not detailed navigation trees appear, and the configuration of both the top-level navigation and the detailed navigation is determined by the role definition.

Other Portal Components and Services

Other services and procedures that are closely, but indirectly involved in information processing and distribution to portal users are also described in this guide. For example, user management, security, monitoring the portal server, changing the portal design to reflect your company brand, and providing support for multiple languages.

The guide also describes Client Framework, the mechanism that enables iViews to communicate with one another locally, reducing the load on the portal server, and establishing a connection between iViews. You use this connection to create a more complex application out of individual iViews.