Navigation 

Purpose

The navigation service provides a generic platform and applications to navigate in the portal. Features of the navigation service:

·        An application can create and customize a navigation tree structure. It can merge between navigation items, toggle the visibility of navigation items and define how navigation items are displayed.

·        Custom Navigation iViews can be implemented.

·        An application can plug-in its own navigation connectors into the navigation model, adding navigation items to the portal navigation structure.

·        All the navigation related components, like navigation node, navigation connector, are implemented using public interfaces defined by the navigation service.

 

Portal Navigation Layout

The portal navigation has following parts:

·        Top Level Navigation (TLN)

Displays the first two levels of the navigation hierarchy. The default settings of the portal align the TLN horizontally over the work area.

·        Detailed Navigation (DTN)

Displays the hierarchical structure of the selected TLN. The DTN starts from the third level of the navigation model. The default settings of the portal align the DTN vertically on the left hand side of the work area, below the TLN.

·        Target

Drag and Relate targets control the content displayed in the work area. The content developer can use the Target Editor in the Application Designer (Portal application ® Page Editor) to configure the targets.

·        SeeAlso

The SeeAlso section contains links that are related to the content displayed in the work area. The content developer can use the SeeAlso Editor in the Application Designer (Portal application ® Page Editor) to configure the SeeAlso links.

·        Work Area

Displays the content of the selected navigation node.

 

Navigation Service Terminology

The navigation service uses the following terms:

Navigation Target

The navigation target represents the content that will be displayed. It is a parameter of the URL sent to the navigation service. The navigation target has following syntax:

<prefix><separator><Internal URL>

Prefix:

A valid navigation connector prefix, for example ROLES.

Separator:

Usually

://

For a prefix for the Portal Content Directory (PCD), the separator is

:

Example of a navigation target:

ROLES://portal_content/users/guest/welcomePage.

Navigation Context

The navigation context is the content that the navigation iViews use to display. It is a parameter of the URL sent to the navigation service.

Navigation Connector

The navigation connector is a portal service that implements the INavigationConnector interface. The navigation connector provides the navigation hierarchy for the navigation service. The hierarchy can be in a repository the navigation connector is familiar with or a user specific INavigationConnector interface implementation. The navigation connector is registered to the navigation service in the afterInit() method. Every navigation connector has a unique connector key. The connector key is a String variable that is also used as a prefix to the navigation target parameter.

Navigation Connector Node

Is a Java class that implements the INavigationConnectorNode interface that is used by the navigation connector. The node must supply all navigation information required for this entry. To name a few:

·        Name of the Node

·        Title of the node.

·        Visibility

·        Display options, for examples, if the content should be opened in a new window

·        Launch URL.

·        Optional - the next level in the hierarchy, for example, return the children of this node.

Navigation Node

Is a wrapper class to the navigation connector node implementation. It implements the INavigationNode interface and is used by the navigation service. This class represents a node in the navigation hierarchy, therefore it contains all the information supplied by the navigation connector node and additional attributes that are generated while the navigation service processes the node, for example, merging the structure.

Initial Nodes

Is a list of nodes for the first level of the navigation hierarchy. These nodes will be the entry points of the navigation iView structure. For example if the TLN has only one entry in its first level, for example, Welcome , the initial nodes list contains one navigation node entry.

Content Element

It represents a portal component (iView or page) that has the content to be displayed.