Navigation Model

Navigation is based on the following three-level model:

• Data Level: Contains the navigation connectors that generate the navigation nodes and the navigation hierarchy.

  A navigation connector is a portal service that connects the navigation service to the navigation hierarchies stored in the portal or outside of it.

  The portal comes with a built-in roles connector that exposes portal roles defined in the Portal Content Directory (PCD). In addition, you can develop custom connectors for creating additional navigation nodes or importing navigation hierarchies from the external sources, such as Web content management systems. For more information, see Creating Navigation Connectors .

• Integration Level: Retrieves navigation nodes and hierarchies from the connectors and creates the final navigation hierarchy for each user. Also provides services, such as lookup of navigation nodes.

• Visualization Level: Contains navigation iViews for displaying the navigation hierarchy for the current user and providing navigation links.

Navigation data is retrieved as follows:

1. The portal initializes the navigation service.

2. Navigation connectors are registered with the navigation service.

3. Navigation iViews call the navigation service to retrieve the navigation nodes, either initial nodes or specific nodes.

4. The navigation service retrieves the navigation information from the registered navigation connectors and returns navigation nodes to the navigation iViews. The navigation service preprocesses the request by sorting and merging the nodes.

5. Navigation iViews use the retrieved navigation nodes to display the navigation hierarchy.