Understanding the Portal Interface

The SAP NetWeaver Portal out-of-the-box interface provides all the necessary tools for working in the portal. The default interface can be changed through customization and personalization.

The interface consists of the following elements:

• Portal desktop : the entire portal screen, including any content and layout.

  The out-of-the-box portal desktop consists of the header area, page title bar, navigation panel, and content area.

• Header area : the part of the portal layout that contains the masthead, tools area, and top-level navigation bar.

  • Masthead : contains branding elements, user identification, and the appropriate function links (based on the portal configuration), such as Help , Personalize , New Session , Log Off , and Log On .

    A link can be displayed or hidden by setting the Show Link in Masthead: <Link Name> navigation property of the masthead iView.

    The Help link, by default, launches SAP Help Portal. You can customize the URL so that the link goes to a site of your choosing.

    • In the portal go to  Content Administration  Portal Display  Framework Page Configuration  and in the URL of Help Link property, enter the URL of the site you want launched when the user clicks the Help link.

    If you have configured your portal to accept anonymous users, you can add the language personalization dropdown list to the masthead, by selecting the Show Dropdown List in Masthead: Language Personalization for Anonymous Users property in the masthead iView. At runtime, anonymous users can change the portal language. If the anonymous user logs in as an authenticated user, the dropdown list disappears from the masthead, and the portal appears in the language defined for that user.

    A search field provides quick access to content. If search suggestions are enabled, when you enter a string in the search field a dropdown list opens displaying suggestions. Choose one of these suggestions to navigate directly to the suggested object. If you press Enter without choosing a suggestion, the first suggestion is chosen automatically.

    If you have defined an active search provider, the provider name is displayed in the dropdown list above the search suggestions. Choose the search provider, or one of its categories, to perform the search in a new window.

  • Tools area : provides access to applications such as real-time collaboration. Applications may vary based on the company and user.

    This area could also include features such as e-mail notification, alerts, people search, and a link to the company phone list.

  • Top-level navigation : your entry point for navigating through the content assigned to your role.

    It displays the first-level tabs and possibly the second-level subtabs of navigation, depending upon the configuration set by the administrator. Depending on your portal settings, you can drag the tabs in top-level navigation to arrange them according to your needs.

    The first tab is the highest-level folder assigned to you by the portal administrator, and usually reflects the tasks of a specific work role. The contents of the folder can include pages and other folders.

    The second-level subtabs are a way of compartmentalizing the role into manageable tasks. When you choose a subtab, you launch a page that provides relevant content.

    Additional roles and folders that are assigned to you, but not displayed in the top-level navigation bar, appear in a tree structure in the Detailed Navigation iView located in the navigation panel.

• Page title bar : an iView below the header area containing items related to the currently displayed content page.

  Lets you navigate to pages recently visited, as well as launch various page-specific options.

  Contains the Full Screen button that allows you to maximize and minimize the portal screen. Full screen mode displays the content area without the navigation areas.

• Navigation panel : the left-hand pane just below the top-level navigation bar, dedicated to navigating content.

  You can reduce, enlarge, collapse, and expand the navigation panel by clicking the appropriate arrow icons.

• Navigation iViews : the areas in the navigation panel related to portal navigation, all of which change contextually according to the content displayed in the content area.

  • Detailed Navigation

    This iView contains links to all the content that is assigned to you, displayed in a tree format.

  • Dynamic Navigation

    This area contains iViews whose user interface controls, such as dropdown lists and links, access databases and retrieve data related to the content displayed in the content area. Each link in a dynamic navigation iView is equivalent to a data record.

  • Related Links

    This iView contains a list of links whose target topics are relevant to the iView or portal page with which you are currently working.

    The links are predefined on the iView and the page levels. Choosing an object in the Related Links iView opens its content in a new browser window that can be customized.

  • Portal Favorites

    This iView contains user-compiled links that provide direct access to Knowledge Management elements, such as folders and documents, and portal navigation objects such as pages or iViews that run as full-page applications.

• Content area : the area of the portal desktop for performing tasks, and in which administrative tools, navigation results, and portal pages with iView content are displayed.