Navigation
The portal navigation model supports the navigation and WorkProtect feature. These features allow tight integration of stateful applications in the portal environment and improve the usability of the applications running in the portal.
See also:
Navigation
ServiceAvailability
The JavaScript based API has been introduced in EP 5.0.4.1 (see SAP Note 543274) and is compatible to the API in EP 6.0.
Business Case for Navigation
Portal implementations usually have separate areas for handling navigation and displaying content. The navigation area typically visualizes a navigation tree and highlights the selected node. The content area visualizes this selected node, for example, a portal page, document or portal application). This model resembles a simple file system browser and works well with stateless portal applications.
However, this approach does not meet all requirements for an enterprise solution, which should be able to handle complex business processes in parallel and switch from one context to another.
Navigation Target
The navigation target specifies the location of an iView or a page in the current user role. The target can be obtained from the portal catalog as a value that is concatenated by folder id s, roles or other objects.
The navigation target has to be prefixed with the corresponding navigation connector name that is used for retrieving the navigation structure. When accessing iViews and pages in the role from the Portal Content Directory (PCD), you have to add the prefix ROLES:// to the URL.
Example:
We have created a custom role (MyRole) and assigned an iView (MyIView) to it:
portal_content (root folder) → MyRole (folder) → MyRole (role) →
MyTest (folder) → MyIView (iView)
The corresponding navigation target is:
ROLES://portal_content/MyRole/MyRole/MyTest/MyIView
When you change the role structure, you have to update the corresponding values used in secondary links or used as navigation target; always keep both in sync.
Compatibility to EP 5.0
In the Enterprise Portal 5.0 the navigation target to the portal pages or external services are specified without the prefix for example, /roles/MyEP50Role/MyEP50Folder/MyEPApp. These navigation targets are also valid in EP 6.0.
When you have migrated the content from EP5.0 to EP6.0, the migrated content is in folder portal_content/com.sap.portal.migrated/ep_5.0 . The portal navigation will check for incomplete navigation targets and it to the new schema automatically.
ROLES://portal_content/com.sap.portal.migrated/ep_5.0/roles/MyEP50Role/MyEP50Folder/MyEPApp
Navigation Features for Navigation Targets
The Enterprise Portal offers the following features for navigation targets:
· Start with Navigation Target
This feature lets you start the portal and automatically navigate to any portal page or iView inside the role.
· Navigation
This feature allows seamless navigationfrom portal applications. The primary links in the navigation as well as the secondary links in the content area can be used in a portal application. The navigation updates the content area correctly and highlights the corresponding node in the navigation tree - for a primary link or another instance.
Start with Navigation Target
The portal can be started in the browser with an URL that starts the first page assigned in the user role. The URL has the following structure:
<your_portal_server>/<portal_alias>
This URL can be extended by the navigation target that will be called automatically after the start. You have to specify a valid page (by default, index.htm). The extended URL has the following structure:
<your_portal_server>/<portal_alias>/<initial_page>? NavigationTarget=<escaped_NavigationTarget>
The <escaped_NavigationTarget> parameter represents the escaped location of the page or iView in the role. Escape is necessary to avoid conflicts when using special characters. See the JavaScript function escape for more details.
Example:
http://myportal.wdf.sap.com:8100/irj/index.htm ?
NavigationTarget=ROLES%3A//portal_content/MyRole/MyRole/MyTest/MyIView
Navigation
The solution implemented for secondary links in the portal component uses a combination of a HTML hyperlink and a call of a EPCF service method EPCM.doNavigate().
<A HREF="myLink"
onclick="return EPCM.doNavigate('target')">
This is HTML Link</A>
The String parameter target represents the location of an iView or a page in the role. The value is available from the portal content catalog.
Constant String values must be enclosed in JavaScript in single quotes.
When the link is activate, the EPCM.doNavigate() method informs the Top Level Navigation (TLN) about the required navigation target. The TLN will handle this request it in the same way as any other navigation using primary links.