Implementing an External-Facing Portal 

Purpose

The portal includes a set of features that enable the use of the portal as an external-facing portal, that is, a public Web site. These features provide for the following:

●      Improved performance over the internet by reducing the number of resources required for each request. An external-facing portal avoids the use of resource-heavy HTMLB and client-side eventing (EPCM).

●      Web-like behavior, including the use of standard browser buttons, such as Back, Forward and Refresh, for navigation.

●      Easy customization of the portal look and feel with the use of tag libraries for creating navigation iViews and page layouts with custom iView trays.

For more information on implementing an external-facing portal, see Implementing an External-Facing Portal in the Portal Administration Guide.

Developer Tasks

The following portal features are relevant to developers when implementing an external-facing portal:

●      Light Framework Page: The portal provides a light framework page with the following characteristics:

○       Includes light navigation iViews that do not use HTMLB or client-side eventing (EPCM) JavaScript, reducing the resources required for rendering the page.

○       Renders the portal in a single frame, which enables Web-like behavior, such as the use of the browser navigation buttons. The single frame also eliminates the need for JavaScript to enable communication between frames.

For more information on building your own light navigation iViews, see Creating Navigation iViews.

●      Resource-Sensitive Page Builder: The page builder can prevent the downloading of client‑side eventing JavaScript if an iView indicates it does not need eventing. The need for eventing is specified by a component’s EPCFLevel profile property.

For more information on this property, see Components in the developer documentation.

●      JSP Tag Libraries: The portal provides tag libraries for easily developing navigation iViews and page layouts from JSP pages. The following tag libraries are provided:

○       Navigation Tag Library: Enables you to develop iViews that access the current user’s navigation hierarchy. The tag library is generally used for top-level and detailed navigation iViews.

For more information, see Navigation Tag Library.

○       Framework Tag Library: Enables the creation of links for various portal functions, such as logging off or personalizing the portal. The tag library is generally used for masthead and page title bar iViews.

For more information, see Framework Tag Library.

○       Layout Tag Library: Enables you to develop page layouts, and to develop custom iView trays.

For more information, see Layout Tag Library.

●      Navigation Cache and Quick Links: You can implement navigation caching and quick links for navigation hierarchies that your navigation connectors create.

For more information, see Creating Navigation Connectors.