Working with GPAL Repositories 

Use

The Generic Portal Application Layer (GPAL) is a framework that exposes deployed content created outside the portal and displays it in repositories in the Portal Catalog. GPAL content includes deployed portal applications, Web Dynpro applications, Visual Composer generated content, and JSR-168 portlets.

You cannot use objects directly in the GPAL repositories; you must copy them first into the PCD. In addition to copying content from the repositories and pasting it into the PCD, there are a number of actions that you can perform on repository objects.

For more information about GPAL, see Generic Portal Application Layer (GPAL) Repositories.

Procedure

Previewing Repository Objects

In the Portal Catalog, in any of the repositories, right-click an application page or application iView and choose Preview.

A new browser instance opens displaying a preview of the object.

 

Viewing an Object's Properties

●      To view an application page's properties, right-click an application page in the repository and choose Open → Properties.

●      To view the properties of an iView, layout, development component, or GPAL repository node, right-click the object in the repository and choose Open → Object.

The Property Editor opens in read-only mode.

Web Dynpro applications expose application-level properties that provide the ability to share common configurations between different objects in an application. Application-level properties can be viewed in the Web Dynpro property category in the Property Editor.

 

Pasting Repository Objects into the PCD

You can copy iViews, pages, and layouts from the GPAL repositories and paste them into the PCD.

...

       1.      In the repository, right-click the object and choose Copy.

       2.      Right-click any folder under Portal Content, and choose Paste as PCD Object.

The Paste as PCD Object Wizard opens.

       3.      Specify the general properties of the new object, and choose Next.

       4.      In the confirmation pane, verify that the details are correct and choose Finish.

A new semantic object is created in the PCD. You can now work with these content objects as you would with other standard content objects; for example, adding an iView to a portal page.

When you copy an application page into the PCD, you cannot make changes to the contents of the resulting page in the Page Editor. To add content to a page that originates from an application page, create a new page, add the copied page to that page, and then add additional content.

 

Refreshing Repository Contents

Right-click the object and choose Refresh.

When you redeploy an application, changes are updated automatically in the GPAL repositories. However, due to various portal caching mechanisms, you may need to refresh the items in the repository.

Refreshing a development component node refreshes all of the objects in that development component.

 

Synchronizing Objects

Objects that have been copied into the PCD from the repository maintain an indirect delta link relationship with the repository object. If you make changes to an application and redeploy it, the objects in the GPAL repositories are automatically updated, as are the PCD objects created from the repository objects.

PCD objects inherit the changes made to a repository object, unless:

• changes were made to the PCD object after it was created, breaking the delta link. In this case the changes made to the PCD object are not overwritten.
• you delete an object from an application and then redeploy the application. In this case, the object is deleted from the repository and the delta link to the PCD object is broken. The PCD object is not deleted.

In some cases PCD objects might not be updated automatically. To synchronize PCD objects with the repository objects from which they were created, right-click the development component and choose Update PCD Objects.

 

Viewing Nested iViews in a Page

The Page Viewer displays a page's nested iViews and allows you to open the Property Editor for each nested iView. The Property Editor opens in read-only mode.

To open the Page Viewer, right-click a page in the repository and choose Open → Object.

 

Viewing Error Details

In some cases, an application that has been deployed to the Web Dynpro Applications repository cannot be read by the Web Dynpro runtime layer. Such an application node is displayed with a error icon in the repository.

You can view the application level properties of the error node, but you cannot create content from the effected application. To view the error details:

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       1.      In the Web Dynpro Applications repository, right-click the error node and select See Error Details.

       2.      To see a detailed exception chain, click Get Stack Trace.