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Component documentationImplementing an External-Facing Portal Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

You can implement the SAP NetWeaver portal as a public Web site, or an external-facing portal, which has the following characteristics:

  • Improved performance over the Web due to the reduced resources required for each request. An external-facing portal avoids the use of resource-heavy HTML-B and Enterprise Portal Client Framework (EPCF).

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

Relevant Features

The following portal features are relevant to developers who implement 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 HTML-B or EPCF 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 the EPCF JavaScript, if an iView does not need client-side eventing, which is specified by a component's EPCFLevel profile property.

    For more information about this property, see Components.

  • 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. This tag library is 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. This tag library is 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.