In this video, we will learn how to create and use WebFOCUS Portals. The WebFOCUS portal is a flexible and interactive content management system that users can use to access and share content, customize their portal experience, collaborate, and build sophisticated structures for data storytelling. To create a portal, select a workspace or folder, click the Application tab in the Action Bar, and then click Portal. In the New Portal dialog box, give your portal a name and configure the design of your portal, such as banner option, logo, layout, and theme. You can also create an Alias for your portal to make a short URL for sharing with others. This feature is especially useful if your portal resides inside an elaborate repository system. Finally, select the Create My Pages menu checkbox, if you want to enable users to create personal pages at run time.
Once you’re happy with your choices, click Create. Your new portal now displays in the repository. You can populate it with folders, pages, and shortcuts that serve as links to other pages.
There are three approaches when populating a WebFOCUS portal.
If you have a clear vision of a portal you are creating and the content that you need to display in it, you can start by building a structure with folders and pages and create content directly inside those pages. To do so, inside the portal click Visualize Data. The WebFOCUS Designer opens in the content mode where you can start building your visualizations from scratch.
If you have existing content in your repository and want to assemble this content into a portal, click the plus button and then click Assemble Visualizations. WebFOCUS Designer opens in a page mode, where you can build a page from the content that already exists.
Alternatively, if you already have standalone pages in any of your workspaces and want to use them in your portal, use the shortcut feature to link those pages to your portal. Your new portal now displays in the repository. You can populate it with folders, pages, and shortcuts that serve as links to other pages.
You can use these elements to define a portal structure. For example Welcome and Home pages and Sales, Marketing, and My Pages folders that we see here make up the initial view of the portal. At run time these elements appear as links or tabs and serve as the first level of navigation.
If you add subfolders inside any of these folders, the subfolders will appear as links in the sidebar at run time. You can click them to display pages inside the subfolders. This simple folder hierarchy provides a convenient way to organize your content. Let’s see what else users can do at run time. In this example, on the Welcome page, we have a number of click-through items that display vibrant and concise imagery or graphics. When clicked, they open a different, more detailed view. On the next page, we can see analytical content. We can filter this content and see the results instantly. Notice, that the filter selection is remembered on other pages because we used the Global Name option. You can learn more about using the Global Name feature from the Working With Filters content. Finally, let’s create a personal page. Go to My Pages, click the plus icon, and choose a layout. The page displays a number of empty panels with the Add Content buttons that you can use to populate it. If your content has parameters, the filter icon appears in the toolbar. You can click it to make filter selections. To share your personal page, click the Share icon and select users or groups in the Share With dialog box. Both the Page Heading and Page Titles can be edited. You can choose the Page Heading to be longer and more descriptive. You can delete your personal page at any time by clicking the Delete icon.