Troubleshooting Content Management Oracle Fusion Middleware Online Documentation Library

Part III Part III Creating Pages Part III contains the following chapters: ■ Chapter 6, Creating Pages ■ Chapter 7, Defining and Displaying Page Information ■ Chapter 8, Performing Actions on Pages ■ Chapter 9, Working with Pages Designed for Mobile Devices 6 Creating Pages 6-1 6 Creating Pages To the casual observer, the portal you create using Oracle Portal appears to be hierarchical groups of Web pages that contain your content. Look a little deeper and you will find that, although portal pages are as easy to assemble and use as any other Web page, they bring with them powerful intelligence, security, and content management tools you can use to create a rich Web experience for your users. Figure 6–1 Conceptual Model of Pages in Oracle Portal This chapter defines pages as they are used in Oracle Portal and explains how to create different types of pages. It includes the following main sections: ■ Section 6.1, Understanding Pages in Oracle Portal ■ Section 6.2, Creating a Standard Page ■ Section 6.3, Creating a Sub-Page ■ Section 6.4, Creating a URL Page ■ Section 6.5, Creating a PLSQL Page ■ Section 6.6, Creating a JavaServer Page JSP ■ Section 6.7, Creating a Mobile Page ■ Section 6.9, Editing Page Properties 6-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle Portal ■ Section 6.10, Troubleshooting Page Creation Oracle Portal provides several caching options to assist page designers and administrators with optimizing the performance of their portal pages, portlets, and templates. To find out more about caching, see Chapter 21, Improving Page Performance . Intended Audience This chapter is intended for users with at least the page privilege Manage on one or more pages. For tasks that require different privileges, those privileges are listed before that task. For more information on page privileges, see Appendix B, Page Group Object Privileges .

6.1 Understanding Pages in Oracle Portal

In Oracle Portal, a page is an object that has a user-defined layout, contains portlets and items, and carries additional attributes that store information about the page the page’s metadata. Each time you display a page, it is dynamically assembled and formatted according to the content and layout associated with that page. Much of this guide goes into detail about the underlying structure of pages and content. This section takes a high-level look at pages and provides information about putting them to best use. It includes the following subsections: ■ Section 6.1.1, Pages and Page Types in Oracle Portal ■ Section 6.1.2, When To Use Each Page Type

6.1.1 Pages and Page Types in Oracle Portal

In Oracle Portal, pages are created from base page types. Page types define the allowable content of a page and the information that is stored about a page. Depending on the page type, page content might be portlets, items, URLs, PLSQL, or standard Web encoding languages, such as HTML and Java. Page information is gathered through attributes that accept values. When users create a page, they enter or select values for the page’s associated attributes. Some attribute values are required, and some are optional. The different page types have attributes in common as well as attributes unique to their types. Examples of attributes associated with base page types include the page’s internal name, display name, description, and associated procedures. Base page types include: ■ Standard —These contain and manage items, portlets, tabs, and sub-page links. ■ URL —These provide a route to another Web page, identified by its URL. When a user clicks the page link, the Web page referenced by the link is displayed. ■ PLSQL —These consist of PLSQL code that executes when the page URL is accessed. ■ JavaServer Pages JSPs —These are an extension to servlet functionality that provides a simple programmatic interface to Web pages. JSPs are HTML pages with special tags and embedded Java code that is executed on the Web or the Note: For information on how to publish a page as a portlet, see Chapter 8, Performing Actions on Pages . Creating Pages 6-3 application server. JSPs provide dynamic functionality to HTML pages. They are compiled into servlets when first requested, and they run in the servlet container. Custom page types are extended base page types. That is, they are page types that carry attributes in addition to the ones provided with a base type. You can create custom page types from the base types standard, URL, and PLSQL. The standard attributes that come with these page types are fixed and unalterable. This means that you can build custom types with attributes additional to the standard attributes; but you cannot build custom types that omit any of the standard attributes. Additionally, there are Mobile pages and Navigation pages: ■ Mobile pages enable page creators to produce pages specifically for mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants PDAs and cell phones. ■ Navigation pages are special page types for providing standard navigational objects across multiple pages. For more information about navigation pages, see Chapter 13, Designing Your Portal’s Navigation .

6.1.2 When To Use Each Page Type

Oracle Portal provides different page types to accommodate different needs: The Standard Page Type The Standard page type is provided for building portal pages declaratively, using a page creation wizard. This is the most commonly used page type. The URL Page Type The URL page type is provided for cases where the portal pagesub-page hierarchy will include content typically outside the portal. Because pages that use the URL page type have properties, like standard pages, the page designer can set access controls, assign attributes, and set attribute values. The PLSQL Page Type The use case for the PLSQL page type is much like that for the URL page type. That is, its purpose is to support building a hierarchy of pages that are accessed in a uniform way. But instead of a page that accesses content through a URL, the page designer creates a page that accesses content through a PLSQL procedure that executes when users click the link to the page. The JSP Page Type JSPs are provided for the inclusion of dynamically executed Java code within the framework of an HTML page.

6.2 Creating a Standard Page

Standard pages display portlets, items, tabs, and sub-page links. Use the standard page type when you want to build portal pages declaratively using a page creation wizard. In the wizard you supply the basic information that you need to create the page. You may need to edit the page after its initial creation to specify further information, such as the style to use or access settings to apply. Note: To create a standard page, you must have at least the page privilege Manage on the new page’s parent page. 6-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle Portal To create a standard page: 1. Log in to Oracle Portal.

2. Click the Build tab to bring it forward.

3. From the Page Groups portlet Work In drop-down list, select a page group to own

the page to be created. By default, the Page Groups portlet is located on the Build tab of the Portal Builder page.

4. Under the Layout Appearance section, click the Create link next to the Pages

heading. If the page is a sub-page of an existing page rather than of the page group’s root page, follow the steps outlined in Section 6.3, Creating a Sub-Page . Then return to Step 5 in this section.

5. On the resulting page, choose Standard from the Page Type list.

If Standard is not included in this list, the Standard page type has been excluded from the page group. If you have the required privilege level, you can click the Configure link next to the Page Type list to configure the page group to include standard pages. If you do not have the required privileges, see your page group administrator.

6. In the Display Name field, enter a Display Name to identify the page to other

users. Use up to 256 characters of any kind. The display name identifies the page in the Page Groups portlet and the Portal Navigator. It is also used as the text for the Current Page Smart Text item and for the page title in a browser’s title bar. 7. Under the Template section, choose from: ■ Do not use a template ■ Use HTML Page Skin to use your own hand-coded HTML template on the page ■ Use Portal Template to use a declaratively built template on the page Templates are discussed in detail in Chapter 12, Providing a Standard Look and Feel . The Preview section provides an example of the structure and content of the template.

8. From the Navigation Page For Banner list, choose a navigation page to use as a

banner for the page. Note: In the Oracle Portal user interface, an asterisk indicates a field that requires a value. For a summary of the rules governing the naming of objects in Oracle Portal, see Appendix D, Object Naming Rules in Oracle Portal . Note: You cannot add new regions to pages based on a Portal Template. You should apply a template to a page only if you are sure that the template provides the exact layout you will use for your page. Creating Pages 6-5 The navigation page is added as a portlet to a region that spans the top of the page. Choose a navigation page that fits appropriately. If you will not use any of the provided pages, choose None from this list. This list includes all the navigation pages in this page group and the Shared Objects page group. If you apply a Portal Template to this page, the navigation page you select from this list is ignored.

9. Click Create to create the page and display it in Edit mode.

10. When you create a new page, various properties, such as style and access settings, are defaulted to make the creation process quicker. After you have created your page you may want to edit the properties of the page to change some of these default settings. You do not have to go through a wizard to create a standard page. You can also create standard pages using WebDAV or by executing an unzip operation with a Zip file that includes a directory structure. For more information about WebDAV, see Chapter 18, Using WebDAV Clients with Oracle Portal. For more information about using Zip files with your portal, see Section 14.3, Uploading Multiple Files Simultaneously.

6.3 Creating a Sub-Page

Any page you add to a page group is a sub-page to the page group’s root page. The root is the page that is created when you create a page group. You may want to add a hierarchy of sub-pages to create additional page levels. For example, let’s say you have the page group Departments, under which you create the sub-pages Orders, Fulfillment, and Accounts. Under the Accounts page, you create three sub-pages: Regions, Forms, and Tips Figure 6–2 . In such a structure, Departments is the root page; Orders, Fulfillment, and Accounts are sub-pages of the root page; and Regions, Forms, and Tips are sub-pages of their parent page, Accounts. This section explains how to create a sub-page to a standard page. Note: For more information about navigation pages, see Chapter 13, Designing Your Portal’s Navigation Note: For information on editing page properties, see Section 6.9, Editing Page Properties. .