PSML Pages

The XML dialect for defining resources and elements that make up the site is also known as PSML (Portal Structure Markup Language). PSML is not a standard.

PSML pages define how and where portlets are placed on a page, as well as how the page is decorated and branded.

A PSML page defines :

• metadata, such as titles and descriptions
• decorations (both page and portlet)
• layout fragments (number of columns on the page, and nesting of columns)
• which portlets are displayed on the page, defined by portlet fragments
• the position of the portlet on the page
• properties of the portlets
• preferences of a portlet
• security constraints

To customize a PSML page through the Portal Site Manager, select it in the tree. On the right side of the tree four tabs will appear allowing you to customize various aspects of the page through a form.

Each of the four tabs is described below.

Information Tab

The Information Tab allows you to customize the title and appearance of the page.

Security Tab

The Security Tab allows you to modify a page's security constraints. All security constraints defined for the selected page are shown in a list. To modify a constraint, select it from the list and choose a new value in the dropdown field.

Metadata Tab

The Metadata Tab shows a list of metadata properties that might be defined for the page, e.g. translations in different languages of the page title, such as shown in the screenshot below. Clicking on a property will load it in the form right below the list so that the values can be modified.

Export Tab

The Export Tab provides an XML export of the page. The exported XML file can be used to store customizations made through the user interface in a custom portal project, so that when a new version of the portal is deployed, the customizations do not have to be made again.

Links

Links are URLs to external resources, usually outside of the site. The element is persisted with the .link extension on the file system.

To customize a link through the Portal Site Manager, select it in the tree. On the right side of the tree four tabs will appear allowing you to customize various aspects of the link through a form.

Each of the four tabs is described below.

Information Tab

The Information Tab allows you to change the title and the URL of a link.

Security Tab

The Security Tab allows you to modify a link's security constraints. All security constraints defined for the selected link are shown in a list. To modify a constraint, select it from the list and choose a new value in the dropdown field.

Metadata Tab

The Metadata Tab shows a list of metadata properties that might be defined for the link, e.g. translations in different languages of the link title, such as shown in the screenshot below. Clicking on a property will load it in the form right below the list so that the values can be modified.

Export Tab

The Export Tab allows you to export a link to an XML file.

Folders

A folder is a container object that holds:

• subfolders (which in turn can hold subfolders, pages, links...)
• pages
• links

Folders make up the physical layout of your site and have the following attributes :

• Localizable Metadata (name, title, short-title, description)
• Optional Default-page
• Optional Decorator
• Hidden Flag (hidden folders do not show up on menus, but can still be navigated to)
• Security Constraints
• Menus
• Document Ordering

To customize a folder through the Portal Site Manager, select it in the tree. On the right side of the tree seven tabs will appear allowing you to customize various aspects of the link through a form.

Five of the seven tabs are described below (Information, Security, Metadata, Import, Export). The Menus and Order Tabs are placeholders for future functionalities and do not currently contain any information.

Information Tab

Security Tab

The Security Tab allows you to modify a folder's security constraints. All security constraints defined for the selected folder are shown in a list. To modify a constraint, select it from the list and choose a new value in the dropdown field.

Metadata Tab

The Metadata Tab shows a list of metadata properties that might be defined for the folder, e.g. translations in different languages of the folder title, such as shown in the screenshot below. Clicking on a property will load it in the form right below the list so that the values can be modified.

Import Tab

The Import Tab allows you to import a folder that you previously exported as XML file.

Export Tab

The Export Tab allows you to export a folder to an XML file. Optionally you can resursively export all sub items inside the folder as well by checking the "Export recursively" checkbox.

Portal Tree vs. User Tree

There are system wide portal resources and personalized or user specific portal resources. These are represented by separate trees. The Portal Site Manager allows you to switch between these two trees.

Portal Tree

User Tree

Control Folders

Control folders always start with the underscore _.

Control folders are used to separate pages based on runtime parameters. For example, you may have a different set of pages for a phone vs. a full web-browser. In that case, you place your pages for the phone under a WML directory, where you may have less portlets per page than the HTML directory.

There is a special folder named (_subsite_root) :

• Subsites sub-divide your portal site into independent "portal site" trees. This enables use-case scenarios such as hosting two or more portals on the same portal instance (app server)
• Users can be configured to point to a particular subsite which will become their view of the portal

The User folder (_user) :

• The _user folder holds the home pages of all users. Each user can have a folder with multiple subfolders, pages and links
• A user is not required to have a home folder. Depending on the user profile, the user home page may or may not be used
• Usually, a user's home page is made customizable (editable) to the user, but not to others
• Jetspeed uses "templates" to create default pages for users when the user first registers or is created by an Administrator

Roles and Group Folders (_role and _group) :

• Role and group folders are useful for sharing pages based on the roles or groups that a user belongs in. Typical use cases are for granting (or denying) access to pages
• Role folder names should be the same as the roles defined in the system, likewise for groups
• A user's profile defines where pages are to be searched
• A user profile called "role-fallback" looks for pages in the _role directory, based on the users's security profile. It will search through all folders based on the roles that a user holds
• A common profile rule is to first search the user's home directory, then each of the role directories for the given user, and the the default root tree to find the page