Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help. Version 1.0 Tivoli Integrated Portal 2.2

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1 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help Version 1.0 Tivoli Integrated Portal 2.2

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3 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help Version 1.0 Tivoli Integrated Portal 2.2

4 Note Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in Notices on page 95. This edition applies to version 2, release 1 of Tivoli Integrated Portal and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. Copyright IBM Corporation US Government Users Restricted Rights Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

5 Contents Chapter 1. IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal help What is new? Logging into the portal Portal accessibility Supported web browsers Welcome Accessing support information About page - Support information About portlet - Support information Chapter 2. Portal layout Portal banner Page bar Navigating the portal Portal pages Chapter 3. Customizing the portal My tasks My Startup Pages Editing page content and layout Arranging portlets using the drag-and-drop feature Customizing a portlet Setting text and component direction Personalizing a web portlet Working with image portlets Manage Open Pages Configure Portlet Refresh Chapter 4. Administrative settings Setting up the portal Process for planning and setting up the portal Logging out active users Working with pages Creating classic pages Creating freeform pages Creating folders Editing the properties of a page, folder, or external URL Deleting custom pages and folders Restoring system pages, folders, and external URLs Page field descriptions Working with views Creating views Editing views Deleting custom views View properties Working with catalogs Creating catalogs Editing catalogs Deleting catalogs Working with roles Creating roles Editing roles Deleting custom roles Managing roles for users Managing roles for groups Role properties Working with portlets Custom portlets Portlet events and wires Portlet properties Working with preference profiles Creating preference profiles Editing console preference profiles Deleting console preference profiles Preference profile properties Resource types Manage Global Refresh Credential Store Exporting portal settings Common settings Add Roles Add views Add Pages String translation properties Chapter 5. Charting IBM charts Configuring a chart portlet in the Portlet Wizard 81 Opening a chart from an IBM application Defining a Web service connection Custom charts Opening a chart created in the BIRT Designer.. 87 Uploading a BIRT chart Chart or table creation with the BIRT Designer 89 BIRT Designer and Tivoli Common Reporting.. 90 Chart tools Notices Trademarks Index Copyright IBM Corp iii

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7 Chapter 1. IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal help What is new? Welcome to the online help for IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal Version Tivoli Integrated Portal provides a single portal for administering IBM products and related applications. Use this help to find general information about the portal and its features. Getting started v What is new? v Logging into the portal on page 2 v Portal accessibility on page 3 v Supported web browsers on page 4 v Welcome on page 5 v Chapter 2, Portal layout, on page 9 Customizing the console v My tasks on page 15 v My Startup Pages on page 15 v Manage Open Pages on page 24 v Configure Portlet Refresh on page 24 Settings v Working with pages on page 30 v Working with views on page 43 v Working with roles on page 50 v Working with preference profiles on page 69 v Working with portlets on page 57 v Manage Global Refresh on page 74 v Credential Store on page 75 Related resources v v v IBM IBM Support Integrated Solutions Console support forum This topic describes functions that are available in IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal Version Features described here supersede any functionality described elsewhere in the help that might state otherwise. The following updates are included in this portal installation. Freeform page creation Users with appropriate permissions can now create pages in the portal using a self-service dashboard whereby they can select available portlets in from a portlet palette and drag them to the page content area. Multiple Copyright IBM Corp

8 Logging into the portal portlets can be arranged on the page in a very flexible and freeform manner. Such users can still create new pages using the classic grid-based method of creating pages. For more information, see Creating freeform pages on page 32. Customize portlet wizard IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal includes a customize portlet wizard that allows a portal administrator to select an existing base portlet and configure custom settings for a copy of the base portlet. Once configured, the newly customized portlet is made available in the portlet palette and can be added to freeform pages or classic pages. For more information, see Exporting portal settings on page 76. Log out active users Administrators can search for and log out active users. For more information, see Logging out active users on page 30. Access support information for pages and portlets Administrators can access support information for pages and their portlets, or for an individual portlet on a particular page. For more information, see Accessing support information on page 5. Follow these steps to access the portal. 1. Point your web browser to the URL of the server where the portal is installed and running, appending the context root for the portal, to the address. The default context root is /ibm/console, but it may be configured differently for your portal, so if you are in doubt, check with your administrator. For example, if the portal is installed to a server on using a secure port of 444 and with the default context root, enter this address in the browser: The login page for the portal is displayed. 2. Enter your User ID and Password and click Log in. When you are finished, the welcome page is displayed. To prevent unauthorized access, be sure to use the Logout link in the portal toolbar when you are finished using the portal. If there is no activity during this login session for an extended period of time, the session expires and you must log in again to access the portal. To update the session expiration, see Changing the console session expiration. Note: If your portal session expires, you may have to log in twice to start a new session. Depending on the operating system on which Tivoli Integrated Portal is installed, there are certain restrictions on which characters can be used for user IDs and passwords. Multiple users can concurrently log in to the portal using the same user account details providing the users log in to the console in discrete browser sessions. This behavior is not enabled by default and must be enabled by an administrator. 2 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

9 Portal accessibility Note: When two users concurrently log in with the same user ID and they both launch the IBM WebSphere Application Server administrative console, the last user to launch the administrative console gains control. All other WAS administrative console gains sessions for that user ID are automatically invalidated. Tivoli Integrated Portal sessions for other users with the same user ID remain unaffected. v v Accessibility features Navigating the portal interface by using the keyboard Accessibility features The portal has the following accessibility features: v The following features are for vision-impaired users: Supports interfaces commonly used by screen readers and screen magnifiers (Microsoft Windows systems only) Can be operated by using only the keyboard Communicates all information independent of color Supports the attachment of alternate output devices Provides help information in an accessible format v The following features are for users who have mobility impairments or limited use of their hands: Allows the user to request more time to complete timed responses Can be operated by using only the keyboard Supports the attachment of alternative input and output devices v The following features are for the deaf and hard of hearing users: Supports alternatives to audio information Supports adjustable volume control v The console does not flash the screen at rates that could induce epileptic seizures. The help system for Integrated Solutions Console has the following accessibility features: v v Uses the accessibility support enabled by the browser that is used to display the help Enables navigation by using the keyboard Note: Hover text for certain elements, such as page tabs, cannot be read by the screen reader, Windows Eyes. Navigating the portal interface by using the keyboard To move through the controls on a particular page, press the Tab key. To click a link or control on a page using the keyboard, navigate to the link or control and press ENTER. To select a checkbox, use the Tab key to bring the checkbox into focus and press the Space bar. Chapter 1. IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal help 3

10 Supported web browsers To view the contents of a selection list (drop-down menu), tab to the field and use Alt + the down arrow. Related information: Accessibility and keyboard shortcuts in the help system The following web browsers are supported for use with the portal: v Microsoft Internet Explorer, V9.0 v Microsoft Internet Explorer, V8.0 v Microsoft Internet Explorer, V7.0 v Mozilla Firefox, V3.6 JavaScript must be enabled in the browser. A minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels is recommended. Note: The browser back button is not reliable for navigating the portal and is not supported. Use the navigation controls and links in the portal as an alternative. Supported languages The portal text has been translated into the following languages. v Arabic (ar) v Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) v Czech (cs) v Croatian (hr) v Dutch (nl) v English (en) v French (fr) v German (de) v Hebrew (he) v Hungarian (hu) v Italian (it) v Japanese (ja) v Korean (ko) v Polish (pl) v Russian (ru) v Slovenian (sl) v Swedish (sv) v Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) v Spanish (es) v Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) The language that is displayed when you access the portal is always the first language in your browser's language settings that matches one of these portal translations. If none of your language preferences match one of the portal translations, then the default is displayed, which is English (en). Individual components, such as portlets or pages, might provide additional translations that 4 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

11 are displayed according to your browser's language settings. In this case, you could see a combination of languages displayed in the portal. The portal also supports bidirectional languages, such as Arabic or Hebrew, which are displayed and read from right to left. If your browser's first language preference is set to a bidirectional language, elements in the portal are arranged in right-to-left orientation and the text is right-aligned, even though the displayed text might not be bidirectional. Welcome Welcome displays the products that are installed that use the portal for administrative tasks. When two or more products are deployed to the portal, this welcome page appears by default when you log in to the portal. You can also access this page by clicking its link in the navigation pane. When a single product is deployed to the portal, that product's About page automatically becomes the default "Welcome" page that is displayed after logging in. It also appears when a user clicks the "Welcome" link in the navigation pane. A table on the page lists the suite name and version number. The About portlet displays the portal license information. Accessing support information You can access support information for a page and its portlets, or for a specific portlet within a page. About page - Support information The About item from the Select Action drop-down list provides support information for the portal, browser, current page and its associated portlets. To display support information, from the Select Action drop-down list, click About. A new page is displayed with details of the portal, browser, and Dojo versions. In addition, general information is provided for the page itself, as well as details for each portlet on the page and any wiring that is configured between the portlets. You can use the links at the top of the page to print or save an HTML version of the support information. The following support information is provided in relation to the portal: Table 1. Portal, browser, and Dojo information Section Description Tivoli Integrated Portal The Tivoli Integrated Portal version. Browser Information Details of the browser. Dojo Version The Dojo Library version. Chapter 1. IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal help 5

12 Table 2. General page information Section Description Page ID The unique page ID. Note: The page ID is used as the default file name if you choose to save a copy of the support information. Layout Page layout type, for example, Classic or Freeform. Location The location of the page. Its location reflects where the page is displayed in the navigation pane. Module Module type. Allows Multiple Instances Roles [type - access Author This setting indicates whether or not multiple instances of a page is allowed. Roles associated with the page including the access level provided to each role. Product or component associated with the page. For each portlet on a page, a section is included with the following detail: Table 3. Portlet information Section Description Portlet type The base portlet type name is shown in bold font for each portlet. Portlet ID The portlet unique ID. Portlet Definition ID The portlet definition ID. Dimensions [height, The portlet size in pixels. width] Location [x, y, z] Coordinates for the portlet location on the page. Type The portlet type, that is, the type of underlying technology associated with the portlet, for example, iwidget. Module The.war file associated with the portlet. Render Mode How the portlet is rendered, for example, inline. Role [type - access] Roles associated with the portlet including the access level provided to each role. Author Product or component associated with the portlet. Table 4. Wires information Section Description Wires For each wire that exists between portlets, details are provided in relation to its type, source, target, event, transformation, and whether the wire is enabled or not. Note: An entry of None in this section indicates that they are no wires configured. About portlet - Support information The About portlet is used to display support information as it relates to an individual portlet. 6 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help To display the portlet support information, the page that contains the portlet must be in edit mode. From the portlet title bar, click the Edit options icon and select About.

13 The following portlet support information is provided: Table 5. Portlet information Section Description Portlet type The base portlet type name is shown in bold font at the top of the page. Portlet ID The portlet unique ID. Portlet Definition ID The portlet definition unique ID. Dimensions [height, The portlet size in pixels. width] Location [x, y, z] Coordinates for the portlet location on the page. Type The portlet type, that is, the type of underlying technology associated with the portlet, for example, iwidget. Module The.war file associated with the portlet. Render Mode How the portlet is rendered, for example, inline. Role [type - access] Roles associated with the portlet including the access level provided to each role. Author Product or component associated with the portlet. Chapter 1. IBM Tivoli Integrated Portal help 7

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15 Chapter 2. Portal layout The layout of the portal user interface has these major elements. Figure 1. Portal layout 1 Banner Displays a common image across all portal installations. The banner includes a greeting to the user as well as links to log out of the portal and to open online help. The View selection list in the banner controls which nodes are displayed in the navigation as well as pages that are opened when the view is selected. 2 Page bar Displays tabs to select between open pages. The page bar allows you to work on different pages without closing the page or losing unsaved data. For example, if you are working on an application on Page A, you can open an application on another page to gather information about a resource that you need to finish the form on Page A without losing any Copyright IBM Corp

16 unsaved data you have already entered. Multiple pages can be opened at one time, but only one of the open pages is in focus (current page). The page bar also contains a Select Action drop-down list for performing actions on the current page. 3 Navigation pane Displays a set of navigation nodes used for accessing content. The nodes shown in the navigation pane are only those to which you have access. 4 Work area Displays the current page that you are working on. The page contains one or more Web applications or portlets, each in its own portlet window with a title bar. Portal banner The portal banner displays a common image across all portal installations. The banner includes a greeting to the user, links to log out of the portal and to open online help, and a selection list for different views. Selecting views Use the View selection list in the banner to select a list of tasks in the navigation according to your preferences. Views can also be associated with pages that are launched automatically when the view is selected. The following types of views can be selected. All tasks This shows all tasks in the portal to which you have access. My tasks This shows only the tasks that you have added to this view. This list is initially empty, but provides a link to My Tasks, which you can use to add and remove from your personal task list in the navigation. Product selection Selecting a product name shows only the tasks for that particular product, for example, WebSphere Application Server. Custom views These are views that have been created by the portal user or an administrator from within the portal interface. Only users with access to the Views portlet can create or edit custom views. If you have access to create custom views, you can determine what pages and folders are included using Views. Accessing help Help is available for the entire portal or for a specific portlet in the portal. v To access online help, click the Help link in the banner. Help for all topics in the portal is displayed. v To access help for a portlet on a page, click Help (?) in the portlet title bar. Help for the individual topic is displayed. 10 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

17 Page bar Use the tabs in the page bar to navigate between open pages or to close a specific page. While many pages can be open at a time, only one page can be in focus, or current. The page bar can display multiple tabs. If you open more tabs than can be displayed at once in the page bar, horizontal scroll arrows provide access to the other page tabs. Navigating the portal Note: Page tabs provide hover text to display the full page name when the name is concatenated by limited display space. However, for users of the Windows Eyes screen reader, the page name is not read. The page bar also includes a page action selection list. Depending on the capabilities of the page, the following actions are provided. v Close Page Closes the current page. v Add to My Startup Pages Adds the current page to the list of pages that are automatically launched when you log into the portal. v Manage Open Pages Opens a module that you can use to access or close pages that are open. This application is intended for situations in which you have a very large number of pages open that are too difficult to manage using the tabs in the page bar. v Configure Portlet Refresh Used to customize your personal refresh settings for portlets on the page that support portlet refresh. v Open Page in New Tab For pages that support multiple instances (known as multitask nodes), this action opens another copy of the current page. v Edit Page Used to change the layout and content in the page. This option is available only if your role has Editor access to the page. v Save As Used to save a copy of the current page using another name. This option is available only if your role has Editor access to the page. The navigation pane displays a set of nodes used to launch pages in the portal work area. Nodes are grouped into folders, for example, Users and Groups or Settings, which can be nested in multiple levels. Be sure you understand the terms for each of the user interface elements (banner, page bar, navigation pane, and work area) that constitute the portal layout before reading this section. Chapter 2. Portal layout 11

18 The border between the navigation pane and work area can be clicked to hide and show the navigation. This is helpful if you need more space in the work area. Note: The browser back button is not reliable for navigating the portal and is not supported. Use the navigation controls and links in the portal as an alternative. Navigation node types The portal navigation is composed of a hierarchical structure of nodes. The following types of nodes are supported. Folder Does not display any content but contains other nodes. Use folders to organize nodes in the navigation. A folder can be expanded, to reveal its child nodes, or collapsed to hide them using the following icons. v Expand folder contents: the Expand node icon v Collapse folder contents: the Collapse node icon URL Page 12 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help Launches any URL-addressable resource, including external Web sites, into a new browser window. Launches a page in the work area. This is the most common node type. Page nodes are further distinguished by their task. A task is an instance of a page that is rendered in the work area of the portal. Tasks are associated with the navigation node that launches the page and determine the characteristics of that page. The following types of tasks are supported. Single task node A navigation node in which only one instance of the page can be opened in the work area per session. Clicking on a single task node in the navigation pane opens the task in the work area and adds a page tab. If the page is already open, that page becomes the current page. Multitask node A navigation node in which multiple instances can be opened in the work area per session. Each new instance can be launched either from a portlet or by selecting Open Page in New Tab from the page action selection list in the page bar. For multitask nodes, the label for the page tab indicates multiple open instances of the page. For example, if the page name for a multitask node is Expense Records and three instances of the page are opened, the tabs are labelled in the order they are opened as follows: v Expense Records (1) v Expense Records (2) v Expense Records (3) If one or more instances of a multitask node is already open in the work area, clicking the node from the navigation pane does not open a new instance of the node, but rather makes the last accessed page instance the current page. Hidden task node A navigation node that launches a page that does not have a tab in the page bar. While a hidden node is open, the page bar is disabled. Pages launched by a hidden task node do not have page bar actions, cannot be added to the list of startup pages, and cannot be closed or accessed using Manage Open Pages

19 Each page, folder, and URL is further distinguished by its resource type. Use Pages to create, edit, and delete portal pages. Portal pages The work area displays the current page that you are working on with one or more web applications, portlets (sometimes informally called widgets). Note: This help system uses the term portlet to generically refer to both portlets and widgets, unless it is necessary to distinguish between the two underlying technologies. Portal pages contain one or more portlets, which are used to complete a task. Portlets can contain information, such as news articles or stock quotes, or provide a service, such as a department calendar, reports, or database query. Portlets are displayed in windows that are arranged on the page within rows and columns in pages that are created using the classic method of page creation. Pages created using the freeform method, can displayed portlets anywhere on the page. Along the top of each window is a title bar that includes controls that allow you to manipulate the portlet, such as maximizing the portlet on the page or editing the portlet settings. v v v Users whose roles have Privileged User or Editor access to a page can resize portlet windows on the page. To resize the portlet windows, use your mouse to drag the border between the windows. The window sizes are preserved as long as the page is open. To save these changes after the page is closed or after you logoff, click Save at the top of the page. After changing and saving the initial window sizes on a page, the Restore button is rendered at the top of the page to allow you to return to the default window sizes of the page. Users whose roles have Editor access to a page can add, remove, and rearrange portlets on the page. Administrators with access to Pages navigation node can create custom pages. Portlets and widgets Each portlet, or widget, on a page is displayed within a discrete panel. The panel includes a title bar displaying the portlet name. Portlets vary in their purpose and use, but they all share similar controls that are accessed from the title bar. Panels, including their title bar, can be hidden, but will be displayed when a user rolls over the title bar area. Depending on the functions supported by the portlet, the following icons can be available. v The Edit options icon is displayed so that you or an administrator customize display and other options for a portlet. Clicking this icon reveals some or more of the following options: Personalize - Click this option to set your personal settings for the portlet. These changes only affect your interaction with the portlet. Edit Shared Settings - Click this option to set shared settings for a portlet that all users of the portlet can see. Users in roles that have Privileged User access can change the defaults to their own personal preferences. Minimize - Click this option to minimize the portlet view. When you click this option, only the title bar is visible on the page. Maximize - Click this option to maximize a portlet view. The portlet occupies the full width and height of the page, replacing all other content until it is restored. Chapter 2. Portal layout 13

20 v v v v v v Restore - Click this option to return a portlet window to its original state after it has been minimized or maximized. Use the Back icon to return to the previous panel. The Help (?) icon is displayed if help is available for the portlet. When you click the icon, the help is displayed in a separate browser window. The Minimize icon allows you to minimize the portlet view. When you click the icon, only the title bar is visible on the page. The Maximize icon allows you to maximize a portlet view. When you click the icon, the portlet occupies the full width and height of the page, replacing all other content until it is restored. The Close portlet icon is provided so that you can close a portlet that has been dynamically added to the page. The Restore icon is provided so that you can return a portlet window to its original state after it has been minimized or maximized. Some portlets can refresh their content without causing the entire portal page to be refreshed. This is known as portlet refresh and is provided to make your experience with the portal more responsive. Portlets that support portlet refresh provide icons in the title bar reflecting this feature, as follows: The Portlet refresh icon Indicates that this portlet can be refreshed without reloading the portal page (portlet refresh). Clicking this icon displays the following options: v Pause Refresh - Select this option to pause the refresh timer. v v Resume Refresh - Select this option to restart the refresh timer from the pause state. Manual Refresh - Select this option to initiate a portlet refresh. Displays the time remaining until a portlet's next scheduled refresh. Refreshing Indicates that a portlet is currently refreshing its content. Depending on your access permissions for the portal, you can configure these refresh settings using Configure Portlet Refresh. Aside from the controls on the title bar, a portlet can include controls for other actions, such as a button to submit input. Some portlets have controls that launch other portlets. If a portlet launches another portlet, the newly launched portlet is displayed on the same page in an area near the bottom of the page. 14 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

21 Chapter 3. Customizing the portal My tasks My Startup Pages Use these applications to make changes to the portal settings for your own use. Access to these applications depend upon permissions defined for your role in the portal. Use My tasks to create and edit a list of tasks to view in the portal navigation. A task includes a page that contains one or more web applications, or portlets, that are used to complete that task. When you first access the portal, all tasks to which you have access are displayed in the navigation. My tasks is especially useful to customize the navigation to show only the tasks you use most often. After you customize your tasks, My Tasks is initially displayed each time you log in to the portal. Follow these general steps to customize your task list in the navigation. 1. Select My tasks from the View selection list in the navigation. If you have never used My tasks before, you must click Add tasks to open it. 2. Use the checkboxes to select and deselect tasks from the My tasks navigation. 3. To save your changes, click Apply. 4. To cancel your changes, click Reset. After applying your selections, your customized task list is displayed in the navigation. Use the following buttons to customize your task selections. Apply Saves the current selections. Reset Backtracks all changes to the selections that were set since the last time My tasks was applied. This is useful if you need to cancel your changes. Select All Checks every task. Deselect All Unchecks every task. Expand All Expands each node in the display and reveals all subtasks in the navigation. Collapse All Collapses each node in the display so that only the top level nodes are displayed. Use My Startup Pages to configure your default views and pages to load when you login to the portal. Copyright IBM Corp

22 Using My Startup Pages Use My Startup Pages to add or remove pages from the list of pages that are launched every time you log into the portal. Only single task and multiple task pages can be added to the startup list. You can set which page is opened as the current page (in focus). To open one of your startup pages, click the link for that page in the Page name column. My Startup Pages also allows you to define the default view for the portal navigation. You can select All tasks, My tasks, or a product from the list. After you apply your selection, the view that you selected is rendered in the navigation every time you log in. Field descriptions Console default view Select the view that you want to display in the navigation pane after you log in. You can select from the following choices: v All tasks All navigation categories and nodes are displayed. v My tasks Only navigation nodes that you saved in My Tasks are displayed. This option is intended for users who have a specific set of tasks that they need to perform and do not want to see all navigation nodes. v Custom, system, and product views Other views defined to the portal can be included in the selection list. If a view is defined by the system administrator as the default, that is indicated in the selection list. Select all icon Selects all items displayed in the table for deletion. If you are displaying only a filtered set of items, only those items are selected. You can deselect specific items before actually deleting. Deselect all icon Deselects all items displayed in the table. Remove Removes the selected pages from the startup list. Filter Type in this field to quickly find an item in the table. This field is useful when there are a large number of items to look through. Select Selects or deselects a single item in the table. Default Selects the page to be rendered as the current page (in focus) after you log in. All other pages are loaded in the background and are accessible from the page bar or from Manage Open Pages. Page name Displays the name of each page in the startup list. This is rendered as a link so that you can access the page directly by clicking on the name. 16 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

23 Editing page content and layout Pages are an arrangement of one or more portlets in the work area and contain the portlets needed to complete tasks. Users whose roles have Editor or Manager access to a page can edit a page's layout and content using the Edit Page option in the page action list. After saving changes to the layout and content, you can change a page's properties, including it's name and location in the navigation. About this task Note: User's with Privileged User access can change the size of portlet windows on the page. Procedure 1. Locate the page you want to edit in the navigation pane and open it. 2. In the page bar, select Edit Page from the page actions selection list. The page is changed to show buttons at the top. Each portlet title bar displays new icons for creating horizontal and vertical layouts and an edit options icon. 3. Optional: To change the skin associated with a portlet, in the title bar click the Edit options icon and select Skin to display a menu of the skins that you can apply to the portlet. Skins can be used to change the background of a portlet, for example, to set it to transparent. Skins may also be used to hide the portlet title bar. In this mode, a user can hover their mouse pointer in the title bar area in order to display the title bar. 4. Optional: To add more portlets to the page that was created in freeform mode, follow these steps. a. Once a freeform page is in edit mode, the portlet palette is displayed at the top of the page. To add new portlets to the page, click and drag a portlet from the palette. b. Optional: If required and if it is supported by the portlet that you added, you can use the Edit options icon to configure settings for the new portlet. c. If you have completed editing the freeform page, click Done to exit the page from the edit mode. 5. Optional: To add more portlets to the page that was created in classic mode, follow these steps. a. Create a window for the new portlet by splitting one of the windows displayed. v Use the Horizontal split icon to create a window below an existing window. v Use the Vertical split icon to create a window to the right of an existing window. The Portlet Picker is displayed within the new portlet window for selecting the portlet content. b. Scroll through the list or use the Filter field to find the portlet you want to add. c. Click OK. The portlet is added to the window. 6. Optional: To replace a portlet in a window, follow these steps. a. Click Edit options in the title bar where you want to replace the portlet content and select Replace content. The Portlet Picker is displayed within the new window. Chapter 3. Customizing the portal 17

24 b. Scroll through the list or use the Filter field to find the portlet you want to add. c. Click Add Portlet. The portlet is added to the window. 7. Optional: To remove a portlet and its window, click Edit options in the title bar and select Delete space. The content is removed immediately without a warning prompt. 8. Optional: To create wires between portlets so they can share information and updates, click Show Wires. Before working with wires, make sure that you have enough information about the events that a portlet supports. 9. Click Page settings. The page settings are displayed. 10. Optional: Make changes to the page's settings as required. a. Click the General tab. b. In the Page name field, provide a descriptive name for the page and in the Page location field indicate where you want the page to be displayed in the navigation pane. Consider the content on the page and how users will find that content by looking for the page name in the navigation pane. c. Use the Navigation visibility list to indicate whether or not you want the page to be listed in the navigation pane. d. From the Page persistence list, make one of the following selections: v v v Client side (default setting) - This setting preserves any changes that the user makes on the page when the user navigates away from the page. Changes include not only form data, but any state changes to portlets, for example, opening edit mode, switching to another panel in the portlet, or minimizing a portlet. Page data and page state are maintained on the client side until the user closes the page or logs out of the portal. None Server side - This setting maintains unsubmitted or unsaved form data from a page when the user navigates away from the page. The data is saved on the server and fetched when the user returns to the page. Unsaved data is saved until the user closes the page or logs out of the portal. Note: The Server side setting only applies to forms on a page. Any user interaction outside of a form is not maintained. e. Use the Page tasking radio buttons to indicate whether multiple instances of the page can be launched. f. In the Component direction drop-down list, you can accept the Default setting to allow the component direction to be governed at portal level or select one of the other settings to indicate whether you want to display page components from left-to-right or from right-to-left. If you select a setting other than Default, it will override any component direction setting that may be set at portal or browser level. g. In the Text direction drop-down list, you can accept the Default setting to allow the text direction to be governed at portal level or select Left-to-Right or from Right-to-Left to indicate the direction that you want the page text to display. You can also select Contextual Input so that for pages that include text entry fields, the direction of text is dependent on the language used to enter data. If you select a setting other than Default, it will override any text direction setting that may be set at portal or browser level. 18 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

25 11. Optional: Click the Roles tab to update the list of roles with permissions to the page and their access level. A list of all roles with access to the page is displayed. Option To remove access for a role To add access for a role To change the access level for a role Description Select a role and click Remove. The role is removed immediately from the access list without a warning prompt. Click Add. Select one or more of the roles displayed and click OK. The roles you added are included to the list. Select one of the options under Access Level for the role. Attention: Make sure that the roles with access to a page also have access to the portlets that are on the page. 12. Optional: Click the View Membership tab to update the list of views that include this page. Option To add this page to a view To remove this page from a view Description Click Add and select one or more views. Select one or more views in the list and click Remove. 13. If you accessed the Page settings window and made changes, click Save to commit your changes and return to the main edit page window. 14. When you are satisfied with your updates, click Save to commit your changes. Results You are returned to the page with your changes displayed. Arranging portlets using the drag-and-drop feature When editing a page, you can drag portlets to any window on the page. The portlet must already be placed in a window on the page, and the target window must already exist. About this task The target window can be an empty window or it can already contain a portlet. v If you drag a portlet into an empty window, the original window becomes empty after the portlet has been moved. v If you drag a portlet into a window that already contains another portlet, the two portlets exchange windows. Procedure 1. Locate the mouse over the portlet title in the title bar. You cannot drop a portlet into another window by dragging from any other location in the portlet window or title bar. The portlet must be dragged using the title. 2. Drop the portlet in the target window when the target window displays a blue, dotted outline around the frame. The outline is the only indication that the portlet can be dropped into this location. Chapter 3. Customizing the portal 19

26 Customizing a portlet Depending on how a portlet was configured when it was created and any shared settings applied by your administrator, you can customize a portlet's setting using the Edit options icon in the portlet's taskbar. About this task Individual portlets have different customization settings. This topic outlines settings that are common to most portlets. Depending on your access permissions to a portlet, you may be able to customize its appearance and location in relation to other portlets (for example, in front or behind other portlets). Note: Portlets can be customized at various levels. Initially when a portlet is created, the portlet Manager configures and customizes the portlet using a base portlet as a template. Subsequently, an administrator can edit a portlet's shared settings overriding its initial configuration. This topic describes how a user can further customize a portlet's settings, again overriding its shared settings. To personalize a portlet: Procedure 1. In the title bar, depending on your access privileges, click the Edit options icon. A menu is displayed that provides a number of customization options. 2. Select a menu item and customize the appearance and z-axis location of the portlet as required. The following table describes the common functions available in many portlets: Table 6. Edit options menu Menu item Edit Shared Settings Personalize Skin > Default Skin > Default no title Skin > Transparent Description Some portlets support editing shared settings. Settings available through this item are specific to each portlet type. This menu item may or may not be available, depending on your access level in the portlet. Select it to configure shared settings for the portlet overriding settings set when the portlet was created. Shared settings affect all users of the portlet. Some portlets support personalized settings. Settings available through this item are specific to each portlet type. You can configure personal settings for the portlet overriding any shared settings that may have been configured for it. Personal settings affect only your use of the portlet. Select this setting to display the portlet's taskbar and frame at all times. Select this setting to display the portlet's frame and but not the taskbar. To subsequently access taskbar functions, roll over the taskbar area and click the Show Menu button that is displayed. Select this setting to display the portlet's taskbar and but not the portlet's frame. To subsequently access taskbar functions, roll over the taskbar area and click the Show Menu button that is displayed. 20 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

27 Table 6. Edit options menu (continued) Menu item Skin > Transparent no title Fill Work Page Bring to Front Send to Back Bring Forward Send Backward Events Delete space Description Select this setting to hide the portlet's taskbar and frame. To subsequently access taskbar functions, roll over the taskbar area and click the Show Menu button that is displayed. Select this settings to maximize the portlet on the page. Use this setting with the Send to Back setting to set the portlet as a background to the portal page. Select this setting to ensure that the portlet overlays all other content on the page. Select this setting to ensure that the portlet underlays all other content on the page. Select this setting to display the portlet one layer up relative to other content on the page. Select this setting to display the portlet one layer down relative to other content on the page. Select this setting to view event settings for the portlet. Select this setting to remove the portlet from the page. Results Any changes you make affects content only in relation to your user ID. Setting text and component direction Some portlets, or widgets, allow you to customize whether a its components and text are displayed left-to-right, or right-to-left. About this task Any changes you make affects the portlet content only in relation to your user ID. Procedure 1. Open the page that contains the portlet or widget that you want to personalize. 2. In the title bar, click the Personalize icon to display a panel that allows you to customize its settings. 3. Edit the settings as required. For example, for both content and text, the Default option lets the display direction be determined at page level. You can choose to set the text and content direction to either left-to-right or right-to-left. In the Text direction list, you can also select Contextual Input so that for portlets that include text entry fields, the direction of text is dependent on the language used to enter data. Note: Display direction settings that you set at this level (user level), override any other settings that may have been set at portlet, page, portal, or browser levels. 4. Submit your changes and in the title bar of the personalize settings portlet, click Back to return to the page that hosts the portlet and review your changes. Chapter 3. Customizing the portal 21

28 Personalizing a web portlet Your changes are applied and only affect your interaction with this particular portlet. Depending on the settings applied by your administrator, you can personalize a web portlet's title, home page, help page, and layout. Administrators can set shared settings to provide a common experience for users of a web portlet. About this task If your administrator has not configured shared settings for the web portlet, you can enter a complete web address in the field provided and browse the web. To set a default web page for the portlet and to further personalize your experience of a web portlet, complete the following steps: Procedure 1. In the title bar, depending on your access privileges, click the Edit options icon and select Personalize. A settings page is displayed, where depending on shared settings applied by your administrator, you can personalize the web portlet's title, home page, help page, and layout. 2. Optional: In the Widget title field provide a brief descriptive name. When selecting a title, consider the purpose of the web portlet, its home page, and that the title is used in the navigation pane to access the portlet. 3. Optional: In the Home page field provide a valid web address. This the web address of the page that displays by default when a user accesses the portlet from the navigation pane. 4. Optional: In the Help page field, provide a relative or absolute URL to a custom help page HTML topic to replace the default help topic that is associated with the web portlet. 5. Optional: Check the Show a browser control toolbar to include a web navigation toolbar, that is, standard web navigation buttons and web address entry field. 6. Click Save to commit your changes, or Restore Default Settings to reset the form. Results Working with image portlets Any changes you make affects content only in relation to your user ID. You can set up an image portlet as a background image in a portal page or overlay multiple image portlets on another image portlet, for example, a background map image could be overlaid with additional images to highlights features on the map. The image portlet allows you to add images to a portal page and set their position in relation to other portlets or images, for example, you can decide if you want an image to form a background to a page or have it overlay another image or portlet on the page. 22 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

29 To set up an image portlet you must put the portal page in edit mode, that is, open the page in the portal and from the Select Action drop-down list, select Edit Page. Working with the Edit options To set up display settings for an image portlet, click the Edit options icon in its taskbar and the following options are available: Table 7. Edit options menu Menu item Edit Shared Settings Skin > Default Skin > Default no title Skin > Transparent Skin > Transparent no title Fill Work Page Bring to Front Send to Back Bring Forward Send Backward Events Delete space Description Select this item to configure which image to display in the image portlet. Select this setting to display the portlet's taskbar and frame at all times. Select this setting to display the portlet's frame and but not the taskbar. To subsequently access taskbar functions, roll over the taskbar area and click the Show Menu button that is displayed. Select this setting to display the portlet's taskbar and but not the portlet's frame. To subsequently access taskbar functions, roll over the taskbar area and click the Show Menu button that is displayed. Select this setting to hide the portlet's taskbar and frame. To subsequently access taskbar functions, roll over the taskbar area and click the Show Menu button that is displayed. Select this settings to maximize the image portlet on the page. Use this setting with the Send to Back setting to create a background image for the portal page. Select this setting to ensure that the image portlet overlays all other content on the page. Select this setting to ensure that the image portlet underlays all other content on the page. Select this setting to display the portlet one layer up relative to other content on the page. Select this setting to display the portlet one layer down relative to other content on the page. Select this setting to view event settings for the portlet. Select this setting to remove the portlet from the page. Moving and resizing an image portlet in a free form page Once a free form page is in edit mode, you can click and drag at the taskbar to move a portlet to the required position on the page. You can also resize a portlet by clicking and dragging the bottom right hand corner of the portlet. Chapter 3. Customizing the portal 23

30 Manage Open Pages Configure Portlet Refresh Use Manage Open Pages to close or navigate to open pages. Using Manage Open Pages This module supports the same tasks that can be performed in the portal page bar. v Close one or more pages. v Navigate to a page. The purpose of this module is to help manage a large number of open pages. For example, if you have 25 pages open, you could use this module to select 20 of them to close so that you can work on the remaining five. Field descriptions Select all icon Selects all items displayed in the table for deletion. If you are displaying only a filtered set of items, only those items are selected. You can deselect specific items before actually deleting. Deselect all icon Deselects all items displayed in the table. Close Closes the selected pages. Filter Type in this field to quickly find an item in the table. This field is useful when there are a large number of items to look through. Select Selects or deselects a single item in the table. Page Name Displays the name of each page in the startup list. This is rendered as a link so that you can access the page directly by clicking on the name. Use this module to customize the refresh settings for portal modules that support this feature. Portlet refresh is used to refresh the content of a single module without reloading the entire page. As a result, your experience with the portal interface is quicker and more interactive. Use these settings to fine tune how each portlet refreshes its content individually on the page. Using Configure Portlet Refresh This module is launched when you select Configure Portlet Refresh from the action list in the portal page bar. Your changes apply only to your use of the portal and do not affect other users. You can perform the following tasks: v Set the refresh mode. v Set the refresh interval. v Show or hide the timer from the portlet title bar. v Restore all of these settings to the default. Portlet refresh settings Restore Default Configuration Changes all of the field values to the default settings as determined by the portal administrator. At least one portlet must be selected to enable this 24 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help

31 button. To save the changes displayed by this button, select the portlets that you want to restore to the default settings and click Apply or OK. Select all Select all icon Selects all of the portlets displayed. A maximum of 10 refreshable portlets can be displayed and selected at a time. Deselect all Deselect all icon Deselects all of the portlets displayed. Select Use the checkbox to select individual portlets that you want to restore to the default settings. Portlet Indicates the name of the portlet or portal module which can be refreshed. Refresh Mode Select one of the following options: v No Refresh Indicates that the portlet content will not be refreshed automatically. The refresh timer is not displayed in the portlet title bar, but the portlet can still be refreshed manually. v Timed Refresh Indicates that the portlet content is refreshed automatically based on the value of the refresh interval. v Smart Refresh Indicates that after the refresh interval has timed out, the client should query the portlet on the server to determine if it should refresh the content. If the portlet has updates to provide, then the content is updated on the client. Otherwise, no change is made and the timer is started again. Refresh Interval Indicate a value in seconds after which the portlet's content can be refreshed from the server without reloaded the entire page. This value must be greater than or equal to the minimum refresh interval. Minimum Refresh Interval Indicates the minimum value for the refresh interval. This value is determined by the administrator. Show Timer Indicates whether to display a timer in the portlet title bar showing the number of seconds remaining until the next refresh can take place. Chapter 3. Customizing the portal 25

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33 Chapter 4. Administrative settings Setting up the portal Use these applications to make changes to the portal that generally affect all portal users. Access to these applications depend upon permissions defined for your portal role. For a new portal installation, the portal administrator needs to create the experience for users when they log into the portal. This task involves working through the portal content from the basic building blocks to the high level organization and presentation of these resources so that users can quickly find what their way around and perform their tasks efficiently. To get started setting up the portal, you should already be familiar with the concepts and characteristics of the layout. You should take time navigating through the portal to become familiar with the portlets, pages, views, roles, and preference profiles that are provided. As you work with the portal, you will create some of these resources to suit your organization's needs. Understanding the structure of the portal Access to each level in the portal organization is assigned based on the users' roles. Keep each role in mind when planning how to structure the portal content. Content in the portal is composed of portlets. The following figure shows how portlets are arranged on a page using a row and column layout. Access to each page, and to each portlet on each page, is assigned to users based on their defined role. Copyright IBM Corp

34 Each page is accessed from the navigation pane, either from the portal root or they can be grouped into folders. The hierarchical structure of the navigation affects how quickly users can find a page and work with the portlets on that page. Folders and pages can be assembled into views that the user can select from the View drop down list in the banner. Each view can include pages that are initially launched when the view is selected. 28 Tivoli Integrated Portal Online help