Rendering portlets in normal mode

The XDIME aggregator can render portlet content along with navigation links to provide rich content in pages that normally would have navigational elements.

The XDIME aggregator has the ability of rendering portlets in normal mode. Normal mode portlets enable rich content on pages that normally would have navigational elements. The portlet can display its content along with the navigation links or other portlet content on the same page. It is typically used for providing information or advertisements inline with the navigation.

When portlets are rendered in normal mode, the portlet title is displayed in bold followed by the portlet content. If other portlets are rendered in normal mode or there are navigation links, you can use a horizontal rule can visually divide the content. A default navigation title Links, which can be renamed, is provided to denote where the navigation links begin.

Tip: By default, portlet content is maximized. When the portlet link is selected that renders the portlet in maximized mode, it uses the entire body of the page.

Normal mode portlet layout

The following is an example of a page with two portlets (Market News and Sports News) rendered in normal mode along with accompanying navigation links:

Market News:
US stocks jump on news of new product release from <tm tmclass="ibm" tmowner="IBM Corporation" tmtype="reg" trademark="IBM">IBM</tm>.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sports News:
New England Patriots win overtime thriller.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Links:
1.	example.com Home Page
2.	Employee Directory

Mixing normal mode and maximized mode portlets

The order of portlets on the page determine the order. Portlets that are configured for maximized are added at the end. For example:

Define the following portlets N (normal) and M (maximized)

				PageA
        Portlet1 (M)
        Portlet2 (N)
        Portlet3 (M)
        Portlet4 (N)
        PageB
        PageC

For example, PageA would be ordered this way:

	  <b> Portlet2</b>    Some content for Portlet2
    ----------------------------------
    <b>Portlet4</b>    Some content for Portlet4
    ----------------------------------
    <b>Links</b>    PageB
    PageC
    Portlet1
    Portlet3

Configuration Options

Table 1. MWP global properties used for normal mode portlets (subsection of mwp.properties)
Property	Default value	Description
mwp.portlet.default.mode	Maximized	If the render mode extended property for the portlet is not explicitly defined, then it is the default value for the portlet. Configurable values: normal, maximized.
mwp.portlet.normal.mode.hr.enable	True	Enables a rule between multiple portlets rendered in normal mode.
mwp.tree.normal.mode.enable	True	Enables support for rendering portlets in normal mode for the tree navigation view. If false, then portlets never render in normal mode even if specified with the Extended Properties portlet.
mwp.tree.wml.normal.mode.enable	False	Enables support for rendering portlets in normal mode for the WML tree navigation view. If false, then portlets never render in normal mode even if specified with the Extended Properties portlet.
mwp.tree.pagination.normal.mode.enable	False	Enables support for rendering portlets in normal mode for the pagination tree navigation view. If false, then portlets never render in normal mode even if specified with the Extended Properties portlet.
mwp.icon.normal.mode.enable	True	Enables support for rendering portlets in normal mode for the icon navigation view. If false, then portlets never render in normal mode even if specified with the Extended Properties portlet.
mwp.pda.normal.mode.enable	True	Enables support for rendering portlets in normal mode for the PDA navigation view. If false, then portlets never render in normal mode even if specified with the Extended Properties portlet.

Configuring the navigation title for multiple locales

If a page requires a different navigation title than the one provided with the default hyperlink, then the Extended Properties portlet is used to change the navigation title. By default, you can specify a single non-translated string. To specify other navigation titles for multiple locales, edit the attributes descriptor file and add the new locale-specific navigation title attributes with the following steps:

Modify the attr-descriptor.xml file

Edit wp_profile_root/PortalServer/wp.mobile/wp.mobile.mwp/shared/app/config/attr-descriptor.xml

Uncomment one or more of the locale-specific Attribute definitions in the navTitle Attribute-Group. Or, add new ones as shown in the following code snippet which sets another title for display in German:

<Attribute-Group name="navTitle" 
                    friendly-name="Alternate Navigation Title" 
                    friendly-name-resource="ea.attr.default.navTitle" >
     ...   
     <Attribute name="de" 
                type="string" 
                required="false" 
                max-length="80" 
                friendly-name="Alternate Navigation Title in German">
     </Attribute>

Specify the friendly name value used as the label on the Set Navigation Title page in the Extended Properties portlet.
Repeat the previous steps to modify the attr-descriptor.xml if you need to customize the navigation titles for any additional pages that require a translated navigation title.
Save the attr-descriptor.xml file.

Reload the user interface from the XML descriptor file

Log in to the WebSphere® Portal server as an administrator and open Manage Mobile Pages.
Expand the navigation tree displayed by Manage Mobile Pages and select one of the pages whose navigation titles must support multiple locales.
Click Edit for Extended Properties.
Click the Portlet menu icon. Then click Configure.
Click Click to reload the user interface from the XML descriptor file.
Click Done to return to the main Extended Properties page.
Click the Set navigation title option to see the new locale-specific navigation title fields.

Note: If you add multiple navigation locale-specific titles to the XML descriptor file, you need to reload the XML attribute descriptor only once.

Limitations

WML and HTML pagination is not supported if normal mode portlet is enabled for the WML and HTML pagination navigation views. Pagination is the ability to partition content so that the generated markup does not overflow the device buffer. The portlet developer must take the size of the portlet content into account, because the aggregator cannot determine the size of the content. Define your portlet layouts with dissecting panes so that the MCS servlet filter can provide some level of pagination support.
Note: Defining dissecting panes does not ensure that you are protected against device buffer overflow. Test with real devices to determine whether it is best to reduce the number of normal mode portlets or the size of their content.
All portlets rendered in normal mode are shown together in the body region. They cannot be split among multiple regions.
No skin controls are provided for each portlet rendered in normal mode. Therefore you cannot minimize or maximize the portlet. Edit and configure modes are also not supported.
Preload notices cannot be defined on portlets configured for normal mode.
If you change the mwp.portlet.default.mode property to normal in wp_profile_root/PortalServer/wp.mobile/wp.mobile.mwp/shared/app/config/mwp.properties and you created preload notices for portlets, the preload notice state is not automatically set to disabled for portlets that are configured to use the default portlet render mode. The default portlet render mode is also called the not defined state.
If you display the preload notice configuration for a portlet that is using the default portlet render mode, and that had a preload notice enabled before the property change, the preload notice portlet indicates that the preload notice is disabled. But the XDIME aggregator displays the preload notice on any navigation views for which normal mode is disabled. The preload notice portlet is displaying the preload notice configuration state for the portlet (for example, disabled) rather than the saved configuration state (for example, enabled).
Mode settings such as normal or maximize do not work for accordion view or carousal view in the smartphone theme view. Portlets always displayed in normal mode on accordion or carousal view.
A page cannot have more than one XDIME2 portlet in normal mode.