A portal is composed of nodes and elements that are arranged in
a hierarchical structure.
Portal
elements are the components that make up a portal. The types
of elements are shown below.
- Portal Settings (such as the default language for a portal)
- Portlets
- Row containers (rows)
- Column containers (columns)
- Skins
- Themes
- Pages
- Labels
- URLs
Portal nodes can be one of the following types of URL-addressable
elements:
- Pages
- Pages display the content of portlets. They can contain other nodes, including
other pages. Pages can contain row and column containers, and portlets. Containers
are columns or rows that you can use to arrange the layout of portlets or
other containers on the page.
- Labels
- Labels do not display any content, but can contain other nodes. They are
used primarily to group nodes.
- URLs
- URLs can launch any URL-addressable resource, including external Web sites
(external URLs) or pages within the portal site (internal URLs).
Internal URLs can only link to other pages within the portal.
Portal Hierarchy
A portal has strict rules of hierarchy
that govern the placement of nodes and elements. Keep the following limitations
in mind while placing elements in a portal. Portal Designer enforces these
rules, preventing you from creating a site that is incompatible with your
server version.
- A page requires a single top-level row or column. The top-level row or
column cannot have any peer nodes.
- A row is a child of a page or a column.
- A column is a child of a page or a row.
- A portlet is a child of a row or a column.
- Sibling nodes should be of the same element type. Therefore, rows, columns,
and portlets cannot coexist as peer elements.
You will also find that functions you use in the Design and Outline
views such as drag-n-drop and cut-copy-paste are activated only
when the move you wish to make with a certain node is compatible with your
portal project version.