Adding, Editing, Deleting, Shortcuts and Customizing
Portlets are the basic building block of the Portal. All of the content on the site comes in the form of portlets. As such there are many different portlets available, from the simple (the Bookmarks portlet lists and organizes bookmarks to websites) to the more complex (the Calendar portlet lets you enter and schedule your own events, as well as displaying your course schedules and allowing the automatic display of events from around campus) and beyond. Below are the basics of using portlets.
Managing Portlets on a Page
To manage portlets on a page, use the ''Edit Page'' link to get to the Page Manager for the page, and choose the ''Content'' tab. There you'll find the tools for managing which portlets are on your page.
Adding Portlets to the Page
To add a portlet to the page, use the ''Add a Portlet'' link. This brings up a list of all the portlets available to you to add to the page. Check off one or more to add them. You can also customize the display name of portlets you are adding -- for instance, you might add a Bookmarks portlet to a ''Study'' page called ''Reference Sites'' and you might add the Bookmarks portlet to a ''Fun'' page and call it ''My Favorite Sites.'' This display name can be edited using the ''Edit'' icon (it looks like a pencil) next to the portlet's name on the main screen of the Content tab.
Deleting Portlets
To delete a portlet, click on the ''Delete'' icon (it looks like a trash can) next to the portlet's name on the Content tab. Be careful: this cannot be undone and will permanently delete any content you have added within that portlet.
Portlet Shortcuts
You are not restricted to creating your own content in new portlets. You can also add shortcuts to existing portlets to your page. This will act just like you had the original portlet on your page, which would allow you to participate in a discussion Forum from your Campus Group right from your My Pages context, keep the list of Readings nearby for your hardest course, or always have easy access to the Bulletin Board from the Campus Life context. To get these, or any other portlets you have access to within the site, use the ''Add a Shortcut to a portlet to the page'' link. This will let you browse through the site to find the portlet you want, and the shortcut will be added to your page.
By default when you click the "Add a Shortcut..." link, a list of portlets that are on your personal page will be listed. Above that list is a path of links:
Portal /
My Pages /
Personal.
To link to a portlet on another one of your pages:
- Click on My Pages.
- Click on
Personal. (You may click on the folder or the word.)
- A list of your pages will be displayed. Click on the one where the portlet you are looking for is located.
- A list of portlets on that page will be displayed, with checkboxes next to them.
- Click the checkbox for the portlet to which you want a shortcut.
- Click on Add.
- Click on Exit to return to your page.
To link to a portlet on another page in the portal:
- Click on Portal.
- A list of tabs in the portal will be displayed.
- Click on the icon or the name of the tab where the porlet is located
- A list of pages under that tab will be displayed. If there are subsections under the tab, there may be other folder icons you may open to find other pages.
- Click on the page where the portlet you are looking for is located.
- A list of portlets on that page will be displayed, with checkboxes next to them.
- Click the checkbox for the portlet to which you want a shortcut.
- Click on Add.
- Click on Exit to return to your page.
Customizing Portlets
Most portlets have settings that you can customize based on your preferences. For example, the settings that can be customized for the bookmarks portlet include displaying bookmarks or bookmark sets alphabetically, displaying empty sets, counting the number of times a link is clicked or to being able to set start and end dates for bookmarks.
To change the settings for a portlet:
- Click on the
(customize portlet) icon in the upper right corner of the portlet.
- Most portlets have a Preferences and a Settings tab.
- Make the desired changes on a tab.
- Click Save. NOTE: You need to save the changes on one tab before going to the other tab or your changes will not be saved.
- When done, click on Exit to go back to the page you were on.