Administrating workspaces
Workspaces collect portlets together into a cohesive set of functionality for users to access.
Workspace administrators can use the workspace definition tools to add portlets to the workspace from the portlet library.
You can standardize the contents of a portlet across all users, or customize them based on the user type or even make a specific version of a workspace for a given user.
In order to create and edit workspaces, you must have the privileges granted by the gPortalPersonalizeUser privilege group.
In order to make the workspaces that you create available to others, you must have the privileges granted by the gPortalAdmin privilege group.
When you create a workspace, it is originally private. That is, it is visible and available only to you.
Creating workspaces
Use the Add Workspace dialog to create a new workspace in your application.
When you first create a workspace, it is private. That is, is it visible and available only to you. After you have designed the workspace, you can make it available to others by publishing it.
To create a new workspace:
The new workspace opens in the application. When it is created, it is a private workspace available only to you. You can now edit the workspace, adding portlets to it, and configuring their layout.
Customizing workspaces
Customizing a workspace creates a private copy of that workspace, visible only to you.
You can then use the portal toolbox to customize the workspace, adding and removing portlets, and repositioning them.
To customize and edit a workspace, you must have the privileges granted by either the gPortalPersonalizeUser or gPortalAdmin privilege groups. Additionally, the workspace must have its Allow Customization option selected, and you must be able access the workspace from the application.
Customized portlets and application upgrades
When you use NexJ Studio to upgrade your application, it is possible that the upgrade process overrides workspace definitions. However, any customized workspaces will remain customized, and are unaffected by the upgrade.
Customizing open workspaces
If you have the correct privileges, then you can customize any workspace that you can open in the application as long as the workspace allows customization.
You cannot customize a workspace if you have already customized it, or if you have created a new private workspace with the same name as the workspace you want to customize.
To customize a workspace:
The customized version of the workspace is created. You can now edit the portlets that are included in the workspace as well as their layout and organization.
Customizing another user's workspace
If you are a workspace administrator, then you can customize workspaces that would normally be accessible only to specific user types, or users.
This ability allows you to take customizations made by others and publish them more widely. It also allows you to maintain and edit workspaces that you previously made available only to specific users and user types.
To customize a workspace accessible to a specific user type or user:
After you confirm that you want to customize the workspace, the application restarts and a customized version of the workspace becomes available for you to access, edit, and publish.
Editing workspaces
Edit a workspace by adding portlets to it from the portlet library and by rearranging the portlets that are contained in the workspace.
You can only edit a workspace that you have customized.
Administrators can additionally choose to publish workspaces after they edit them, making the new workspace or new version of a workspace available to the users of the system.
Adding portlets to workspaces
You can add portlets that are registered with the portlet library to your application workspace.
To add a portlet to a workspace:
A box appears on the workspace with a title matching the caption of the portlet that you have added. This box is actually a portlet reference into which the portlet loads. The title of the portlet reference can be edited without changing the portlet that it points to.
Positioning portlets in a workspace
When you have a workspace open for editing, you can reposition the portlets inside it.
To move a portlet, click its title bar and drag it to the new position.
As you drag the portlet around the layout, markers indicate how the workspace layout will change when you drop the portlet.
You can drop a portlet into any of the following locations:
- Beside a portlet, which splits the frame that the portlet is in.
- Between two portlets, which add a new frame to the workspace.
- Onto the title bar of a portlet, which adds the portlet as a tab.
- Directly on top of a portlet, which exchanges the location of the two portlets.
Removing portlets from a workspace
When you have a workspace open for editing, you can remove portlets that you previously added or moved.
When you remove a portlet, you are actually deleting the reference to that portlet. The portlet itself is not affected, and remains available in the portlet library.
To remove a portlet, click the Remove portlet icon located in the right corner of the portlet reference title.
Viewing workspace layout details
You can choose to view the details of a workspace's composition and layout in a tree-structure view by using the Workspace editor.
You can also make some changes to the layout, and to the portlet references.
To view workspace layout details:
Undoing workspace customization
Uncustomizing a workspace discards your customized workspace and returns your application to the system-defined version.
To uncustomize a workspace:
Publishing workspaces
You can publish a workspace to all users of a specific user type, or to the system as a whole. You cannot publish a workspace to a specific user.
To publish a workspace:
Enabling workspace customization
You can enable and disable the ability of users to customize a workspace.
This configuration is controlled by the workspace's Allow Customization option. Workspaces that do not allow customization are sometimes referred to as locked workspaces.
By default, new workspaces are configured to allow users to customize them, as long as the users have the correct privileges.
To enable workspace customization: