Using the Outline view

The Outline view displays the hierarchical organization of the pages, labels and URL's in a portal site. Use this view to create, modify, relocate, and delete the design elements of a portal site.

The Outline view has three main nodes in its content tree: Elements, Layout and a navigation root node. The Elements node displays all design elements for your portal site version. The exception is that the Skins and Themes nodes list the allowable choices for the portal.

The Layout and navigation root nodes show hierarchal views of the site. The Layout node displays the pages, rows, columns, and portlets within the site. Depending on whether your portal project is compatible with WebSphere® Portal v5.0.2.2 or v5.1, the navigation root node will differ by name and function as shown below:
Table 1. Portal Root Nodes in Outline View
Root Node Function
My Portal (WebSphere Portal v5.0.2.2) After importing or creating a new portal project, My Portal is the root node with the 'Label 1' label being its only child. It is not displayed in the Portal Designer screen, but all of its child nodes are displayed in the Place Bar.
Content Root (WebSphere Portal v5.1) After importing or creating a new portal project, Content Root becomes the root node. The My Portal label, the Login page, and the Edit My Profile page are child nodes of the Content Root node. Although WebSphere Portal v5.1 Server supports other labels and pages as children of Content Root, these are the only three that are editable in Rational® Developer.

The possible actions that are available in the Outline view are listed below:.

Edit properties
Highlight any element in the Outline view to edit its attributes (properties) in the Properties view.
Insert Row
Under the Layout node or root node, highlight a page, column, row, or portlet. Right-click and select Insert Row. Choose As Child for a parent-child relationship, or choose Above or Below for a sibling relationship.
Insert Column
Under the Layout node or root node, highlight a page, column, row, or portlet. Right-click and select Insert Column. Choose As Child for a parent-child relationship, or choose To Right or To Left for a sibling relationship.
Join Row
Highlight a row that has a sibling row. Right-click and select Join Row. Then select With Row Above or With Row Below.
Join Column
Highlight a column that has a sibling column. Right-click and select Join Column. Then select With Column On Right or With Column On Left.
Insert Portlet
Highlight a row or column at the bottom of the node hierarchy, or a portlet. Right-click and select Insert Portlet. Select As Child for a parent-child relationship (the choice you get if you highlighted a row or column). Select Before or After for a sibling relationship (the choice you get if you highlighted a portlet).
Insert Label
Under the root node, highlight a label, page, or URL. Right-click and select Insert Label. Select As Child for a parent-child relationship. Select Before or After for a sibling relationship.
Insert Page
Under the root node, highlight a label, page, or URL. Right-click and select Insert Page. Select As Child for a parent-child relationship. Select Before or After for a sibling relationship.
Insert URL
Under the root node, highlight a label, page, or URL. Right-click and select Insert URL. Select As Child for a parent-child relationship. Select Before or After for a sibling relationship.
Edit Style
Right-click on any element and select Edit Style. The corresponding stylesheet, Style.css, opens in the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) Designer.
Edit Theme
Under the Elements node, right-click on any theme and select Edit Theme. The JSP file Default.jsp opens in the JSP source page editor.
Edit Portlet
Under the Layout node, right-click and select Edit Portlet. The JSP file that provides the portlet's view mode opens in the JSP source page editor.
Save
Right-click any item in the Outline view and select Save to save changes to the portal.

Using drag-and-drop and cut-and-paste

Functions such as drag-and-drop and cut-and-paste in Outline view mimic that of the server with which your portal project is compatible. In a WebSphere Portal 5.0.2.2 project, you should not move pages, labels and URLs under a different parent node. Doing so will cause you to lose personalized pages and also, user data from portlets. In a WebSphere Portal v5.1 project, you can move pages, labels and URLs under a different parent node without the same consequences.

In both WebSphere Portal v5.0.2.2 and v5.1 projects, you should only cut-and-paste or drag-and-drop rows, columns, and portlets within their current page node. Moving these elements outside of their current page will result in a loss of user data from portlets.

Working with URL nodes

When you select a URL node, you will notice that context menu options such as Insert Label, Insert Page, and Insert URL are disabled. This is because URL nodes cannot have any child nodes.

Related concepts
Portal nodes and elements

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