Is the header a portlet?

[andrewboyd]

Hi All,
A quick question: Is the area behind the tabs a portlet? If so what Class is it?

I'm trying to get some dynamic content there and Don't know how if it is just one big image.

Thanks,

andrew

[theute]

Yes it is the NavigationPortlet

[peterj]

The header area is a div whose height and contents depend on the settings in the CCS file, and on what portlets you add to the navigation panel. Use 'view source' within your browser, the layout is fairly easy to interpret.

If you really want dynamic content in the header area, add a portlet to the navigation panel and turn off the renderers for that portlet. You will want to move your portlet above the navigation portlet. In addition, you will need to change the "margin-top" setting for the "UL#tabsHeader li" setting in portal_style.css otherwise the packgound pictures in the header no longer line up properly. Oh, and remeber that you have to do this for every page on the portal.

[antoine_h]

I have seen in the doc that you can add some "things" in the header, for each portlet.
this is added in the descriptor of the portlet.
If the portlet is in the page, the content is added to the header. The main example is CCS specific to one portlet.

I gess you can add it dynamically... but how ? may be look at how the portlet do it from the descriptor reading...

I also remember the CMS Management portlet has a specific CSS (for icons, rendering of the tabs of folders and files etc...).

this is only tracks to explore... to see how...
(I noted all this, but will make it later for my portal...)
hope it helps.

[theute]

I thing we got 3 different interpretations of the question here :)

Andrew could you rephrase your question ?

-> The tabs are a portlet.
-> The content above the tabs is part of the theme.
-> You can add a CSS stylesheet to a portlet. (Hence change how the navigation portlet will look like)

[andrewboyd]

Hi All,
Thanks for the responses. I was looking to put dynamic content into the area above the Tabs.
I removed the NAvigationPortlet from the default page and the logo is still there so the NavigationPortlet is not what I'm needing to change.
I was hoping that I could put dynamic content (a different quote and maybe a member's picture) in the area above the tabs.

Peter's suggestion sounds like what I may have to do. Unless of course someone else has an idea that might be easier to do.

Thanks,

Andrew

[theute]

You can modify the theme or create your own

[peterj]

To do what you want, you will have to change the theme (like Thomas suggested) and create a portlet. The theme changes the graphics in the header, and the protlet can display the random quote and picture.

[andrewboyd]

If I write a portlet won't it have window directorations?

Thanks,

Andrew

[peterj]

No, you can turn off the decorations by using the emptyRenderer. See my *-object.xml file in http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&t=89997 for an example. Just do for your portlet what I did for the navigation portlet.

[rutfield]

I am also trying to put a simple window in the header. Thanks for this thread - it has already saved me a lot of time.

I have a portlet which behaves as needed. I removed the decorations and created an instance above the navigation as described here.


I've gone through the JBoss Portal Reference Guide (2.4) and see a lot of information on themse and layouts, but it is still unclear to me what some of the parameters (e.g. UL#tabsHeader li ) actually do.

Questions:

1. How can I make the portlet smaller? It seems to go across the entire screen, when I only want it to be 210X110 px?

2. How can I move it to the right instead of center? Do I need to use a three column layout or is the header separate from that?

3. How do I hide/remove the edit/minimize/maximize options in this portlet?

I am planning on modifying the theme, as opposed to creating a new one.

Sorry, if these are basic questions.

Thanks.
CR

[peterj]

I knew I should not have wiped out the portal that I used to help with this problem. But that just means I have to get you to do your work for you (rather than me doing it for you).

For items 1 and 2, do this. Display the page that has your portlet on the navigation area in your browser and then have the browser display the html source. Find your portlet within there and look at the surrounding div's and the class or id on those divs. Hopefully the class or id will be different from the navigation portlet, in which case you can modify the style sheet to reformat the div containing your portlet. (I think that even if the div class for your portlet and the navigation portlet are the same that there is still a way to specify a style specific to your portlet. My CSS book is at home or else I might just look up how to do this.)

For item #3, I am surprised that the options are showing up. For the portlet I tried none of the edit/max/min icons were visible. Did you set all three renderes to empty? If you used the *-object.xml file, did you check the spelling of the renderers?

[rutfield]

I don't mind doing the work, but I'd like to stay on track....

I cut-and pasted from yours, so I'm not too concerned about typos.
Before replying, I tried the other properties such as RenderSetId and supported-window-states to no avail.

<deployments>
 <deployment>
 <if-exists>overwrite</if-exists>
 <parent-ref>default</parent-ref>

 <page>
 <page-name>IFrame</page-name>
 <window>
 <window-name>IFramePortletWindow</window-name>
 <instance-ref>IFramePortletInstance</instance-ref>
 <region>center</region>
 <height>0</height>
 <properties>

 <property>
 <name>theme.windowRendererId</name>
 <value>emptyRenderer</value>
 </property>
 <property>
 <name>theme.decorationRendererId</name>
 <value>emptyRenderer</value>
 </property>
 <property>
 <name>theme.portletRendererId</name>
 <value>emptyRenderer</value>
 </property>
 </properties>
 </window>
 </page>

 </deployment>
</deployments>

It definitely cleaned things up, but I still have the edit/max/min options in the upper right.
Ideas?

The 'view source' is a nice idea as well.

Thanks.
CR

[rutfield]

Also, as we feared/suspected, the 'view source' has the same class as the other portlets (e.g. portlet-titlebar-left). I really want to turn this off for this portlet only.

[andrewboyd]

Hi Rutfield,
I started this thread but have not been able to writing code on this due to other busyness. Could you please post your portlet code?

thanks,

Andrew