Lightweight themes and skins

After installation, WebSphere Portal provides a default theme and skin, and several supporting themes and skins, that demonstrate the portal server's rich set of functions. If your portal site does not require all of the functionality provided by the shipped themes and skins, you can realize significant performance benefits by selectively removing some of those functions.

WebSphere Portal includes a lightweight theme and a lightweight skin, which provide less functionality but better runtime performance. While you can use these themes and skins for your own portal site, they are intended to help you make design decisions as you write your own themes and skins. The lightweight theme and skin are provided in HTML markup only. The skin and theme are visually appealing and contain enough functionality to be usable, but do not include all the functionality of the default theme and skin.

Guidelines

Use the following guidelines when making decisions that affect the development of your custom themes and skins. These guidelines describe the relative pathlength involved with the inclusion of various components of themes and skins.

Guidelines for a lightweight theme

Guideline Effect on functionality Effect on performance
Remove Show tools icon from the toolbar Prevents users from displaying icons on pages and portlets used to arrange or remove content on the page. High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove enrollment icon from the toolbar Prevents new visitors to the site from creating a new account for themselves. High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove self care icon from the toolbar Prevents users from updating account information. High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove AdminLinkBarInclude.jsp Removes context-sensitive links that allow authorized users to create a new page, edit the current page, or assign permissions to the current page. High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove <wps:favoritesLoop/> and supporting code Removes the ability for users to bookmark pages in the portal for quick retrievability High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Shrink lines of text to remove white space With some editors, white space might be used to aid in readability during theme development Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.
Change all HTML comments to JSP comments None Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.

Guideline	Effect on functionality	Effect on performance
Remove Show tools icon from the toolbar	Prevents users from displaying icons on pages and portlets used to arrange or remove content on the page.	High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove enrollment icon from the toolbar	Prevents new visitors to the site from creating a new account for themselves.	High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove self care icon from the toolbar	Prevents users from updating account information.	High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove AdminLinkBarInclude.jsp	Removes context-sensitive links that allow authorized users to create a new page, edit the current page, or assign permissions to the current page.	High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Remove <wps:favoritesLoop/> and supporting code	Removes the ability for users to bookmark pages in the portal for quick retrievability	High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Shrink lines of text to remove white space	With some editors, white space might be used to aid in readability during theme development	Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.
Change all HTML comments to JSP comments	None	Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.

Guidelines for a lightweight skin

Guideline Effect on functionality Effect on performance
Remove minimize, restore, and maximize buttons Prevents users from manipulating the size and state of the portlets on the page High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Place the JSP tags for the Back, Edit, and Configure icons inside the <wps:if loggedIn="yes"> tag. No impact to users. Prevents unauthenticated (anonymous) users from attempting to access resources that are protected. For users that are logged in, this adds an extra JSP tag for processing. Processing of the <wps:if loggedIn> tag has much less impact on performance than the access control checks to determine if a user has access to Edit and Configure portlet modes. Medium impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Shrink lines of text to remove white space With some editors, white space might be used to aid in readability during skin development Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.
Change all HTML comments to JSP comments None Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.

Guideline	Effect on functionality	Effect on performance
Remove minimize, restore, and maximize buttons	Prevents users from manipulating the size and state of the portlets on the page	High impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Place the JSP tags for the Back, Edit, and Configure icons inside the <wps:if loggedIn="yes"> tag.	No impact to users. Prevents unauthenticated (anonymous) users from attempting to access resources that are protected. For users that are logged in, this adds an extra JSP tag for processing. Processing of the <wps:if loggedIn> tag has much less impact on performance than the access control checks to determine if a user has access to Edit and Configure portlet modes.	Medium impact on pathlength required to generate the page
Shrink lines of text to remove white space	With some editors, white space might be used to aid in readability during skin development	Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.
Change all HTML comments to JSP comments	None	Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page.