Create a virtual portal

As a master administrator of the portal installation, we can create virtual portals using the Virtual Portal Manager portlet.

When creating virtual portals, specified the following attributes:

• The title of the virtual portal.

  This title is later displayed in the list of virtual portals in the Virtual Portal Manager portlet. The title is not visible for users of the virtual portal.

• A description for the virtual portal. This field is optional.

• Either a host name or a context for the virtual portal:

  • The portal context of the virtual portal. The context must be unique. The context is used to create the URL of the virtual portal. This URL is mapped to the actual internal URL of the virtual portal. We can give the friendly URL to the users of the virtual portal. They can use it to access the virtual portal without having to remember the internal URL.

  • A host name for the virtual portal. Optional. Use it to add a host name of the choice for the virtual portal. The portal uses that host name for the friendly URL of the virtual portal as follows: http://your_host_example:port/wps/portal. We can pass that friendly URL to the portal users for easier access to the portal.

    • This URL is used internally to access the virtual portal instance, even if specified a context URL that is easy to use. Make sure the host name specified here is accessible.

    • We cannot use the same virtual portal host name twice in the same portal installation.

    • After creating the virtual portal, we cannot change the host name specified for the virtual portal. If we want a different host name for a virtual portal, see the topic about Use a new host name for an existing virtual portal.

    • If we use web content libraries, do not specify a context URL for the new virtual portal that matches the name of a library on the server. If the name of a library and the URL context of a virtual portal have the same value, incorrect rendering of web content can result.

  • We must specify either a host name or a context.

  • If we specify both a host name and a context, the host name takes precedence and the context is ignored.

  • There are some strings we cannot use as URL mappings for virtual portals, for example vp. These strings are reserved names and correspond with URL codec names.

  • Use only ASCII characters for the URL Context. For example, we cannot use a URL Context such as språk. If we use non-ASCII characters, the portal shows an error message such as the following EJPAH2009E: Invalid characters were found in a context name or label. Similarly, we cannot use escaped URL encoding either. For example, a URL Context such as spr%E5k.

• The realm representing the user population for the virtual portal. This field is only shown if the portal configuration supports realms.

When we use the Virtual Portal Manager administration portlet to create the virtual portal, we can add the following additional parameters as well:

• The user group of sub-administrators who are able to administer the virtual portal.

• The theme of the virtual portal.

Example values:

Virtual portal name	accounts
Virtual portal description	The accounts Virtual Portal
URL Context	accounts
Initial admin user group	wpsadmins

To access new virtual portal, go to...

http://localhost:10039/wps/portal/accounts

For details see, Use the Virtual Portal Manager administration portlet. Alternatively, use the appropriate configuration task to create virtual portals. For details about the ConfigEngine tasks for administering virtual portals see, Portal ConfigEngine tasks for administering virtual portals. When we use the configuration task for creating a virtual portal, we need to deliver this information using xmlaccess.sh in a later step.

1. Before creating a virtual portal, read the information in Planning for virtual portals.

2. If we use the configuration task create-virtual-portal to create a virtual portal, the virtual portal is created without content.

3. If we do not specify a virtual portal title in the language, which is either defined as the user-preferred language or defined in the user's browser, the display fallback uses the unique name if present, or a string version of the object ID. So, to display the virtual portal title and content root correctly, the administrator must select the preferred language for the portal user. Or the administrator must define the display language in the user's browser, according to the language in which the title is set.

4. When creating a virtual portal, a workspace is created containing a new portal site web content library. All managed pages created in the virtual portal are stored in the virtual portal site library. As web content libraries are not shared across virtual portals, such managed pages are visible only within the virtual portal. Syndication of the portal site library for a virtual portal is the same as syndication of any other web content library.

We can pre-configure the content and the sub-administrators for virtual portals.

Parent Tasks for administering virtual portals

Related:
Shaping the user experience
Plan for virtual portals
Use the Virtual Portal Manager administration portlet
Portal ConfigEngine tasks for administering virtual portals
Task: create-virtual-portal
Known limitations for virtual portals
Technotes for virtual portals
Set the the language
Pre-configuring virtual portals