Performance guidelines for themes and skins

 

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After installation, WebSphere Portal provides a default theme and skin. If the portal site does not require all of the functionality provided by the shipped themes and skins, we can realize performance benefits by selectively removing some of those functions.

Some of the features, items, and functions described in the tables below may be available only in themes and skins created for releases prior to the current release. Also, some features, items, and functions described may only be available in the current release and not present in older themes and skins.

 

Guidelines

Use the following guidelines when making decisions that affect the development of the custom themes and skins. These guidelines describe the relative pathlength involved with the inclusion of various components of themes and skins. A number of the following changes are already implemented in the default IBM theme. However, the functionality described is still supported and may have an impact on the design choices for the theme.

 

Guidelines for a lightweight theme

Guideline Effect on functionality Effect on performance Default IBM theme approach
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 Show tools options are included through asynchronous context menus.
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 Enrollment included through asynchronous context menu.
Remove self care icon from the toolbar Prevents users from updating account information. High impact on pathlength required to generate the page Edit Profile included through asynchronous context menu.
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 These options are included through asynchronous context menu.
Remove <portal: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 Not included in the theme.
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. JSP and JSP fragments are compacted to remove white space.
Change all HTML comments to JSP comments None Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page. Mostly JSP comments used.

 

Guidelines for a lightweight skin

If the starting point is the IBM default skin, remember that portlet context menus are loaded asynchronously and the changes to the options available mentioned below (removing window state choices, surrounding in <portal-logic:if loggedIn> tag) will not affect the initial page size. The changes will affect the size of the page required to generate the contents of the portlet context menu.

Guideline Effect on functionality Effect on performance Default IBM Skin approach
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 These options are included through asynchronous context menu.
Place the JSP tags for the Back, Edit, and Configure icons inside the <portal-logic: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 <portal-logic: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 None.
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. All skin JSPs and JSP fragments are compacted to remove white space.
Remove drag and drop tags. Users will be unable to drag and drop portlets on a page or from the Portlet Palette onto a page. Medium impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page. None.
Change all HTML comments to JSP comments None Low impact on bandwidth required to transmit the page. Mostly JSP comments are already used.

 

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