Configure the URL rewriting options of your Web Clipping
portlet so that when a user follows a link in the Web clipping portlet,
the content retrieved by the link is either displayed inline within
the portlet window (default), in the same browser window,
or in a new browser window.
Web clipping portlets attempt to provide a mechanism to display
existing Web content within a Web portal, even if it was originally
intended to display within a browser. An essential problem that must
be dealt with to achieve this goal is link traversal behavior, which
is the behavior exhibited by a Web clipping portlet when a hyperlink
within the Web clipping portlet's content is traversed. Web clipping
portlets do this using a technique called URL rewriting. URL rewriting
is the term used to refer to the process of modifying (or rewriting)
a URL within Web content such that the resulting URL points to a different
location than the original URL. Web clipping portlets perform URL
rewriting on all hypertext links before returning the Web content
to the browser.
You can control what happens when a user follows the links in your
Web clipping portlet's content by configuring the following URL rewriting
options when you create a Web clipping portlet, or you can add these
options later. For any given link within the content of a Web clipping
portlet, there are three ways that the retrieved content can be displayed.
- Inline Display (default) By default, when a link is followed,
the content to which it refers is displayed inline, within the Web
clipping portlet's display area (portlet window). In this case, the
Web clipping portlet acts like a proxy for the new content. The browser
sends a request back to the Web clipping portlet asking it to handle
the link traversal. The Web clipping portlet retrieves the content
to which the link refers and replaces the current content with the
retrieved content.
- Same Window Display The typical browser behavior when
following links is to retrieve the content to which the link refers
and display it within the same display space. You can direct Web clipping
portlets to do the same. In this case, the browser is asked to handle
the link traversal rather than sending a request back asking the portal
to follow the link. The advantage of this method is that the content
can be displayed in its natural or intended environment as opposed
to being limited to the Web clipping portlet's display area. The disadvantage
is that for all practical purposes, you will have stepped "out of
bounds" of the portal; the only method for returning is the browser's
Back button. This might cause problems depending on the session state
of the portal.
- New Window Display Many browsers provide an alternate
behavior for displaying the content that results from link traversal.
Instead of displaying the content to which the link refers in the
existing window, it opens a new window for the retrieved content.
Web clipping portlets can be directed to do this too. Here, the browser
is asked to handle the link traversal and display the resulting content
within a new window. This method has the advantage of the same window
display, but without the disadvantage. The retrieved content can be
displayed in its intended environment while maintaining your portal
session.
Refer to the Web Clipping help documentation for more information
on modifying rules for URL rewriting.