The module framework
allows themes to be customized in
order to provide flexibility, enhance the user experience, and maximize
performance.
Create a copy of the theme
You need to create your own custom theme by copying the
Portal 8.0 theme before you start customization. Creating a copy of
the theme ensures that your theme has all the required elements for
the theme to function and changes will not be overwritten by a fixpack.
Dynamic content spots
The static template files use dynamic content
spots to
reference JSP files or other dynamic resources. The dynamic resources
are stored in a WAR file.
Layouts
You can apply ready-use layouts to your portal pages, modify
the existing skins, or add your own custom layout to change how your
pages display.
Skins
You can apply ready-use skins to your portal pages, modify
the existing skins, or add your own custom skin to change how your
pages display.
Menu framework
You can provide menu feeds in JSON format instead of XML
format. The operations can then parse the JSON feed without requiring
the XML parsing support in the Dojo toolkit.
Customizing navigation
Use dynamic content spots to determine what is displayed
by Top, Primary, and Secondary navigation. Use the navigation.jsp file to map properties to the dynamic content spot ids in the theme.html files. Rendering of the navigation is done
with a single JSP file using <ul> and <li> tags.
Styles
The WebSphere® Portal Express®8.0 provides
a selection of ready-use styles that you can be applied to your portal
pages. You can also modify the existing theme styles or add your own
custom style to achieve the look that you want.
Configuring the portal theme and modules
Themes and modules are configured through theme metadata
properties and resource environment provider custom properties.
Drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop uses Dojo code to facilitate the layout of
content.
Using jQuery in a theme
The jQuery library is a JavaScript libraries. IBM® WebSphere Portal Express uses the Dojo JavaScript
library. The iWidget container, Tagging and Rating component, the
Web Content Authoring portlet, the inline editing component in the
Web Content Viewer portlet, and page editing capabilities from the
Page Builder theme all rely on the Dojo library.
Moving the page toolbar
You can change the tab order so that the tools come after
the Edit mode button.
Changing the theme profile
You can change the profile for the theme or a specific
page to define the modules loaded.
Tags used by the portal JSPs
Learn about the most commonly used tags in the portal JSPs.
Use these tags to modify the appearance and layout of the portal
page.