How to Add Portlets to Pages

What is a Portlet?

A portlet is a defined space on your website that can be used to display content. This content can be content that you create yourself (static text portlet), stock content that comes from your site (Calendar, Collections, ect), or content that comes from outside of your site (RSS). Portlets can be used to easily locate content within the context of your overall page into distinct sections.

Where Can a Portlet be added?

Portlets can be added to the left column, the right column, the top of the center column, and the bottom of the center column. Portlets that are added to the top or bottom of the center column can span the entire column or be sized to 50 percent of the column width. Portlets are added to pages or folders. If you need to come back to edit a portlet or if you need to come back to delete a portlet you will need to remember where you added it. This can be more difficult to understand when you add a portlet to a folder as by default that portlet will be inherited and shown on all files and folders located in that section.

Where do I want the Portlet to display?

When adding a portlet you need to decide where exactly you want the portlet to display. You can have the portlet display on a single page, every page in a folder, or every page on your site. The specific content of your portlet should help you determine where it makes sense to display it.

When added a portlet to the center column you have three choices:

• Column A - Spans the left most 50 percent of the page
• Column B - Spans the right most 50 percent of the page
• Column C - Spans the whole center column using 100 percent of the middle colum

Note: Columns A/B can be used at the same time to create a two column layout on your page. You can also use all three columns to create a layout that has two columns along with a full width column below it.

How do I add a portlet

Portlets are added via the Manage portlets link (left and right slots) or the Add, Edit, or remove a portlet below the content link (center column top or bottom).

Clicking the link

Depending on where you click the link to edit the portlet will determine whether or not the portlet will show on other areas of the site as well. When you click on one of these links a parameter will be added onto the end of the URL for that location of your website.

• /@@manage-portletsbelowcontent (center bottom portlet)
• /@@manage-portletsabovecontent (center top portlet)
• /@@manage-portlets (left or right portlet)

It can be a little tricky to make sure your portlets get added to the correct area of the site so that they show up as you would expect them to. Because of this, steps will be outlined below to show how they are used. The reason this can be tricky is that the right/left portlets work slightly different than the center column top/bottom portlets.

The first thing you need to understand is where you are at on the site. The easiest way to do this is to navigate to your destination via the contents tab and then verify your ending location in the address bar by looking at the URL.

Adding a portlet to every page on your site

1. Log into your website
2. Click on the Home link
3. Click on the Contents tab
4. Click on the Manage portlets or Add, edit or remove a portlet... links

After completing the above steps you should notice your URL looks something like:

www.town-name.lib.ia.us/@@manage-porlets

Note: The @@manage portion of the URL will be specific to the link you've clicked on. Please reference the different variations listed above.

Adding center column portlet to a single page

1. Log into your website
2. Click on the Home link
3. Click on the Contents tab
4. Navigate to the page you want to add a portlet to
5. Click on the Add, Edit or remove a portlet above/below the content link

Adding a left/right column porlet to a single page

1. Log into your website
2. Click on the Home link
3. Click on the contents tab
4. Navigate to the page you want to add a portlet to
5. In the address bar add /@@manage-portlets to the end of the URL.
6. Press the enter key on your keyboard or the Go button in your browser

Adding a center/left/right column portlet to every page in a section

1. Log into your website
2. Click on the Home link
3. Click on the Contents tab
4. Navigate to the folder that has all of the pages for the section stored within it.
5. Click on the Add, Edit or remove a portlet above/below the content link

How do I edit a portlet?

Portlets can be edited by going back to the original location where the portlet was added and by clicking either the Manage Portlets link or the Add, edit or remove a portlet above/below the content link.  After you have clicked on either link you will see all of your portlets listed under the heading Portlets Assigned Here. They will show up as a sold box with their name in the center and a red X in the upper right hand corner. To edit the portlet click on its name in the center of the box.

Deleting a Portlet

You delete a portlet by clicking on the red X in the upper right hand corner as explained in the previous paragraph.