Navigating Liferay

Liferay initially presents a very simple interface. Unauthenticated users can navigate the public pages of the portal and see a Sign In link in the top right corner of the screen.

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tip

Note: If your portal initially presents you with the demo web site, 7 Cogs, see chapter 11 in part 2 for removal instructions.

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To sign into Liferay for the first time, click the Sign In link. You'll next see the Sign In Portlet. This portlet allows a user (or a prospective user) to do several things: sign in to Liferay, create a new account on the portal, or have a password reminder emailed to the user. An OpenID sign-in option is also available. You should use the default administrator account to sign in to the portal for the first time. If you were to create a new account on the portal for yourself now, it would be created using Liferay's defaults. This would mean that the account wouldn't have access to the administrative functions in the control panel you'll need in order to set up Liferay for your organization. Instead of creating a new user now, log in with the default administrator account:

User Name: test@liferay.com

Password: test

Figure 1.1: Logging into Liferay Portal

By default, Liferay uses your email address rather than a user name or ID for authentication. This can be changed later if you wish, but it's generally a good practice to keep it this way. Users' email addresses make good candidates for user IDs since they are hard to forget and they are unique to each user.

The first page that's displayed when a user logs in for the first time is the Terms of Use page. By default, users must agree to the terms of use before they can access the portal. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click I Agree to proceed. Note that as a portal administrator, you can customize the Terms of Use page or disable it altogether. Next, let's take a look at how to navigate in Liferay.

Using the Dockbar

Once you've logged in as the default administrative user, the dockbar appears across the top of the page. The dockbar is the primary tool logged-in users have for navigating the portal and accessing administrative functions from anywhere in the portal. Clicking on the red pin icon at the left side of the dockbar pins it in place so that it remains visible when you scroll down the page.

Figure 1.2: The Dockbar

Depending on the logged-in users' roles and what sections of the portal they are viewing, they may see all or only some of the dockbar menus. For each menu, a list of options appears when you mouse over it. Let's look at what's available in the dockbar.

Add

As an administrator, the Add menu is the first item on the dockbar. This menu contains a list of items that you can add either to the page or to the current site.

Figure 1.3: Add Menu from the Dockbar

Page: adds a new page at the current navigation level.

Applications: contains a list of common portlets that you can add to the page, such as web content display, asset publisher, documents and media display, and navigation. These portlets are covered in chapters 3 and 4.

More: shows a list of all the currently deployed portlets, divided into categories. You can search for portlets in the list or use the search bar. To add a portlet to the current page, click the Add button next to a portlet, or drag the portlet from the menu to where you want it on the page.

The Add menu gives you a nice, quick way to build your pages.

Manage

The next item on the Dockbar is the Manage menu. From here, you can access many settings for the current page and site.

Figure 1.4: Manage Menu from the Dockbar

Page: brings up a window containing controls for managing a specific page of the current site. These include the theme, layout, search engine optimization, and more.

Page Layout: lets you choose a layout template for the current page. Layout templates provide visual structure to page contents.

Page Customizations: enables you to directly select portions of the page that users can customize. Users with permission to customize this page can then customize the sections of the page you select.

Site Settings: opens the site settings page of the control panel in a dialog box. Here, you can set the membership type of your site, apply site templates, manage staging, and more.

Site Pages: brings up a dialog box for viewing the page hierarchy of your site and customizing settings that apply to the entire site, not just to a single page. These include look and feel, site logos, and Javascript.

Site Memberships: allows you to manage the users, user groups, organizations, and site roles associated with your site. You can switch the view between current members and teams using the View button.

Site Content: lets you view and manage content on your site such as documents, images, message board posts, calendar entries, wiki pages, blog entries, and more.

We'll cover these options in detail in chapter 3.

Edit Controls

Next on the Dockbar is a check box labeled Edit Controls. This toggles the edit controls that appear in the tops of portlet windows. This lets administrators to see a page the way a regular user would.

Go to

The Go to menu is your main navigation tool within Liferay Portal. The control panel is the topmost item in this menu. Initially, your current location is highlighted. This shows you are in the public pages of the liferay.com site.

Figure 1.5: Go To Menu from the Dockbar

Liferay allows for various configurations of pages for end users: you can configure it so that some or all users have their own personal sites, with public and/or private pages, where they can place the portlets they need to use. The administrator account by default has its own pages. Because you are logged in with an account that has administrator privileges, you can see everything in the portal.

My Account

Your (or the default user's) name appears at the right side of the Dockbar next to a sign-out link that logs you out of the portal. Your name itself is a link to the Manage My Account dialog box. You can use the left menu to switch between viewing your account information and your personal site pages. You can configure both personal and portal information such as your screen name, password, email address, phone number, physical address, language, and time zone, as well as your organizations, sites, user groups, and roles.

Figure 1.6: My Account Menu from the Dockbar

One of the most important tools Liferay offers for managing your portal is the aforementioned control panel, accessible from the Go to menu of the Dockbar. The control panel is composed of administrative pages that you can use to manage various aspects of the portal.