Navigating the Control Panel

The control panel is very easy to navigate. On the left side is a list of headings with functions underneath them. The headings are in alphabetical order, but the functions are in a logical order.

Figure 1.7: Liferay's Control Panel

User Name: is always the logged in user's personal space. Here, you can change your account information and manage the pages of your personal site.

Content: contains links to all of Liferay's content management functions. You can maintain web content, documents, images, bookmarks, a calendar, administer a message board, configure a wiki, and more. The title of this section appears in a context selector as the name of the site whose content you are currently managing. You can switch to another one at any time.

Portal: allows portal administrators to set up and maintain the portal. This is where you can add and edit users, organizations, sites, roles, and configure the settings of the portal.

Server: contains administrative functions for configuring portal instances, plugins, updates and more.

All of the functions that you will need to maintain the portal or its contents can be found in the control panel. Additionally, developers can write portlets which can also be added to the control panel. For further information about this, you can take Liferay's Portal Developer course, refer to Liferay's Portal Developer's Guide or see the official guide to Liferay development, Liferay in Action.