The Page Administrator Portlet is used to add and remove pages and portlets from portal pages. The portlet also persist these changes to pluto-portal-driver-config.xml in pluto's WEB-INF directory.
The portlet application needs to be bundled in a war file as per the Java Portlet Specification. The war also needs to include proper PortletServlet servlet and servlet-mapping records in WEB-INF/web.xml. An assembly process has been developed to add these records to web.xml using Maven 2 (the pluto:assemble goal in maven-pluto-plugin) or Ant (AssembleTask). See the testsuite web.xml file for an example how the servlet and servlet-mapping records should look like after assembly (other items the developer adds to web.xml should be carried forward into the updated file).
A custom portlet war deployed into the bundled distribution of Pluto also needs a Tomcat context descriptor with the same name as the portlet app war name (a.k.a. context name). This context file needs to be in the META-INF directory of the war file. Here's an example of one for a portlet bundled for a HelloWorldPortlet context (file name is HelloWorldPortlet.xml):
<Context path="/HelloWorldPortlet" docBase="HelloWorldPortlet" crossContext="true"/>The crossContext attribute allows Pluto, which is deployed in its own Tomcat context, to work with this custom portlet.
The way to deploy a portlet application depends on the app server Pluto is running in. In the bundled distribution Pluto is deployed in Tomcat. In this case, you can use the Tomcat manager app to deploy the portlet war. There is a 'Upload and deploy portlet war' link at the bottom of the Page Administrator portlet that points to the manager app in the bundled distribution (this link can be changed for other app servers -- see the adjacent Help link). Use of the manager application requires you to be logged into Pluto in a manager role (pluto or tomcat user).
In the bundled distribution of Pluto, you can also deploy a properly configured portlet application by simply dropping the war file into the webapp directory (see Configuring a Portlet Application above). You will need to restart Pluto in order for the Page Administrator Portlet to see the newly deployed portlet so it can be added to a portal page.
Adding a new portal page using the Pluto Page Administrator portlet involves inputing the page name into the text box adjacent to the Add Page button and clicking on the button. The new page is created with the default 'theme', which lays out the portlets in two columns (see /WEB-INF/themes/pluto-default-theme.jsp in the pluto webapp for details). Once a page has been added, portlets will need to be added to the page (see Adding Portlets to a Portal Page).
Please note that adding a new Page with the name of an existing page will replace the existing page with the new page. This is equivalent to removing the page and adding it again with the same name.
Removing a portal page using the Pluto Page Administrator portlet involves selecting a page in the drop down above the Remove Page button and clicking on the button. You are not allowed to remove the default page (default attribute of the render-config element in pluto-portal-driver-config.xml) and the Pluto Admin page.
Adding portlets to a portal page using the Pluto Page Administrator portlet involves first selecting a portal page in the Portal Pages drop-down (above the Remove Page button) and then selecting a portlet application using the Portlet Applications drop-down and finally a portlet in the adjacent drop down. When this is done, click the Add Portlet button.
Removing portlets from a portal page involves selecting a portal page on the Portal Pages drop-down (above the Remove Page button), selecting the portlet in the adjacent list and then clicking on the Remove Portlet button.
The pluto-portal-driver-config.xml file holds changes made by the Page Administrator Portlet. You can manually update this file to add pages or portlets. If this is done, please be careful of the structure of the render-config child elements.
You can also change the theme of portlets and the default page -- the portal's home page after login -- in this config file. The theme will require a proper URI to a file containing the new theme. Use the default theme (/WEB-INF/themes/pluto-default-theme.jsp in the pluto webapp) for an example theme elements. Again, be careful to not modify the XML structure of the config file if you choose to change the theme or default
<%-- Properties for link to app server deployer and help mode file --%>