IBM has been reworking WebSphere Portal themes for a long time now. The feedback I get on themes in Portal 7 is they are too complicated, too slow, and not well documented. With WebSphere Portal 8, IBM is addressing these concerns with a new theme architecture. IBM is touting the new theme as very modular, which should lead to a flexible framework that improves download times and minimizes the number of requests going from the browser to the server.
In my last post about Managed Pages, I said that I had received some errors when creating a page. I had built a blog page and wanted to include a tag cloud on that page. When I dragged the Tag Cloud portlet to the page and saved my changes, I received the following messages:
Apparently, I was missing some Dojo files that were needed for the tag cloud. After looking into this, I figured out the default theme must not have been quite right. I looked at the page properties and noticed a theme profile select box. When I clicked on that entry, I found that I had a choice of several profiles:
I changed the profile to Full and saved the page again. This time, I was able to save my page with the Tag Cloud portlet. So why would the profile matter?
A theme profile is one mechanism IBM implemented to improve load time. A profile loads modules that the theme designer designates from the list of available modules. Modules are part of the new module theme framework. So a theme profile can load all modules (i.e. Full), or the profile can load selected modules based on the needs of the page.
If you don’t need the entire Dojo library, for example, you can create a theme profile that loads only those modules you do need. The Portal documentation contains a list of modules supplied by IBM and you can create your own modules. By choosing only the modules your page absolutely needs, you can skinny down the overall theme, improving load times.
You can learn more about the module framework here. While its too early to tell if IBM finally has a workable, modern theme, this new module framework certainly looks very promising.
SAP and IBM WebSphere Portal working together
Wed, May 22nd 2013 4:18p Mark Polly Integration is a long-standing requirement satisfied by enterprise portals. Over the past 10 years, integrating SAP and IBM WebSphere Portal has been top of mind for a lot of people. Marty Lechleider spoke at the IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference on the offerings IBM has for integration.
Both IBM and SAP have multiple products, so Marty put them into buckets and described which products integrate with which products in each bucket. In fact, SAP has a portal and IBM has a portal. [read] Keywords: ibm
application
applications
development
enterprise
integration
interface
mobile
sap
websphere
websphere portal
48
Considering Open Source Options for Your Portal Solution?
Wed, May 22nd 2013 11:18a Glenn Kline Potential WebSphere Portal customers often consider whether they should leverage an open source technology or purchase a leading horrizontal portal product such as WebSphere Portal. The 2013 IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference had a session titled “Considering Open Source Options for Your Exceptional Web Experience Solution?: Explore TCO and How Free” delivered by Robert Lezon, East IMT Business Value Assessment Leader, IBM; Mary Byrd Nance, Executive Consultant, IBM. The s [read] Keywords: ibm
community
database
development
enterprise
integration
security
websphere
websphere portal
2013 IBM Exceptional Web Experience Opening General Session
Tue, May 21st 2013 9:15a Glenn Kline The 2013 IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference takes place from 5/20 to 5/23 and was kicked off by a Larry Bowden, Vice President, Portals and Digital Experience Software, with a overview of the progression of portals from 2001 to 2013. The session focused on IBM’s digital experience direction and how various technologies and concepts are converging today. Mobile, content and rich media, analytics, social, integration and cloud are at the heart of this of convergence. A few of [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
applications
enterprise
integration
mobile
portlet
websphere
42
Digital Asset Management in IBM Digital Experience
Mon, May 20th 2013 10:14a Mark Polly I mentioned in a previous blog how IBM is integrating Digital Asset Management (DAM) into WebSphere Portal and Web Content Management. At the IBM Exceptional Web Conference, IBM’s Stephan Hepper is demoing this integration. The DAM is actually the MediaBeacon product and IBM and MediaiBeacon has created seamless integration between the products. By combining both products, you get a really great DAM solution in IBM’s flagship product. IBM is also planning to integrate this with [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
integration
websphere
websphere portal
132
But Don’t Stalk Me
Fri, May 10th 2013 6:21a Michael Porter Back in March, I mentioned a Global Survey Oracle did on customer experience. That’s been a hot topic of late in my world. As part of that survey, they continue to build off of the nuggets of information found in that survey. Emil Fernandez pointed me to an update on that survey that includes a video on millenials and how they wish to engage or be engaged. The short video highlights a few way they would prefer to engage. I found it hilarious that at about 45 seconds, one teenager say [read] Keywords: oracle
113
Portal Beauty and the User Experience
Thu, May 9th 2013 6:18a Michael Porter Dr. Marci Stochak-Chavez just posted an article on our health blog somewhat related to yesterday’s post. She focuses on whether beauty is in the eye of the beholder for a portal. In here article, she references a design a portal challenge in New York City. This challenge pushes contestants to create a nice interface while also using key standards like the Blue Button and the Direct Protocol to transmit medical records.
Dr. Marci makes one quote it’s easy to agree with.
I be [read] Keywords: interface
108
If You Build a Patient Portal Why Won’t They Come?
Wed, May 8th 2013 6:21a Michael Porter Joe Jacobellis, a member of the Design Experience team at a client pointed out this interesting article about patient portals by Steve Wilkins. It’s titled, “If You Build a Patient Portal Why Won’t They Come?“ Before you read it, let me give you some history:
The Affordable Care Act mandates that all patients have access to their medical record (lab test, allergies, discharge instructions, etc.)
In various stages, hospitals and clinics need to give you electronic acc [read] Keywords: community
email
integration
mobile
110
Salesforce Communities: The Portal is Dead…Long Live the Portal
Thu, May 2nd 2013 6:18p Axel Newe Today Salesforce.com announced its long awaited release of Communities, which in Salesforce’s own words ended the era of legacy portal software. These are heady words, but Salesforce may have actually created something that is taking the portal concept into a different direction. The motor that is driving Communities is Chatter, Salesforce’s social collaboration platform. Salesforce.com used to have distinct offerings for Partner and Customer portals. With Communities, Partners, [read] Keywords: collaboration
applications
