Portal layout

Question

Hi,
We are planning to use weblogic portal 8.1 beta version.
We have various user groups exist in our system (physician ,caregiver....).
We want to have different home page layout for these groups .
For example for physician, the home page may be of 2 column layout and for caregiver
it may be of 3 column layout.
In portal 4.0 there was a concept called "group portal" and we can assign different
page layout for these group portal.
Can we have something similar to that in 8.1b version.
I know a new concept introduced in portal 8.1b version called "role".
Do I need to create various role to fullfill my objective?
Do I need to create different user segments for that ??
Thanks,
Anju

Answer 1

The documentation for the basic info on how to create a layout using regions is at
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14099_15/portal.1014/b13809/lookfeel.htm
Most of the pages I have created are the typical two-column layout in the middle (left column being the "narrow" column, right column being a specified no. of pixels or a percentage width) with a "header" region above and a "footer" region below, both of which cover the width of the regions in the two-column area. Each of those areas may also have multiple regions within it depending on what content will be published there and how you want that content display (ex. one portlet region with all display options and one portlet region without display options, and one item region.) Warning: the whole creating regions thing may drive you nuts trying to get them to do what you want them to do. :-) Play around on a few test pages to get the feel of creating and editing regions - adding portlets and items to the regions to see how they will look. Once you have figured out your page layout and how you want all your regions setup, I recommend creating that layout in a Portal Template -- under Navigator > Page Groups > Shared Objects > Portal Templates -- that can be applied to any pages in any page group that needs that layout.
To get the beginnings of a 2-column layout page with a header and footer region: Create two regions below the initial region that is on a page. In the middle region, create a region to the right. Edit each region to define its region type (portlets, items, or sub-page links), size, and other attributes.