Portlets use a basic hierarchy approach. By default, the portlets that you assign at the root (homepage) of the site will propogate down to all the subsections of the site. If you want a different set of portlets or order of portlets for a particular sub-section, you must use the Block/unblock portlets control, to "block" the parent portlets. When you block Portlets, you must explicitly add all the Portlets that you wish to see on the child page.

In this diagram, our Portlets are designated in blue underneath the Page title.

As you can see we have two Portlets designated on our Home page (navigation and recent items). These same Portlets appear on our About Page because of portlet hierarchy.

However, on the Documentation page we added a third portlet - the Collection Portlet. Here we are still allowing Parental Portlets, but in addition we specifically added the Collection Portlet.

On both the Tutorials and Videos Pages we have to block Parental Portlets because we do not want the Collection Portlet that is on the Documentation Page to show. When we block Parental Portlets we must re-add the Portlets to each Child page. In this case we re-added the Navigation Portlet to both and then added the Search Portlet to both.

Remember that the child pages only inherit from the parent page directly above them. In our example, if we added a page called Staff under About and allowed the parent portlets without adding any additional portlets, it would show the same Portlets as the Home Page as well as the About Page. However do not think that it is inheriting from the Home page. If we were to change the About Page and added a Search Portlet, our Staff Page would reflect the Portlets on the About Page not the Home Page.

To begin manipulating portlets, you must find the Manage Portlets link, usually located on the bottom of each side column. Under Manage Portlets, you can create new Portlets, remove Portlets, rename and rearrange Portlets.

Clicking on this link will take us to a new page that will allow us to edit the Portlets. The other method of getting to this screen is by adding /@@manage-portlets to the end of the page URL that we want to edit the Portlets on. For example, to edit the Portlets on the About Us Page, the URL would end up being www.myplonesite.org/about/@@manage-portlets.

Adding a Portlet

Adding a Portlet is as simple as selecting the Add Portlet drop down box and clicking on the type of Portlet you would like to add. We will cover the different options available in the next section.

Editing an Existing Portlet

 To edit the properties of an existing Portlet, simply click on the name of the Portlet. In the example to the left, if we wanted to edit the properties of the Navigation Portlet, we would Click on Navigation. Each type of Portlet will have different configuration options available to it.

Rearranging Portlets

To Rearrange your Portlets, simply click the blue up or down arrow. This will affect the order your Portlets are displayed on the page.

Removing Portlets

To remove a Portlet, click the red "X" associated with its name.

As you may have noticed on the Manage Portlet screen, you have the ability to work with Portlets on both the right and left side of the page. This is because there are two columns for Portlets to be in, a left column and a right column. Portlets will only appear on the side that you add them on.

With Portlets, you can add more than one of the same type on a page. There is no limit to how many times you can use an individual Portlet or a limit to how many total Portlets can be on a Page.

There are several different types of Portlets to chose from. The way that Portlet types are named can be confusing at times. Also, some can be configured through Manage Portlets and others require some setup through the ZMI or by creating other content objects first. Below is a basic description of the use and functionality of each available Portlet type.

Navigation

The Navigation Portlet allows users to navigate your site with ease by providing a structured "site map", or navigation tree. You have the option to display the navigation for the overall site or choose to only display the current folder contents. On LearnPlone.Org, you can see an example of the Navigation Portlet in the left column. As you dig deeper into the site, the tree will continue to expand. There are several configuration options available that effect how the Navigation Portlet will behave.

Calendar

The Calendar Portlet is a very simple Portlet that will display a Calendar on your site. This Portlet has no customizable options. If you have published Event content objects on your site, the days upon which they occur will be bolded in the calendar and will link to the corresponding events on your site.

Classic

A Classic Portlet is refers to the way portlets were used in older version of Plone, prior to Plone 3. You must create a Page Template in the ZMI and properly set the path and macro to enable the portlet. This requires technical knowledege of both TALES and the ZMI.

Collection

The Collection Portlet will allow you to display the results of a Collection. You must have a Collection previously created when you add this Portlet, then you can specifying the Collection to be used . This is a great way to summarize the results of an important Collection so that it is easily viewable to the public. For instructions on creating a Collection Portlet follow this How-to.

Events

The Events Portlet will display Upcoming Events, provided that you have Events on your site. You can determine how many events you want to be displayed and also which events you want to display based on publishing state.

Log in

The Log in Portlet is another non configurable Portlet that will simply display a Log in Form that will allow users with Log in information to log in to the site. Once a user is logged into the site, this Portlet will not appear.

News

The News Portlet works exactly like the Events Portlet. However instead of displaying Events, it displays recent News items. Once again you can choose how many News items are displayed and filter them based on their state.

RSS Feeds

The RSS Feed Portlet allows you to link to an RSS Feed, choose how many items to display, and specify the refresh rate.

Recent Items

The Recent Items Portlet displays a customizable number of Recent Items, listed by Title. A Recent Item is determined by its Last Modified Date.

Review List

The Review List Portlet will display a list of objects that have been submitted for review. If you are using a submit and review cycle (and have properly set global roles for your users) this is a great way for reviewers to see what content has been submitted for review. This Portlet only appears to those logged in as this state is not viewable to the public.

Search

The Search Portlet will place a search box in your Portlet Column. This search box will search the Titles, Descriptions, and Body text of objects on your site for the text specified. You have the option of enabling Live Search. Live Search is a feature which shows live results if the browser supports JavaScript.

Static Text

The Static Text Portlet allows you to enter content just as you would on a normal Page object. This is useful for adding hyperlink to different sites or any information that will not change. An example of this Portlet is the "Still Stumped?" Portlet on the right hand side of this site. For more on Static Text Portlets and an example view the How-to Static Portlets.