Overview of CODA-Portal

CODA-Portal is a gateway, or entrance, into information and functionality drawn from multiple sources and applications. It provides users with a single front-end to the data and applications they use in their day-to-day work; this front-end is the user's Homepage.

CODA-Portal administrators have control over the data and applications that users have access to via their Homepage, but users are able to customise the layout of their own Homepage to suit their needs.

Homepage Content

The content on a Homepage is presented in frames. For example, a frame could contain:

Browse details data showing the top ten sales this month.
A menu of shortcuts taking the user straight into the processes he uses most often.
A URL to another web page such as news headlines, stocks and shares information, or traffic news.

Content providers

Content providers are a type of user extension. They determine the types of information that can be displayed on a Homepage. For example, the Browse Details content provider allows Browse Details data to be displayed inside a content frame, while the HTML Browser content provider allows another web page to be displayed inside a content frame.

Each content frame on a Homepage has a content provider master associated with it. The content provider master saves a particular configuration of a content provider. For example, you might have three content provider masters each using the Browse Details content provider, but each set up to log on to different servers or with different selection criteria. The CODA-Portal administrator controls which parameters (if any) users are able to modify from their own Homepage.

Homepage templates and definitions

A Homepage template determines the content provider masters that users may access, and the initial Homepage layout that users are presented with.

CODA-Portal administrators can set up different Homepage templates for different types of users. For example, the Homepage template for company executives might provide browse access to restricted data and key performance indicators, whereas the Homepage template for data entry clerks might provide access to Input processes only.

Each e-Framework user is assigned a Homepage template. Within certain constraints, each e-Framework user can customise their own Homepage to arrange the content as best suits them. A user's customisation of their Homepage is saved in their Homepage definition.