Using content providers in CODA-Portal

Content providers determine the types of information that can be displayed on a Homepage. They are components that must be installed on your CODA Web server and Application server, then configured for use with CODA-Portal.

Installing the content providers

The CODA Menu and HTML Browser content providers are installed as part of the e-Framework installation. If these components were not installed during the original e-Framework installation process, rerun the e-Framework installation and choose to install them.

Registering content providers as user extensions

Once a content provider is installed, the e-Framework administrator must register it as an e-Framework user extension. This tells the Web server how to find the content provider's Java class within the specified package, and enables the content provider for use.

Creating content provider masters

When a content provider has been registered as a user extension and enabled for use, the CODA-Portal administrator can then create content provider masters referencing that content provider. The parameters you can specify in a content provider master vary depending on the type of content provider being used. For example, when creating a content provider master using the Browse Details content provider, the parameters you can specify include:

the CODA-Financials database to connect to
the logon authentication to use.
the company in which to perform the Browse Details process
the selector and presenters to use for the Browse Details process.

Creating Homepage templates

Once content provider masters are set up, the CODA-Portal administrator can create Homepage templates for the different types of users that will be accessing Homepages. Each Homepage template contains a list of the content provider masters that are available to that template. The template also provides an initial Homepage layout.

Assigning Homepage templates to users

A Homepage template is then assigned to each e-Framework user. Depending upon how the template has been set up, a user may be able to customise the layout and content of his Homepage.

For a checklist of the steps involved in setting up Homepages, see the related topic 'Setting up CODA-Portal'.