11.1.1 Displaying Entity Data

When accessed, the Detail portlet displays attribute data about a selected entity, such as a user or group. For example, Figure 11-1 displays what the Detail portlet might display when user Bill Brown selects the My Profile action.

Figure 11-1 Sample MyProfile Data

For more information, see Dynamically loading images..

Determining What the Heading Area Displays

You can lay out the heading area of the Detail portlet using standard HTML features.

Figure 11-2 Detail Portlet: Heading Area

The Detail preferences provide an HTML Layout Editor that you can use to create the look and content you want:

Using the HTML Layout Editor

The HTML Layout Editor provides the typical features of an HTML editor for defining text formatting and lists, and for specifying anchors, images, and so on.

Keywords. When designing your layout, you can use the Keywords drop-down list to insert variables within the heading area of the Detail portlet to be replaced at runtime with specific attribute values. You can also type them using this syntax:

$[[keyword]]

Where keyword is the value of an attribute such as LastName.

You can concatenate attributes using this syntax:

$[[keyword+keyword]]

For example:

$[[FirstName+LastName]]

You can concatenate as many attributes as you want and can also include quoted strings like this:

$[[keyword+”sample text”+keyword]]

This renders the values of the keywords and the quoted text.

NOTE:When manually typing a keyword placeholder instead of selecting it from the dropdown list, make sure that it does not contain HTML formatting. It is recommended that you use the View Source mode for manual entry of keywords. When. a keyword is mistyped in a layout, it is rendered as-is at runtime (including the $[[]]).

Dynamically loading images. To display images that are stored in your Identity Vault (such as user photos), you can add the attribute name using the HTML Layout Editor. For example, adding the User Photo attribute displays the user’s photo. If you store images outside the Identity Vault, you’ll need to use the IMG: tag (from the View Source mode of the HTML Editor) as follows:

1. Go to the portlet’s preferences and access the HTML Editor.

2. Click View Source.

3. Use the IMG: tag to combine a location, an attribute key, and a file extension using a syntax like this:

   $[[IMG:”URL” + attribute-key-name + ”fileextension”]]
   

The following example shows the syntax you would use if you stored employee photos as JPG images by Last Name in the /images subdirectory of your application server:

$[[IMG:"http://myhost:8080/images/"+LastName+".jpg"]]

At runtime, the portlet concatenates the URL with the LastName attribute and the file extension.jpg.

The HTML Editor supports a flexible syntax. It supports any combination of text and attributes so that the syntax is

$[[IMG:”some text” + attribute-key-name + ...]]

11.1.2 Editing Entity Data

The Detail portlet automatically provides an Edit link (such as Edit Your Information or Edit User) to switch from display mode to edit mode. This enables users with appropriate rights for the current entity to change its attribute values and save those changes.

For example, here’s what Detail might display when user Bill Brown (who has the necessary rights) edits his own information:

Figure 11-3 MyProfile Edit Mode

11.1.3 E-Mailing Entity Data

The Detail portlet automatically provides a link named Send Identity Info. Users can click it to e-mail the URL of the current entity’s Detail to one or more other users. By e-mailing the Detail URL rather than the actual information, security is maintained because anyone receiving the URL will need appropriate authority to use it.

11.1.4 Linking to an organization chart

The Detail portlet automatically provides a link named Display Organization Chart. Users can click it to display the Org Chart portlet for the current entity.

For example, if you’re viewing Detail for user Bill Brown, clicking this link displays:

Figure 11-4 My Profile: Linking to Org Chart

You can suppress automatic linking to the Org Chart by setting Detail’s Enable org chart display preference to false. See Section 11.5, Setting Preferences.

11.1.5 Linking to Details of Other Entities

When configuring the Detail portlet, you might want to enable users to link to related entities from the current one. You can do that by including attributes that are defined with the control type DNLookup (in your directory abstraction layer).

When the Manager attribute is displayed in a user’s Detail, it appears as a link. Clicking that link displays Detail for the Manager.

Figure 11-5 Linking to Other Entities from My Profile

For more information on the directory abstraction layer, see Section 1.2.2, Directory Abstraction Layer.

To learn about specifying which attributes display in the Detail portlet, see Section 11.5, Setting Preferences.

11.1.6 Printing Entity Data

By default, the display settings for the Detail portlet enable the Print option on the portlet’s title bar. If you keep Print enabled, users can click it to display a printer-friendly version of the Detail content.

To change this or other settings for the Detail portlet, use the Administration to update the Portlet Registration for DetailPortlet (on the Portlet Administration page).

For more information, see Section 7.0, Portlet Administration.

11.1.7 Setting Preferred Locale

The Detail portlet automatically provides a link named Edit Preferred Locale. It appears for an administrator or for a user editing their own information. Users can click it to display the settings, and they can use the dialog to change it. Changes to the preferred locale require that the user logout and log back in for the proper locale to display, otherwise, inconsistent locales can be displayed. For example, if you are viewing Detail for user Bill Brown, clicking this link displays:

Figure 11-6 Sample Edit Preferred Locale Dialog

You can suppress the link by setting the Enable edit of preferred locale preference to false.

11.1.8 Overriding the Default Entity

You can override the default entity type for an instance of the Detail Portlet. To do this, you need to use the Portlet Admin facility within the Administration tab of the User Application. The Default ‘My Profile’ Entity Definition preference allows you to set the default entity, as shown below:

Figure 11-7 Setting the Default Entity for an Instance of the Detail Portlet

The initial value of this preference is set in the driver configuration in Designer, as shown below:

Figure 11-8 Initial Setting for the Default Entity for My Profile in Designer