Those of you who work with Visual Composer 7.0 (formely known as 2004s) know, that Visual Composer 7.0 deploys its models to the portal as iViews. The portal administrator can later locate the Visual Composer iView in the Portal Content Directory and arrange it in portal pages and roles (arranging the structure of the iViews in pages and roles is done in the portal using the portal administrator tools).
In Visual Composer 7.1, you don't create iViews anymore, but Web Dynpro applications (composite views) and deploy them to the JEE repository (like any other Web Dynpro application). If you want to create portal content (iViews, Pages, roles) from these applications, you can use the portal administration tools (that have improved capabilities comparing to 7.0), or use the portal content modeling tools that are now part of Visual Composer for Composition Environment 7.1 SP3.
The portal modeling tools are part of Visual Composer and enable you to easily create portal content (iViews, pages, roles and worksets), in a WYSIWYG way, by reusing existing Visual Composer applications or other Web Dynpro or portlet applications. This capability enables end-to-end implementation and deployment in a single environment.How does it work? Your working environment, in which you visually model and manage portal content and applications, is the Portal Layout board, a part of Visual Composer Storyboard. (see picture below)
The Portal Layout board areas match those of the L-shaped portal desktop at runtime. All you need to do is to drag & drop elements from the Compose task panel to the appropriate area in the portal layout board. Notice the guiding comments on the board when you drag the different elements.
You create the portal structure using the portal content elements (or by browsing existing portal content from the PCD), and add the applications by using the Composite View element (to create a new Visual Composer application), searching for an already existing Visual Composer model or browsing for Web Dynpro or portlet applications.
After deploying the portal content models, you can view them in the portal exactly as they were modeled in Visual Composer. If you modeled an iView in a page and then deploy the page, with its dependencies, it will appear in the portal with the iViews inside it. Similarly, if you modeled a Business Suite work center containing multiple views, each containing pages and iViews, deploying the work center, with dependencies, creates it in the portal with all its contents.
Are you confused? Do you want to try and create your own portal content using Visual Composer? You can now put your “hands on” Visual Composer and start creating portal content in Visual Composer using this step-by-step tutorial.
The tutorial includes snapshots of the different steps together with many tips&tricks and detailed explanations.
Additional tutorials and information can be found in our new Portal Modeling page.
We'll also appreciate if you could share you feedback, suggestions and comments with us by participating in the portal modeling on-line survey.
