Customizing a user portal

You can customize the default end-user portals provided in Pega to meet many project requirements. If the requirements are complex enough, you can also create a custom application portal.

In Pega, a portal is represented with a portal rule. A portal rule identifies the type of user expected to use the portal, the harness used to organize the portal contents and the skin that defines the branding applied to the portal.

To configure a Pega portal, you identify the intended user role and portal type, organize the layout of the portal, customize the branding of the portal, customize the content and tools available to users, and configure an access group to reference the portal if necessary.

Portal records are listed in the User Interface category in both the Records Explorer and the Create menu.

In Pega, you configure a portal for use by either users or developers. User portals are intended for users who do not routinely need to update rules. Developer portals are intended for system architects and business architects, who routinely update rules. User portals require less memory on the user's workstation than developer portals. Unless the intended user configures rules on a daily basis, configure a new portal as a user portal.

Pega supports two portal types: composite and custom. Composite portals are defined by harnesses and sections. Composite portals are cross-browser compatible and support Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome browsers. Custom portals are defined by an activity. As a best practice, configure a new portal as a composite portal.

You select the user role and portal type on the Details tab of the portal record.

The organization of the portal affects how the contents of the portal are presented to the user. The default user portals are organized with a header, a left navigation pane, and a content pane. To change the layout of the portal, you change the screen layout used in the harness. To modify the content in these sections, you use Live UI to identify and open the section to configure.

To create a new layout for a portal, create a new harness in the Data-Portal class, and add a section layout to the portal. Then reference the harness on the Details tab of the portal record.

You can customize the appearance of a portal by applying a skin. Skins contain instructions for formatting elements of the user interface, such as text size, font style, and background color. To customize the appearance of a portal, you choose between applying the application skin to the portal and configuring a skin for the portal.

When you select the application skin, Pega applies the skin for the active application to the portal. If the user switches applications, Pega applies the skin for the new application to the portal. If you create a new portal, Pega configures the portal to default to the application skin.

To apply a skin to the portal, rather than reusing the application skin, select the Other skin option on the Details tab of the portal record, then enter or select the skin to apply. For example, a portal is used across an entire organization. Within the organization, each division customizes its branding, including fonts and color schemes. In this situation, consider applying a skin to the portal to prevent changes to the portal when users switch between applications.

You can add or remove content displayed in a portal by updating the sections referenced in the screen layout. To modify portal content, use Live UI to identify and open the section to update. To override records provided in the UI-Kit ruleset for standard portals, copy the record into an application ruleset.

Customizing portal menus

You can add a menu to a portal by using a navigation record. A navigation record defines the entries in a menu and the action performed when a user selects the menu item. Navigation records are used to organize the menus displayed in standard portals such as the Case Manager and Case Worker portals.

A navigation record contains a list of menu items. For each menu item, you associate a click event and resulting action, such as logging off or displaying a harness.

For information on configuring entries in a menu using a navigation record, see the Help topic Navigation form — Completing the Editor tab.

For information on configuring an action for an entry in a navigation record, see the Help topic Navigation rule — Completing the Node Details Action tab.

For an example of configuring a navigation record, see the Community article How to create context menus for grid layouts using navigation rules.

Navigation records are organized in the User Interface category in the Records Explorer and the Create menu.

Replacing the Pega logo

You can update the icon displayed in the upper left corner of the portal. Standard Pega portals display the Pega icon. You can update the portal configuration to display a different icon, such as a company logo. To add an image or another non-text file to a Pega application, Pega creates a binary file record. A binary file record acts as a wrapper for the file, providing the security, inheritance, versioning, and deployment benefits of rule resolution.

To update the icon displayed in a portal use App Studio, go to Settings > Theme, and upload a new logo. This instructs Pega to create a binary file to store your image. For instructions on manually configuring a binary file record, see the Help topic Binary File rules — Completing the Main tab.

Binary files are organized in the Technical category in the Records Explorer and the Create menu.

Customizing the dashboard content

You can customize the content displayed on the dashboard of the Case Manager portal. For example, a manager often wants to view the status of cases processed by their unit or work group. You can configure the Case Manager portal to display one or more dashboard widgets that provide insight into the status and progress of open cases. Dashboard widgets are organized into two or more slots using a dashboard template.

To customize the dashboard, determine the template to use to organize the dashboard, then add widgets to each slot. For example, to display a report on the dashboard, add the Report widget to a slot, then select the report to display. For a list of widgets available in Pega, see the Help topic Dashboard widgets. For instructions on adding a widget to the dashboard, see the Help topic Adding a widget to your dashboard.

After you finish adding or removing widgets from the dashboard, you can publish the dashboard as a default dashboard for use by managers.

To provide users with access to a user portal, add the portal to one or more access groups. To add a portal to an access group, list the portal in the Available portals section of the Definition tab of the access group record. For each access group, you select one portal for Pega to use as the default portal. Pega presents the default portal to a user when the user first logs in to Pega. The remaining portals are available to users from either the Operator menu or the Launch menu, depending on the portal.