The portal designer enables the design of custom forms that do not operate with predefined business objects, but instead typically load and manipulate external data via Lobster_data profiles.

The central element of the portal designer is the Form designer also used for creating input forms for business objects.

Portals overview

The menu item Portals (under 'Administration/Configurations') opens an overview listing all portal designs accessible in the context of the current session:

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This overview shows the following common ribbon buttons:

Sub category	Button	Effect	Selection required
Details	New	Opens Form designer with a new portal design.	n/a
	Delete	Deletes selected portal design(s).	single/multi
	Edit	Opens selected a portal design in the Form designer.	single
	Cancel	Resets the selection in the overview.	single
Association	Assign	Assignments of Association criteria make portals available for users.	single
List	Clear/Search	See Working in overviews.	n/a
History	List	Opens a version history list for the selected portal from which any listed version can be reactivated. This function is most beneficial to 'undo' unintended deletions or to revert to an earlier design after changes that lead nowhere. See History (Configurations).	single

Portal input form

The portal input form allows for the creation and updating of portals. It features general functions via ribbon buttons and design details in four tabs.

Ribbon layout

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Sub category	Button	Effect
Details	New	Switches the editor to a new portal design. If the current design contains unsaved changes, the user is prompted for confirmation to discard them.
	Delete	Deletes the current portal design after user confirmation.
	Cancel	Switches to an empty input form, where New is the only button available. If the current design contains unsaved changes the user is prompted for confirmation to discard them.
	Copy	Transfers the current design including unsaved changes (if any) to a new portal instance. The new portal design is only created when it is saved.
	Save	Saves the current state of the portal design. The saved design stays visible in the editor to allow further editing.
Association	Assign	Assignments of Association criteria make portals available for users (same function as in the overview).
Editor	Language	Defines the language choice for localized labels and content. Direct editing of localized labels (without reference to a resource bundle entry) links text in the form design to the selected language without creating a localization entry.
	Publish	Publishes a created or updated portal design so it becomes available for other users. Publishing is confirmed by a green success notification. In case of unsaved changes, the portal design is automatically saved before publishing which produces a second green success notification.
	Structure Export	Exports the data structure of the configured portal and presents it in an editor. This structure can be downloaded as a file for importing into a Lobster_data profile by drag & drop. ►NOTE◄ When the Test Mode is active, only 'filled' fields are exported, so the structure resembles the input file provided when a Lobster_data profile is called.
	Test mode	Switches the form to Test Mode. In the test mode, the 'Play' icon (►) in the button is replaced by a 'Stop' icon (■) and the behaviour of the current form design can be tested before saving or publishing it. Although a form is tested in 'test mode', all configured behaviours and actions are actually executed. Effectively, 'test mode' must not be mistaken as a protected test mode.
Main menu	Reload	Reloads the main menu. Reloading is necessary to make a new portal appear in the main menu of an ongoing session. Before clicking Reload, check if the following requirements are met if you expect the portal to appear in the menu: The portal is flagged to Show in menu (see below). The portal has been published. The portal is linked to at least one matching association criterion in the context of your session.
History	List	Opens a version history list for the selected portal from which any listed version can be reactivated. This function is most beneficial to 'undo' unintended deletions or to revert to an earlier design after changes that lead to a dead end. See History (Configurations)

'Portal' tab

The Portal tab features general properties of the portal:

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A Portal name is required and must be unique within the system. The name of a portal can be localized via Localization later by editing the entry for resource name 'Portal$<NAME> in resource bundle 'scm.portal'.
An Icon uri defines an icon file to show in the title bar of the portal and (if applicable) the related menu item. The icon path can be entered or edited directly or picked by the standarized icon browser via the Select button.
The Show in menu flag defines whether the portal should appear in the main menu of Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration. Uncheck this option for portals that are only addressed by other portals or input forms as a modal dialog.
Checking Show in menu makes the option Menu entry available. This option defines the position at which a portal should appear in the main menu tree.
- 'Root' appears as a default, indicating the portal entry will appear at the 'top level'.
- Clicking the 'burger menu' icon right of the input field opens a list of available menu items, where a parent element can be selected:
- It is also possible to enter or edit a 'path' as a concatenation of element names separated by slashes.
  If this path contains unknown 'nodes' (elements), these are automatically created and may be localized afterwards:

'Editor' tab

The Editor tab contains the Form designer, which defines the content of the portal. Please follow the link for more information on form design.

'Form XML' tab

The Form XML tab shows an XML representation of the form design definition, which can be used for analysis but also to transfer portal designs between Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration systems. Please refer to Form designer for details.

'Renderer XML' tab

The Renderer XML tab shows the XML structure of the published form, as loaded when the user opens the operative portal. Please refer to Form designer for details.

Data fields in portals

For the context of portals it is important that data fields are defined to create or model a certain data structure.

Elements of a form without a data field (no text in the Data field property) are ignored. For an element containing other elements (see Element containers) this means that the container does not appear in the data structure, while contained elements with a data field may appear.

Instead of assigning no data field for an element, it is also possible to define it as 'Skipped' by clicking the button next to the Data field property:

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Instead of a data field name, the text 'Skip' is shown in the Data field input field, which is also disabled until the button is clicked again.
Identical effects can be achieved by entering the string $skip$ as a Data field.
If a data field entry exists when switching to 'Skip', it is stored in the background and will be reactivated when the button is clicked again.

►IMPORTANT◄ For elements that do not contain other elements with a data field entry, the 'Skip' setting or leaving the Data field input empty produces identical data structures. However, for an Element containers, the difference is most significant as 'Skip' removes not only the container from the data structure, but also all contained elements with designated data fields.