The Journal Articles portlet and the Journal Content portlet are used to display content created through the Journal portlet. While the Journal portlet creates all content used in CMS, it is the Journal Articles and Journal Content portlet that actually display content to portal users and guests.
The Journal Articles portlet allows a user to be shown articles that have been published within a particular Article Type. This may be Press Releases, Financial Reports, or a Software Version History. As long as there are published articles that can be read, a user can easily access them through the Journal Article portlet. Refer to the following example:
Anytime a new Press Release comes out, the Journal Articles portlet will dynamically show the article in the list. The user can simply click on the title to load the article in a new window.
To use this portlet (assuming it has been added to the current layout):
Click the Configuration link (
) to modify the properties of the portlet. (If portlet borders are not showing, there will be a Configuration link at the top of the portlet).
You can select whether to Show Portlet Borders or enter an optional Portlet Title. Note that the title will only show up if the borders are displayed. Save when you are satisfied with the configurations.
To choose the list of articles to display, go back to the main view (
), and then click on the Preferences icon (
). The above screen will be displayed.
Pick the Community, Article Type, Display per Page, Order By Column, and Order By Type. Click Save when finished, then leave the prefrences page (
) to view the portlet, shown below.
The Journal Content portlet enables a Journal article to be requested and displayed on the portal page. You can easily build and lay out an entire public website with portlets. In fact, Liferay's own website has been built leveraging this new technology.
Shown below are five portlets highlighted in red. Portlet 2 is a Navigation portlet and portlet 4 is a Breadcrumb portlet. Both of those portlets are explained in more detail in Chapter 5. Portlets 1, 3, and 5 are Journal Content portlets that contain static Journal articles.
You can integrate the power of function-rich portlets with the more static information of a Journal article. A company may have an "Investors" page on their website. In one column you may see the Stocks portlet and in another column a Journal Content portlet. The Stocks portlet can display the company's ticker symbol with stock price and the Journal Content portlet can display static content of the latest financial reports. A mortgage company may want to have a Loan Calculator portlet right next to a Journal Content portlet showing an article with current rates and plans.
To use a Journal Content portlet (assuming it has been added to the current layout):
Click the Configuration icon (
) to modify the properties of the portlet. (If portlet borders are not showing, there will be a Configuration link at the top right of the portlet).
You can select whether to Show Portlet Borders or enter an optional Portlet Title. Note that the title will only show up if the borders are displayed. Click Save when you are satisfied with the configurations.
To display the actual content of the article, click on the Setup tab. The screen below will be displayed.
From the drop-down menus, select the Community, Article Type, and Article ID of the Journal article that you want to use. Once this is complete, click Save, and then exit the setup section (
). This will return you to the page that the Journal Content portlet was added, with the new Journal Article displayed. Refer to figure below.