Changes

Now that we have User Roles and we know what our users are going to do in the system, we can decide where we are going to create the portal.

There are two ways in which you can create a portal. You can create the portal on the Common role which is aggregated, meaning assets are shared across multiple roles, or you can create a portal on a single role. If you take this path, assets will not be shared and users will need to flip between roles.

Creating a portal on the common aggregate role is recommended. This role is not the same as all other roles, as you did not need to create it. The common role is a construct that automatically appears in all SmartSimple system. Anything you add to the common role can be permissioned to be seen by all or some of the roles you have created in your system.

To use this option, build your portal on the common role. When you create an asset such as a section inside the common role portal, you can permission that asset to be viewable by specific roles. This way you can build an asset like a help link and share it amongst all user roles. If you need to change the help link, you change it in one place and all users will see that change. If a user has multiple roles, they will be able to see and do whatever all their roles have permission to do. Lastly, creating assets on the common role means users do not need to switch between portals using a drop down in the header, as they can always see whatever they have permission to see and do.

This portal configuration is generally not recommended. With this option, you create a portal on each role. So, the applicant portal is built on the applicant role and the reviewer portal is built on the reviewer role. The drawback to this approach is that if you need to create a help link, you need to build it on each role. If you want to change the link you must go into each role to change it. If users have multiple roles, there is a drop down in the header that allows the user to switch between applicant and reviewer portals, but you only see one portal at a time and don’t have access to all the functionality that has been permissioned for you at one time. Although it is easy to understand and configure one portal per role, it is generally harder to maintain and provides a worse user experience, given people may have multiple roles (example I am an employee and grant manager).

The portal header consists of 3 elements: the Logo, the user menu and the main menu.

There are also two styles of header, the default and the compact.

[[File:Portal-link-subtab.png|thumb|none|500px|Two types of main menu links the page and section or the sub tab]]

The compact header style displays everything in a single line. It features consistent interactions, takes up less vertical real estate and looks more modern. We suggest you turn on this system-wide setting, but be aware it will affect all users for all roles. To enable the compact header, go to menu icon > global settings > branding > toggle on Enable Compact header.

[[File:Portal-compact-vs-default.png|thumb|none|500px|Compact header and default header]]

By default, your header will have a user menu and main menu that are separated. Some users find this confusing and cluttered so you may want to avoid this style of header.

Inside the body of the portal, a page will be displayed. The user clicks a link in the main menu or user menu to change which page is displayed in the body of the portal. The user can also navigate to other pages from inside the page. Inside that page, you will likely have sections. Think of each section as a box or container. Inside each section, you will add content such as a list view, chart, text or shortcuts.

To create a page for your portal, navigate to '''Global Settings''' > '''Users''' tab > '''Portals''' and edit the desired portal. Under the '''Portal Page''' title bar, click the plus button to add a portal page.

You can create a section by clicking the add section button.

Inside the section there are differing options based on the type you select. Not all options are available for all types. Typically, you will see the following:

If you are creating a section on the common role (recommended) you will see the permission tab. On this tab you specify which roles will see this section.

The order in which menu items appear is from left to right. You can reorder the sections by clicking the enable reorder button. Then, drag and drop rows to order your items as you desire.

After you have created a section you can move it to another location within your portal by using the move button in the submit bar.

Beyond choosing the layout, you can choose how you want your sections to look.

There are three theme options: Default, White paper, and website. You can mix and match these themes at the page level. So, you could have a home page that uses the website theme and then another page for applications in progress that uses the white paper theme. It's easy to flip between themes and see which will work best for you.

Note: in the shortcut section I have toggled off margin and shadow for the shortcut section. This setting is found on the display tab of that section.

The White paper theme has no boxes. Everything is clean and white with extra padding, content is bigger for better visibility and text is aligned center. Typically, this theme is used for people who are doing a few simple tasks or by those who like a more modern look.

Note: to create the top banner, I used a section container and uploaded a background image and set the background opacity to Low and changed the font color to white. These controls are found on the display tab of this section. Inside the sub section I created a text template and set its width to 65% so the text does not cover the image at most resolutions.

Once you have created a main menu link and set it to sections, you have a number of section options. Below is an overview of each section option.

[[File:Portal-section-contain.png|thumb|none|500px|Section container with a text type section inside]]

This section type is used to display multiple sections within a single section. For example, you could have a section called applications and then within that section, you could have a number of tabs such as Applications in progress, applications in review and applications funded. The user can click on any tab to see the corresponding list view. Optionally you can choose to show the record count for each tab as well as choose to have a new button and a search panel.