Configuring portals

This page contains the following topics:

• To create a portal
• To access a portal
• To edit a portal
• To delete a portal

During installation, only the Default System Portal is created. This portal cannot be edited or deleted. However, you can create custom portals and configure all of the settings, or copy the Default System Portal and modify the copy.

One or more portals can be assigned to a system role. You can designate a portal as the default portal so that users can see their default portal after they log in. Users having access to multiple portals can view and switch between the assigned portals.When anonymous access is enabled, each portal can be accessed using its own URL. For more information, see To access a portal.

For example, you might configure a customer-only portal that shows only those objects that a customer needs to submit requests, view or update their tickets, search the knowledge base, and so on. If a user is authorized for multiple portals, those portals are listed under the More menu.

Portals are also used by the system to present customer surveys so that users can access the survey page in FootPrints anonymously (without logging in).

You can add consoles to your portals and define each console's features. Consoles set as "Visible" are available to the users assigned to the portals where the console is included. One console must be set as "Active" for each portal to function as the default Home page. You can also set consoles to be closable so users can show and hide them as needed. For more information, see Configuring consoles.

To create a portal

1. Click the Administration tab.
2. In the Portal Management section, click Portals.
   The Portal Manager page appears, showing the available portals.
3. Click New.
4. In the Name field, enter a descriptive name.
5. (Optional) In the Description field, type a useful description of this portal's purpose.

6. In the Logo field, click Upload to select the logo file that will display in the portal header.
   The image uploaded to the Logo field is always scaled to 50 pixels in height and the width is scaled based on the original dimension.
   For example, if the original picture is 900x600 pixels, it is rescaled to 75x50 pixels, where 50 pixels height is constant and 75 pixels width is scaled based on the original dimension.

7. In the Theme field, select the theme that you want to use (see Themes).
   Select the Accessibility theme to enable users to view an orange square around the control that they might want to use in FootPrints. The orange square enables the users to know that they can use the Tab key and keyboard shortcuts while using the application. For more information, see Keyboard shortcuts to perform actions.

8. (Optional) If you want to use this portal as the default, select the Default Portal check box.
9. (Optional) To allow users to sign in without a unique user ID, select Allow Anonymous Access.
10. Move at least one console from the Available Consoles column to the Selected Consoles column.
    To remove consoles from the portal, move them back to the Available Consoles field.
11. For each console in the Selected Consoles list, select options: Visible, Closable, and Active.
    Each selected console will be available from the More tab on the Welcome page.You must select one portal as the Active portal. The console identified as Active is the one that displays on log-in.
12. (Optional) To change the order in which the consoles display on the Welcome page, move the entries up and down the list.
13. (Optional) To create a console and add it to the Available Consoles list:
    
    1. Click Add Console.
       The Console: New page appears.
    2. Configure the console properties and click Save.
       For more information, see Configuring consoles.
    3. Click Refresh.
14. (Optional) To edit a console in the list, you must open it on the Consoles page.
    For more information, see Configuring consoles.
15. Click Save.
    The new portal is created. A message appears, showing the URL assigned to this portal for logging in using anonymous access.
    If anonymous access is not permitted, users are sent to the default Login page. To allow anonymous access, see step 9.

Themes

FootPrints 2019 Release 02 introduces the following six new themes:

The Default theme is renamed to Classic and is still available. While Classic theme is not marked deprecated for future releases, BMC recommends to use one of the six new themes.

The following themes are now deprecated but are still available in FootPrints 2019 Release 02:

These themes are scheduled to be removed in a future release of FootPrints. BMC recommends to stop using the deprecated themes in applications.

To access a portal

You can access a portal using the following format:

<http://IPAddress:Port/footprints/servicedesk/portal/set/PortalId>

where, PortalId is the unique ID to identify a portal.

To edit a portal

1. Click the Administration tab.
2. In the Portal Management section, click Portals.
3. Select the portal that you want to modify and click Edit.
4. Modify the fields as needed, using the information in To create a portal.
5. Click Save.
   Your changes are available the next time the affected users log into FootPrints. 

To delete a portal

1. Click the Administration tab.
2. In the Portal Management section, click Portals.
3. Select the portal that you want to delete and click Delete.
   A confirmation message appears.
4. Click Yes.
   The portal is no longer listed.

Next step

Configuring user roles

Related topics

Changing the look and feel of FootPrints

Configuring consoles