How-to Create A Multi-Project, Two-Column Comparison Portal

Goal

Our goal is to create a portal that will use two columns to present information about two different products in Bugzilla with portlets that are side-by-side for comparison.

Estimated Time Required

About 5 minutes if modifying the pre-existing configuration. Between 10-30 minutes to define a new portal and add it to the Bugs Dashboard.

Business Value

Allows an organization to compare to projects side-by-side using the same criteria (assuming you define the same portlets in the same order for both columns).

Prerequisites

  1. Installation and configuration of the Bugs Dashboard as detailed in the How-to Install and How-to Configure pages

Process For Modifying The Pre-Defined Side-By-Side Portal

The Bugs Dashboard version 3.0 ships with a pre-defined two-column portal layout. The portals_en_US.properties file that ships in version 3 defines the sixth portal (portal5 in the properties) as a two column “side-by-side” portal. We will cover the process to modify that file here. In the next method, we will clone this portal and modify it to your needs.

  1. Stop the Servlet container (i.e. stop Tomcat)
  2. Navigate to the /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF/classes directory under Tomcat.
  3. (Optional) If you would like to change the title of the tab for this portal from “Side-by-Side”, edit the portals_en_US.properties file (or the appropriate localized file for your country and language). Find the group of characteristics for “portal5″ and change the title. Save and close the file.
  4. The pre-defined side-by-side portal uses the projectF_portlets_en_US.properties. You must edit this file. You will find it in the same location as the portals property file (i.e. /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF/classes). You will obviously want to change the title for each portlet and you must change the product name which each is restricted to. The pre-defined properties are laid out with both portlets appearing back-to-back; one in column 0 (left) and one in column 1 (right).
    Side by side screen shot
    You may add or remove portlets from this file, but be careful to restrict the portlet to the correct product so that one product is always on the left (column 0) and the other is always on the right (column 1). You must also be certain to keep the classNames unique! If you change a className property in the portlets file (by adding a new one or modifying an existing entry), you must also change the dwr.xml file (see below). Save and close the file when you have finished editing the portlets.
  5. (Optional) If you changed a className in the projectF_portlets_en_US.properties file above, you must edit the dwr.xml file. This file is located in the /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF directory.
    dwr.xml file
    Copy the last group (i.e. to ) as highlighted above and paste it back in as a new group. Edit the new group to match not only the name you used in the portlets property file, but also the correct package. Save and close the file.
  6. Start Tomcat

Process For A New Portal

The process of creating a new side-by-side comparison portal does not differ from the above process of modifying the pre-existing definition by very many steps. In this process, you will edit the portals file, copy the projectF_portlets_en_US.properties file, and possibly edit the dwr.xml file.

  1. Stop the Servlet container (i.e. stop Tomcat)
  2. Navigate to the /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF/classes directory under Tomcat.
  3. Edit the portals_en_US.properties file (or the appropriate localized file for your country and language). Find the group of characteristics for “portal5″ and copy that group. Paste the new group into the the file at the position you wish to see it on the menu bar. Change the group number, incrementing it by one and then change the portalX number of each successive group in the file (where X equals the number of the group). Change the total number of portlets at the top of the file, incrementing it by 1. Return to your new group and set the title and, if appropriate, the portlets properties for the new group. Save and close the file.
  4. The pre-defined side-by-side portal uses the projectF_portlets_en_US.properties. You will find it in the same location as the portals property file (i.e. /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF/classes). You should copy this and create a file by the same name you used in the portals property file. Open the new file and edit it. You will obviously want to change the title for each portlet and you must change the product name which each is restricted to. The pre-defined properties are laid out with both portlets appearing back-to-back; one in column 0 (left) and one in column 1 (right). Refer to the graphic above. You may add or remove portlets from this file, but be careful to restrict the portlet to the correct product so that one product is always on the left (column 0) and the other is always on the right (column 1). You must also be certain to keep the classNames unique! If you change a className property in the portlets file (by adding a new one or modifying an existing entry), you must also change the dwr.xml file (see below). Save and close the file when you have finished editing the portlets.
  5. (Optional) If you changed a className in the projectF_portlets_en_US.properties file above, you must edit the dwr.xml file. This file is located in the /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF directory. See the above graphic for the dwr.xml file. Copy the last group (i.e. to ) as highlighted above and paste it back in as a new group. Edit the new group to match not only the name you used in the portlets property file, but also the correct package. Save and close the file.
  6. Start Tomcat