LibPaths portlets are windows of information embedded into a portal. Portlets contain widgets used to create and display content and a set of tools that allows you to manage the unique attributes of each portlet.

Each portlet contains a widget which determines the source of the content displayed in the portlet. Portlets can be manually published and unpublished as required to match timetable requirements. Published portlets on a portal will automatically rearrange themselves based on their current state of publication.

LibPaths Portal Structure

LibPaths is used to build and manage one or more portals including tools to:

• optionally create and display a banner (header) widget to span the top of all columns of the portal,
• create one or more small windows (portlets) on each portal,
• insert snippets of information (widgets) within each portlet,
• drag and drop portlets into a variety of column layouts,
• create your own attractive presentations, including branding,
• import portals professionally created by subject experts,
• assign portals to specific target audiences (who sees),
• publish portals and portlets based on semester timetables (when do they see).

Portals are designed to deliver specific and relevant teaching and learning materials to students' and teachers' devices in sync with the teaching timetable throughout the academic year.

Each portal can be scheduled to automatically be available in sync with each student's curriculum timetable for the academic year. This results in portals dynamically cycling, between visibility and non-visibility throughout the year, to ensure students and teachers are not distracted by irrelevant information and only see the portals which match the units of work they are studying at that time. 

Portals can be similarly created and dynamically displayed for individual teachers of for groups of teachers giving each teacher instant access to relevant teaching materials.

You must create and manage portals before you can add portlets to it.

Manage Portlets And Widgets

In LibPaths, a portal widget is a packet of information or resources. A widget might be a:

• set of library books for reading or research presented as a carousel,
• collection of digital resources like websites, podcasts, and videos,
• and interactive game,
• mixed set of library books and digital resources,
• specific search of your catalogue,
• useful clip of information,
• messages for the target audience.

A widget can be:

• static - information displayed does not change until explicitly edited
• dynamic - information changes when the data source changes

LibPaths has a library of different portlet widgets. Those in bold font below are likely to be the most commonly used, bold and italic font are available for some library management systems:

1. Text Content - WYSIWYG Editor for messages, embedded images, media, text, and most digital resources that have embed codes.
2. Resource Carousel - show a range of physical and digital resources presented as a carousel and populated via a realtime catalogue query search.
3. Popular Searches - displays most popular books searched for by logged in student's peers.
4. Search Website - list is populated from Searchable Websites you have configured and allows you to add them to a portlet.
5. Search - adds standard student catalogue search options to remote systems, e.g., school learning management system.
6. RSS Feed - Really Simple Syndication school-approved news feeds accessible to the logged on student.
7. My Profile - allows logged on student to review their loans and reservations.
8. Video - embed media from a variety of streaming sources.

Move portlets around the portal page by dragging them to a new location.

Add A Portlet To A Portal

If not open, click {portal name} on the list of portals or clickto create a new portal:

1. - to open the portlet widget library.
2. Click to select the portlet widget you want to add. Note: Refer to widget type listed above.
3. Populate widget as required.
4. :
   1. Title - the name that will display in the header of the portal if enabled.
   2. Published:
      1. - student will see this portlet when the portal is open
      2. - student will not see this portlet when the portal is open
   3. Portal Height:
   4. Auto - portlet will display in optimum height based on content and widget
   5. Fixed - set portlet height to suit based on local preferences. Note: Experiment with heights between 300 and 800 to find the optimum for each portlet.
5. Portlet styling:
   1. If required, set this portlet's style attributes. Note: These will override portal and general styling attributes.
6. In-portal navigation:
   1. Analytics - CSS Selectors - unique portlet identifier to use when manually creating a portal navigation menu
   2. Auto-Menu preference > Portal Style > Auto-Menu:
      1. None - no menu or manually create a menu.
      2. Top - place menu across the top of the portal.
      3. Left - place menu down the left side of the portal.
      4. Right - place menu down the right side of the portal.
   3. Administrative Description - a brief description (200 characters maximum) of the purpose of the portlet
7. - to return to the portal canvas.
8. For convenience, the each new portlet will be be positioned in the top left corner of the portal canvas.
9. Rearrange by dragging the portlet to your preferred location.
10. - publish when ready if not already published. Note: A newly created portlet will be shaded grey until it is published.

Portlet Quick Editing Tools

After selecting a widget for your portlet, populate it as required and choose the setting to apply:

• Title - give your portlet a suitable title.
• Published - click to publish. Note: Unpublished portlets will lay dormant until published. Unpublished portals do not create "white space" on a portal with published portals sliding up to cover the white space.
• Source - can be either a catalogue query or a prepared list.
• Item Display -how many items should be displayed per portlet.
• Portlet Height - set a height for the portlet. Note: Use to set portlet height as required. 
• Max Items - maximum items to show on a carousel. Note: List carousels are limited to 20 items, catalogue search carousels are limited to 1,000 items.
• Rotation - time in seconds between rotations.
• Slide Pips - show small dots below the portlet to indicate progress of a carousel.
• Item Title - show the item title below the images
• Item Peek - show a part of the next title on the carousel to inform "more to come".
• Randomise Items - display items in random order. Note: Default order for a list is "as added", default order for a catalogue query is alphabetic by title.
  
• Video Platform - choose from the available options.
• Video ID - paste the unique video ID from the video source.
• Feed URL - RSS feed.
• Twitter Username - Twitter handle.
• - reset display attributes for this portlet only. Note: Other portlets on the portal will not be effected and will continue to be governed by pre portal styling.
• - record meta information about the portlet.

Portlet management tools available on each portlet in portal edit mode and/or in portal content list mode:

1. Published shared status of this portlet:
   1. - not published on this portal - the intended audience will not be able to see it.
   2. - published on this portal - the intended audience will be able to see it. Note: Use this switch to manually control publication and switch between published and unpublished as required.
2. - share the widget in this portlet as an interactive embedded widget in other websites, e.g., a school learning management system. Note: Not all widgets are shareable and sharing a widget from here will copy the widget and place it in your Internet Accessible Widgets library.
3. - this widget is embedded in other websites, click to go to the widget in the Internet Accessible Widget library.
4. - copy or move this widget:
   1. Target Portlet - choose target from list. Note: The target portal must exist before you can copy or move a widget to it.
   2. - to Target Portlet and leave in source portlet. The copied portlet will be unpublished. Note: Target portlet can be any portlet including the source portlet.
   3. - to Target Portlet and remove from source portlet. The moved portlet will be in the same published state. Note: Target portlet can be any portlet except the source portlet.
5. - edit properties and attributes of this portlet.
6. - delete this portlet.

Share Portlets

Some portlets can be shared outside your library environment, e.g., within your school's Learning Management System (LMS). These are stored in the Internet Accessible Widgets library. Shared widgets are both dynamic and interactive.

Being interactive means that widgets shared maintain their links to your collection. If a student clicks on a widget embedded in the LMS then the corresponding book, video, or podcast, or other asset will be retrieved from your collection.

Being dynamic means that if you change widgets content then those changes will automatically publish into any shared instances of that widget in your Learning Management System (LMS). If you add a resource to a widget carousel list in Infiniti that resource will automatically flow through to every instance of that widget in the LMS. If you remove a resource from a widget carousel list in Infiniti it will automatically be removed from every instance of that widget in the LMS.

Editing Text Widget

The LibPaths Text Widget Editor allows you to edit your LibPaths Text Widget. It is based on the common TinyMCE and is not supported by Concord. Contact your IT Support officer for assistance on using TinyMCE.