What's new for user interface developers

This release includes new features, such as enhancements to the provided theme, to make developing and customizing your site easier.

Theme

The theme that is immediately available is optimized to separate the theme from the portal features. To separate the design from how the site works, the theme uses a modularized framework. The modules that you include in the theme can enable and disable features such as search. Here is an example of this separation. In a staging or development environment, authors need the capability to edit content in context. However, on the delivery or live site, authors should not be able to edit content. The same theme is used in both the development environment and the live environment. The only difference is which modules are included.

Learn more about the included theme and theme architecture.

Mobile Portal Theme

The WebSphere Portal Mobile Experience WebKit theme, also called the mobile theme, includes a code selection for navigation and page layout that is designed specifically for WebKit mobile devices. You can start with the sample code and then customize it for your needs. The mobile theme includes:
  • Sample mobile navigation widgets that follow common mobile application navigation patterns
  • Sample mobile page layouts that demonstrate common content interaction patterns

The mobile theme is available on the Lotus and WebSphere Portal Business Solutions Catalog.

Web Experience Factory builders

Web Experience Factory includes new smartphone builders and samples to help you generate mobile portlets and pages faster. Builders include:
  • Native-looking navigation tabs, lists, buttons, and controls
  • Scrolling lists with display options, such as thumbnails and multiple line test with multiple styles
  • Access to smartphone features, such as HTML 5, orientation, and geographical location
  • Input UI patterns appropriate for smartphones, such as selectable lists and check box lists