A portal is a dedicated section of your website for specific community members (parents, staff, alumni, etc.) to access role-appropriate content after logging in. This article introduces the concept of portals, covers the choice between public and private, and links to setup and best-practice resources.
💡Quick answers
- What is a portal in Finalsite? A dedicated, role-specific section of your website that gives logged-in constituents a personalized hub of resources, links, and content.
- Deciding what content to put on a portal page? Include login instructions, an Account element, role-specific information, links to external tools like grading systems, news, calendar events, and forms. See the "Best practices for portals" article for more ideas.
- What is the difference between a public and a private portal? A public portal is open to all visitors; a private portal requires constituents to log in with a role-based account to access restricted content.
- Where is a portal's landing page configured? In Domain Settings > Landing Pages tab; each role gets one designated landing page per domain.
- Can you preview portal pages as a specific role would see them? Yes; use the "Log in as this portal user" feature in Constituent Manager to mirror a constituent's site experience.
A portal is a section of your website dedicated to specific members of your community, a one-stop hub of useful information and shortcuts for repeat visitors to your site. This article will help you understand what portal pages are here at Finalsite and what options you have available to you in creating and using portals.
In this article
- Understand the purpose of a portal
- Determine the type of portal
- Create and configure the portal page
- View portal pages as your users will see them
- Other resources
Understand the purpose of a portal
A portal page on a school or district website is a centralized page on your website designed to provide students, parents, and staff with easy access to various resources and services. Some details that you might include on a portal page are:
- how to log in, including an Account element to allow for login, and what to do if users can't access their account
- personalized info based on the user's role
- educational tools and important links
- third-party links to grading and SIS systems
- news and even calendar events to serve as a place for updates and announcements
Determine the type of portal
Portals can be public or protected. Most often, portals are protected sections that users log into their accounts to access. For more details, refer to “Create a role-protected portal.”
You may also want to check out the article, "Best practices for portals" before you go any further. This article will help you understand what the process of eliciting advice and what elements would go best on your page.
Create and configure the portal page
- Add elements of your choice to your page to provide what your different roles will need when arriving at your website.
- Configure your elements in such a way that your portal users will have the most benefits.
- Take advantage of features that work best when the user has logged in.
- For example, a private directory allows you to share personal information securely. Learn how to set this up in the article, “Create a role-protected portal.”
View portal pages as your users will see them
Refer to “Preview role-restricted content” for tips on previewing your portal pages.
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