Publishing a Quick Link to a Hidden Channel

Quicklinks is a persistent callout area that displays links to channels/portlets prioritized by the system administrator; one-click access to popular channels/portlets. Clicking one of the Quicklinks will take the user to a focused view of that channel/portlet. Quicklinks will only display for channels or portlets currently included in a user's layout. However, it is possible to publish a channel as "Hidden" such that appears only in Quicklinks and in the Portal Site Map.

To publish a Quicklink to a hidden channel - follow these steps:

1. Access the Channel Parameters section of the Channel Manager for the desired channel or portlet

2. Enter a new parameter. Name is "quicklink" and the parameter value is positive, non-zero integer (e.g., "1"). Quicklinks parameter value controls the order of the "quicklink" parameter. The Quicklink with the quicklink value of 1 will be first, 2 will be second, and so on, for however many channels have been setup as Quicklinks. If more than one Quicklink has the same quicklink number (e.g., both have quicklink=1), they will be secondarily ordered based on their order in the XML (both Quicklinks with quicklink=1 will be ordered before the link with quicklink=2, and the two Quicklinks with quicklink=1 will be given first or second position based on whether it had priority position in the XML).

3. Enter a second new parameter. Name is "removeFromLayout" and the parameter value should be set to "true". This will cause the channel or portlet not to appear on any tab to which it is added.

4. Using Customize, add the channel or portlet to the desired fragment or if included in a template user layout - log in as the template user and add to the appropriate tab. The practice of using a hidden channel is recommended primarily for fragments where the institution controls the content rather than the end user.

The example below shows how the hidden channel will be displayed in the Customize view. Quicklinks are pulled only from the available channels in a user's layout.

A Quicklink will not appear for a channel if that channel does not exist in the user's layout on at least one tab as either a hidden or visible channel/portlet.

5. Users will now be able to access the channel from the Quicklinks menu or site map, but the channel will no longer appear on the individual tab to which it has been published. Clicking the Quicklink will result in a display of the focused view of that channel.