Edit the Portal page
Place Blocks on the platform's front page, check the draft as a Visitor and as a signed-in person, then publish.
This page shows how to edit the Portal, the platform's front page, by placing Blocks on it and publishing. The people who see this page are Visitors, who are not signed in, and people who are signed in.
Your role needs Edit the Portal page under Portal page (Roles). The Administrator role already has it. If you want Visitors to see the page without signing in, you must also turn on Public access.
Open the editor
- Open the Portal at
https://<your platform>/and sign in. - Click Edit this page. The button appears only for people who have Edit the Portal page.
The editor opens on the Portal page itself, not in Configuration. The first time, it starts from the platform's default page, which has a welcome text and an Apps Block. If your account does not have the permission, it says "You cannot edit this page" and you do not see the draft.
What you see is the real page. Each Block has a dashed frame, there is an add button between Blocks, the page editor bar is at the very top, and when you choose a Block, a Settings panel opens beside the page (on a narrow screen it slides up from the bottom).
Name, line and logo
Click the card Edit the site's name, line and logo, then fill in Site name, Line under the name and Logo. The name and the line can be in both Thai and English.
These three apply as soon as they are saved. They do not wait for Publish. People who already have the page open see them when they reload.
Add and arrange Blocks
- Click Add a block where you want it.
- Choose the kind of Block. See Kinds of Block.
- Set its content in the Settings panel at the side. The page changes as you edit.
Each Block has the buttons Move up, Move down, Duplicate, Settings and Remove. If you remove one by mistake, click Undo in the message that appears.
A page can have at most 50 Blocks. My work, at the top for signed-in people, appears by itself and is not a Block, so you cannot place or move it.
A Block with no content yet, such as a map with no Item chosen, is shown in the editor as a frame that says it is empty, and is not drawn on the real page.
Kinds of Block
| Block | What it shows | What you set |
|---|---|---|
| Map | A web map shared as public, full width at the top or inside the page | The Map, the Layout (Full width at the top or Inside the page), the Height (pixels), a title and a description |
| Collection | Cards of Items, as a Grid, a Carousel or a List | Items picked one by one (at most 48) or the Items of a whole folder, and Show at most |
| Numbers | Up to four live numbers calculated from public tables | For each number: the Table, the Calculation (Count rows, Sum or Average), the Column to calculate, a condition to filter rows, the Label and the Number format |
| Catalogue | Every public Item, so people can search, filter, preview and download | The Types shown and Only inside a folder (optional) |
| Text | A heading, text, an image and a button | The heading, the text, an image with its description, and a button with its link |
| Announcements | Short notices that disappear by themselves after the date you set (at most 20) | The notice text, Show until, and a link (optional) |
| Links | Icon buttons to any address (at most 24) | The Link text, the Address and the Icon |
| Apps and systems | The Apps installed on the platform, and other systems that share its sign-in | Show the Apps installed on this site and Other systems (at most 24). Each system has an Address that opens the system |
Text in a Block can be in both languages. If you fill in only one, people who use the other language see the one you filled in. The Text field understands a short Markdown: headings (#), bold (**), italic (*), links and lists. HTML is not accepted.
An address in a Block must start with https://, or be a page on this platform that starts with /, such as /maps/<id>.
A notice shows until the end of the date you give (in UTC). If you leave it empty, it never expires.
The Catalogue Block is different from the others. It does not show only what you place. It shows every Item on the platform that is public (what appears on the Portal).
Images
In a Text Block and for the logo, click Choose an image (or Replace the image, Remove the image). Use a PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or AVIF file of at most 5 MB. An uploaded image can be opened without signing in. The editor checks the type and size before it sends the file, and says why if it does not pass.
Who sees which Block
In the Settings panel of each Block, the field Who sees this block has two values.
| Choose | Who sees it |
|---|---|
| Everyone, including people who are not signed in | Everyone, but Visitors see it only once Public access is on |
| Only people who are signed in | Only people who are signed in |
The Apps and systems Block starts as Only people who are signed in. Every other Block starts as Everyone. If Public access is not on yet, Visitors see no Block at all, even one set to Everyone.
The draft saves by itself
Every edit is saved as a Draft by itself, about a second after you stop. You do not click save, and nobody sees the Draft except the people who edit. The top bar shows the state, such as "Saving the draft…" or "Draft saved by" followed by a name and a time, and "Unpublished changes" when the Draft differs from the published page.
- If a field is filled in wrongly, there is red text under it, and the bar says "Not saved: N problems to fix first". The Draft is not saved until you fix every one.
- If the save fails, your changes stay on the page. Click Try again, or keep editing, and it tries to save again.
- If you leave the page with something not saved, it asks first.
Warnings for things Visitors cannot open
The editor checks every Item you place, and every layer of a web map you place, to see whether Visitors can read it. If not, the Block shows a warning such as "is not shared public", with the level now (internal, private or unknown), and says that Visitors will not see this Item on the page.
Ask the owner of the Item to share it as Public in Drive or in the Item's App, then click Check again. A warning does not stop you from saving or publishing, and the real page does not show what Visitors cannot read, so nothing leaks. That part just disappears from the Visitors' page.
Preview
Use the buttons under View in the top bar.
| Button | Who you see it as |
|---|---|
| Edit | Back to editing the Draft |
| As a visitor | Only the Blocks set to Everyone, and only Items shared as public, like a person who is not signed in. It does not use your permissions. |
| As a signed-in person | Every Block, and My work at the top |
If Public access is not on yet, As a visitor shows the sign-in page and says why. It does not show the Blocks.
Publish
- Click Publish in the top bar. The button works when there is something new to publish and the Draft has no errors.
- Read the summary in the Publish this page box. It gives the number of Blocks, how many Visitors see, how many only signed-in people see, Blocks that are still empty, Blocks that use something Visitors cannot see, and, if Public access is not on yet, it says so.
- Click Publish in the box.
After you publish, people who open the front page see this page at once. If you publish by mistake, edit the Draft and publish again. The platform does not keep a history of pages already published.
Click Leave the editor to go back to the Portal. If it says "Never published", people who open the front page now see the platform's default page, which has a welcome text and an Apps Block for people who are signed in.