Note for Liferay in Acation: chapter 1

Portal: a single-based web-based environment from which all of a user's applications can run. These applications are integrated together in a consistent and systematic way.

At its base, Liferay is a container for integrated applications.
Liferay is a portal, its applications are called portlets.

Liferay is a content manager;
Liferay is a collaboration tool;
    Document Library
    Wiki
    Calendar portlet
Liferay is anything you want it to be and any way you want it to look
    cumstomization
    Theme
    plugin
    add functionality

How Liferay structures a portal
    1. The high-level view
        a Liferay server consists of one or more portals. Portals have users, and these users can be categorized into various collections: roles, organizations, communities, user groups, and any combination of those collections within that portal.
            Collection type        Description
            Role                       Collects users by their function. Permissions in the portal can be attached to roles.
            Organization        Collects users by their position in a hierarchy. Organizations can be nested in a tree structure.
            Community           Collects users who have a common interest. Communities are single entities and can't be grouped hierarchically.
            User group           Collects users for purposes that cut across the portal. User groups are defined portal administrators.
        Roles are inherently linked to permissions. You use a role to collect users who have the same permissions.
        Organizations are hierachical collections of users.
        Communites are ad hoc collections of users.
        User groups are defined by portal administrators.They're used to collect users for purpose that tend to cut across the portal.
    2. Adding content to a collection with pages
        Pages are clickable, navigable web pages. Pages are organized into layout sets, in two types: public and private.
        User groups don't have pages per se but rather can have page templates.
        a roles collections has no pages.
    3. Configuring a portlet's scope
        scope is important when it comes to how permissions are defined.
        scope also comes into play with regard to certain Liferay built-in portlets.
        NON-INSTANCEABLE PORTLETS
            non-instanceable portlet's set of data belongs to that community or organization.
            by default, all non-instanceable portlets that belong to the same community or organization point to the same instance of data.
        INSTANCEABLE PORTLETS
            instanceable portlet's set of data belongs to the users.
            This means you can place as many of them as you like on the same pages in any community or organization, and by default, they all have their own configurations.
            <Liferay: Add > More: the interface indicates: if there's a green icon with two windows, the portlet is instanceable; if there's a purple icon with one window, the portlet is non-instanceable.>
        PAGE SCOPES
            configure on a per-portlet basis

Liferay's interface philosophy: get out of the user's way.
    Lifreray's Control Panel is the central location where just about everything can be administered. It contains:
        User Name
        Content
        Portal
        Server

Imagining your site in Liferay
    Collaboration API
    Social API
    Portal design is best done by breaking up your site into small chunks and then design each chunk individually.
    break the design process into three main portal chunks:
        User groupings
        Organizations and communities
        Content
    1. Asking the right question
    2. Defining and categorizing collections
    3. Designing content