Navigation Model 

The navigation model supplies a framework to customize the Portal navigation. The navigation model has three levels:

·        Data Level

This level contains the navigation connectors that provide the navigation hierarchy.

·        Integration Level

This layer manages the navigation flow. It represents the navigation service.

·        Visualization Level

This level contains the navigation iViews. The iViews display the navigation hierarchies retrieved from the navigation service.

The retrieval of the navigation data takes place as follows:

·        The initialization of the Portal initializes the navigation service and the navigation connectors become registered.

·        The navigation iView calls the navigation service API to retrieve the navigation initial nodes or finds a node specified by its name. The navigation service retrieves the navigation information from the registered navigation connectors and returns the navigation nodes to the navigation iView. The navigation service preprocesses the request by sorting and merging the navigation nodes.

·        The navigation iView uses the retrieved navigation node(s) to display the navigation hierarchy. The navigation API supplies several methods to get attributes of the navigation node.