A while ago, we had a sample application called "start" available for download on this site. That app allowed the user to create a simple "start page" using HomePortals, and was built with the intention of showing how HomePortals could be used to integrate multiple 'widgets' or modules on the same page. The application eventually got removed cause I didn't kept it in sync with the changes in HomePortals.

So, fast forward until today, the application is now again available for download. The app is now called StartPage and it is now much improved. The current version allows to have multiple users. Each user can have their own "microsite" in which they can aggregate widgets.

The goal is now to provide a sample or baseline to show how this types of applications can be built with HomePortals. So developers that are looking to build their own widget containers can use StartPage as a starting point and then change the content, layout, available modules, or anything else that they can think of.

StartPage can be found on the 'Downloads' section of this site, and requires only HomePortals 3.2 to work. Other than that, just unzip into a directory called "Start" and you are good to go.

Have fun, and let me know what you think.

Hi, I wanted to announce that HomePortals 3.2 is now available for download. There are tons of new changes which can be found here.

HomePortals can be downloaded from the usual location at: http://www.homeportals.net/downloads.cfm

Also, the wiki has been updated to reflect what's new in 3.2

An update to Coldbricks will follow in the next few days so that it remains compatible with the latest HomePortals version. However, until then, Coldbricks is only compatible with HomePortals 3.1

Any feedback and comments are **really** appreciated.

Oscar

The Nightly Build download and changelog links have now been changed to point to the HomePortals 3.2 branch.

My goal is to start testing 3.2 on live sites and see how it behaves, if there is anything to fix or if any other ideas appear for improvement, and later on replace 3.1 as the "current" version of HomePortals.

I guess the biggest change in HomePortals 3.2 is the move from LGPL to Apache 2 as open source license. I feel Apache is a much more business-friendly license while still within the open source spirit (in a practical way).

There are other changes that are oriented to making developing apps with HomePortals more easier and fun. For a full list of changes, check out this wiki page.

However, HomePortals 3.2 is for the most part backwards compatible with 3.1, requiring minimal changes (if any) to existing apps to work with it.

HomePortals 3.2 can be downloaded from the downloads page at:

http://www.homeportals.net/downloads.cfm

As always all input and feedback is welcome.

It took me a lot longer that I would have liked, but finally I managed to wrote down then entire documentation for the HomePortals framework.

I tried to focus more on how the framework should be used to build apps, rather on just merely describing everything. So you will find a couple of tutorials there, and a lot of tips and best practices.

The full documentation is now available on the HomePortals wiki at:

http://wiki.homeportals.net

Please check it out and feel free to point out anything that seems wrong or if there should be any aspect that requires more explanation.

Enjoy!

A while ago I wrote on my blog a short post describing how to use the jQuery's UILayout plugin along with HomePortals. That was written for the early beta of HomePortals 3.1, and since then a lot has changed so the example given no longer works. I have updated the blog post and the code examples, along with the included zip file so that it works with the most recent HomePortals version.

You can check the updated blog post here: http://www.oscararevalo.com/index.cfm/2009/4/6/Using-jQueryUIlayout-to-handle-HomePortals-layouts