The Portals Bar

The Portals provide a high level, logical grouping of Enterprise Architect's tools and facilities, to form an entry point into specific features that you might need to apply. They provide access to common tools, custom searches, window layouts and Perspectives. For example, if you want to run searches for particular information in the model, or access the windows that are appropriate to a particular set of actions, you can select a Portal to identify and provide access to those facilities. This makes it easier to set up a work environment within the system, and carry out your tasks in a smooth sequence.

Access

Ribbon

Explore > Portals > <select Portal>

Start > Application > Design > Portals : <Portal> button | <Portal>

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shift+Alt+P

Other

Navigator Toolbar : : All portals.

The Portals window

The Portals window displays on either the left- or right-hand side of the Enterprise Architect work area. It contains the currently-selected Portal and, under the title bar, a Portal selection button for changing the selected Portal.

Once the Portals window is displayed, it remains visible until you specifically select to hide it, or to auto hide it as a tab on the side of the display, using the Portals window context menu options (see the Portals Window Context Menu table later in this topic).

Portals

The system currently provides eight Portals, each consisting of a collapsible hierarchy of option groups and options. If a Portal is too long to display the entire contents at once, a scroll button displays at the top and/or bottom of the Portal. Click on these buttons to scroll the Portal contents up or down (or use the scroll wheel on your mouse, or the keyboard arrow keys).

Portal	Description	See also
Recent Places	Provides links to recently viewed diagrams, documents and files. Links are grouped into these categories: Current Diagrams Recent Diagrams Documents Recent Files
Workspaces	Provides links to the system-provided workspaces that you might use to lay out the Enterprise Architect work area, and to any workspaces that you have created yourself. The categories provided are: Customized ('My Workspaces') Core Design Software Simulation Construction BABOK	Workspaces Portal
Perspectives	Provides a wide range of model Patterns from which you can generate model structures for particular areas of work. The Patterns are organized into groups within Perspectives, and presented for selection through the 'Model Builder' dialog.	Perspectives Portal
Windows	Provides links to the Enterprise Architect windows that you might use. The windows are grouped under the areas of: Exploring the model Properties Diagrams Specialized Tools Trace Collaborate Test Task Maintenance Templates	Windows Portal
Extend	Lists the MDG Technologies currently active in your model - such as ArcGIS or NIEM - and for each one provides links to the facilities for working with those technologies within Enterprise Architect.	Extend Portal
Execute	Provides a wide range of options that help you to: Perform Execution Analysis on your model - building and running the Analyzer scripts Record, Profile, Debug and Simulate the execution of your modeled application Access various windows that display specific aspects of debugging and simulating an application Create and edit code for your application	Execute Portal
Guidebook	Provides links to the library of Enterprise Architect User Guides in PDF format. The Portal initially displays with ten categories of document, each of which can be expanded to a list of the PDF documents in that category.	Guidebook Portal
Learning	Provides links to either the web version of the Enterprise Architect User Guide, or the locally-installed Help if you have downloaded that. The Portal also provides links to a number of useful web pages on the Sparx Systems website, such as the Resources, Tutorials, Webinars and Video Demos pages.	Learning Portal

Portals Window Context Menu

Right-click on the Portals window title bar to display the context menu. You can select the options in this table:

Portal	Description	See also
Dock Left	Docks the Portals window on the left hand side of the work area.
Dock Right	Docks the Portals window on the right hand side of the work area.
Auto Hide	Condenses the Portals window to a tab on the edge of the work area. Mouse-over the tab to re-open the Portals window, move the cursor off the window to return it to a tab.
Hide	Hides - and effectively closes - the Portals window. To re-open the window, select the appropriate option under the 'Explore > Portals' ribbon icon or the appropriate icon on the Start page.
Auto Collapse Groups	Automatically collapses the currently-selected group of options when you expand another group.
<list of portals>	If you right-click anywhere in the Portals window other than the window title, the list of Portals displays. Click on a Portal name to change to that portal in the window.