[SOLVED] How can I add a classic portlet at the root of the portal when my product is installed?

How can I add a classic portlet at the root of the portal when my product is installed?

What is the simplest way to do this? I added it in the portlets.xml file in profiles/default. It is now available in the "Add portlet" dropdown when I go to @@manage-portlets. But I need it automatically created.

Is it possible to explicitly specify the set of portlets I want on the right and left columns inside my profiles/default?

Solution

You can register your classic portlet trough the portlets.Classic portlet, configured with a template and macro name, using an assignment element in your portlets.xml file:

<assignment
    manager="plone.rightcolumn"
    category="context"
    key="/"
    type="portlets.Classic"
    name="my-classic-portlet"
    visible="1">
  <property name="template">templatename</property>
  <property name="macro">macroname-found-in-template</property>
</assignment>

See the Portlets section of the GenericSetup manual on Plone.org or the original PLIP for details on Portlet assignments and GenericSetup.

The properties match the portlet dataprovider interface, see the Classic Portlet source code for the interface definition for the Classic Portlet.