Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 Best Practices

Portals and Publishing

Because most people equate publishing with a portal, we will begin our discussion of publishing site templates with portals. What is a portal? A portal is generally considered the entry point or area for a much larger space or continuum of spaces. A portal in our context is generally considered a site presenting a point of entry to the Internet or intranet that normally includes a collection of links to other sites arranged in some logical order and a search engine.

You may find it useful to keep in mind the original definitions of portal as an entrance, door, or gate to a building when you design a portal. Others analogize a vestibule, porch, or foyer of a building when they design a portal. When you enter the foyer of an ...