Start Centers

Use the following best practices for managing start centers:

• Maintain records in portlet tables.
  • Determine what users are inactive and delete their start center records.
  • If indexes are not present, put indexes on portlet tables. There should be an index on LAYOUTID for all start center portlet configuration tables.
• When a user record is deleted or a user is made inactive, we do not delete that user's start center data.
  • Create a trigger that watches when users are made inactive and deletes them from corresponding tables. (See the tables in blue on the ERD figure below.)
• A high number of queries are fired when a start center is loaded.
  • Starting with Base Services patch 7.1.1.7, start center layout and configuration of a portlet is cached when a user first logs in. Editing a portlet invalidates the cache. Editing the portlet layout invalidates portlet layout cache. Choosing a different start center also invalidates the cache. For administrators, creating a new template invalidates the cache.
    Administrators should make start center templates lean by making sure few templates are not packed with many portlets. It is recommended that only 1-2 result set portlets are configured in any template. Queries being used by the result set portlets should be reviewed. This is especially true for clients using releases prior to 7.1.1.7
    Make sure a user is not given the same template(s) multiple times. Although the user would not see multiple instances of a template on a start center, following this practice reduces some checking during log in.

Start Center Tables

The following table describes start center tables:

The following entity relationship diagram (ERD) shows Start Center tables.