Hiding Portal Folders

A common security requirement is to hide a portal folder in the left hand navigation menu from users. For example, the PeopleTools folder.

This article goes through the approaches available and how to do it correctly.

Hiding a Folder from Portal Navigation

One approach is to go into Portal Structure and Content:

Edit the relevant folder, and check the Hide from portal navigation tick box. The problem with doing this is that hides the folder from EVERYONE. Fortunately there is an override - it will not be hidden from anyone with the PeopleSoft Administrator role. This is quite handy - if you were to hide the PeopleTools folder this way you could be in a bit of strife otherwise!

Hiding a Folder using Security

Another approach is take away permission lists from the folder security tab in portal structure and content. This seems to work fine until someone comes along and runs portal security sync.

However you should not be modifying delivered permission lists. Always clone existing permission lists and modify cloned versions. This ensures that next time you patch your security will not be overwritten!

One common issue with this approach is caching. The portal navigation menu is cached and security changes aren't always reflected immediately. You'll typically find that the folder hangs around in the left hand navigation menu even though you've taken away security. Then when you click on a content reference gives the you are not authorized message.

You can tell if you have a caching problem by querying the PSPRSMPERM table to see if your permission list still has access to the relevant folder (e.g. PT_PEOPLETOOLS for the PeopleTools folder). If it doesn't then its a caching issue.

To get around this, use the purge web server memory cache servlet command by issuing the following URL for your environment:

https://{server}/psp/{site}/?cmd=purge&pwd={password}

So at the signon screen, replace ?cmd=login at the end of the URL with ?cmd=purge&pwd=dayoff. Note that dayoff is the default PeopleSoft web profile password.

If you have any issues with running this command or the password see the article on servlet directives.