This is a very basic guide to some of the features of the Intelesense Portals. For a more in-depth guide, please visit the Intelesense Portals site.

What is a portal

In the Intelesense system, a portal is a customizable interface to the Intelesense system. It allows groups to create branded information resources using the tools that Intelesense has created.

Using The Portal

While individual portals may be customized in look and feel as well as content, understanding a few key concepts will allow you to work with any Intelesense portal.

Content

Everything you work with in a portal is content. From layers to forum posts to observations, it is all content, and it all follows the same basic rules. As a forum member, you will have permission to create certain types of content, as determined by the portal administrator. The types of content you can create will be listed on the "Create Content" page.

Layers

Layers are the link between a portal and InteleView. If a new layer is created in the portal, it will also appear in the layer menu in InteleView. If a new observation is added to a layer in the portal, a new point will appear in InteleView when that layer is selected.

There are three types of layers

• Containers are for organization, and allow the grouping of other layers, including other containers. They act like folders in a file system.
• Observation Layers are dynamic layers that are created by member-contributed observations. When you create a new observation, it must be added to an Observation Layer.
• File Layers are created when you upload a geodata file.

Observations

"Observations" is a catch-all term for point-based data which is manually entered along with a latitude and longitude. Administrators may define "Observation Types" which include specific fields, such as "observed temperature." Observations are added to "Observation Layers."

An example: A portal set up for use in a classroom environment has one administrator (the teacher) and many members (students). The teacher sets up an Observation Layer called "Invasive Species on School Grounds and assigns the students the task of locating invasive species and recording their location with GPS. Then the students may log into the portal and choose "Create Content" from the left menu, select "Basic Observation," enter the data they collected, and add their data to the "Invasive Species" layer. During the assignment as data is collected, students and the teacher can keep track of progress by viewing the layer in InteleView.