Configuring the Research Portal
To configure the research portal settings, you must have the Configuration Manager role.
This page explains how to configure the various components of the research portal, such as the headers and footers of its pages, its search bar, and the contents of its home page.
For information about configuring the general settings of the research portal, such as branding and colors, the text appearing on labels, and the date display, see General Settings for the Research Portal and Profiles. For information about configuring researcher profiles, see Configuring Researcher Profiles.
Watch the How to Customize your Research Portal video.
Working with the Research Portal Configuration Page
You can configure various aspects of the research portal in the Research Portal configuration page. This page includes a number of tabs, each of which contains settings for specific parts of the research portal. When you first open the page, you do so by selecting the tab you want to see when the page opens: Configuration Menu > Portal & Profiles > Research Portal > [desired tab]. Once you have the page open, you can open any of the other tabs without leaving the page. When you have finished configuring the settings in the page, select Save to implement them in the research portal.
Updates to the settings in the Research Portal page are only implemented after you select Save at the top of the page.

Header/Footer Tab
To configure the header and footer of the Esploro page, navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal > Header and Footer Configuration, or, when the Research Portal page is already open, select the Header/Footer tab.
Header Settings
You can do the following in this tab:
Option: | Description: |
---|---|
Include sign-in in the header | Displays the Sign In link in the header. |
Include Discover Funding link for signed in users | Displays the Discover Funding link when signed in to Researcher Profiles. Clicking this link displays funding opportunities from Pivot. For more information, see Pivot-PR Integration. |
Include dropdown menu | Displays the dropdown menu in the header. |
Include add assets | When checking this, the Output option displays in the drop down list under the ADD CONTENT button (see Add Content to Profile). |
Include add projects | When checking this, the Project option displays in the drop down list under the ADD CONTENT button (see Add Content to Profile). |
Include add activities | When checking this, the Activity option displays in the drop down list under the ADD CONTENT button (see Add Content to Profile). |
Header
In the Header section, you can define various parts of the header, as described below.

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ENTITIES: This section defines the entities that display in the header drop down menu, as well as on the homepage of the portal. Examples of entities are Works, Researcher Profiles, Research Collections, Projects, etc. To display an entity in the portal, enable the Active button. You can change the order of entities by dragging and dropping.Entities will only display if they contain data.
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CUSTOM LINKS: Here you can configure up to five custom menu links to display in the Portal header, as well as on the dropdown menu on the right of the page. You can include links in the header by selecting Configure from the row actions menu and then selecting the Include in header checkbox.
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Footer Settings
In this section you can control logos and copyright for the footer.
Footer
The Footer section includes two types of records: Titles and Entries. Titles are static text intended as a header for a column of links. Entries include a URL and are clickable links.
Social Media
The Social Media Links section enables you to add a link to your organization's various social media pages. The link is not intended for sharing the page being viewed.
Homepage Tab
In the Homepage tab you can configure the sections that display on the portal homepage . You can can activate/deactivate and reorder all the sections except for home page essentials. To access this page, navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal Configuration and select the Homepage tab.
The sections are described below.
Section | Description | Image |
---|---|---|
Homepage Essentials |
Configure the main items that display on the homepage. Homepage Essentials by default is at the top of the page and is the only homepage section that cannot be reordered. Select Configure in the row actions menu for home.page.actions. The options are listed below. |
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Homepage Essentials - Search |
Enable the homepage search (1 in the image). If this is disabled, the search bar will not display on the homepage. There is an additional search bar in the header (2 in the image) that cannot be disabled. |
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Homepage Essentials - About | From the row actions menu for home.page.about, select Configure. You can provide a title and a short description of what visitors can expect to find in this portal. The title and description display on the homepage. | ![]() |
Homepage Essentials - Scopes and links |
From the row actions menu select Configure. Here you can enable/disable scopes and change the order for the Output search. The following scopes are available:
The selected scopes also display as links under the About section on the homepage. You can determine the order for both the drop down menu and the links by dragging and dropping. You can add more links that will display to the right of the existing scope links. Select Add new link and enter the information, including the URL that the user will go to when clicking the link. The added links display to the right of the selected scope links. You can add up to four new links. Links can be enabled/disabled, but you cannot change their scope, which is defined by the URL that was entered for the link. |
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Homepage Essentials - Entities |
At the bottom of the homepage essentials are direct links to general search pages for example Output, Researcher Profiles, etc. These links are inherited from the Header Footer tab (Entities section), and appear in both the Entities section in the Homepage as well as in the drop down menu in the header. |
Homepage Essentials
Header Drop Down Menu
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Homepage Essentials - Pictures | Add up to five images in the image carousel that displays to the right of the About text. If no images were uploaded, the carousel will not appear in the portal. Images must be stored locally (cannot be linked to another site). An image size can be up to 1MB. The image format must be .jpg or .gif. | ![]() |
Statistics |
Displays the various statistics of the site. |
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Top Ten |
Enables to showcase sets of up to 10 assets. There are three pre-configured sets and you can add up to three itemized sets. To enable display of a set on the homepage, select Configure from the row actions menu and then select the checkbox next to the relevant set/s. You can update the label if needed, for each set. The three predefined sets are:
The above predefined sets do not include assets suppressed from the portal. If you encounter issues with the display of these predefined sets, please contact Esploro Support. In addition, you can display assets from itemized sets that you created (up to three asset sets displayed on the Homepage in total). Provide a title for the set and select the assets to display. If a set is empty, it is not displayed on the Homepage. The label size is limited to 20 characters (to avoid issues with text wrapping). |
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Works Added |
Displays the number of works published by year. In order for this Works Added section to display correctly, you need to activate the Regular update of asset counts for use by the system job. This job will then run automatically on a weekly basis and will update the chart. |
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Download Map |
Displays the locations from where assets where downloaded. |
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Custom Link Sections |
You can add up to 5 custom link sections. Each section is displayed separately on the homepage. Each link must contain a title and URL. In addition, you can add an image to the link. Custom Link
For a video on this topic see How to Add Custom Links to your Homepage. |
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Featured Researchers |
Add featured researchers to the homepage. You can only feature researchers with an active public profile (Researchers > Manage Researchers > Researcher > Edit > Researcher Settings). See Working with Researchers for more information. |
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Featured Collections | Add featured collections to the homepage. See Working with Collections for more information. | ![]() |
Search Tab
This section describes the various options in the Search tab. Note that in order to enable the homepage search you need to activate it from the Homepage Essentials - see Homepage Tab.
You can configure the search entities that appear in the portal search bar. To do this, navigate to the page at Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal Configuration > Search and enable the relevant option.
The Outputs option is enabled by default and cannot be disabled. The Researchers option will appear if profiles were enabled, and there are active researcher profiles. For more information see Profile Search Results. The Projects option can be enabled/disabled. For information on configuring searching for projects, see here. The labels that appear can be changed in the Research Portal Search table (Configuration > Portal & Profiles > Labels > Research Portal Search).
You can reorder the search fields by dragging them up or down.

The changes will only be implemented after selecting Save.
You can control the labels (placeholder text) that display in the search bar - see Labels for more information.
When searching from the drop down menu, you can control the scope of the search (see Homepage Tab).
Asset Advanced Search Tab
To configure the advanced search, navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal Configuration and select the Asset Advanced Search tab. The following sections appear:
General Settings

Search Fields



Search Filters


Asset Types

Asset Search Page Tab
You can configure the Sort by options (#1 in the illustration below), the facet display (#2), and display settings for the asset (#3) of the asset search-results page.
To configure these features, navigate to Configuration Menu > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal > Asset Search Page Configuration, or, if you already have the Research Portal page open, select the Asset Search Page tab.
Configuring the Sort Options
The Sort by field of the asset search-results page can be configured: Sort types can be activated or deactivated, and the order in which they appear in the dropdown list can be changed. The first item in the Sort list is used as the default sort type for the asset search-results. The portal user can manually change the sort type using the Sort by drop down list in the search-results page.
Configuring the Facet Options
Facets enable users to filter and refine search results by selecting properties that the assets in the search results must have, such as specific authors or resource types.
Available Facets
Below is a list of the available facets.
Code in Configuration | Label in Portal | Description |
facet_tlevel | Availability |
|
creator | Author/Creator | The authors of all of the assets found in the current search results, regardless of their affiliation |
affiliated_researcher | Our Researchers | The affiliated authors of all of the assets found in the current search results |
non_affiliated_researcher | Other Researchers | The non-affiliated authors of all of the assets found in the current search results |
rtype | Resource Type | The types of assets found in the current search results – for example journal article, book, or thesis |
esploro_asset_org | Research Unit | The organizational units within the institution that are connected to the assets found in the current search results |
facet_creationdate | Date | The range of publication years to include in the search results |
topic | Subject | Keywords and topics that are required in order for assets to be included in the current search results |
lang | Language | The content languages to include in the search results |
All the asset local fields (1-15) are also available as facets. These fields are configured at Configuration Menu > Repository > Asset Details > Asset Additional Fields.
Facet Options
You can configure the following features of the display of each type of facet:
- Order – You can drag and drop the facet lines to change the order where the facet displays on the page.
- Active – Activate or deactivate by using the Active toggle switch. You cannot add new facets.
You can configure local fields as facets. A local field will not display as a facet in the portal, unless the "Enable field for search in portal" checkbox is selected for it in the Configuring Local Asset Fields page. - Default State – This is the default state of the facet:
- Expand – This will show up to the number of values selected in the Values to display column. Additional values will be available by selecting more.
- Collapsed – show the facet name but no values
- Values to display – When the Default State is set to Expand, this shows how many values appear before the more link. Selecting more will show all values.
- Sort type – How the values under the facet should be sorted:
- By size – The values with the most assets appear first
- Alphanumeric – in alphabetical order
Configuring the Asset Display Settings
The following settings affect the display of the asset descriptions in the asset search-results page:
- Display group authors – Enable to include group authors in the list of authors.
- Filter out Creators with the following roles – Select one or more roles to that will not be listed.
- Display creator's role – Enable to display the role next to the author's name.
- Display Altmetrics – Clear the checkbox to remove the Altmetrics badge (#1 in the illustration below) from the search results display and the output list on profiles. It remains active for the Full view, if configured. (For information on configuring Altmetrics to display in the Full view, see Metrics Settings, in the description of the Asset Page tab, below. To enable display of the Altmetric badge in the output list on the profile, separately from the portal, change the customer parameter Always_Display_Altmetrics_in_Profiles to True.)
- Display Identifiers – Clear the checkboxes to remove the following identifiers from the search results:
- Display DOI (#2 below)
- Display PMID
- Display PMCID
- Display ISBN
Asset Page Tab
- Metrics
- Abstract
- Files and links
- Related content
- Details
- Navigate to Configuration Menu > Portal & Profiles > Research Portal > Assets Display Configuration, or, if the Research Portal page is already open, select the Asset Page tab.

- In the Active column, toggle its button.
- Drag the Move icons (
) of the sections up or down in the table.
- Select the Action button of the section (only available for configurable sections), and then select Configure. A region containing the configurable settings for the section opens below the Asset Page table. These regions are described below. Note that if you select Configure for multiple regions, all of the regions remain open below the Asset Page table until you exit the Research Portal page.
Selecting Configure for the Files and Links Section of the Asset Page
Abstract and Keywords Settings
In the Abstract and Keywords region of the Asset Page tab, you can use the Active toggles to choose which components to include in the Abstract section of the Asset page, and drag the Move icons () to change the order in which they appear.

When the Subjects and Keywords sections appear one after the other in the configuration settings, they are combined in the Asset page. For example:
Files and Links Settings
In the Files and Links region of the Asset Page tab, you can use the Active toggle to choose whether the Files and links section is included in Asset pages. This section contains links to files or URLs that patrons can use to access the asset.
Details Settings
In the Details region of the Asset Page tab, you can use the Active toggles to choose which properties of the asset to include in the Details section of the Asset page, and drag the Move icons () to change the order in which they appear. In addition, you can change the fields that are displayed for each property, and even choose to display multiple fields for a single property.
Changing the Fields that Are Displayed for a Property
- In the row of the property you want to modify, in the Actions menu, select Configure. The Edit Fields dialog box opens.
- To add an additional field to the property, do the following:
- Select Add Field.
- In the Sub-elements search box, select the field to add.
- Select Add. The field is added to the list of fields that are to be included in the property.
- To remove a field from the list, in the Actions menu of the field, select Delete, and then confirm the deletion.
- When the list of fields is as you want it, select Save. The Edit Fields dialog box closes, and the Details region in the Asset Page tab is updated.
- At the top of the Details region, under Delimiter, enter the character(s) to use as separators between multiple fields.
- Select Apply.

Displaying the Title and Subtitle on One Line, Separated by a Colon
It is possible to display the Title and Subtitle fields on one line, separated by a colon (regardless of the separator that is selected in the Delimiter field).

- Use the Title:Subtitle field in one of the following ways:
- Deactivate the Title and Subtitle properties, and activate the Title:Subtitle property. In this case, the label of the property in the Details section will be Title:Subtitle.
- Replace the Title field of the Title property with the Title:Subtitle field, and deactivate the Subtitle property. In this case, the label of the property in the Details section will be Title.
- Deactivate the Title and Subtitle properties, and activate the Title:Subtitle property. In this case, the label of the property in the Details section will be Title:Subtitle.
Deleting Properties
Properties can be removed from the list by deleting them. Deleted properties can be returned to the list by adding them.
- In the row of the property you want to delete, in the Actions menu, select Delete.
- At the top of the list, select Add Field. The Add Field dialog box opens.
- Under Add Field, select the property you want to return to the list.
- Select Save, and then confirm the selection. The property is added at the bottom of the list.
Metrics Settings
- Usage – Data about views and downloads of the asset from the portal
- Altmetric – Data about online attention and activity related to the asset, with links to the Altmetric page, where addition details can be seen
- Web of Science – Citation counts for the asset from the Web of Science, with a link to the relevant Web of Science page (only available if Web of Science is integrated with Esploro; see Web of Science Integration)

Asset Essentials Tab
In addition to the sections configured from the Asset Page Tab, you can configure the metadata from the Asset Essentials tab. The fields can be enabled, disabled, or reordered. To access this page, navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal Configuration and select the Asset Essentials tab.
Within this list, you can also select the Configure row action for more information about Authors (esploroCreators) and Identifiers.
The Creators row has additional information regarding the Show author details section of the Asset page.
For Identifiers, you can add, delete, or reorder the Identifiers shown on the Asset page.
Those items with the Linkable indicator will be displayed as a clickable link.
Asset Actions Tab (Export and Social Media)
You can configure which export actions appear in the Export Asset section of the Asset Page. Each option that is set to active is displayed. You can also define which options appear for social media sharing. To do this, navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal Configuration and select the Actions tab.
From Address and Subject for Email
When exporting an asset via email, you can select which address and subject to use.
- Navigate to Configuration > Portal & Profile > Research Portal > Homepage Configuration > Asset Actions.
- For eMail select Configure from the row actions menu.
- Update the From address and Subject as needed.
- Ensure that the eMail action is Active, and select Save.
For information on configuring letters in Esploro see here.
Citation Styles List
When exporting an asset as a citation, you can select which citation style to use.

You can add a new style to the Citation Styles list.
- Navigate to Configuration > Portal & Profile > Research Portal > Research Resources Configuration.
- Select the Asset Actions tab.
- For the Citation option select Configure.
The list of citation styles appears. - Click Add to enter a new citation style. You can use citation styles that have been defined with the Citation Style Language (CSL) and stored in GitHub's CSL Style Repository. Note that the code is the name from the github list without the format extension. For more information on citation styles see Managing Citation Styles for Primo VE.
New Citation StyleInput the citation style details. If the code you enter is not recognized, a message appears with a link to the site where you can view the list of valid codes.If the Enabled field is set to True, the new style appears in the citations styles list when exporting an asset.See also Configuring Citation Sources.
BibTex Configuration
You can now control the mapping of Esploro asset types to BibTex entry types. To access the configuration, navigate to Configuration > Repository > Esploro BibTex Mapping.
The value/s in the BibTeX entry type column are mandatory. The values in the BibTeX type column are not mandatory - they define a descriptive name for the type of work.
Project Page Tab
This section describes how to configure the Project page that appears in the Research Portal. For information about configuring the Project Search Page that appears in the Research Portal, see Project Search Page Tab, below. For general information about configuring project-management features, see Configuring Project Management on the Research Hub.
You can configure whether researchers can deposit and edit projects in the Header/Footer tab. To do so, select or clear the Include add projects option in the tab; see Header Settings, below.
To configure which sections will appear on the full Project page, and in which order they will appear, navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal > Projects Display Configuration, or, if you already have the Research Portal page open, select the Project Page tab.
- To hide a section from the Project page, deselect the Active toggle.
- To change the order in which the sections are listed, drag and drop them as needed.
Note that the General Information section of the Project page, which contains the project essentials (Project ID and acronym, Project URL, academic department, project start and end dates, and project status) cannot be hidden and always appears on top of the page. Since this section cannot be customized, it does not appear in the Projects Page tab.
You can configure the Members section of the Project page in the portal to either display or hide non-affiliated project members. To do so, in the Project Page tab, in the row actions menu of the Members row, select Configure. A Project Members area opens at the bottom of the page. Select Display Non-affiliated Project Members to include non-affiliated members of projects in Project pages in the portal, or clear the option to hide them in the portal.
Project Search Page Tab
The Projects feature is for Esploro Advanced Edition customers.
Before configuring the search results for projects, you first need to enable searching for projects in the Research Portal (see here). Once the portal search is enabled, you can also enable the Research Projects link to display in the drop down menu and the homepage on the portal. (see here).
These links take you to the project search results with all projects appearing in the results by default. To configure the project search results, navigate by navigating to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Project Search Page.
On this page you can configure the following:
- Search Scopes — Which options display in the drop down list when searching for projects in the portal.
- Facets — Which facets display when searching for projects in the portal.
Use the facets to filter and refine search results. Below is a list of the available facets.
Code in Configuration | Label in Portal | Description |
attributes | Attributes |
Taken from the configurable list at Configuration > Research Administration > Project Attributes. |
facet_member_researchers | Project members | Displays project members by number of projects in the search results. |
member_orgs_name | Member organizations | Displays organizations by number of projects in the search results. Includes both internal organization units and external institutions that are part of the project. |
status | Project status | Taken from the configurable list at Configuration > Research Administration > Project Statuses. |
type | Project type | Taken from the configurable list at Configuration > Research Administration > Research Project Types. |
keywords_and_subjects_facet | Subject | Topics and keywords that are available for the projects in the search results. |
- Display — This controls the display for the brief results only, and does not impact the full project page.
- Display non-affiliated project members: By default, non-affiliated members do display. To exclude them from the brief results, select this option.
- Display project member roles: By default, the roles do not display. To add them to the brief results, select this option.
- Display external organization members: By default, the external organizations do not display. To add them to the brief results, select this option.
- Sort — Which sort options appear on the project search results page. You can drag the options up or down to change the sorting order.
Activity Page Tab
To configure activities on the portal, go to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Portal Configuration and select the Activity Page tab.
In the Active column, enable/disable the field/s to display on the portal.
You can configure the Course Information and Associated Researchers by selecting Configure from the row actions menu.
For Course Information, you can configure which details will appear on the portal.
For Associated Researchers you can configure whether or not to include non affiliated researchers on the portal.
By default the checkbox is deselected meaning that non affiliated researchers will not appear in Associated Researchers on the portal.
Activity Display Categories
You can filter out categories and/or types of activities for display on the public profile. To access this feature navigate to Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Activities Display Configuration > Activity Display Categories.
Selected categories do not display in the public profile.
Resource Page Tab
You can configure the look of the Resources page from Configuration > Portal and Profiles > Research Resources Configuration.
Sections that are enabled (Active) display in the full research resources page.
The image in the resources browsing page on the portal is taken automatically from the first image of the Files and Links section for that resource.
In order to enable the resource menu links on the portal, you need to activate the Research Resources entity in the Header section (see Header).
Labels
You can configure various labels and placeholder text such as such as repository metrics, search bar, etc. This is done from the Labels menu at Configuration Menu > Portal & Profiles > General Settings > Labels. See Labels for more info.