How to add custom portlet in Control Panel section

Question

How can I add a custom portlet to the Portal section of the Control Panel, as shown in the following figure:

Answer 1

Here is how to do it:

1. In your portlet's liferay-portlet.xml (you can check the DTD of this xml for more information on other tags) include two tags in your <portlet> tag as shown:

   <portlet>
       <portlet-name>MyCustomPortlet</portlet-name>
       <icon>/mycustom.png</icon>
       <!--
           These are the two entries which are required for the portlet
           to appear in the control panel
       -->
       <!--
           Set the control-panel-entry-category value to "my", "content",
           "portal" or "server" to make this portlet available in the
           Control Panel under that category.
       -->
       <control-panel-entry-category>portal</control-panel-entry-category>
   
       <!--
          Set the control-panel-entry-weight value to a double number
          to control the position of the entry within its Control Panel
          category. Higher values mean that the entry will appear lower
          in the Control Panel menu.
       -->
       <control-panel-entry-weight>100</control-panel-entry-weight>
   
       <instanceable>false</instanceable>
       <header-portlet-css>/css/main.css</header-portlet-css>
       <footer-portlet-javascript>/js/main.js</footer-portlet-javascript>
       <css-class-wrapper>mycustomportlet-portlet</css-class-wrapper>
   </portlet>
   

2. Also, if you don't want your portlet to appear in the Add Menu so that it is not put on other pages, then in your liferay-display.xml you can include:

   <display>
       <category name="category.hidden">
           <!--
              Adding your portlet to the hidden category would not display
              the portlet in the ADD Menu on the top-left-hand corner
           -->
           <portlet id="MyCustomPortlet"></portlet>
       </category>
   </display>
   

3. Build and deploy your portlet and you are good to go.