There are two ways to access the Marketplace.
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Via the website–Using your favorite browser, you can navigate to the marketplace at http://liferay.com/marketplace.
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Via Liferay–If you have a site up and running based on Liferay, you can use the Marketplace section of the control panel to access Marketplace content.
The Basics
No matter which method you choose, you will see the same content and apps.
If you are new to the Marketplace, the easiest way to access it is by using your browser to navigate to http://liferay.com/marketplace. You will be presented with the Marketplace home page.
Figure 13.1: Marketplace Home Page
In the center of the page, you will see a number of icons. Each icon represents an individual app and they are grouped into a couple of different areas:
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New To Marketplace: The latest apps added to the marketplace
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Featured Products: Liferay features a different set of apps each month
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Most Viewed: The top 10 most viewed apps
If you click on the title of an app, you can access details about the app,
including a description, the author’s name, screenshots, price, latest version,
number of users, number of weekly installs, a link to the developer’s
liferay.com profile page, a link to the developer’s own website, a link to
report abuse and a Purchase button. You’ll also be able to view version history,
read reviews left by other users or write your own review.
Figure 13.2: Marketplace App Details
If you click on the Purchase button, you’ll be prompted to choose a purchase type. You can purchase an app for your personal account or for your company. If your company has already been registered, select it in the drop-down list. If your company hasn’t been registered, click the Register Your Company link to register your company with Liferay Marketplace. Please see the Creating a Company section below for details.
The left side of each page in the http://liferay.com/marketplace site contains a Marketplace navigation menu. This menu contains links to various categories of apps and themes available from Marketplace. Clicking on the individual categories will allow you to browse apps in that category. To view all apps or themes at once, click the Apps or Themes link and then the See All link in the Apps or Themes portlet.
Figure 13.3: Browsing Apps in Marketplace
Below the navigation menu is the search bar. This allows you to search for apps with specific titles. Type in search terms and click Search to perform the search.
Logging In
You do not need a liferay.com account in order to browse the Marketplace.
However, if you wish to purchase and download an app (or if you are a developer
and wish to create and upload new apps), you will need to establish a
liferay.com account and agree to the Marketplace Terms of Use. To get a new
liferay.com account, visit http://www.liferay.com,
click Sign In, then Create Account, and sign up! Once you are signed in, you
will be able to fully utilize the Marketplace to find and use Marketplace apps.
Marketplace Profile
On your existing liferay.com Home page, you’ll notice a new link entitled App
Manager. The App Manager allows you to access information about the apps you’ve
purchased and apps you’ve uploaded to Marketplace. It also provides a mechanism
for uploading new apps to Marketplace. Once you submit your app, it will be
reviewed before appearing on the liferay.com Marketplace.
Managing Apps
The App Manager shows you relevant information related to your usage of Marketplace. You’ll find three tabs to help you manage your Marketplace apps: Purchased, Apps and Add an App.
The Purchased tab lists the apps you have purchased. From this screen, you can
find information about the authors of the apps you have purchased. You can also
download or re-download the app (for example, if you lost your copy or have
re-installed Liferay and wish to re-deploy the app). This option is also useful
for downloading apps and deploying them to offline instances of Liferay that do
not have direct access to liferay.com.
Figure 13.4: Purchased Apps
If possible, it’s best to log into your portal instance and install purchased applications through the My Marketplace link in the control panel. This will provide your portal instance with automatic update notices should they become available. If you download applications this way, they can be hot-deployed.
The Apps tab lists apps you have authored and uploaded, showing you details such as the number of downloads, the current price and other relevant information. From here you can manage the apps you have created (please see the Marketplace chapter of the Developer Guide for details on this topic).
Figure 13.5: Upload an App
Clicking on Add an App allows you to upload a new app and make it available in the marketplace. Please see the Marketplace Developer Guide for more detail on authoring your own app.
Creating a Company
To create and register a company with Liferay Marketplace, click the Create a Company link in the left-hand navigation menu. Your first step is to see if your company already exists on Liferay Marketplace. Enter your company name into the search box and check if it’s already been registered. If someone else from your company has already created a company account on Liferay Marketplace, you can click the Request to Join this Company button. This will send an email notification to your company’s Marketplace admin (the one who created your company’s Marketplace account). Your company’s Marketplace admin will then be able to add you to the company. If the company name you’d like to use is available, click the Register Your Company button to move on to the next step.
Figure 13.6: Creating a Company
Your second step is to fill out your company’s information. The public information you must provide includes a company logo, the company name, a company description, a company email address and a homepage URL. The private information you must provide includes a company address, your company’s country, region, city, postal code and phone number. Additonal private information required for validation includes a company email address and a legal tax document. Once your company’s Marketplace registration has been approved, you will be your company’s Marketplace admin! This means you’ll be responsible for handling Marketplace users’ requests to join your company. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be stuck with this responsibility. Once you’ve added other users to your company, you can promote some of them to be company Marketplace admins too.