how to develop application like LifeRay Control panel

I want to develop an application like LifeRay control panel which has right navigation menu and a page that renders the clicked menu.

My question is how to develop at for exa开发者_开发知识库mple as one portlet or multi portlet taking into considaration (portlet communication)? and how to handle navigation inside portlet?

I'm using Icefaces(JSF) for portlet development and there is a section repeated for other pages(template)

Is there an example in liferay source for this?

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Can't you just adjust a theme to have the navigation at the side as opposed to the default (at the top)? This way you'd be developing a plain portal application without any special magic - probably the most intuitive way to go.

Also, others will likely be able to quickly understand what you did and are able to add functionality.