I understand what you are saying. Is this the only way to do this. For instance playing with the forums portlet. If I make the parent-ref empty (ie. <parent-ref></parent-ref> ) then the forums tab/page does not show up and the forums portlet instance is not an available portlet when modifying page content Is there a way to change *-object.xml to prevent it from being configured initially and still have the portlet instance show up as being available and then have the portlet management configure where to put the portlet instance? Just seems to me like all portlet instances would be loaded in without being pre-defined by *-object.xml. I guess I may be missing something. Please inform. Thanks View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4132313#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...