Centauro is a CMS with several "sections" on sidebars, wich means we need reusable elements. The  Portal Component is in charge off getting data and sending it to the  portal layout using $Element array.

This means that if you want to develop a portal screen you need to use portal layout and portal component in your controller:

$this->layout = 'portal'; $this->set('Element', $this->Portal->statics()); Charge Portal components aka Sidebars

The $Element array us used in portal layout to render the elements like las entries on Entry model or Dowload:

echo $this->renderElement('lastentries', $ElementLentry?); echo $this->renderElement('lastdownloads', $ElementDownload?);