Portals are great for presenting information, the classic intranet.  Maybe some HR self-serve as well.  How about using them for application delivery?   

Here's the challenge, say we want to build a CRM application into our intranet.  A user wants to view information on a customer.  The key assumption by the way is that the customer 'object' has lots of information - let's say 5 tabs worth of pages.  They go through a lookup module, on say the 'Customer' tab.  They click on the customer - what happens?   (Here's what I'd like...)

• Customer tab now 'grows' multiple sub-pages, say 'Overview', 'Financials', 'Contacts', 'Products', 'Documents' (or whatever - but each can be frighteningly rich in functionality).  The user works on the customer through these pages/modules. 
• The original 'lookup' module on the first tab is still there, allowing the user to open another customer (and leave this one.)
• (The 'active' customer is represented somehow, say with their name as text in the header somewhere.)
• There is a unique url for this customer tab (so it can be, say e-mailed.)  

I haven't seen any examples of DNN portals managing 'complex' objects like a Customer (or opportunity, or whatever) that needs to be managed over multiple pages.    Most things that come close, like a product from a catalog or a forum are simply shown on one page.

Jumping to one answer - please tell me there is a better way, but my best idea so far is...

1. Use sub-pages to represent the various pages of the 'object'.   By the way, is there a better way than drop-down menus to show this?  (BEA, for example allows sub-tabs.)
2. Dynamically hide/enable sub-pages - can this be done?    Can this be done without getting seriously gritty?

Thanks!

p