Service Portal core concepts
Service Portal contains two parts: a framework and a portal. The framework is composed of a set of APIs, Angular services, directives, and tools that help to build portals. The portal is a group of pages linked by page IDs.
[Omitted image "ServicePortalOverviewDiagram.png"] Alt text: Diagram of Service Portal and how pages and widgets fit inside it
After you enter a URL, the framework uses the suffix and picks the appropriate portal to determine the theme and configurations. Then it loads the configured default portal home page unless the URL has a specified ID.
Each widget added to a page becomes its own instance. A widget instance is basically the application of a widget in a page. Because widgets are reusable and can appear on different pages to do different things, a widget on a page is referred to as a Widget Instance. The page loads with content represented by widgets.
Widget instances get their logic from the base widget template, client scripts, server scripts, and depending on the widget, CSS.
Parent Topic:Understanding Service Portal
--- title: Service Portal core concepts description: Service Portal contains two parts: a framework and a portal. The framework is composed of a set of APIs, Angular services, directives, and tools that help to build portals. The portal is a group of pages linked by page IDs. locale: en-US canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/platform-user-interface/service-portal/c\_CoreConcepts.html release: brazil product: Service Portal classification: service-portal topic_type: concept last_updated: "2026-09-10" reading_time_minutes: 1 breadcrumb: [Understanding Service Portal, Exploring Service Portal, Service Portal, Configure UIs and portals, Configure user experiences] --- # Service Portal core concepts Service Portal contains two parts: a framework and a portal. The framework is composed of a set of APIs, Angular services, directives, and tools that help to build portals. The portal is a group of pages linked by page IDs. \[Omitted image "ServicePortalOverviewDiagram.png"\] Alt text: Diagram of Service Portal and how pages and widgets fit inside it After you enter a URL, the framework uses the suffix and picks the appropriate portal to determine the theme and configurations. Then it loads the configured default portal home page unless the URL has a specified ID. Each widget added to a page becomes its own instance. A widget instance is basically the application of a widget in a page. Because widgets are reusable and can appear on different pages to do different things, a widget on a page is referred to as a Widget Instance. The page loads with content represented by widgets. Widget instances get their logic from the base widget template, client scripts, server scripts, and depending on the widget, CSS. **Parent Topic:**[Understanding Service Portal](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/platform-user-interface/service-portal/sp-what-to-know.md)
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