---
title: Portal Engine development overview
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/kentico-development-models.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-website-content.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/deploying-websites.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/optimizing-performance-of-portal-engine-sites.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

The following figure shows the typical website development process in Kentico, and how the roles are split between developers and content editors:

![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/portal-engine-development-overview/image2013-3-13+11-42-3.png)

1. The developers analyze client requirements.
2. The developers prepare the site structure (site map) and the overall web design. Designers can use external [wireframing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_wireframe) tools during this process.
3. The developers create **page templates** for every type of page required on the site (home page, solutions, products, news, etc.).
4. The content editors create new pages — they enter text and images into the page templates defined by the developers.

## What is a page template?

Page templates define the structure, design and core functionality of pages.

- The website can re-use a single template for any number of pages.
- Content editors can enter different content for all pages based on the same template.
- Templates allow editors to focus just on the content of pages, without the needing to take care of the page's layout and formatting.
- Templates help keep the design consistent throughout the whole website.

![Using a single page template for multiple pages](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/portal-engine-development-overview/image2013-3-13+11-42-11.png "Using a single page template for multiple pages")

You can create page templates using the [Portal Engine](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/developing-websites-using-portal-engine.md) or [ASPX template](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/developing-websites-using-aspx-templates.md) models.