the present invention concerns methods and apparatus for implementing an interactive graphical user interface having the ability to graphically depict the relationships between or among multiple portlets . in one aspect , the present invention relates a child sub - portlet to a parent portlet with at least one graphical indicator when the child sub - portlet is surfaced from the parent portlet . other aspects of the present invention concern in - line tools integrated in the graphical indicators for managing portlet operations . the graphical indicators and inline controls of the present invention allow a user to accurately and precisely control portlets .