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Oracle® Application Server Portal User’s Guide
10g (9.0.4)
Part No. B10358-01
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2 Publishing Content

This chapter contains information that a content contributor, who is mainly adding files to a page, needs to know. It includes the following main sections:


Intended Audience

The contents of this chapter are intended for users who are logged on as an authorized user with the appropriate page or item privileges to add items, i.e. the Manage Content privilege. If a particular task requires different privileges, the required privileges will be listed before the steps of that task.

2.1 Working with Items

You add content to a page by adding items. To add files (such as documents) you add items with a file-based item type.

There are other types of items that can be added to a page. Your page group administrator determines which item types are available to you, when they set up the page group.

OracleAS Portal provides many item-related features which support document collaboration among different users and groups. The main item features include the following:

2.1.1 Displaying a Page in Edit Mode

If you are logged in to OracleAS Portal and you have at least Manage Content privileges on the page, you can display a page in Edit mode. In Edit mode you can make changes to the page content that is visible to all users.

If you want your changes to be visible to yourself only, customize the page instead. See Section 1.3, "Customizing Pages".

To display a page in Edit mode:

  1. Navigate to the page.


    Note:

    If you do not see the page that you want to work with, you may not have the appropriate page access privileges. See your page group administrator to gain access.

  2. Click Edit to switch to edit mode.

    Edit is the default name for this link. Your page designer may have given this a different name.

2.1.2 Displaying a Page Portlet in Edit Mode

You may find that page content is exposed to you through page portlets. In this case, it may still be possible to edit the content by switching to Edit mode within the portlet itself. If you have this capability, you will see an Edit link in the portlet header as show in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1 The Edit Link in a Page Portlet

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Description of the illustration pgptlt1.gif

To switch to Edit mode, simply click the Edit link. Although the complete range of editing tools is not available in the page portlet Edit mode, all the tools necessary for publishing content are accessible in this mode (see Figure 2-2).

Figure 2-2 A Page Portlet in Edit Mode

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Description of the illustration pgptlt2.gif

The page portlet offers a simplified edit mode that may be more suitable for some content contributors than the full page edit mode. The Edit Defaults customization of the page portlet (see Figure 2-3) allows the page designer to select the regions that are displayed in the page portlet, and to hide or show the Edit link. The page designer can select the subset of regions that contains the content that needs to be published, while hiding regions such as navigation bars, banners and other page decoration that would typically not be relevant when the page is published as a portlet.

Figure 2-3 Page Portlet Edit Defaults Page

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Description of the illustration pgptlt3.gif


Note:

The Edit link appears only to users who are authorized to edit content on the page portlet (i.e., users who have the Manage Items With Approval privilege or higher on the page that is published as a portlet).

2.1.3 Adding Items to a Page

This section describes how to add some of the most common item types to your pages:

In addition to these, you may often want to add images to pages. See Section 7.6.1.1, "Adding Items".

2.1.3.1 Adding a File or Document

You can upload and store files and documents in OracleAS Portal, such as HTML files, Microsoft Word documents, and spreadsheets. End users can then click the file or document on the page to view its content or download it to their computer.

To add a file or document:

  1. Display the page on which you want to add the item.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the Add Item icon in the region in which you want to add the item.


    Note:

    If the add item icon does not display next to the region, the region may be a portlet region (and may contain portlets). You can only add items to an item region.

    To add a subitem for an existing item, click the Actions icon next to that item and then choose Add a subitem.

  4. From the Content Item Types list, choose a file-based item type, e.g. File or Simple File.

    If the item type you are looking for does not appear in the list, contact your page group administrator. Your administrator sets up which item types to display here.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the File Name field, enter or browse to the location of the file you want to display when the end user clicks the item's link.

  7. In the Display Name field, enter the item's link text. This is what end users will click to view the item.

  8. Specify other item attributes, as required.

    It is important to enter descriptive item attributes, as the details entered here will help other users find your content and allow them to determine whether the item is of interest. See Section 2.1.10, "Setting Item Attributes".

    The range of item attributes available, such as Author, Description, Image, New Item Indicator, etc. are determined by your page group administrator.

  9. Click Finish to save your changes and return to the page.

2.1.3.2 Adding Text to a Page

You can add up to 32 KB of plain text, or embedded HTML, to a text-based item on a page. For example, you can use text items for:

  • Browser Based Authoring, textual content, including HTML, can be added directly to portal pages by authoring the content in text items. If you are unfamiliar with HTML, you can use the embedded WYSIWYG rich text editor provided. Alternatively, you can enter HTML tags to format the content.In Place Display, text item content can be displayed directly on a portal page, rather than displaying a link to the content. This is useful when you want to add headings, announcements, news summaries, product descriptions, etc. to portal pages.

To add text:

  1. Display the page on which you want to add the item.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the Add Item icon in the region in which you want to add the item.


    Note:

    If the add item icon does not display next to the region, the region may be a portlet region (and may contain portlets). In this case, you cannot add items to this region.

    To add a subitem for an existing text item, click the Actions icon next to that item and then choose Add a subitem.

  4. From the Content Item Types list, choose a text-based item type, e.g. Text or Simple Text.

    If the item type you are looking for does not appear in the list, contact your page group administrator. Your administrator sets up which item types to display here.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the Text field, enter the text you want to display.

    If you are using Internet Explorer, a WYSIWYG editor may be available to enter text. See Section 5.6.5, "Disabling the Rich Text Editor for Internet Explorer".

    • The text size is limited to 32 KB. Note that HTML tags within the text increase the size of the text item. If the text is larger than 32 KB, create another text item, or add the text as a file item.

    • To display the current user's name in this item, you can enter the following in the Text field:

      • #USER#, for the user's name

      • #USER.FULLNAME#, for the user's full name

    • If you want to include a link to another item or page in the portal, you can use a relative direct access URL. Using a relative URL means that the link will not break if the portal is moved to a different machine. For example, a relative URL to a page would look something like the following:

      url/page/myportal/mypage
      
      

      A relative URL to an item might look something like the following:

      url/item/A47D41ECA23648A9E030007F0100118A
      
      

      For more information about direct access URLs, see Section 1.1.3.1, "Understanding Page and Item URLs".

  7. In the Display Name field, enter the item's link text. Users click this to view the text.

  8. Specify other item attributes, as required.

    It is important to enter descriptive item attributes as the details entered here will help other users find your content and allow them to determine whether the item is of interest. See Section 2.1.10, "Setting Item Attributes".

    The range of item attributes available, such as Author, Description, Image, New Item Indicator, etc. are determined by your administrator.

  9. Click Finish to save your changes and return to the page.

2.1.3.3 Adding a URL Link to a Page

You can add a link to another Web page, Web site, or document URL, either internal or external to the page group. To do this, you add a URL item to the page.

You can also add a URL link that links directly to an item in OracleAS Portal, by entering the direct access URL. See Section 1.1.3.1, "Understanding Page and Item URLs".

To add a link to a URL:

  1. Display the page on which you want to add the URL item.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the Add Item icon in the region in which you want to add the item.


    Note:

    If the add item icon does not display next to the region, the region may be a portlet region (and may contain portlets). In this case, you cannot add items to this region.

    To add a subitem for an existing URL item, click the Actions icon next to that item and then choose Add a subitem.

  4. From the Content Item Types list, choose URL.

    If the item type you are looking for does not appear in the list, contact your page group administrator. Your administrator sets up which item types to display here.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the URL field, enter the URL address or HTML page that this item will be linked to.

    • If you want to add an e-mail link, enter the appropriate HTML code containing the person's e-mail address. For example, remove "http://" in the URL field and enter mailto:user@company.com.

    • If you want to link to another item or page in the portal, you can use a relative direct access URL. Using a relative URL means that the link will not break if the portal is moved to a different machine. For example, a relative URL to a page would look something like the following:

      url/page/myportal/mypage
      
      

      A relative URL to an item might look something like the following:

      url/item/A47D41ECA23648A9E030007F0100118A
      
      

      For more information about direct access URLs, see Section 1.1.3.1, "Understanding Page and Item URLs".

  7. In the Display Name field, enter the item's link text. This is what end users will click to view the item.

  8. Specify other item attributes, as required.

    It is important to enter descriptive item attributes as the details entered here will help other users find your content and allow them to determine whether the item is of interest. See Section 2.1.10, "Setting Item Attributes".

    The range of item attributes available, such as Author, Description, New Item Indicator, etc. are determined by your administrator.

  9. Click Finish to save your changes and return to the page.

OracleAS Portal’s direct access URL feature lets you share fully-formed URLs or relative URLs with other users so that they can quickly access OracleAS Portal objects such as pages, categories, perspectives, and documents. See Section 1.1.3.1, "Understanding Page and Item URLs".

If you, or other users have difficulty accessing URL items, ask your portal administrator to check that the proxy server for OracleAS Portal is set up correctly.

2.1.4 Hiding an Item

In some situations, you may want to hide an item from public and authorized users in View mode. For example, you may want to continue working on an item before you make it available to other users. If you hide an item, users are not able to see the item in View mode, however, you (and other users) can still access it in Edit mode.

If an item is not hidden, the item is displayed in View mode to all users who can access the page including public users (if the page is enabled to display to public users).

To hide an item:

  1. Display the page containing the item you want to hide.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that you want to hide and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Hide.

If you copy a hidden item, the copied item is also hidden.

If you want your item to become available on a particular day and the Publish Date attribute is available, consider using this attribute rather than hiding the item. When you set the Publish Date attribute to a future date, the item is hidden until the date you specify. See Section 2.1.10.2, "Setting a Publish Date for an Item".

2.1.5 Rearranging the Order of Items

You can change the order in which items are displayed in a region.

If items in a region are sorted by title or size, you cannot rearrange them and the Arrange Items icon is not displayed in the region toolbar. To rearrange these items, the page designer or a user with the appropriate privileges must edit the region's properties and select "Default" as the Sort By option.

To change the order of items:

  1. Display the page containing the items you want to rearrange.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. In the region that contains the items that you want to rearrange, click the Arrange Items icon.

  4. In the Arrange Items list, select an item and use the arrows to reorder it in relation to the other items in the list. Repeat this step for other items you want to rearrange.

  5. When you are done, click OK.

2.1.6 Moving Items

You can move items to another page or to another region on the same page. To move an item to another page, you must have the appropriate privileges on both the page you are moving the item from and the page you are moving the item to.

Any sub-items associated with the item being moved are also moved to the new location.


Note:

You can not move items to a region that contains portlets.


Moving a Single Item

To move an item:

  1. Display the page containing the item to be moved.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that you want to move and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Choose whether to move the item to another page or to another region on the same page.

    • If you choose to move the item to another page, select the page to which you want to move the item, and click Move Here. Click Move to move the item.

    • If you choose to move the item to another region on the same page, select the region to which you want to move the item, and click Move.


Moving Multiple Items

To move multiple items:

  1. Display the page containing items to be moved.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the List editing view.

  4. Select one or more items to move.

  5. Click the Browse Pages icon and choose a destination Page.

  6. Select Move To.

  7. Use the radio buttons to select a new region for the item, and click Move.

2.1.7 Copying Items

You can create a new item by copying an existing item and editing its attributes. You can make multiple copies of an item and add the copies to various pages.

You must have the appropriate privileges on both the page from which you are copying the item, and the page to which you are copying the item.

When you copy an item, all of its translations are also copied.


Copying a Single Item

To copy an item:

  1. Display the page that includes the item you want to copy.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item you want to copy and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Copy.

  5. Select the page to which you want to copy the item, and click Copy Here.

  6. Use the radio buttons to select a new region for the item, and click Copy.


Copying Multiple Items

To copy multiple items:

  1. Display the page that includes items you want to copy.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the List editing view.

  4. Select one or more items to copy.

  5. Click the Browse Pages icon and choose a destination Page.

  6. Select Copy To.

  7. Use the radio buttons to select a new region for the item, and click Copy.

2.1.8 Deleting Items

When you delete an item on a page, the item is removed from the page and permanently removed from OracleAS Portal.

In some cases, deleted items may be restored. Check with your page group administrator before deleting items to see if the restore option (Retain Deleted Items’ is available. See Section 2.1.9, "Restoring a Deleted Item".


Note:

If you delete an item that has sub-items, all of the item's sub-items are also deleted.


Deleting a Single Item

To delete an item:

  1. Display the page containing the item to be deleted.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item you want to delete and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Delete.

  5. Click Yes to confirm.


Deleting Multiple Items

To delete multiple items:

  1. Display the page containing the items to be deleted.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the List editing view.

  4. Select one or more items to delete.

  5. Select Delete.

  6. Click OK to confirm.

2.1.9 Restoring a Deleted Item

Your page group can be set up to retain deleted items in Edit mode and allow such items to be restored. If the restore option is not available, check with your page group administrator.

To restore a deleted item:

  1. Display the page that contains the deleted item.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that you want to restore and click the Actions icon next to the item.

  4. Click Undelete.

2.1.10 Setting Item Attributes

Item attributes are used to store information about the item (item metadata) such as the associated category, description, or perspectives. The range of attributes available for an item are determined by your page group administrator. See Section B.2, "Base Attributes" for a list of all the built-in attributes. In addition to these, page group administrators can create their own attributes for storing extra information.

To view/change item attribute settings, click the Edit icon displayed next to the item. Some of the more common item attributes are described in the following sections:

2.1.10.1 Classifying the Content of an Item

When you add items to a page it is important to classify their content. This is useful as the details entered here will help other users find your content and allow them to determine whether the item is of interest.

For example you can assign each item to a category, perspective(s) and assign keywords that describe the content, or purpose of the item.

The range of item attributes available, such as Author, Description, Image, New Item Indicator, etc. are determined by your page group administrator. Some of the most common item attributes are described in the following sections:


Changing the Category of an Item

An item may be assigned to a category. At any time, you can change an existing item's category.

To change the category of an item:

  1. Display the page containing items for classification.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Click the Edit icon beside the item that includes the category that you want to change.

  4. Choose another category from the Category list.

  5. Click OK.


Changing the Perspectives of an Item

An item may be assigned to one or more perspectives. Perspectives describe the audience or interest area for the item. At any time you can change the perspective(s) of an existing item. Unlike categories, you can choose more than one perspective for an item. For example, a sales report might belong to both the Sales Representative and Marketing Manager perspectives.

To change the perspectives of an item:

  1. Display the page containing items for classification.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Click the Edit icon beside the item that includes the perspective that you want to change.

  4. Use the left and right arrow icons to move a perspective from the Available Perspectives to the Displayed Perspectives list.

    You can select multiple perspectives by holding the Ctrl key while clicking each perspective.

  5. Use the appropriate up and down arrows to determine the order in which the perspectives are to be displayed.

  6. Click OK.


Changing the Search Keywords for an Item

An item can be assigned one or more keywords that describe the content, or purpose of the item. When a user performs a search, the user's search criteria is compared to the keywords in items and pages to find a match.

To change search keywords for an item:

  1. Display the page containing items for classification.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Click the Edit icon beside the item that includes the keywords that you want to change.

  4. In the Basic Search Keywords field, add or change one or more keywords that accurately describe this item.

  5. Click OK.

2.1.10.2 Setting a Publish Date for an Item

You can add items to a page in advance, but display it in View mode to other users, on a specified date in the future. For example, you could add a file item for a document that discusses next month’s Sales Targets and set the future publish date.

To set publish date details for an item:

  1. Display the page containing the item.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that you want to publish at a future date and click the Edit icon beside the item.

  4. In the Publish Date field, enter the exact date and time on which this item is displayed in View mode. For example. the format for the US language is DD-MON-YYYY HH12:MI PM.

  5. Click OK.

2.1.10.3 Setting Expiration Details for an Item

You can set an expiration period for an item so that the item automatically expires at the specified time, or you can expire an item instantly.

In some cases, expired items may be restored after the expiration period. Check with your page group administrator if the restore option is not available. See Section 2.1.9, "Restoring a Deleted Item".


Note:

If there are multiple versions of an item, all versions expire when the expiration period is reached.


Setting Expiration Details for an Item

To set expiration details for an item:

  1. Display the page containing the item.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Locate the item that you want to expire and click the Edit icon beside the item.

  4. In the Expiration Period section, choose whether this item is always available, available only for a specified number of days, or if it expires on a certain date and time. For example, the format for the US language is DD-MON-YYYY HH12:MI PM.

  5. Click OK.


Expiring Multiple Items

To expire more than one item:

  1. Display the page containing the items.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Click the List editing view.

  4. Select the items that you want to expire and then select Expire from the list of actions.

  5. Click Go.


Expiring an Item Instantly

This feature is useful if the Expiration Period attribute is not available.

To expire an item instantly:

  1. Display the page containing the item.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that you want to expire and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Expire.


Restoring an Expired Item

Your page group can be set up to display expired items in Edit mode and allow such items to be restored. If the restore option is not available, check with your page group administrator.

To restore an expired item:

  1. Display the page containing the expired item.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Locate the item that you want to restore and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Un-Expire.

You can un-expire multiple items in List editing view.

2.1.10.4 Using Item Check Out/Check In

Item checkout provides document control for items that are managed by multiple users. When a user checks out an item, the item is "locked" and other users cannot edit the item. Other users can only view the item, not modify it. With the appropriate privileges, users can copy checked-out items.

After the user checks in the item another user can check out the item and edit it. This prevents users from overwriting each other's changes.


Note:

If an item is submitted for approval, the item is automatically checked out so that other users cannot edit it. The item is not checked back in until it is approved or rejected. See Section 2.4, "Working With Approvals".


Enabling Item Check Out/Check In

To enable item check out/check in:

  1. Display the page containing your items.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Locate the item for which you want to enable check out/check in and click the Edit icon beside the item.

  4. Select Enable Item Check-Out.

    Contact your page group administrator if this attribute is not available.

  5. Click OK.


Checking Out an Item

To check out an item:

  1. Display the page containing your items.

  2. Click the Edit link.

  3. Locate the item that you want to check out and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Check Out.

The item is now checked out. Other users cannot edit the item.

While you have an item checked out, you can edit the item by clicking the Edit icon next to item. You can also perform many actions on the item, such as hide, move, copy, and expire. Click the Actions icon beside the item to see the list of actions.

When you have finished working with the item, remember to check in the item so it is available to the other users.


Note:

If you copy an item when it is checked out, the new copied item is checked in.


Checking In an Item

To check in an item:

  1. Display the page containing your items.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that you want to check in and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Check In.

    Only the user who checked out the item can check in the item.

  5. If necessary, upload a new version for the item to be checked-in. Click the Edit icon besides the item, use the File Name Browse button to locate the new version and then click OK.

  6. Click the Actions icon beside the item.

  7. Click Check In.

    The item is now available for other users to edit.

2.2 Using Version Control

Item versioning allows multiple versions of an item to simultaneously exist in the Oracle database. This feature is useful for tracking document changes from one version to the next or for reverting to a previous version if necessary.

OracleAS Portal provides item version control for page groups and individual pages. See Section 5.6.2, "Setting the Item Versioning Level for a Page Group" Section 7.8.8, "Setting the Item Versioning Level for a Page". When version control is enabled for items on a page, you can change the version control settings for individual items.


Changing Version Control Options for an Item

To change version control options for an item:

  1. Display the appropriate page.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that requires version control option changes and click the Edit icon beside the item.

  4. In the Item Version Control radio group, select the item version control option you want to apply to this item.

    • Simple

      • Add Item As New version, but not as Current Version

      • Add Item As New and Current Version

      • Overwrite Current Version

      For the first two options, OracleAS Portal maintains a record of the item's previous versions.

    • Audit

      • Add Item As New version, but not as Current Version

      • Add Item As New and Current Version

      For both of these options, OracleAS Portal maintains a record of the item's previous versions.

  5. Click OK.


Changing the current version of an item

To change the current version of an item:

Once you have multiple versions of an item, you may want to change which version of the item is displayed to users, or is the "current" version.

  1. Display the appropriate page.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item that requires version changes and click the Actions icon beside the item.

  4. Click Versions.

  5. Select the version that you would like for the current version, and click OK.

    The selected version of the item is now displayed to users. All other versions are maintained in the database, and are available if you want to choose another version as the current version in the future.

2.3 Protecting Your Content

If item level security is enabled on your page you can grant access privileges to individual items.


Note:

Item level security is a mechanism which allows controlled and granular access to specific items in a page. See Section 7.12, "Protecting Your Content"

As a content contributor, when you add a new item to a page, you can decide if you want to make the item accessible to certain users or groups. Users or groups who are not on the item's access control list are not able to view or edit the item.


Note:

You must be logged on as an authorized user with the Manage Item or higher privileges on the item. Only the item creator or owner can grant access privileges to a specific item.

Table 2-1 Item Privileges

Item Privileges Description
Manage A user with the Manage privilege can view the item, edit the item, delete the item, and grant privileges on the item.

Note that the Manage privilege does not allow a user to add sub-items under the item. Only users with the Manage Items With Approval or higher privileges on the page can add sub-items.

Edit A user with the Edit privilege can view the item, edit the item, and delete the item.
View A user with the View privilege can view the item only


Granting Access Privileges on an Item

To grant access privileges on an item:

  1. Display the appropriate page.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Locate the item for which you want to grant access and click the Edit icon beside the item.

  4. Click the Access tab.

  5. In the Item Level Security section, select Define Item Level Access Privileges.


    Note:

    If you select Inherit Parent Page Access Privileges, the item has the same access privileges as those set for the parent page.

    If the item has multiple versions, this setting is applied to all versions of the item, not just the one that you are editing.


  6. Click Apply.


    Note:

    The Access tab now includes two new sections: Grant Access and Change Access.

  7. In the Grant Access section, enter the name of the user or group to which you want to assign privileges. If you do not know the name of the user or group, click the Browse Users icon to display a list of existing users or the Browse Groups icon to display a list of existing groups from which to choose.


    Note:

    Adding a group instead of a user saves you time if you want to grant the same access privileges to multiple users. If you do not see the group name in the access list, you can create a group.

    When item level security is enabled, an item creator can grant the Manage Item privilege to more than one user. However, page group administrators, page owners, and authorized users with the Manage Items privilege have the highest level privilege on all items in the page. They cannot have their privilege superseded by an item level privilege.


  8. Beside each user name, choose which item level privileges you want to grant to each user or group from the drop down list of Privileges.

  9. Click Add to see the user or group reflected in the Change Access section

  10. In the Change Access section, you can choose a different item level privilege, or revoke item privileges from users or groups.

  11. Repeat steps 7-10 for each user or group you want to add to the item access list.

  12. When you are done, click OK.


    Note:

    If a user is a member of two different groups with different privileges on the same item, the user is granted a combination of these privileges. For example, if you have Manage Template privileges from one group and Manage Style privileges on another you can manage both templates and styles for an item.

    To revoke the user or group's access, click the Delete icon next to the Grantee Name.

    Because Oracle Internet Directory (OID) can include multiple directory containers that use the same group names, the distinguished name (DN) is displayed next to any group that does not belong to the local OracleAS Portal instance.

    Item level security cannot be disabled for items in the Portlet Repository page group.


2.4 Working With Approvals

This section contains the following sub-sections:

2.4.1 Submitting Content for Approval

OracleAS Portal includes a special privilege "Manage Items with Approval". If you have this privileges on a page you can add items to the page but the items do not become visible to other users until they have been approved. The users responsible for approving the items are specified in the page or page group’s approval process. See Section 7.9, "Setting Up an Approval Chain" for more information.

For example, if all product whitepapers must be reviewed by your legal department before they are published you may have an approval process set up that includes the legal department as one of the required approvers.

2.4.1.1 Using the Pending Items Preview Mode

Use the Pending Items Preview mode to preview your items that are pending approval directly on the page.

Figure 2-4 The Pending Items Preview Mode

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You can access this mode by clicking Pending Items: Preview when editing a page.

New items are displayed with the status Pending and such items are not displayed in other page editing modes (such as Graphical or Layout, only in Pending Items Preview mode).

Updated items are displayed with the status Update Pending. This mode displays the updated item, whereas other editing modes display the existing item.

Essentially, this mode provides a way to view new or updated items which require approval before they are published to a wide audience.


Resubmitting Rejected Items

If your item is rejected, you can edit the item and then resubmit it for approval. Click the Edit icon, next to the rejected item to make your changes. After you edit the item, it will be resubmitted for approval.


Deleting and Un-deleting Rejected Items

You can delete rejected items if you wish. To do this, click the Actions icon next to the item and click Delete.

Additionally, you can un-delete a rejected item that was deleted by clicking the Actions icon next to the item and then Undelete. If you do this, the item returns to a rejected status.

2.4.1.2 Customizing the My Approval Status Portlet

You can track the progress of your item approvals using the Approval Status portlet. In the portlet, click the subject to view the item, click the status to view the approval history, and click the page name to view the page that includes the item.

Figure 2-5 The My Approval Status Portlet

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If you have the appropriate privileges on the page, you can customize the title of the My Approval Status portlet and the way status information is displayed. To do this, click the Customize link and set the options as required.

2.4.2 Approving or Rejecting Content

After a user with the Manage Items With Approvals privilege adds or modifies an item, approvers in the approval process receive a message in the My Notifications portlet indicating that an item requires an approval.

Approval notifications are sent to the list of approvers identified in an approval process step. An approver may respond to the notification by approving or rejecting the item in question.

2.4.2.1 Customizing the My Notifications Portlet

You can customize the My Notifications portlet.

Figure 2-6 The My Notifications Portlet

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To customize the My Notifications portlet:

  1. Edit the page to that contains the My Notifications portlet.

  2. Click the Customize link.

  3. In the Display Name field, enter a different title for the portlet if required. For example, if the portlet will be used only to display approval notifications, you might change the display name to Items Requiring My Approval.

  4. In the Display Limit radio group, select whether to display all notifications or limit the portlet to display only a specified number of notifications.

  5. Make sure the Show Approval Notifications check box is selected.

    The portlet can also display expiry and subscription notifications.

  6. Select the Display Notification Type Icon in Portlet check box if you want to display an icon to illustrate whether the notification is an approval, expiry, or subscription notification. This is useful if you intend to use the portlet to display other types of notifications.

  7. Select the Display Notification Status in Portlet check box if you want to display the status of the notification in the portlet. This is useful if you intend to use the portlet to display other types of notifications. For approval notifications there is only one status: Request Pending.

  8. Click OK.

2.4.2.2 Approving or Rejecting an Item

When there is an item that requires your approval, you receive a notification in the My Notifications portlet. You must decide whether to approve or reject the item. If you approve the item, a notification is sent to the next approver in the approval process. If you are the final approver in the approval process, the item will be published to the portal after you approve it. You may also decide to reject the item. If you reject the item, the approval process is halted even if there are remaining steps (approvers). After you approve or reject the item, the notification is removed from the My Notifications portlet.

In the My Notifications portlet, the approver can click the subject title to display the approval page. From this page, the approver can view the item, enter comments, and decide whether to approve or reject the item. The approver can also view the approval history of the item.

The powers of approval and rejection are distributed as follows:

  • You must be one of the current approvers, a page group administrator, or a page or content manager (with the Manage or Manage Content privilege on the page), to approve or reject an item.

  • An approver can also approve (or reject) an item directly on its page using the Pending Items: Preview mode. See Section 2.4.1.1, "Using the Pending Items Preview Mode".

  • The portal administrator can approve or reject any pending item.

  • Page group administrators can approve or reject any pending item in their page groups from Pending Items: Preview mode, or from the Pending Approvals Monitor portlet.

  • Page or content managers (with the Manage or Manage Content privilege on the page) can approve or reject any pending item on their pages from Pending Items Preview mode, or from the Pending Approvals Monitor portlet.

  • If you do not have the appropriate access privileges for the page that includes the item you approved or rejected, you will be redirected to the OracleAS Portal home page after you approve or reject the item.


Approving an Item

To approve an item:

  1. In the My Notifications portlet, click the item’s subject (see Figure 2-6) to access the Approval Notifications Detail page.

  2. To review the item, click the Item Link.

  3. Enter your approval comments and click Approve.


Rejecting an Item

To reject an item:

  1. In the My Notifications portlet, click the item’s subject (see Figure 2-6) to access the Approval Notifications Detail page.

  2. The review the item, click the Item Link.

  3. Enter your rejection comments, and click Reject.

Alternatively, you can use the Pending Items Preview mode to approve or reject items. To access this mode, click the Pending Items: Preview link in the page. Click the Approve icon next to a Pending item to access the Approval Notifications Detail page, where you can approve or reject the item.


What If an Item Is Rejected?

If you created the item that is rejected, the item appears in your My Approval Status portlet with a "Rejected" status. Also, when you view the page that includes the item in Pending Items: Preview mode, you will see that the item was rejected. You, as the item creator, can edit the rejected item from the Pending Items: Preview mode. After the item is edited, it is automatically resubmitted for approval.

A rejected item can be deleted by the item creator, the page group administrator, or a page or content manager (with the Manage or Manage Content privilege on the page). The item's status changes to "Deleted." A rejected item that was deleted can be un-deleted, provided it hasn’t been purged. When you un-delete a rejected item, the item's status changes back to "Rejected." Rejected items that are deleted will be purged when all other deleted items are purged in the page group.

Page group administrators can also edit rejected items. However, this editing does not change a rejected item's status. All actions performed on the rejected item appear in the approval history for the item.

2.5 Publishing Files Using a WebDAV Client

OracleAS Portal supports the use of a Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol (WebDAV). Using a WebDAV client, such as Web Folders, you can seamlessly drag and drop content, files, and folders back and forth between the desktop and the page groups in OracleAS Portal. You can also perform in-place opening, editing, and saving of file-type items using desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office 2000.

WebDAV also has Java clients (such as DAV Explorer), open source tools (such as Cadaver and Sitecopy), Apple GUI tools (such as Goliath), and commercial authoring tools (such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop). You can also use browsers such as Mozilla or Internet Explorer 5.5 to browse OracleAS Portal content in a hierarchical structure.

The following sections describe how you can access OracleAS Portal from a WebDAV client and the actions that OracleAS Portal supports such as viewing, copying, moving, deleting content, etc. This is followed by detailed explanations of how you can add content using some popular WebDAV clients, such as Web Folders, Microsoft Office 2000 and Macromedia Dreamweaver:

To use these features WebDAV must be set up on both the server side (in OracleAS Portal) and the client side. Check with your portal administrator.


Note:

We recommend that any single user does not perform operations on a single item (or its sub-items) using a concurrent combination of WebDAV clients and the portal itself. For example, if a user locks a file using a WebDAV client and then edits the related item in the OracleAS Portal user interface, there may be unexpected results.

2.5.1 Setting Up Your WebDAV Client

The steps required to set up a WebDAV client to connect to your portal varies depending on the client. But all clients will eventually request a URL. The WebDAV URL is very similar to the URL you use to access the portal itself in your Web browser, and uses the following format:

http://<hostname>:<port>/<dav_location>

Where dav_location is the location as specified in the oradav.conf file.

The default portal DAV URL is:

http://<hostname>:<port>/dav_portal/portal

The dav_portal part of the URL is the default name of a virtual directory used to differentiate between portal access via a WebDAV client and portal access which uses the pls virtual directory. portal is the DAD of the portal installation. Administrators can also configure virtual hosts to provide a different, simpler, or easier to remember URL for WebDAV access, if need be.

You can also directly access a particular page group or page by adding its name to the WebDAV URL, for example:

http://mymachine.mycompany.com:5000/dav_portal/portal/myportal/mypage

You connect to a portal in WebDAV clients using the same user name and password that you use to log in to the portal itself. If the portal is in a hosted environment, you also need to add your company information to your user name, as follows:

<username>@<company>

OracleAS Portal's Single Sign-On functionality does not apply for WebDAV clients. So, even if you are logged in to the portal itself, you will still need to explicitly login from the client.

If you are using Web Folders on Windows 2000, you may be prompted for your user name and password twice. Once when you click Next after specifying the WebDAV URL and again when you click Finish.

Some WebDAV clients (e.g., Windows 2000 or NT) do not support multiple simultaneous log ins. If you want to log in as a new user, you will need to clear your cookies, restart your computer to clear out the current login session, then log in as the new user.

If your WebDAV client has no explicit logout feature, you will need to logout from the operating system (like in Windows 2000 or NT) to logout from the portal.

2.5.2 Using Your WebDAV Client to Access Your Portal

This section describes the actions that OracleAS Portal supports using WebDAV clients. Since not all WebDAV clients behave the same way, only a subset of these actions may be allowed for a particular client. For example, you can check items in and out if the WebDAV client supports the WebDAV LOCK method (Web Folders does not currently support locking operations, Office 2000 clients support implicit locking operations, Cadaver and Dreamweaver support explicit locking operations).

Performing the actions described below has the same effect as performing them in OracleAS Portal. If you make a change from a WebDAV client it is instantly visible in OracleAS Portal, providing the change is not subject to an approval process. You may need to refresh the portal page to see your changes.

When performing actions using WebDAV clients, you may encounter error messages that do not seem to be appropriate for the action. For example, in Web Folders when creating a new version of an item you may get an error message that implies the item will be overwritten rather than a new version created. Also in Web Folders, you may get an error message when moving an item asking you to verify that you want to delete the file. This is because of the underlying behavior of the client and does not affect the actual action that is being performed.

2.5.2.1 Listing Content

Once connected to OracleAS Portal, all the page groups you have privileges to see are visible as folders at the root level (the folders actually represent the root pages of the page groups).

To be able to see a page group, you must be able to view the root page of the page group. All authenticated users should see at least the Corporate Pages page group. Additionally, if you have a personal page in the Shared Objects page group, you should be able to see Shared Objects and access your personal page through the WebDAV client.

If you drill down a page group you see a list of all the pages inside the page group as folders. Similarly, if you drill down a page folder, you see a list of the page's sub-pages and all items (and sub-items) of the following types: File or Simple File, Image, Simple Image, Image Map, Zip File, custom types based on the Base File, Base Image or Base Image Map item types.

To see items in a WebDAV client, you must have at least the View privilege. You will see the current version of the item in the page group's default language only (that is, the language in which the page group was originally created). Translations of items are not visible in WebDAV clients.

You see only the primary document attribute associated with each item. Any other files (i.e., secondary files or images) associated with the item (for example, the item image), are hidden in the WebDAV client. If you want to delete or change these files, you must do so in OracleAS Portal.

In WebDAV clients there is no differentiation between items and sub-items.

Unpublished items (i.e., expired items, hidden items, items with a future publish date, and deleted items that are still displayed on a page) are also visible in WebDAV clients.

The file and folder names displayed in the WebDAV client are the actual names of the files or folders (not the internal names of the items or pages). The internal name is similar to the actual name, except it is all uppercase and may include additional characters (_0, _1, etc.) to ensure uniqueness.

OracleAS Portal is case-sensitive for file and folder names (e.g., aaa.htm and AAA.htm are treated as different items). If your WebDAV client is not case-sensitive (e.g., Web Folders), aaa.htm or AAA.htm may not be accessible or the client may confuse one for the other. Therefore, when using such clients, do not use a naming convention that relies on case.

Templates, regions, and tabs are not currently represented. Because these are not represented, their content is not represented. You will not be able to see items that are contained within tabs or items that are inherited from page templates. This also means that if a file is placed on a tab in OracleAS Portal, that item will not display in a WebDAV client. We recommend that tabs are not used in pages that are intended for use with WebDAV clients.

2.5.2.2 Viewing Content

Most WebDAV clients allow you to view the content of a file by clicking on the name. In Windows 2000 or NT, the behavior is very similar to clicking a file on the local machine; the operating system opens it in the application associated with the file type.

If you are using a Microsoft Office application to browse portal content, be aware that when you open a file, that file is locked in the WebDAV client and checked out in the portal. Therefore other users will not be able to edit the file until you have closed it. When you close the file, it is unlocked and checked back in. If versioning is enabled, a new version will be created.

Some desktop applications may have difficulty opening files that use special characters in the file name. We recommend that file names use only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), spaces, and the following special characters: _ - . ( ) ! , ; = ~ @ [ ] { } ^ $ +.

2.5.2.3 Moving, Copying and Editing Content

To move, copy, or edit files, you must have at least the Manage Content privilege (or the Manage Items With Approval privilege if approvals are enabled).

With WebDAV-enabled desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office 2000, you can open a file, edit it directly, and then save it to the same location, using the same name. With other applications, you can save the file to the local file system and drag and drop the new file to OracleAS Portal. The next time the file is opened from OracleAS Portal, the edited version will be displayed.

When content contributors move or copy a file, the whole item associated with that file is moved or copied, including associated files (for example, the item image) and any sub-items. If a sub-item is copied, the copy is created as a top-level item.

2.5.2.3.1 Item Types and Attributes

Your page designer can specify what item types to use for new files published to OracleAS Portal through WebDAV. For example, the page designer might want any zip files published to OracleAS Portal to be uploaded as Zip File items, so that their contents can be extracted into the page group. If the default item type includes the Category attribute, new items added through WebDAV clients are assigned to the General category. See Section 7.8.7, "Choosing Default Item Types for Files Uploaded Via WebDAV" for more information.

When you edit or move an existing item using WebDAV, that item retains its original item type and attribute settings. Similarly, when you copy an item using WebDAV, the copy uses the item type and attribute settings of the original item. You cannot edit an item's attributes in OracleAS Portal’s WebDAV server. To do this, you must edit the item in OracleAS Portal.

2.5.2.3.2 Versioning Support

OracleAS Portal's WebDAV server supports Audit versioning. If your page is set up to use Audit versioning and you use a WebDAV client to edit an item on the page, a new version of the item is created. The new version is always set to the current version, which is always displayed in WebDAV. If you do not want the new version to be the current version, you must edit the item in OracleAS Portal.

If a page uses Simple versioning and you use a WebDAV client to edit an item on the page, a new version of the item is created and set to the current version. You cannot choose to overwrite the previous version of the item. To overwrite the previous version of the item, you must edit the item in OracleAS Portal.

In some clients, e.g., Windows 2000, the message you receive when you add a new version of an item may imply that you are overwriting the file rather than adding a new version. This is a limitation of the client’s messaging. If Simple or Audit versioning is enabled for the page, replacing a file in the WebDAV client will always create a new version.

2.5.2.3.3 Approvals Support

OracleAS Portal's DAV server also supports approvals. If you add an item to a page using a WebDAV client, the approval process for the page or page group is triggered. The content of the item does not become visible to other users until it has been approved. They may be able to see the item listed (as a zero-byte file) in the WebDAV client before it has been approved, but they will not be able to see the actual content of the item until it has been approved. This prevents other users from creating items with the same file name, potentially overwriting a pending item. The item cannot be updated in the WebDAV client until it has been approved or rejected.

If approvals are enabled, when a user updates an item using a WebDAV client, other users will continue to see the non-updated item until such time as the updates are approved. The user who updated the item will see the updated item, even before it is approved. However, if a user updates an item using the OracleAS Portal user interface, all users (including the user who updated the item) will see the non-updated item in WebDAV clients until the updated item is approved.


Note:

The point at which the approval process is triggered depends upon the WebDAV client being used. For example, in Microsoft Word, when a file is opened it is automatically locked. The approval process will not be triggered until the file is unlocked (i.e., when the file is closed). Therefore, simply saving the file does not trigger the approval process. You must perform the action that causes the client to unlock the file, thus triggering the approval process.

2.5.2.3.4 Additional Tips

  • The target page must contain at least one item or one undefined region. If a page has more than one item region, the page designer can specify one of those regions as the default item region.

    • When you add an item to the page using WebDAV, the item is placed in the page's default item region. If the target page is based on a page template, the default item region is determined by the default item region of the template.

    • If a default item region has not been specified, the item is placed in the second item region on the page (or the first if there is only one item region). The second item region is used to avoid placing items in a region intended for navigation elements.

    • If there are no item regions on the page, the item is placed in the first undefined region on the page (and that undefined region then becomes an item region). If the page is based on a template that contains no item regions, users cannot add content to the page, even if it contains undefined regions.

    • All pages, including those with no item regions, are visible on the WebDAV side. Moving or copying an item into a page with no item or no undefined regions produces an error.

    • The default item region applies to new items only. For example, if the default item region for a page changes and an item on that page is subsequently edited, the item will remain in its current region; it will not be moved to the new default item region.

  • Pages created from a WebDAV client automatically include an item region.

  • You cannot use WebDAV to add items to pages that are based on a seeded page template (those templates provided when OracleAS Portal is installed).

  • You cannot add files to tabs in pages. If a page consists entirely of tabs, you cannot add items to the page even though it is listed in the WebDAV client.

  • You can move and copy files and pages to other pages within the same page group. Copying files and pages across page groups is not supported in OracleAS Portal. To perform this action using WebDAV, copy the files or pages to your local file system, then copy them from the file system to the target page group.

  • In Web Folders, depending on your operating system, you cannot copy a file into the same folder. For example, in Windows 2000, dragging an item from the right pane into the same folder in the left pane will raise an error. In Windows NT, using the copy and paste commands to copy a file into the same folder will have no effect.

2.5.2.4 Deleting Content

When you delete a file in a WebDAV client, the whole item associated with that file is deleted from OracleAS Portal. This means that any other files that are associated with the item (for example, the item image) are also deleted, as well as all sub-items, versions and translations of the item.

If you mark an item for deletion in OracleAS Portal but it is not yet deleted from the database, the item will still be visible in WebDAV clients.

If you delete an item using a WebDAV client, the item is permanently deleted even if the page group is set to retain and display deleted items.

2.5.2.5 Checking Content Out and In

If the WebDAV client supports locking and unlocking (e.g., Dreamweaver and Office 2000), you can lock a file, which in turn will check out the item (the OracleAS Portal equivalent of the WebDAV LOCK method) attached to the file. Once a file is locked from a WebDAV client, no-one else can make changes to it until it is checked back in by the same WebDAV client. Even the user who locked the item cannot make changes to the file using a different WebDAV client or the portal itself. The unlock token is owned by the client that locked the file, so the file must be unlocked by the same WebDAV client (on the same machine) that locked the file.

After you have made the required changes to the file, you can unlock it, which in turn checks in the item (the OracleAS Portal equivalent of the WebDAV UNLOCK method) attached to the file. Other users will then be able to make their own changes to the file.

See Section 2.5.5, "Example: Using Dreamweaver to Edit the Content of a Page" for more information.

2.5.2.5.1 Additional Tips

  • You cannot check folders in or out, or recursively check out the contents of a folder.

  • You cannot move, copy, or delete a page if an item in that page, or in one of its sub-pages, is locked through another WebDAV client or by another user. In addition, these operations can be performed only using the same WebDAV client that locked the item can perform these operations.

  • If you lock a file attached to a sub-item, other users will be able to use a WebDAV client to delete the parent item (and thus the sub-item) even though they do not own the unlock token for the sub-item. This is because WebDAV clients do not support the OracleAS Portal item hierarchy.

  • If you check an item out in OracleAS Portal, you can not update the item in a WebDAV client. This is because OracleAS Portal uses a different locking model from WebDAV. OracleAS Portal locks items based on user names, whereas WebDAV locks resources based on specific lock-keys. When you check out an item in OracleAS Portal, it is locked in the WebDAV domain with a specific key. Only OracleAS Portal (not the individual user) has the key to unlock the item. Even the user who checked the item out needs to check the item in again before he or she can operate on it using a WebDAV client.

    For example, when Scott checks out File1 in OracleAS Portal, the portal keeps a record that Scott has checked out File1 and the OracleAS Portal WebDAV server locks File1 and holds onto the related lock token. Scott can log on OracleAS Portal using any Web browser and check File1 back in but he cannot use a WebDAV client to unlock the item because the OracleAS Portal WebDAV server (not Scott's WebDAV client) has the lock token.

2.5.2.6 Creating OracleAS Portal Pages and Sub-pages

Using a WebDAV client, you can create and delete pages within existing page groups providing you have the appropriate privileges. For example, in Web Folders, go to the folder for the page where you want to create a sub-page, right-click the folder and choose New>Folder. All the pages you create using WebDAV clients are Standard pages and contain an item region.

2.5.2.6.1 Additional Tips

  • Page names can contain any alphanumeric character (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), spaces, and the following special characters: _ - . ( ) ! , ; = ~ @ [ ] { } ^ $ +. Consequently, to paste a folder from the file system into OracleAS Portal, it and all sub-folders that it contains must use only these characters.

  • The folder name displayed in the WebDAV client is the actual name of the folder (not the internal name of the page). The internal name is similar to the actual folder name, except it is all uppercase and may include additional characters (_0, _1, etc.) to ensure uniqueness within the page group.

  • You cannot create, edit, or delete page groups through WebDAV. These actions must be performed in OracleAS Portal.

  • You cannot create tabs through WebDAV.

2.5.2.7 Viewing Errors

Any errors that occur while you are using a WebDAV client with OracleAS Portal are recorded in an error log. The error log is created the first time an OracleAS Portal related WebDAV error occurs and it is placed on your personal page as an item titled My Error Log. This can be very helpful for interpreting the error messages reported in WebDAV clients, such as the message 'An error has occurred while trying to complete this operation' that is often displayed in Web Folders, or HTTP error numbers reported in Cadaver.


Note:

The error log is not truncated and may become quite a large file. We recommend that you periodically delete this file. The next time an error is encountered a new file will be created.

All errors are also recorded in the Apache error log file ($ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs), so if you do not have a personal page, or are a public user, the errors can still be examined by the portal administrator.

For more verbose error reporting in the Apache error log file, ask your administrator to add the following parameter to the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam ORATraceLevel 1

For more information, see the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

2.5.2.8 Authentication

Due to the way some WebDAV clients behave, you might experience authentication requests multiple times. To avoid this, your portal administrator can enable the cookie option by adding the following line to the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam ORACookieMaxAge <seconds>

Refer to the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide for more information.

Some WebDAV clients, for example, Dreamweaver, do not support cookies, so even if the cookie option is enabled, you may still be prompted for your password multiple times. In some clients that do not support cookies you may be able to save your user name and password so you won’t need to enter the information each time you are prompted. However, this may cause performance issues with large volume transactions.

2.5.3 Example: Using Web Folders to Add Content to a Page

Web Folders is a Microsoft OS extension that supports the WebDAV protocol. If you access Web Folders on your computer, you can browse the contents of page groups in OracleAS Portal through Windows Explorer and drag and drop files into the pages in those page groups.

In this example, a user called Scott uses Web Folders to browse the contents of a page group called My Portal and add a file to a page in that page group.


Note:

This example shows you how to use Web Folders in Windows 2000 where Web Folders is built into the operating system as part of My Network Places. You should be able to access the Add Network Place Wizard by double-clicking My Computer then double-clicking Add Web Folder. To use Web Folders in Windows 9x/NT, you must install Internet Explorer 5.5 (not 6.0).

If you have Internet Explorer 5.5 installed, but cannot find a Web Folders node under My Computer, you need to explicitly install the Web Folders component of Internet Explorer through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

In Windows 9x/NT, if you have Internet Explorer 6.0 installed, you will not have Web Folders. You must install Internet Explorer 5.5 and the Web Folders component. After you have done this, you can upgrade to Internet Explorer 6.0 without losing support for Web Folders.


Figure 2-7 An Example of Web Folders in Windows 2000

Description of h_dav07.gif follows
Description of the illustration h_dav07.gif

To use Web Folders to add content to a page (Windows 2000):

  1. Open Windows Explorer and click My Network Places.

  2. Double-click Add Network Place to display the Add Network Place Wizard.

  3. Enter the WebDAV URL for your portal. For user Scott, the URL is:

    http://mymachine.mycompany.com:5000/dav_portal/portal
    
    

    If you are not sure of the WebDAV URL for your portal, contact your portal administrator.

  4. Click Next then enter the user name and password that you usually use to log in to the portal.


    Note:

    You can log in to Web Folders as one user at any given time. That is, multiple simultaneous logins are not allowed. If you want to log in to Web Folders as a new user, clear your cookies, restart your computer to clear out the current login session, then log in as the new user.

    Windows Web Folders sometimes stores your user name and password and/or portal session cookie and uses these details when creating subsequent Web Folders or recreating a Web Folder that has previously existed. Consequently it may not be possible to create multiple Web Folders for portals on the same host using different authentication information. We advise that, unless you understand exactly how your Web Folder implementation behaves, you do not create more than one Web Folder referencing any single host. Also, you should remain vigilant if you attempt to create a Web Folder referencing the same portal as an existing (or previous) Web Folder but with different user log in details - Windows may perform the log in step without prompting you.


  5. Click Finish.

    If you are using Windows 2000, you may be prompted for your user name and password again.

  6. The portal is now listed as one of your network places.

  7. Double-click the portal entry in My Network Places to drill down into it.

    You can now see a folder for each of the page groups that you can access in the portal. The folders actually represent the root pages of the page groups.

  8. Double-click the page group to drill down and see a folder for each page in the page group.

    In this example, Scott would click MYPORTAL to drill down into the My Portal page group. See Figure 2-7.

  9. Click a page name to drill down further and view the items in a page.

    For example, with the mypage folder you can see a file associated with the file item MYDOCUMENT.TXT. See Figure 2-7.

    If the page had sub-pages, these would be listed as sub-folders.

  10. As you can access your portal’s Web Folder just like any other folder in Windows Explorer, you can drag and drop files from any other folder into your portal.

    You can use the drag and drop features to move or copy files within the same page group. Copying files across page groups is not supported. See Section 2.5.2.3, "Moving, Copying and Editing Content".

    For example, Scott can drag a document from his local drive into mypage.

  11. When you next access the page in the portal, it includes the new file. You may need to refresh the page to see your changes.

    The display name of the new item is the same as the file name (with the extension removed). You can edit the item later to change this.


    Note:

    The item is created as one of the default WebDAV item types (depending on whether the file is a zip file, an image file, or a regular file), and is added to the default item region.

  12. If you have a WebDAV enabled desktop application, such as Microsoft Office 2000, you can open files directly from your Web Folders, edit the files and save them.

    Providing they do not need approval, any changes that you make are immediately available in the portal. See Section 2.5.4, "Example: Using Microsoft Office 2000 to Edit the Content of a Page".

  13. Create new pages in the page group by creating new folders in Web Folders.

    For example, Scott can right-click inside the mypage folder and choose New>Folder from the menu.

2.5.4 Example: Using Microsoft Office 2000 to Edit the Content of a Page

If you are using Microsoft Office 2000, a WebDAV-enabled desktop application, you can start the application, open a file in the portal, edit the content, and save it back to the portal. You don't need to download the document from the portal and then upload it again after you have edited it.

Figure 2-8 Microsoft Office 2000 Example

Description of h_dav10.gif follows
Description of the illustration h_dav10.gif

To use Microsoft Office 2000 to edit the content of a page:

  1. Set up Web Folders to access the portal through Windows Explorer and then drill down to the page containing the file item required. See Section 2.5.3, "Example: Using Web Folders to Add Content to a Page"

    For example, Scott drills down to page mypage containing a Word document (MYDOCUMENT.DOC). See Figure 2-8.

  2. Double-click on the file item.

  3. If prompted, enter the user name and password required to log in to the portal.

    The selected file item is opened by the relevant Microsoft Office 2000 application. For example, when Scott double-clicks MYDOCUMENT.DOC it opens in Microsoft Word.

    When opening a file, Microsoft Office 2000 locks the file and the related item is also checked out in the portal. If the Office application cannot lock the file (e.g., it is locked by another WebDAV client, or the item was checked-out in the portal) then it is opened as Read-only. If the Office application locked the document when it was opened, it unlocks it when the document is closed.

  4. Edit the document and choose File>Save.

  5. Exit Microsoft Word.

    When you next access the same file item in the portal, note that it includes the changes you made.


Note:

You can also use Office 2000 to create new items in the portal. Simply create the file and then save it directly to the Web Folder for your portal.

The item is created as the default WebDAV item type for regular files, and is added to the default item region. See Section 7.8.7, "Choosing Default Item Types for Files Uploaded Via WebDAV".


2.5.5 Example: Using Dreamweaver to Edit the Content of a Page

Dreamweaver supports the WebDAV LOCK and UNLOCK methods, so you can use this application to check items in and out of OracleAS Portal while you are working on them.

In this example, a user called Scott uses Dreamweaver to view and edit a document in a page in the My Portal page group. The example uses Dreamweaver MX.

Figure 2-9 Dreamweaver MX Example

Description of h_dav21.gif follows
Description of the illustration h_dav21.gif

To use Dreamweaver MX to edit the content of a page:

  1. Open Dreamweaver.

  2. Choose Site>New Site from the menu to set up a new site for the portal.

  3. Click the Advanced tab and, from the Category list, choose Local Info.

  4. Enter the Site Name. For example, My Portal.

  5. Enter the Local Root Folder in which to store portal files while working on them. For example, D:\My Work\My Portal.

  6. From the Category list, choose Remote Info.

  7. For Access, choose WebDAV.

  8. Click Settings.

  9. Enter the WebDAV URL for the portal, and the user name and password you usually use to log in to the portal.

    If you want to make use of the check in and out functionality, you must also provide your e-mail address.

  10. Click OK to return to the Site Definition dialog box.

  11. Clear the Check Out Files when Opening check box to be able to view files without checking them out first.

  12. Click OK to create the new site.

  13. In the Site window, click the Connect icon to connect to the portal.

    You can now see a folder for each of the page groups in the portal. The folders actually represent the root pages of the page groups.

  14. Double-click a page group name to drill down and see a folder for each of the pages.

  15. Double-click a page to drill down further and view items.

    For example, within the mypage folder Scott can see the files associated with items in the page, e.g., an HTML document (MYDOCUMENT.HTM). See Figure 2-9.

  16. Right-click a file and then choose Check Out.

    A copy of the file in placed in the local folder you identified earlier.

  17. In the portal, display the page and note that there is no Edit icon next to the item associated with the file. The file cannot be edited because it is locked by a WebDAV client.

  18. Click the Actions icon and note that actions on the item are not available because it is checked out.

  19. In Dreamweaver, double-click the file to open it for editing.

  20. Edit the file, then save and close it.

  21. Right-click the file and then choose Check In.

  22. In the portal, refresh the page.

    Other users can now view and edit the updated version of this item.


Note:

You can also use Dreamweaver's Synchronize feature to keep the files you store on your local file system in sync with the content in the portal.

2.6 Publishing Translated Files

To view and edit files in a particular language, you must either have logged on to OracleAS Portal in the appropriate language, or set the language using the Set Language portlet.

All content that is translated into the selected language is displayed on the page. Any content that has not been translated into the chosen language is displayed in the default language (that is, the language in which the page group was originally created).

When you edit an item you can translate its content into the selected language.


Note:

If you are using a WebDAV client to publish files, you will not see any translated versions of your files.