In Oracle Portal, you add content to a page by adding items. For example, to add:
Files (such as documents), you add items with a file-based item type.
Links to another Web page, Web site, or Oracle Portal page, you add items with a URL-based item type.
Text or embedded HTML to a page, you add items with a text-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 setting up the page group. See Section 5.2.2.3, "Making an Item Type Available to a Page Group."
Oracle Portal provides many item-related features which support document collaboration among different users and groups. The main item features include the following:
Versioning - When item versioning is enabled, previous versions of an item are retained instead of being overwritten when the item is edited. This means that you can have a record of all the changes made to an item and can revert to a previous version if necessary. See Section 14.12, "Using Item Version Control."
Item level security - Item level security enables you to choose the specific users or groups that are able to manage the item. See Section 17.9, "Securing Items."
Document control - With document control, groups of users can edit items using a check in and check out process. This feature restricts a user from editing the item while it is being edited or checked out by another user. See Section 14.5, "Checking Items Out and In."
Publishing dates - When an item includes the Publish Date attribute, you can add the item to a page any time, yet display it to other users (in View mode) on a specified date in the future. See Section 14.4.3, "Setting a Publish Date for an Item."
Expiry dates - When an item includes the Expiration Period attribute, you can specify how long the item is displayed on a page. See Section 14.11, "Expiring Items."
Approvals - The Manage Items With Approval page privilege and the page/page group option Require Approval for All Users enable you to add items that must first be approved before they are displayed to other users in View mode. See Section 2.7, "Getting Your Content Approved" and, for more advanced information, Chapter 20, "Setting Up an Approval Chain."
Oracle Portal makes it easy to work with items on pages, once the appropriate privileges are established. You can use step-by-step wizards to add, edit, and delete items from your pages, or, if you have a WebDAV client such as Web Folders available, you can seamlessly drag and drop files and folders back and forth between your desktop and Oracle Portal pages. See Chapter 14, "Working with Items."
To find out how to use step-by-step wizards to add content to Oracle Portal, see Section 14.2, "Adding Items to a Page." A file is a type of item; so is a block of HTML code, a link to another page, a zip file, and so on.
Oracle Portal supports the use of a Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol (WebDAV). Using WebDAV clients, such as Oracle Drive or Web Folders, you can seamlessly drag and drop content, files, and folders back and forth between the desktop and Oracle Portal. You can also perform in-place opening, editing, and saving of file-type items using desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office and Macromedia Dreamweaver.
To learn more about WebDAV and how to add content to Oracle Portal using some popular WebDAV clients, see Chapter 18, "Using WebDAV Clients with Oracle Portal."
Once you have added content to Oracle Portal, the items are easy to manage and maintain. You can copy, move, rearrange, and delete items, restore deleted items, or hide items.
You can also set attributes for your items. For example, it is important to classify the content of items as this will help other users to find your content and allow them to determine whether items are of interest. You can also control when people see an item by specifying its publish date, or you can set expiration dates for items so they are hidden when they are no longer relevant or important. For more information on the actions you can perform on items, see Chapter 14, "Working with Items" and Chapter 15, "Working with Portlets."