Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Administration Guide

Chapter 9 Managing Portal Server Subscriptions

This chapter describes the Sun Java^TM System Portal Server subscriptions component and how to manage it. The chapter contains following topics:

Understanding Portal Server Subscriptions

Subscriptions enable end users to create a profile covering many sources of information, including categories, discussions, and searchable documents. The profile is updated with the latest information each time the end user accesses the Subscriptions channel. The Subscriptions channel summarizes the number of items of relevant information that match each profile entry that the end user defines for categorized document or discussions.

You can match the following types of content using the search server:

New documents in a target category from a specified range of days
New relevant comments within a discussion from a specified range of days
Document hits against saved searches

The result is displayed as a link that shows the number of matching information to the profile entry. This link redirects the end user to a more detailed view of the match itself.

In case of a category subscription, the link redirects the end user to the search channel, which summarizes the specific documents of interest in a standard category search result format. The Subscriptions channel acts as the doorway to a more detailed view for the end user.

The Profiler function provides email notifications when the content of specified interests has changed. The Profiler obtains subscription details for end users from the Access Manager, fetches the results from the Search server, and sends email notifications to end users. You can schedule the Profiler to run at a specific time at the organization level.

Setting Up Subscriptions

You can enable or disable subscriptions. Subscriptions can be set up at the:

Root Level
Organization Level
End-User Level

To Set Up Subscriptions

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

Click the Subscriptions tab.

Set the subscriptions level by choosing one of the following, and set the default values:
- From the Select DN drop-down menu, choose TopLevel [Global].
  
  Note –
  Administering subscriptions at the TopLevel sets the system-wide default maximum number of subscriptions for each type, or for categories, discussions, and saved searches.
  
  Maximum number of Categories subscriptions
  
  Specifies the maximum number of categories that a user can subscribe to.
  
  Maximum number of Discussion subscriptions
  
  Specifies the maximum number of discussions that a user can subscribe to.
  
  Maximum number of Saved searches
  
  Specifies the maximum number of searches that can be saved.
- From the Select DN drop-down menu, choose any Organization.
  
  Note –
  Administering Subscriptions at the Organization level overwrites the system-wide default maximum number of subscription per type (that is, for categories, discussions, and for saved searches).
  
  Profiler SMTP
  
  The host system that serves as the SMTP server to route Email notifications to the end users.
  
  Profiler Email
  
  Subscription profiler email address from which the user receives email notification. Email should be in the form ID@domain.
  
  Profiler Provider
  
  The URL of the Profiler channel that is used to render the content of the Email notification to the user. It should be in the form of http://HOST:PORT/portal/dt?
  
  provider=profiler&desktop.suid=UID_OF_AUTHLESSANONYMOUS_USER
  
  Profiler Default Search
  
  The URL of the default search server. Profiler Default Search is only used for backward compatibility with user profiles created with Portal Server 6.3.x. It should be in the format http://HOST:PORT/search1/search
  
  Profiler Max Hits
  
  The maximum number of result hits that any given end user subscriptions in the organization will see in email notification sent to a user. For example, if the value is 5, a saved search with a large scope like “*” is limited with five most relevant results.
  
  Maximum Category subscriptions
  
  The maximum number of categories that a user can subscribe to.
  
  Maximum Discussion subscriptions
  
  The maximum number of discussions that a user can subscribe to.
  
  Maximum Saved Searches
  
  The maximum number of searches the end user can save.
- From the Select DN drop-down menu, choose any User.
  
  Note –
  Administering Subscriptions at the Organization User level edits user’s Subscriptions settings. The administrator can maintain the user’s service data.
  - Update user subscriptions
  - Delete user subscriptions
  Profiler Enabled
  
  Allows users to receive email notifications by selecting Enabled.
  
  For each type of subscription, add or remove subscriptions. The format of:
  Category subscription
  label | target category | scope | lapsed time | rating | server | database | status
  where
  label
  
  Refers to a logical reference given to the edited subscription and it must be a string. This is a required field.
  
  target category
  
  Must be of the string format ABC:DEF:GHI
  
  scope
  
  Refers to a search query and it must be of a string format that is a valid search string, including search operators.
  
  lapsed time
  
  Must be one of the following numbers:
  
  0 = forever
  
  1 = since yesterday
  
  7 = since last week
  
  30 = since last month
  
  180 = since last 6 months
  
  365 = since last year
  
  rating
  
  This is the minimum rating that a matching document should be to be selected as a match for the subscription.
  
  Values are number
  
  –1 = irrelevant
  
  0 = routine
  
  1 = interesting
  
  2 = important
  
  3 = must read
  
  server
  
  This is the URL of the search server that will be queried to find content matching subscription's criteria.
  
  database
  
  Target search server database where subscription searches for potential matches. This is a single value database.
  
  status
  
  Boolean value that marks whether the subscriptions is active or inactive.
  
  Active means the subscriptions is to be evaluated.
  
  Inactive means the subscriptions is dormant.
  Discussions subscriptions
  label | target discussion | scope | lapsed time | rating | server | database | status
  where:
  label
  
  Refers to a logical reference given to the edited subscription and it must be a string. This is a required field.
  
  target discussion
  
  Parent node of the discussion thread from which subscriptions will try to find matching content for other defined criteria.
  
  scope
  
  Refers to a search query. scope must be a string format that is a valid search string, including search operators.
  
  lapsed time
  
  Must be one of the following numbers:
  
  0 = forever
  
  7 = since last week
  
  30 = since last month
  
  180 = since last 6 months
  
  365 = since last year
  
  rating
  
  This is the minimum rating that a matching document should be to be selected as a match for the subscription.
  
  Values are number
  
  –1 = irrelevant
  
  0 = routine
  
  1 = interesting
  
  2 = important
  
  3 = must read
  
  server
  
  This is the URL of the search server that will be queried to find content matching subscription's criteria.
  
  database
  
  Target search server database where subscription searches for potential matches. This is a single value database.
  
  status
  
  Boolean value that marks whether the subscriptions is active or inactive.
  
  Active means the subscriptions is to be evaluated.
  
  Inactive means the subscriptions is dormant.
  Saved searches
  label | scope | lapsed time | rating | server | database | status
  where
  label
  
  Refers to a logical reference given to the edited subscription and it must be a string. This is a required field.
  
  scope
  
  Refers to a search query and if must be of a string format that is a valid search string, including search operators.
  
  lapsed time
  
  Must be one of the following numbers:
  
  0 = forever
  
  1 = since yesterday
  
  7 = since last week
  
  30 = since last month
  
  180 = since last 6 months
  
  365 = since last year
  rating
  This is the minimum rating that a matching document should be to be selected as a match for the subscription.
  
  Values are number
  - –1 = irrelevant
  - 0 = routine
  - 1 = interesting
  - 2 = important
  - 3 = must read
  server
  
  This is the URL of the search server that will be queried to find content matching subscription's criteria.
  
  database
  
  Target search server database where subscription searches for potential matches. This is a single value database.
  
  status
  Boolean value that marks whether the subscriptions is active or inactive.
  - Active means the subscriptions is to be evaluated.
  - Inactive means the subscriptions is dormant.

Click Save.

Equivalent `psadmin` Command

psadmin set-attribute

Administering Portal Server Discussions

This section describes the discussions channel and how to manage it.

This section contains the following:

Understanding DiscussionProvider

The Discussions channel is based on the DiscussionProvider, similar to the search channel’s JavaServer Pages^TM (JSP^TM) files. The discussion channel has a query portion and a display portion, and uses Desktop themes.

The DiscussionProvider:

Uses the Desktop themes
Is based on JSP technology
Retrieves data from the back-end Search service using search tag libraries and API

Discussions and comments are stored as different Resource Descriptors (RDs) in the discussion database. The DiscussionProvider supports:

A full view (using the Discussions channel) and an abbreviated view (using the DiscussionLite channel) that:
Starts a new discussion from the discussion channel
Posts replies to an existing discussion
Starts a new discussion based on web documents from the search channel
A Discussion List that:
- Retrieves main posts sorted by last-modified date
- Has pagination so users can access older discussion
A discussion view that displays each discussion subtree. The main item is displayed in detail and the subtree is displayed below the main item. View discussion includes:
- Several filters on the page. A document display can be based on filters such as document rating (irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read).
- Display preference can be set to threaded or flat display.
- Expansion threshold to help control displayed items in the subtree. The users can choose to expand only highly rated documents, or expand all or collapse all. Default value is collapse all. Expand all displays all the filtered comments, shows a description of the discussion, provides a menu for rating the discussion, and allows the user to post a reply.
- Support to search within a discussion. The user also has the option to set these preferences through the channel edit page.
Commenting and rating a discussion. For example, users can:
- Add a comment on an existing discussion.
- Rate all discussions and comments. User rating is not immediately visible. The rating calculation is based on an algorithm, and the rating for any comment goes up gradually. For example, a comment must be rated important three times before it is marked as important.
- Searching all discussions and within a discussion. These functions are routed to the search provider. Users can also search by rating in Advance Search.
- Subscriptions. Authenticated users can choose to subscribe to a particular discussion by selecting the subscribe link. The request is handled by the SubscriptionProvider.

Administering the DiscussionProvider

You can create a DiscussionProvider channel and manage it from the portal server management console:

End users can configure the discussion channel using the channel edit page.

To Create a Channel from DiscussionProvider

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

Select the container where you want to create the channel.

The container Task and Properties are displays on the right panel.

Under Tasks, click New Channel or Container to launch the wizard.
1. From the Select Portal drop-down menu, select a portal server.
2. From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.
3. Under Type, select channel, and click Next.
4. Under Channel Type, select Provider Channel, and click Next.
5. From the Provider drop-down menu, select DiscussionProvider, and click Next.
6. Type a name for the channel in the text box, and click Next.
7. Review the channel information, and click Finish.
8. Click Close.
The channel based on DiscussionProvider is created.

To Delete a DiscussionProvider Channel

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

From the Select DN drop-down menu, choose the DN where the DiscussionProvider channel resides.

Tip –
Select DP XML Tree as the View Type from the drop-down menu for a listing of all the channels and containers under DP_ROOT.

Select the container where the channel resides.

The container Tasks and Properties page displays.

Click Select Channel or Container to delete.

Select the DiscussionProvider channel.

Click Delete.

To Configure a DiscussionProvider Channel

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

Choose DN organization where the DiscussionProvider channel resides from Select DN drop-down menu.

Tip –
Select DP XML Tree as the View Type from the drop-down menu for a listing of all the channels and containers under DP_ROOT.

Select the DiscussionProvider channel you want to configure.

For more information about the attributes, see Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Technical Reference.

DiscussionLite Channel

The DiscussionLite channel displays the top 20 recent discussion titles and the date. Discussions are sorted by creation date (last modified), and the newest discussion is displayed first. Titles can be reconfigured.

The DiscussionLite channel view has links for:

Viewing each discussion.
Viewing all discussions that target the Discussions Channel.
Starting a discussion.

By default, the channel is displayed in a single container, and all links are brought up in a JSPDynamicSingleContainer.

Properties can be configured from the management console. By default, the end user cannot edit properties of this channel.