Administrator Guide

Publishing and Expiring Content

Publishing makes content items available to end users as web pages. Publisher enables you to:

Publish content items to published content portlets, to the portal Knowledge Directory, or to an external web site.
Publish a content item immediately or schedule it to be published at a later date.
Preview a content item before publishing it to confirm layout and ensure that the Presentation Template is implemented correctly.

You can also publish content items to the portal Knowledge Directory using a Publisher crawler.

When you want to remove a published content item from the web server, you can set it to expire. This removes it from the web server but keeps it in the Publisher directory. You can set a published content item to expire immediately or schedule a future expiration.

This chapter provides an overview of publishing and includes the following topics:

About Publishing

When you publish a content item, Publisher performs the following tasks:

Formats the item according to its Presentation Template.
Saves the formatted file to the web server directory specified in the publishing target assigned to the item’s Publisher folder.
Adds the item to the search index.
Publishes the item to the portal Knowledge Directory, if you so choose.
Publishes images or files included in the content item, if one of the following criteria is met:

The files are stored in a File or Image property in the content item, and the Presentation Template references them using the proper pcs tags.
If the file is an image file, it was uploaded using the Upload Image options in the Long Text property type.

Note:

When users in the Editor role and above upload an image file using the Upload Image options in the Long Text property type, the image file is automatically published when the content item is published. When users in a Submitter or Contributor role create a content item through a published content portlet and upload an image file this way, the image file is not published automatically with the content item; it must be published separately.

Publishes any referenced content items in an Item or List property, if those items are included in the Presentation Template’s Related Items to Publish list.
Republishes any referenced published content items (as defined in the Presentation Template’s Related Items to Publish list). For example, if you publish a new article in a news portlet, the index page and main page are republished to add the content item.

Note:

File content items are published without being formatted by Presentation Templates, and independently publishable Presentation Templates are published without content items. The format of the published file content item is determined by the file content item itself, while the format of the published Presentation Template is determined by the Presentation Template itself, as defined in the Presentation Template Editor. The Publisher folder in both cases determines the publishing target (published file location accessed by the AquaLogic Interaction portal server or other web server).

For more information on Presentation Templates, see Creating Presentation Templates.

For more information on publishing targets, see Configuring Publishing Targets and Preview Sites.

For more information on file content items, see Uploading and Managing File Content Items.

For more information on managing image files in Publisher so that they are published correctly, see Inserting and Managing Files and Images Using Content Item Editor.

Publishing Content Items

This section provides an overview of publication requirements and discusses how to:

Publish using Publisher Explorer.
Publish using Content Item Editor.
Schedule publishing and expiration.
Publish to the Knowledge Directory using the Content Item Editor and Publisher.
Publish to the Knowledge Directory using a Publisher crawler.
Publishing to external web sites.

Publication Requirements

To publish a content item, you must meet the following requirements:

There must be a publishing target configured for the content item’s Publisher folder. A publishing target is the file location on the web server where the published content item will reside.

For more information on configuring publishing targets, see Configuring Publishing Targets and Preview Sites.

You must have an Editor role or higher for the Publisher folder.
If the content item is in workflow, it must be in a workflow activity that allows publishing.
If the content item’s folder has workflow attached, but the content item has not been submitted to workflow, then the “Allow content items not in workflow to be published” option must be selected on the Folder Workflow Properties page for the folder.

For more information on folder-level workflow options, see Attaching Workflow to Folders.

The content item must use a Presentation Template that is set up to publish complete pages. No Presentation Template is required for file content items.

Publishing Using Publisher Explorer

Using Publisher Explorer, you can publish content items individually, by folder, or by selecting a batch.

To publish a content item:

Right-click the content item and click Publish.
Click OK in the confirmation box. A dialog appears and informs you when publication is complete.

To publish all content items in a folder:

Right-click the folder and click Publish.
Click OK in the confirmation box. A dialog appears and informs you when publication is complete or if there are exceptions.

To publish multiple consecutive content items or folders:

Click the icon of the first item or folder.
Press and hold the Shift key.
Click the icon of the last item or folder.
Right-click anywhere within the selection and click Publish.
Click OK in the confirmation box.

To publish multiple non-consecutive content items or folders:

Press and hold the Ctrl key.
Click the icon of each item or folder.
Right-click anywhere within the selection and click Publish.
Click OK in the confirmation box.

Publishing Using Content Item Editor

In the Content Item Editor, you can publish a content item that is in a publishable state by clicking Publish in the action bar.

You can also use the Publishing Information page in the Content Item Editor to change the file name of the published file, create a publishing schedule (through the Publishing Schedule page), specify a portal Knowledge Directory folder to publish to (through the Publish to Directory page), and set the content item to expire or undo expiration.

For more information, see Using the Content Item Editor.

Scheduling Publishing and Expiration

You can create a publication and expiration schedule for a content item from the Content Item Editor and for a content item or folder from Publisher Explorer. In both cases you use the Publishing Schedule page to create the schedule.

To access the Publishing Schedule page from Publisher Explorer, right-click on the content item or folder and select Schedule Publishing.

To access the Publishing Schedule page from Content Item Editor:

Click Information under Publishing in the left-hand menu to access the Publishing Information page.
Click the Schedule button in the Publishing Information action bar.

To create or edit a publishing schedule using the Publishing Schedule page:

Under Next Scheduled Publishing, choose a publishing option. You can schedule publishing to occur daily or weekly at a particular time, or you can schedule it for a particular date and time.
To cancel a publication schedule, click Not Scheduled.

To create or edit an expiration schedule using the Publishing Schedule page:

Under Expiration, select a date and time to set the content item to expire.
To cancel an expiration schedule, click Not Scheduled.

Note:

If you schedule publication for a folder, only those content items that have reached a publishable activity in workflow by the scheduled date will be published.

The Publishing Schedule page also displays the last time the content item or folder was published according to schedule.

For more information on expiration, see Setting Published Content Items to Expire.

Publishing Content Items to the Knowledge Directory Using the Content Item Editor or Publisher Explorer

You can create a link to a published content item in the portal Knowledge Directory by using the Publish to Knowledge Directory page. Content items that you publish to the portal Knowledge Directory are indexed and appear within the Knowledge Directory folder structure.

You can access the Publish to Knowledge Directory page from Publisher Explorer and Content Item Editor.

Caution:

A content item published to the Knowledge Directory using the Publish to Knowledge Directory page is not deleted from the Knowledge Directory when you set the content item to expire; you must manually delete the document from the Knowledge Directory. To avoid having to delete expired content items manually from the Knowledge Directory, use a Publisher crawler to publish content items to the Knowledge Directory. You can configure a crawler to delete Knowledge Directory documents when their associated content items expire. For more information, see Publishing Content Items to the Knowledge Directory Using the Publisher Crawler.

To access the Publish to Knowledge Directory page from Publisher Explorer, right-click on a content item and select Publish to Directory.

To access it from Content Item Editor,

Click Information under Publishing in the left-hand menu to access the Publishing Information page.
Click the Directory button in the Publishing Information action bar.

To publish a content item to the Knowledge Directory using the Publish to Knowledge Directory page:

In the Destination Folder group box, click Browse to open the Add Folder dialog.
Select the target Knowledge Directory folder and click OK.

You can select more than one Knowledge Directory folder; the content item will be published to each one.

Note:

Only the Knowledge Directory folders for which you have Edit or Admin access in portal security are available for selection. For more information on portal security, see the Administrator Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.

If you want to change the name that appears for the content item in the Knowledge Directory or add a description, select Override Defaults in the Document Properties group box and enter a Document Name and Document Description.

If you do not override the default, Publisher automatically sets the name and summary description and updates this information in the Knowledge Directory each time the file is indexed. If you do override it, the name and description will always be the ones you enter here.

Click Finish.

The published document must be approved by the portal administrator before it becomes accessible to portal users. If you have Admin access in portal security, the document is automatically approved.

Caution:

In order to publish Publisher documents to the portal Knowledge Directory, the portal administrator must have installed the portal's Web Services Server (SOAP Server). For more information, see the Installation Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.

Publishing Content Items to the Knowledge Directory Using the Publisher Crawler

You can use the Publisher Crawler content source in the ALI portal to create crawlers that import content items in a Publisher folder into the portal Knowledge Directory. This is the recommended method of importing multiple content items to the Knowledge Directory. This is the only way to delete expired content items from the Knowledge Directory automatically.

Like any crawler, a Publish crawler must have an associated job. If you want the job to run automatically, you must configure the portal’s Automation Service to do so.

To create a Publisher crawler:

Go to the Administration directory in the portal.
Open the appropriate administrative folder.
In the Create Object Menu, click Crawler - Remote.
In the Choose Content Source dialog box, select Publisher Crawler and click OK.
In the Content Crawler Editor, on the Main Settings - Content Source: Publisher Crawler page, select the following:

Source Folder: the Publisher folder whose content items you want to publish to the Knowledge Directory.

The folders you see and can select are determined by your role.

Destination Folders: the Knowledge Directory folders to which you want to publish the content items.
Mirror the source folder structure: Select to have the Knowledge Directory folder structure repeat exactly the hierarchy of the source Publisher folder.

Note:

This is the recommended setting, since it enables you to create a crawler that sets all of the crawled files to expire, if the need should arise.

Apply Filter of Destination Folder: Select to import only the content items that pass the filtering rules assigned to the Knowledge Directory folders. Available only if you did not select mirroring.
Import security with each document: Select to pass the security rules for the Publisher folders to the destination folders.
Document Access Privileges: Specify the access rights for the imported documents.

For more information about the options available on this page, see the AquaLogic Interaction online help.

On the Crawl Options page, select the maximum number of levels of the Publisher folder hierarchy you want to crawl into the Knowledge Directory.

You can also select whether you want to publish content items that have not yet been published.

On the Document Settings page, specify how documents should be expired and refreshed when you run the crawler.

You can use the Document Expiration settings, along with the select Apply these settings to existing documents created by this crawler option, to delete all documents previously crawled by this crawler.

For more information about the Document Settings page, see the AquaLogic Interaction online help.

On the Content Type page, specify how content types should be assigned to the documents imported into the Knowledge Directory.

For more information about content types, see the Administrator Guide for AquaLogic Interaction or the AquaLogic Interaction online help.

On the Advanced Settings page, select settings for content language, handling of documents rejected by the crawler, handling of documents previously crawled into the Knowledge Directory, and runtime configuration.

For more information about advanced crawler settings, see the AquaLogic Interaction online help.

On the Set Job page, assign or create a job to run this crawler.

You must also register the job with the Automation Service.

For more information about setting up crawler jobs, see the Administrator Guide for the AquaLogic Interaction or the AquaLogic Interaction online help.

Publishing to External Web Sites

You can publish content items to any web server that is accessible to Publisher over the network or Internet.

To publish content items to an external web site, the administrator must configure the publishing target to the site location. For details on configuring the publishing target, see Configuring Publishing Targets and Preview Sites.

Setting Published Content Items to Expire

This section provides an overview of expiration and discusses how to:

Set a content item to expire.
Undo expiration.

About Expiration

When you set a content item to expire, Publisher removes the published content files—along with any image files and file properties published with it—from the publishing target. It also removes the content item from the portal Knowledge Directory and the portal search index. Users cannot view an expired content item from the portal or retrieve search results for an expired content item. The content item itself, however, is not deleted from Publisher; it is simply removed from publication.

You can set the expiration of a folder and its entire contents, including the subfolders.

Note:

You must have a Publisher role of Editor or higher to set a content item or folder to expire and undo expiration.

When you set a content item to expire, Publisher also launches the following events:

Republishes any content items that are related to the expired content items (as defined in the content item’s Presentation Template). For example, if you set a news article to expire, Publisher republishes the index and main page content items. The expired item no longer appears in the index and the main page.
Cancels any scheduled publication tasks for the expired items.
If the expired content item’s Data Entry Template specifies auto-insertion into another content item’s list property, Publisher removes the expired content item from that list.

Caution:

If you published a content item to the Knowledge Directory using the Publish to Knowledge Directory page (from Publisher Explorer or the Content Item Editor), those documents will not be removed from the Knowledge Directory when you set the content item to expire. To avoid having to delete expired content items manually from the Knowledge Directory, use a Publisher crawler to publish content items to the Knowledge Directory. You can configure a crawler to delete Knowledge Directory documents when their associated content items expire. For more information, see Publishing Content Items to the Knowledge Directory Using the Publisher Crawler.

Setting a Content Item to Expire

Publisher provides the following ways of expiring content:

Set a published content item or folder to expire immediately from Publisher Explorer.
Set a published content item to expire immediately from Content Item Editor.
Create an expiration schedule for a content item using the Publishing Schedule page.

To set a folder or content item to expire immediately from Publisher Explorer:

In the Publisher Explorer table pane, right-click the folder or content item and click Set to Expire.

You can set multiple content items or folders to expire by using the Shift or Ctrl keys.

Click OK.
Click Close.

The table pane will display the Expired icon in the Status column to indicate that the content item has expired.

To set a published content item to expire using Content Item Editor:

Click Information under Publishing in the left-hand menu to access the Publishing Information page.
Click the Set to Expire button in the Publishing Information action bar.
Click OK in the confirmation box.
The Set to Expire button changes to Undo Expiration to indicate that the content item has expired.
Click Finish.

For information about how to create an expiration schedule for a content item, see Scheduling Publishing and Expiration

Undoing Expiration

To publish an expired content item, you must undo the expiration first. When you undo expiration, Publisher launches the following events:

Automatically publishes the content item and republishes all related content items. If you undo expiration for a news article, for example, the article reappears in the news portlet’s index and main page.
Adds the content item to the search index.
If the Data Entry Template of the content item specifies automatic insertion into another content item’s list property, Publisher adds the previously expired content item back to that list.

Note:

Undoing expiration does not republish to the portal Knowledge Directory. You must republish to the Knowledge Directory separately, using the Publish to Knowledge Directory page.

You can undo expiration for a content item using Publisher Explorer or Content Item Editor.

To undo expiration using Publisher Explorer:

In the Publisher Explorer table pane, right-click the folder or content item and click Undo Expiration.

You can undo expiration for multiple content items or folders by using the Shift or Ctrl keys.

Click OK.
Click Close.

The table pane will display the Published icon in the Status column to indicate that the content item has been republished.

To undo expiration using Content Item Editor:

Click Information under Publishing in the left-hand menu to access the Publishing Information page.
Click the Undo Expiration button in the Publishing Information action bar.
Click OK in the confirmation box.
The Undo Expiration button changes to Set to Expire to indicate that the content item has expired. The Publish button in the action bar also becomes active.
Click Finish.