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AquaLogic Interaction Administrator Guide

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About Content Sources

Content sources provide access to external content repositories, enabling users to submit documents and content managers to create content crawlers to import documents into the Knowledge Directory. Each content source is configured to access a particular document repository with specific authentication. For example, a content source for a secured web site can be configured to fill out the web form necessary to gain access to that site. Register a content source for each secured web site or back-end repository from which content can be imported into your portal.

There are two types of content sources: web content sources and remote content sources. Web content sources provide access to web sites. Remote content sources provide access to external content repositories, such as a Windows NT file system, Documentum, Microsoft Exchange, or Lotus Notes.

Note: If you delete a content source from which documents have been imported into the portal, the links to the documents will still exist, but users will no longer be able to access these documents.

Content Source Histories

Content sources keep track of what content has been imported, deleted, or rejected by content crawlers accessing the content source. It keeps a record of imported files so that content crawlers do not create duplicate links. To prevent multiple copies of the same link being imported into your portal, set multiple content crawlers that are accessing the same content source to only import content that has not already been imported from that content source.

Content Sources and Security

Because a content source accesses secured documents, you must secure access to the content source itself. Content sources, like everything in the portal, have security settings that allow you to specify exactly which portal users and groups can see the content source. Users that do not have at least Select access to a content source cannot select it, or even see it, when submitting content or building a content crawler.

Using Content Sources and Security to Control Access

You can create multiple content sources that access the same repository of information. For example, you might have two web content sources accessing the same web site. One of these content sources could access the site as an executive user that can see all of the content on the site. The other content source would access the site as a managerial user that can see some secured content, but not everything. You could then grant executive users access to the content source that accesses the web site as an executive user, and grant managerial users access to the content source that accesses the web site as a managerial user.
Note: If you crawled the same repository using both of these content sources, you would import duplicate links into your portal, as described previously in Content Source Histories.

Content Sources Available with the Portal

Some content sources (and their necessary content web services and remote servers) are automatically created in the Portal Resources folder when you install the portal. There are also content sources that are available with the portal installation, but require additional steps to complete installation. For information on the additional installation steps, refer to the Installation Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.


  • World Wide Web: This content source provides access to any unsecured web site.
  • Content Upload: This content source lets users upload a document from an internal network. You should upload a document if it is not normally accessible by the users you want to see it. For example, if the document is located on your computer and your computer is not accessible by other users, you should upload the document. Additionally, if you are running an extranet, where users may not typically have access to your internal network, you should upload documents you want to make accessible externally.
  • Creating a Content Web ServiceContent web services enable you to specify general settings for your external user repository, leaving the target and security settings to be set in the associated remote content source and remote content crawler. This allows you to crawl multiple locations of the same content repository without having to repeatedly specify all the settings.
  • Providing Access to External Content with Remote Content SourcesContent sources provide access to external content repositories, enabling users to submit documents and content managers to create content crawlers to import documents into the Knowledge Directory. Each content source is configured to access a particular document repository with specific authentication. For example, a content source for a secured web site can be configured to fill out the web form necessary to gain access to that site. Register a content source for each secured web site or back-end repository from which content can be imported into your portal.
  • Providing Access to Web Content with Web Content SourcesContent sources provide access to external content repositories, enabling users to submit documents and content managers to create content crawlers to import documents into the Knowledge Directory. Each content source is configured to access a particular document repository with specific authentication. For example, a content source for a secured web site can be configured to fill out the web form necessary to gain access to that site. Register a content source for each secured web site or back-end repository from which content can be imported into your portal.
  • Gatewaying Imported ContentWhen users click a link to an imported document, they can either be directed to the actual location of the source document or the content can be gatewayed, and the user will be redirected to a URL (generated from the settings in your portal configuration file) that, in turn, displays the document. Gatewaying content allows users to view documents they might not otherwise be able to view, either due to security on the source repository or firewall restrictions. You configure gateways settings on the Main Settings page of the Content Source Editor.
Parent topic: Managing Portal Content

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