Building Conditions and Queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center

 

This topic is a central point of reference for information about building conditions and queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center. The topics in this section are not meant to be read in sequence, but rather, are pieces of information or instructions that you will use in the context of other tasks. These tasks may be used when defining customer segments, running a query for content selectors, or adding scenarios to your promotional campaigns. (Queries search your content management system for documents based on a set of criteria that you specify.)

This topic includes the following sections:

• Listing of the Available Conditions

  • Important Note About Dates and Times

• Using the Select Customer Segments Window

• Using the Properties and Visitor Characteristics Windows

• Using the Select Events Window

• Using the Date/Time Entry Dialog Boxes

• Using the Quantity Selector or Currency Selector Dialog Boxes

• Using the Select Operator Dialog Box

• Using the Select Product Categories/Items Windows

  • Using the Catalog Browser

  • Searching a Catalog

• Using the Enter a Range Dialog Box

• Constructing Queries

  • Select a Document Property

  • Describe Documents by Comparing the Property to a Value or Range of Values

  • Describe Documents by Comparing the Property with the Properties of Other Objects

  • Specify How to Handle Multiple Value Phrases and Descriptors

  • Adding Property Sets to Drop-Down Lists

  • Preview the Query Results

 

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Listing of the Available Conditions

The E-Business Control Center provides you with a number of conditions you can use to customize your e-business efforts. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish in the E-Business Control Center, you may encounter some or all of the conditions described in Table 2-1.

Note: The shopping cart conditions are available only if your license includes Commerce services.

Table 2-1 Descriptions of Conditions

Condition	Description
The visitor is a member of a predefined customer segment	If the visitor to your Web site belongs to a predefined customer segment, execute the specified action. For example, if the customer is a Gold Customer (customer segment), give the customer a 15% discount (action).
The visitor has specific characteristics	If a visitor's characteristics are compared to values you specify and those comparisons evaluate to true, execute a specified action. For example, if the customer's salary (characteristic) is greater than or equal to (comparison) $50,000 (value), send the customer an e-mail (action).
The HTTP session has specific properties	If the HTTP session's properties are compared to values you specify and those comparisons evaluate to true, execute a specified action. An HTTP session is information your organization may want to track about a visitor's browsing session on the Web site. There are no properties for the HTTP session in the E-Business Control Center out-of-the-box.
An HTTP request has specific properties	If the HTTP request's properties are compared to values you specify and those comparisons evaluate to true, execute a specified action. There are properties for the HTTP request in the E-Business Control Center out-of-the-box.
An event has occurred	If a specified event occurs, execute the specified action. For example, if the customer has logged in (event), display an ad that matches their interests (action). Events may be selected from a number of predefined event types.
An event has specific characteristics	If the event's characteristics are compared to values you specify, and those comparisons evaluate to true, execute a specified action. For example, if a customer adds more than 5 items to their shopping cart (event), give the customer a 10% discount (action).
The date is	If the current date is equal to the one you specify, execute a specified action. For example, if the date is equal to July 22, 2001, send customers an e-mail about an upcoming sale (action). The current date refers to the date at the point that the condition is evaluated for a given user visiting the Web site. See Important Note About Dates and Times.
It is after a given date	If the current date is after a date you specify, execute a specified action. For example, if the date is after December 18, 2000, offer customers a discount (action). The current date refers to the date at the point that the condition is evaluated for a given user visiting the Web site. See Important Note About Dates and Times.
It is after a given date and time	If the current date and time is after a date and time you specify, execute a specified action. For example, if the date and time is after July 22, 2001 at 3 p.m., send customers an e-mail about an upcoming sale (action). The current date and time refers to the date and time at the point that the condition is evaluated for a given user visiting the Web site. See Important Note About Dates and Times.
It is between two times	If the current time falls within a range of times you specify, execute a specified action. For example, if the time is between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., offer customers a discount (action). The current time refers to the time at the point that the condition is evaluated for a given user visiting the Web site. See Important Note About Dates and Times.
It is between two dates	If the current date falls within a range of dates you specify, execute the specified action. For example, if the date is between December 18, 2000 and December 18, 2001, show customers a sale ad (action). The current date refers to the date at the point that the condition is evaluated for a given user visiting the Web site. See Important Note About Dates and Times.
It is between two dates/times	If the current date and time fall within a range of dates and times you specify, execute the specified action. For example, if the date and time is between July 22, 2000 at 3 p.m. and July 22, 2001 at 3 p.m., show customers a sale ad (action). The range of dates is inclusive. The current date and time refers to the date and time at the point that the condition is evaluated for a given user visiting the Web site. See Important Note About Dates and Times.
There is a specific item in the shopping cart	If an item you specify exists in the customer's shopping cart, execute the specified action. For example, if the customer has an item with a SKU equal to T144 in their shopping cart, give the customer a 10% discount (action).
There is an item from a given category in the shopping cart	If an item from a product category you specify exists in the customer's shopping cart, execute the specified action. For example, if the customer has an item from Books (product category) in their shopping cart, give the customer a 10% discount (action).
The value of items in the cart is a certain amount	If the value of the items in a customer's shopping cart meets the criteria you specify, execute the specified action. For example, if the customer has $100 worth (value) of items in their shopping cart, send them a Thank You e-mail (action).
A random number falls within a given range	When someone visits your Web site, the system assigns him a random number from 1 to 100. If the visitor's random number falls within the numeric range you set, execute this action. For example, if you specify a range of 1 to 50, the action will be executed for approximately 50% of the target visitor population.

 

Important Note About Dates and Times

When you set date and time conditions in the E-Business Control Center, the dates/times you set represent the time in your region. For example, if you are creating a campaign action that will be triggered at 8 p.m., that means 8 p.m. in your region. For a time zone that is two hours behind you, the action will be triggered at 6 p.m. in that time zone.

This also affects dates you set. The date you set becomes effective at midnight in your time zone. In a time zone that is six hours ahead of yours, that date becomes effective for that time zone at 6 p.m. your time the day before.

Time changes also affect time-triggered actions. For example, say you create a campaign that begins October 1 at noon and ends October 31 at noon. If a change to standard time (one hour earlier) occurs on October 29, the campaign will actually end on October 31 at 11 a.m. So if you want the campaign to end at noon on the new standard time, set the end time to 1 p.m.

Because of the different dates and times on which actions will be triggered around the country or world, it is important to tell customers that dates and times are effective for your time zone. This type of information allows customers to calculate when in their time zone they can take advantage of your promotions.

 

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Using the Select Customer Segments Window

When you create a campaign scenario action or a content selector, select "The visitor is a member of a predefined customer segment" condition, and click the [customer segment] hyperlink in the Action pane, the Select Customer Segments window opens. Figure 2-1 shows the Select Customer Segments window.

Figure 2-1 Select Customer Segments Window

 

1. Click a customer segment name shown in the Available Segments list to select it. The customer segment is highlighted.

2. Click Add. The customer segment moves to the Selected Segments list.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each customer segment you want to add.

   Note: If you make a mistake, click a customer segment name shown in the Selected Segments list to select it, then click Remove.

4. Click OK. The Select Customer Segments window closes, and the [customer segment] hyperlink changes to reflect the customer segment(s) you specified.

 

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Using the Properties and Visitor Characteristics Windows

Many items in the E-Business Control Center can be described by their characteristics or properties. For example, visitors to the site, content to be shown to visitors, and events that represent visitor behavior can all be described in terms of their properties. Related properties are grouped together for convenience into property sets. Objects in the E-Business Control Center may have one or more property sets associated with them. For example, visitors may have one set of properties pertaining to general information, such as their address, and another set of properties pertaining to demographic information, such as their gender.

The windows where you describe E-Business Control Center objects by way of their properties are generically referred to as Properties windows. Using the Properties windows, and their associated Property Values windows, you can build Descriptors that describe an object of interest. The Descriptor is comprised of a property phrase and a value phrase.

For example, you may be interested in targeting an e-mail to customers whose income range is $75,000-$99,000. The Descriptor created in an E-Business Control Center Properties window would be:

Demographics: Income_Range is equal to "$75,000-$99,000"

Demographics is the property set in which you would find the Income_Range property, Is Equal is the comparison, and "$75,000=$99,000" is the value. Together, the property set and property form the following Property Phrase:

Demographics: Income_Range

Together, the comparison and the value form the following Value Phrase:

is equal to "$75,000-$99,000"

When you click the Is Equal To [value] hyperlink, a Properties window opens. Figure 2-2 is an example of a Properties window.

Figure 2-2 Properties Window

 

1. Select a property set from the Property Set drop-down list, and a property from the Property drop-down list.

   Note: The E-Business Control Center includes some values for the Property Set and Property lists. However, additional Property Sets and Properties may be defined by your organization's business engineer or other technical resource.

2. Click Add. A Property-Values window opens, as shown in Figure 2-3.

   Figure 2-3 Property-Values Window

   
    

3. Select a comparison from the Comparison drop-down list, and select or type a value in the Value field.

   If the property value requires text entry, you can use the contains comparison to perform wild card matching. For example, if you want to send an automatic e-mail to customers who work at BEA when they log onto your site, you could select the Email property in CustomerProperties, select the contains comparison, and enter @bea.com.

4. Click Add. The value phrase you specified appears in the Value Phrases list box, as shown in Figure 2-4.

   Warning: It may be possible to construct value phrases that are not reasonable in real world situations. Be sure to select a comparison and value that makes sense for the property set and property you previously selected.

   Figure 2-4 Value Phrases List Box

   
    

5. If desired, add more value phrases by repeating steps 3 and 4. If you add multiple value phrases, select a Multiple Value Phrases option to specify whether you want to match any or all of the value phrases you specify. If you only specify one value phrase, you can skip the Multiple Value Phrases option.

   Note: If you need to remove a value phrases, click on the value phrases in the Value Phrases list box to select it, then click Remove.

6. Click OK. The Property-Value window closes, and the descriptor(s) appear in the Descriptors list box of the Properties window, as shown in Figure 2-5.

   Figure 2-5 Descriptors List Box

   
    

7. If desired, repeat steps 2 through 6 to specify multiple descriptors.

8. Click OK. The Properties window closes, and the [characteristics] and/or [properties] hyperlinks change to reflect the descriptors you specified.

 

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Using the Select Events Window

When you are creating a campaign scenario action, select the "An event has occurred condition," and click the [event name] hyperlink in the Action pane, the Select Events window opens. Figure 2-6 shows the Select Events window.

Figure 2-6 Select Events Window

 

1. Click an event name shown in the Available Events list to select it. A description of the event is shown in the Event Description text area.

2. Click Add. The event moves to the Selected Events list.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each event you want to add.

   Note: If you make a mistake, click an event name shown in the Selected Events list to select it, then click Remove.

4. Click OK. The Select Events window closes, and the [event name] hyperlink changes to reflect the event(s) you specified.

 

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Using the Date/Time Entry Dialog Boxes

Before you set date and time conditions in the E-Business Control Center, see Important Note About Dates and Times.

When you click one of the generic date or time related hyperlinks, one of the date/time entry dialog boxes opens. Simply type in the date and/or time in the appropriate field, then click OK. When you do so, the date/time entry dialog box closes, and the generic hyperlinks change to reflect the dates and/or times you specified.

Tip: For dates, you can either type in the date, or click the drop-down calendar to select the date, as shown in Figure 2-7. Just click a date to select it.

Figure 2-7 Date Calendar

 

 

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Using the Quantity Selector or Currency Selector Dialog Boxes

When you click the [n] hyperlink, a Quantity Selector dialog box opens. When you click the [monetary amount] hyperlink, a similar dialog box, called Currency Selector opens. Figure 2-8 shows the Quantity Selector dialog box.

Figure 2-8 Quantity Selector Dialog Box

 

Note: A default value may be shown in the field.

1. If desired, type a new value into the field.

2. Click OK. The Quantity Selector or Currency Selector dialog box closes, and the [n] or [monetary amount] hyperlinks change to reflect the value you specified.

 

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Using the Select Operator Dialog Box

When you click the Equal To hyperlink, a Select Operator dialog box opens. Figure 2-9 shows the Select Operator dialog box.

Figure 2-9 Select Operator Dialog Box

 

Note: A default value of Is Equal To is highlighted, which is why the hyperlinked Equal To text you clicked on to open the dialog box was not enclosed in brackets.

1. If desired, click a new value in the Operators list to select it.

2. Click OK. The Select Operator dialog box closes, and the hyperlink changes to reflect the value you specified.

 

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Using the Select Product Categories/Items Windows

When you click the [product category] or [sku] hyperlinks, the Select Product Categories/Items window opens, as shown in Figure 2-10. When you add a trigger or target to a discount, a Specify Trigger Items or Specify Target Items window appears. The procedure for entering SKU numbers or product categories in these windows is the same.

Figure 2-10 Select Product Categories Window

 

1. Enter the SKU number or product category in one of two ways:

   • Enter it manually in the Product Category or Product SKU field, or

   • Click the Browse Catalog button to choose a category item directly from your catalog (see Using the Catalog Browser, next).

2. Click Add.

3. If desired, add multiple SKU numbers or multiple product categories.

4. If you add multiple SKUs or product categories in the Select Product Categories window, select a Multiple Product Items option at the bottom of the window. That is, specify whether the condition is met if Any or All of the SKU numbers (or product categories) exist in the customer's shopping cart.

   So, for example, if you specified SKU number T144 and SKU number D128 and you selected the Any option, customers with either of these SKU numbers in their shopping cart would meet the conditions. If you selected the All option, customers with both of these SKU numbers in their shopping cart would meet the conditions.

5. Click OK. The window closes, and the [product category] or [sku] hyperlinks change to reflect the value(s) you specified.

The following procedure explains how to use the Catalog Browser feature from step 1.

Using the Catalog Browser

The Catalog Browser allows you to easily find and select items for your campaign or discount definition. The following sections provide step-by-step instructions on how to use the Catalog Browser.

Browsing a Catalog

The browsing feature of the Catalog Browser allows you to select either categories or specific items from your catalog. You can select one or more items.

Note: You must first establish a connection to your catalog server. For more information, see Connecting to the Server.

1. To open the Catalog Browser, click the Browse Catalog button. The Catalog Browser opens, as shown in Figure 2-11.

2. Click the Browse button in the Catalog Browser window.

3. In the left navigation pane, navigate to the category that contains the item or product category that you want to add to your discount or campaign definition.

4. In the right pane, select one or more categories or items.

5. Click OK. The items or categories are added to your discount or campaign definition.

   Figure 2-11 Catalog Browser

   
    

Searching a Catalog

The search feature of the Catalog Browser allows you to find a specific item or category from your catalog. You can use a wildcard (*) to help you find items when you don't know the exact SKU.

Note: You must first establish a connection to your catalog server. For more information, see Connecting to the Server.

1. To open the Catalog Browser, click the Catalog Browser button.

2. Click the Search button. The Search window opens as shown in Figure 2-12.

3. Enter the Category or SKU in the corresponding field, and then click the Search button. Use an asterisk (*) for wildcard searches.

Note: When searching for a category, only the category field is available.

1. After the search list appears in the left pane, select the desired Category or SKU from the left pane.

2. Click OK. The items or categories are added to your discount or campaign definition.

   Figure 2-12 Catalog Browser Search

   
    

 

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Using the Enter a Range Dialog Box

When you click the [x] hyperlink, the Enter a Range dialog box (shown in Figure 2-13) opens.

Figure 2-13 Enter a Range Dialog Box

 

1. Enter starting value between 1 and 99.

2. Enter an ending value between 2 and 100.

3. Click OK. The Enter a Range dialog box closes, and the [x] and [y] hyperlinks change to reflect the range you specified.

For more information on ranges, see "About Probability-Based Branching" in the Roadmap for Creating Promotional Campaigns chapter.

 

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Constructing Queries

The documents that are stored in your content management system have certain properties associated with them that describe the documents. For example, all documents have system properties such as author, creation date, and modification date. You can also add custom properties to documents that more specifically describe the documents. For example, for your ad graphics, you can add properties for company name and product name. These properties are called metadata.

To create ad placeholders, scenario actions, and content selectors that find and display documents, you must construct queries. Queries search your content management system and retrieve documents that have the metadata you are looking for. The documents are then displayed in your Web pages. You can construct queries in the following ways:

• By comparing a document property to a value or range of values.

  For example, you want to display ads for ACME mutual funds in an ad placeholder. Your content management system uses a property named productName to indicate the name of the mutual fund that a document advertises. You construct a query that finds all documents for which the productName property contains ACME.

• By comparing a document property with a property of some other object. (This type of descriptor is available only for queries that content selectors and scenario actions run.)

  For example, you want a content selector to display documents that describe investing in mutual funds. Your content management system uses a document property called investorRiskLevel to identify whether a document describes an investment that is aggressive, moderate, or conservative. Your customer profiles also include a property called investorRiskLevel to indicate whether a customer prefers aggressive, moderate, or conservative investments. You construct a query that finds all documents for which the investorRiskLevel property contains a value that is equal to the value of a customer's investorRiskLevel property.

For content selectors and scenario actions, you can also combine the two types of descriptors in a single query. For example, you can create a query for a content selector that finds documents that advertise ACME mutual funds and that match a customer's investment-risk profile.

To construct queries, do the following:

1. Select a Document Property.

2. Do one or more of the following:

   • Describe Documents by Comparing the Property to a Value or Range of Values

   • Describe Documents by Comparing the Property with the Properties of Other Objects

3. Specify How to Handle Multiple Value Phrases and Descriptors.

4. Preview the Query Results.

You can search for multiple document properties by repeating steps 1 through 3.

Select a Document Property

You select document properties in the Ad Search window or the Content Search window, depending on whether you are creating an ad placeholder, a scenario action for a campaign, or a content selector. The E-Business Control Center displays the Ad/Content Search window when you do any of the following:

• When you create or edit an ad search for an ad placeholder.

• In an ad scenario for a campaign, click the hypertext link in "Place the content returned by this ad search..." or "...[empty ad search]..." in the Ad Action editor. The Ad Search window appears. This feature is available only with BEA WebLogic Portal.

• When working with content selectors, click the hypertext link in "Show the results of this content search" or "...[empty content search]" under Action in the Content Selector window. The Content Search window appears.

In the Ad/Content Search window, do the following:

1. From the Property Set list, select the property set that contains the properties you use to describe documents.

2. From the Property list, select a document property. (See Figure 2-14.)

   For example, you are constructing a query for a campaign ad. Your content management system uses a property named author to indicate the name of the person who authored the ad. To search for the ad based on the name of the author, select author from the Property list.

   Figure 2-14 Select a Property for a Campaign Ad Scenario

   
    

3. Click Add. The Ad/Content Search Values window appears.

4. Do one or more of the following:

   • Describe Documents by Comparing the Property to a Value or Range of Values.

   • Describe Documents by Comparing the Property with the Properties of Other Objects. (This type of comparison is available only for queries that content selectors and scenario actions run, not ad placeholders.)

     These options are described in the following sections.

To edit the properties of an existing item, select it in the Descriptors list and click Edit.

Describe Documents by Comparing the Property to a Value or Range of Values

To find documents by comparing the document property with a value or range of values, do the following:

1. From the Ad/Content Search Values window, do one of the following:

   • If you are constructing a query for a content selector or a scenario action, click the Values tab. (See Figure 2-15.)

   • If you are constructing a query for an ad placeholder, the Ad Search Values window does not contain tabs. Skip this step and go to step 2.

2. From the Comparison list, choose a comparator.

3. In the Value box, select or enter a value. (Depending on the property that you are comparing, the Value box might contain a list of values for you to select.)

   If the property value requires text entry, you can use the like comparison with wild card characters (* and ?). For example, if you have a set of ads with a four-digit number and "ad" as part of the name, you could select the like comparison and enter *10??ad*.

   Note: If you set up a query based on filename and you are using the like comparison, begin the query with an asterisk (*), because path information always precedes the filename in the query results.

4. Click Add.

5. Do one of the following:

   • To compare the document property with additional values, repeat steps 2 through 4.

   • If you are constructing a query for a content selector or a scenario action and you want to compare the document property with the properties of other objects, go to Describe Documents by Comparing the Property with the Properties of Other Objects.

   • To select another document property, click OK and go to Select a Document Property.

   • To complete the query construction, go to Specify How to Handle Multiple Value Phrases and Descriptors.

     Figure 2-15 The Values Tab for Ad Search Queries

     
      

Describe Documents by Comparing the Property with the Properties of Other Objects

If you are constructing a query for a scenario action or a content selector, you can find documents by comparing the document property with the properties of other objects. To construct such a query, do the following:

1. From the Ad/Content Search Values window, click the Properties tab.

2. From the Comparison list, choose a comparator.

3. From the Property Set Type list, choose the type of object that you want to compare.

   If you are constructing a query for a campaign ad action, you can compare the document property with a property in one of the following property sets: User Profile, Session, Request, Event, or Catalog Structure.

   If you are constructing a query for a content selector, you can compare the document property with a property in one of the following property sets: User Profile, Session, Request, or Catalog Structure.

   For example, you created a property set called FinancialDocs that contains a document property called investorRiskLevel to identify whether a document describes an investment that is aggressive, moderate, or conservative. (See Adding Property Sets to Drop-Down Lists.) Your customer profiles also include a property called investorRiskLevel to indicate whether a customer prefers aggressive, moderate, or conservative investments. To create a content selector query that matches documents with a customer's investment-risk preference, in the Content Search window, you select the investorRiskLevel document property. In the Content Search Values window, you click the Properties tab. From the Comparison list, select Is Equal To. Then from the Property Set Type list, select User. (See Figure 2-16.)

4. From the Property Set list, choose the property set that contains the properties of the object that you want to compare.

   For example, if you place the investorRiskLevel user property in a property set named InvestmentProfile, then choose InvestmentProfile from the Property Set list.

5. From the Property list, choose a property.

6. Click Add.

7. Do one of the following:

   • To compare the document property with additional object properties, repeat steps 1 through 6.

   • To select another document property, click OK and return to Select a Document Property.

   • To complete the query construction, go to Specify How to Handle Multiple Value Phrases and Descriptors.

     Figure 2-16 Find Documents by Comparing the Properties of a User

     
      

Specify How to Handle Multiple Value Phrases and Descriptors

1. If you created multiple comparisons, in the Ad/Content Search Values window, under For Multiple Value Phrases, choose one of the following:

   • Qualifying Items May Match ANY Value Phrase if the property value phrase must match at least one of the value phrases.

   • Qualifying Items Must Match ALL Value Phrases if the phrase must match each of the value phrases.

2. In the Ad/Content Search Values window, click OK.

3. To create additional comparisons, click Add and return to Select a Document Property.

4. If you created multiple descriptors, from the Ad/Content Search window, under For Multiple Descriptors, choose one of the following:

   • "Qualifying items may match ANY descriptor" if the property value phrase must match at least one of the descriptors.

   • "Qualifying items must match ALL descriptors" if the phrase must match each of the descriptors.

5. In the Ad/Content Search window, do either of the following:

   • Preview the Query Results.

   • Click OK to finish constructing the query.

Adding Property Sets to Drop-Down Lists

When you select a property set for an Ad or Content search, you will see two default choices: Ads and LoadedData. These property sets relate to ad and content documents in WebLogic Portal that your query will find.

For most of the ad or content searches you perform (queries you set up) that place documents in placeholders on your JSPs, the Ads and LoadedData property sets should be sufficient. They contain most of the attributes that are appropriate for finding content that can be displayed by a JSP. In particular, these property sets include automatic system attributes you can use in your queries—attributes that all files have, such as name, size, creation date, and modification date. (See System Attributes for Property Sets.)

However, you can add more property sets to this list. There are good reasons for doing so:

• Custom Properties - When you want to categorize your ad and content documents more precisely. For example, you can create a property set called FinancialDocs that contains financial properties, such as investor risk level. You can add the investorRiskLevel property to the metadata for any mutual fund ads you create. Then, when you assign a certain investorRiskLevel (such as "aggressive") to an ad, you can target customers who have identified themselves as aggressive investors.

• Organization - If you have diverse types of ads and content, you may want to create more property sets to make query-building easier. For example, if you have a lot of seasonal clothing ads, you can create a property set called Clothing that contains a season attribute with four possible values (summer, fall, winter, spring). Building queries becomes easier, because you can select the Clothing property set in the drop-down list, select the season property, and set its value to summer. Your query will then return all ads whose metadata contains the season attribute with a value set to summer.

  If you have only a small number of custom ad attributes you want to use, you can add them to the existing Ads or LoadedData property sets instead of creating new property sets for them.

Adding a property set to the drop-down list involves creating a simple XML file. You can view the XML files for the Ads and LoadedData property sets in the PORTAL_HOME\dmsBase\doc-schemas folder. The files are called ad-schema.xml (for the Ads property set) and doc-schema.xml (for the LoadedData property set).

To add a new property set to the drop-down list:

1. Create a new text file and add the following XML data:

   <?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>

   <!DOCTYPE doc-schemas SYSTEM "doc-schemas.dtd">

   <doc-schemas>

     <doc-schema name="FinancialDocs">

     </doc-schema>

   </doc-schemas>

   The text you enter in the <doc-schema> element is the name of the property set that will appear in the drop-down list.

2. Add properties inside the <doc-schema> element, using an element called <attribute>.

   The following example shows two properties that will be available for selection in the property set: investorRiskLevel whose values will be selected from a drop-down list, and primaryHolding, a text entry field for the property value. investorRiskLevel has a default value set, which will appear automatically when you select that property for a query.

   <?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>

   <!DOCTYPE doc-schemas SYSTEM "doc-schemas.dtd">

   <doc-schemas>

     <doc-schema name="FinancialDocs">

       <attribute name="investorRiskLevel" default="moderate">

         <value>conservative</value>

         <value>moderate</value>

         <value>aggressive</value>

       </attribute>

       <attribute name="primaryHolding">

         <description>Primary Stock Holding</description>

       </attribute>

     </doc-schema>

   </doc-schemas>

3. Save the file in the PORTAL_HOME\dmsBase\doc-schemas folder, making sure the filename ends with -schema.xml like the Ads and LoadedData property set files.

4. To have WebLogic Portal recognize the new property set, do one of two things:

   • Restart WebLogic Portal

     or

   • Restart the document connection pool for your server in the WebLogic Server Administration Console. To do this, make sure your server is the active server in the left navigation pane, then go to Applications -> <application_name> -> Service Configuration -> Document Connection Pool, and click the restart button.

     You have to perform either of these restart tasks when you simply add a property to an existing property set.

For information on creating ads and loading them into the WebLogic Portal ad database, see "Setting up Ads for Campaigns" in the Guide to Developing Campaign Infrastructure.

System Attributes for Property Sets

The following system database attributes are available automatically for your property set and store data about your content. Do not add them to your *schema.xml file. Doing so will cause an error when you try to access the property set.

These attributes are: author, comments, creationDate, description, identifier, lockedBy, modifiedBy, modifiedDate, mimeType, name, size, and version.

Preview the Query Results

To run the query and see the documents that it finds, do the following:

1. In the Ad/Content Search window click Preview.

   The E-Business Control Center prompts you for a user ID.

2. In the Enter the User ID window, enter the user name of a customer (or a sample customer) who represents a specific set of customer properties, and click OK.

   For example, you want to see the documents that the query returns for customers with a conservative investment profile. The customer profile for Pat Gomes specifies a conservative investment profile, so you enter Pat's user name.

   Note: You must enter a user ID, regardless of the type of condition that activates a placeholder, scenario action, or content selector.

   The E-Business Control Center runs the query and displays the results in your default browser. (See Figure 2-17.)

   The top pane displays the query and the left pane displays the names of the ads that the query finds.

3. To see a document in your browser, click the name of the document in the left pane.

   The right pane of your browser displays the document.

   Note: WebLogic Portal or WebLogic Personalization Server creates a short-lived cache that stores the results of a query. If you add or modify documents in your content management system and then immediately redo the query preview, you might not see the results of your modifications. If this occurs, wait several minutes and then retry the query preview.

   Figure 2-17 Query Preview in the Browser

   
    

4. In the Ad/Content Search window, you can either modify the query or click OK to finish constructing the query.

For information on creating ad content, working with a content management system, and adding mime types, see "Setting up Ads for Campaigns" in the Guide to Developing Campaign Infrastructure.