Retrieving Documents with Content Selectors

 

You can enrich a visitor's experience on your Web site by providing information that matches the visitor's interests or expectations. Using Content Selectors, you can specify conditions under which WebLogic Portal or WebLogic Personalization Server retrieves one or more documents from your content management system. For example, you can use a Content Selector to encapsulate the following conditions: between May 1 and May 10, if a customer in the SailingEnthusiast customer segment views this page, find and retrieve any documents that describe sailing along the Maine coast.

A document is a graphic, a segment of HTML, or a file that must be viewed with a browser plug-in. We recommend that you store most of your Web site's dynamic documents in a content management system because it offers an effective way to store and manage information.

A business analyst uses the BEA E-Business Control Center to define the conditions that activate a Content Selector and to define the query the Content Selector uses to find and retrieve documents. Then, a business engineer uses Content Selector JSP tags and a set of other JSP tags that retrieve and display the content targeted by the Content Selector.

This topic includes the following sections:

• About Content Selectors

• Describing Documents in Your Content Management System

• Defining Content Selectors

• Previewing Documents

 

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About Content Selectors

Content selectors consist of the following elements:

• A set of conditions that determine when the Content Selector queries the content management system. The conditions can use such things as the profile of the customer who is currently viewing a JSP page, an event that occurs on the page or has occurred previously on some other page, or the current time. For a complete list of conditions, refer to "Listing of the Available Conditions" in "Building Conditions and Queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center."

  Business analysts create and modify the set of conditions in the E-Business Control Center.

• A query that searches the content management system for one or more documents.

  Business analysts create and modify the query in the E-Business Control Center.

• A JSP tag that triggers the Content Selector to evaluate its conditions.

To display the documents that the query finds, a business engineer must use an additional set of tags. For information about using content-selector tags and other tags that display the query results, refer to "Working with Content Selectors" in Guide to Building Personalized Applications.

 

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Describing Documents in Your Content Management System

The queries that you define for Content Selectors search through the descriptions (attributes) that you attach to the documents in your content management system. WebLogic Portal and WebLogic Personalization Server let you add any attributes to your documents, except the following system attributes, which are generated automatically: author, comments, creationDate, description, identifier, lockedBy, modifiedBy, modifiedDate, mimeType, name, size, and version.

You can, for example, create attributes that describe a document's subject, purpose, and category. When you define a query, the E-Business Control Center presents all of the attributes that your content management system contains.

We recommend that you analyze your overall personalization strategy and create attributes that you can use across customer segments. The more your attributes apply to multiple customer segments, the less often you need to create new attributes.

For information on creating attributes, refer to the documentation for your content management system. To learn more about using a content management system with WebLogic Personalization Server, refer to "Creating and Managing Content" in the Guide to Building Personalized Applications.

 

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Defining Content Selectors

To define a Content Selector, you need the following information:

• A unique name for the Content Selector. A Business Engineer uses JSP tags that refer to this name. The Explorer window in the E-Business Control Center lists the names of all Content Selectors in your data repository.

• The conditions that activate the Content Selector to search for documents. For a description of the conditions that you can use, refer to "Listing of the Available Conditions" in "Building Conditions and Queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center."

• The attributes that you use to describe the documents in your content management system.

To define a Content Selector:

1. In the E-Business Control Center, open the application you want to work with.

2. In the E-Business Control Center, choose File -> New -> Presentation -> Content Selector. A new Content Selector file opens in the Editor window, as shown in Figure 5-1.

   Figure 5-1 The Content Selector Editor

   
    

3. In the Description box, enter the intended use of this Content Selector.

   The description is displayed at the bottom of the Explorer window when you select the file. It also appears when you move the mouse pointer over the name of the file in the Explorer window.

4. Click Create/Edit. The Selector Rule window appears, as shown in Figure 5-2.

   Figure 5-2 Create a Query to Display Content

   
    

   The conditions window is divided into two panes: Conditions and Action. After you select a condition, you define the characteristics of that condition in the Action pane. For example, if you select the condition, The Visitor Has Specific Characteristics, you will define those characteristics from the Action pane.

5. In the Conditions pane, select the condition(s) that will determine when the Content Selector is used.

   When you select a condition, a corresponding line of text with hyperlinks appears in the Action pane.

   For a description of the conditions, see "Listing of the Available Conditions" in "Building Conditions and Queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center."

6. For each condition you selected, click the hyperlinks in the Action pane to specify values.

   For example, if you selected The Visitor Has Specific Characteristics condition as shown in Figure 5-2, click the Is Equal to [value] hyperlink under the bulleted phrase, "the visitor has the following characteristics."

   Depending on the condition and the hyperlink, a window or a dialog box opens. Table 5-1 provides a consolidated listing of the conditions and indicates where to look if you need detailed instructions for any of the corresponding windows/dialog boxes.

   Table 5-1 Instructions for Building Conditions

   Condition(s)	Relevant Instructions in the "Building Conditions and Queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center" chapter
   The visitor is a member of a predefined customer segment	"Using the Select Customer Segments Window"
   A visitor, HTTP session, HTTP request, or an event has specific characteristic/properties	"Using the Properties and Visitor Characteristics Windows"
   Dates and times	"Important Note About Dates and Times" (The dates and times you set are based on universal time [UTC].) "Using the Date/Time Entry Dialog Boxes"

   
    

7. If you selected more than one condition, decide whether all of the conditions must be met for a visitor to belong to the customer segment, or whether a visitor can be considered part of the segment when any of the conditions apply. To toggle between All and Any, click the All (or Any) hyperlink in the phrase, When All of These Conditions Apply.

8. Click the [empty content search] hyperlink under Action pane. (See Figure 5-2.)

   Since the content you are trying to access is stored on the server, you are prompted for a user name and password. You only need to log in once per session. If you are also prompted to enter connection settings, see "Connecting to a "Server Outside of the Connection Settings Window" in the "Introduction to the BEA E-Business Control Center" chapter.

9. In the Content Search window, create the query that will determine the content displayed by the Content Selector. For more information, see "Constructing Queries" in the "Building Conditions and Queries in the BEA E-Business Control Center" chapter.

10. Click OK. The Customer Segment conditions window closes. The conditions and corresponding actions you specified appear in the Customer Segment Editor window's Characteristics list, as shown in Figure 5-3.

    Figure 5-3 Content Selector Editor Window: Selection Rule List

    
     

11. Save and name the Content Selector. The new file is displayed in the list of Content Selectors.

    The Content Selector JSP tags that Business Engineers use refer to this name.

 

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Previewing Documents

You can preview the document(s) you have configured your Content Selectors to display. To preview documents:

1. Open the Content Selector that is set up to display the document(s) you want to preview.

2. In the Content Selector Editor window, click Create/Edit.

3. In the Content Selector conditions window, click the Content Search hyperlink in the Action pane.

   If you have not yet logged in to access this feature, you will be prompted to enter your user name and password.

4. In the Content Search window, click Preview.

   A Web browser will open and display a page of links to the document(s) matching the query. Click the relevant links to view the documents you want to see.