Communities Guide

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Creating and Managing Communities

In the live production environment, portal administrators and end-users create Communities based on the Community templates created in the Staging phase, and Community members with administrative rights manage Communities. Portal administrators can also modify visitor entitlements, delegated administration, content management types, configure cache for performance management, and other relevant tasks. If you are creating a GroupSpace Community, rather than a custom Community, you should configure the ActiveMenus tag in the Production phase. See Using Tag Libraries in Your Community for more information.

Portal administrators can also use the WebLogic Portal propagation tools to propagate community templates and other portal data back to the staging environment for testing against production conditions.

This chapter includes the following sections:

 


Creating a Community

As a portal administrator, you can create communities with the WebLogic Portal Administration Console. In order for end users to create their own communities, at least one community must exist that includes the Community Tools. The Community Tools provide the menu that lets administrative community members create new communities.

You must create communities in the production environment rather than in the staging environment, because the WebLogic Portal propagation tools do not propagate community instances.

When a user creates a community, that user automatically becomes the community creator and owner with full management rights in the community.

Tip: As a best practice, do not make communities inactive when you create them. This allows you or any community member with administrative rights to test and configure the community before you activate it. If your community functionality depends on the presence of custom community properties, also define those before activating a community. (See Creating Custom Community Properties.)

This section describes how to create a community with the WebLogic Portal Administration Console. The steps are similar if you create a community using the community tools inside of a community.

One reason to create a community with the WebLogic Portal Administration Console is to provide an initial community that contains the community tools, from which end users can create their own communities.

  1. Go to the Portal Management tools in the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.
  2. In the Portal Resources pane, make sure the correct web application is selected. If it is not, click Update WebApp and select the web application you want.
  3. If you have not done so yet, create a portal.
  4. In the Portal Resources tree, expand the portal you want, and select Communities.
  5. On the Communities Browse page, click Create Community. The Create Community wizard appears.
  6. In Step 1 of 5 in the wizard, select the source for your template. Use Search or Show all to display the available choices.
    • Use a Community Template - Lets you select an existing community template to create the community.
    • Select resources in the Library - Lets you create a community using an existing book (or a book you create yourself), an existing shell, and an existing look and feel in the portal Library. Make sure the resources you select were designed to be used in a community. For example, the shell should contain the Community Tools.
    • Select a .community or .portal file - Lets you create a community using an existing *.community or *.portal file created by your development team. If you use a *.portal file, make sure it was designed to be used as a community.
  7. In Step 2 of 6, select the appropriate resource(s).
  8. In Step 3 of 6, enter:
    • Title - The title that appears for the community in the user interface.
    • Description - The description that appears when the community is selected.
    • Partial URL - The text that serves as the end of the URL for the community.
    • Remaining properties - Select and enter the remaining properties for the community, as described in "Community Properties Reference" in the Setting up Community Infrastructure chapter.
  9. In Step 4 of 5:
    • Set the date (if any) that the community should expire. If you do not want the community to expire, leave the field blank.
    • Review the properties you have set for the community.
    • Make this community active now - Select this option to make the community available immediately. If you want to configure and test the community before making it active, deselect this option.
  10. In Step 5 of 5, review the community settings and click Finish.
  11. To view your new community, select it in the Portal Resources tree and click View Community.

Activating a Community

To activate an inactive community, which allows users to access the community:

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select the community you want to activate (Portals > yourPortal > Communities > yourCommunity).
  2. On the Summary page, click Status & Expiration.
  3. In the Status & Expiration dialog, select Active and click Update.

 


Modifying and Deleting a Community Template

When you modify a template, any communities created with that template take on the new template properties and characteristics. Existing communities based on that template do not change. If you want the changes to apply to existing communities, you must modify those communities directly.

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select Portals > yourPortal > Templates > Community Templates> yourTemplate.
  2. On the Details page, click any of the links or buttons to modify. Refer to the "Community Properties Reference" in the Setting up Community Infrastructure chapter for details.

To delete a community template, select Portals > yourPortal > Templates > Community Templates, check the Delete box next to the template, and click Delete. Communities that were based on that template are not affected.

Communities should use a shell that contains the Visitor Tools.

 


Modifying Community Properties

After you have created a community, you can modify its properties in the WebLogic Portal Administration Console. After your modifications, the community immediately uses the new settings.

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select Portals > yourPortal > Communities > yourCommunity.
  2. On the Summary page, click any of the links or buttons to modify. Refer to the Community Properties Reference and Managing Community Members topics for details.

Communities should use a shell that contains the Visitor Tools.

 


Creating Custom Community Properties

After you create a community, you can add custom properties to it to uniquely identify the community and its characteristics. Your developers can then develop programmatic functionality using those properties.

To create a custom community property:

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select Portals > yourPortal > Communities > yourCommunity.
  2. Go to the Custom Properties page.
  3. Click Add Property.
  4. In the Create Custom Property window, enter the property name and value. To add more than one value, click Add Another Value.
  5. Click Save.

You can also modify and delete a custom property by clicking Edit or selecting the Delete checkbox and clicking Delete next to the property.

 


Setting Delegated Administration Rights on Community Resources

You can control administrative access to community resources by assigning delegated administration roles to resources, the same way you do for portal desktop resources.

 


Setting Visitor Entitlements on Community Resources

You can control end user access to community resources by assigning visitor entitlement roles to resources, the same way you do for portal desktop resources.

Note: Be careful when setting entitlements on community resources. Entitlements applied to components (books, pages and portlets) of the community desktop at the definition level may result in some or all of the components not being visible to community members.

 


Creating Localized Community Titles and Descriptions

You can provide localized text for the title and description of your communities. When you provide localized text, and a browser is set to use a language you provide, the localized title and description of that community appear in that browser, either in the WebLogic Portal Administration Console or in the community itself. For example, in GroupSpace, localized titles appear in the GroupSpace header. For more information, see the GroupSpace Guide.

If you want to use double-byte characters, such as Chinese, make sure your system is configured to support this.

You can also use this feature to provide an alternative community name and description in English, changing them as often as you like.

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select Portals > yourPortal > Communities > yourCommunity.
  2. On the Title & Description page, click Add Localized Title.
  3. In the Add a Localized Title & Description window, enter:
    • Language (required) - The two-letter code for the language. For example, zh for Chinese.
    • Country (optional) - The name of the country.
    • Variant (optional) - The two-letter language variant in uppercase, such as US for the United States English, or TW for Taiwan Chinese.
    • Title (required) - The localized title you want to provide.
    • Description (optional) - The localized description you want to provide.
  4. Click Create.

If you want to modify an existing title and description, such as changing the English text, click the language link and modify the title and description.

 


Deactivating or Deleting a Community

If you want to prevent users from accessing a community, you can either deactivate or delete the community. Reasons to deactivate a community include wanting to prevent user access while you configure it, archiving it, or wanting to activate it again in the future. Deleting a community permanently removes it from the database.

Deactivating a Community

To deactivate an active community, which prevents users from accessing the community:

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select the community you want to deactivate (Portals > yourPortal > Communities > yourCommunity).
  2. On the Summary page, click Status & Expiration.
  3. In the Status & Expiration dialog, select Inactive and click Update. Or if you want to deactivate the community on a specific date, select Active, set the Expiration Date for when it should automatically be deactivated, and click Update.

The callback class assigned to the community determines what occurs when the community is deactivated. For example, notifications can be sent to users when a community is deactivated.

Deleting a Community

Deleting a Community permanently removes it from the database.

Perform the following steps to delete a Community:

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select Portals > yourPortal > Communities.
  2. On the Browse page, check the Delete box next to the community.
  3. Click Delete.

 


Accessing Multiple GroupSpace Communities

If you belong to more than one GroupSpace Community, you can log in once and access Communities you have joined, Communities to which you are invited to join, and public Communities that anyone can join.

Perform the following steps to access the GroupSpace Communities to which you belong and view any invitations:

  1. At the GroupSpace Home page, enter your username and password to log into your GroupSpace Community.
  2. Click a Community name to which you belong.
  3. At the main Community page, click Home.
  4. Since you have already logged in, you can click an invitation link to view it or click a Community link to access another Community.

 


Managing Community Members

You can modify the capability rights of members or remove members from communities in the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.

Capabilities, such as creator, owner, contributor, and viewer, dictate the level of access members have to community resources. You can change the capabilities of community members. For example, to give a user administrative access to a community, change the user's capability to owner.

The creator and owner capabilities are provided automatically in all communities. Any additional capabilities are provided by your development team.

You can also remove members from communities.

The following procedures show you how to manage members with the WebLogic Portal Administration Console.

Modifying Member Capabilities

  1. In the Portal Resources tree, select Portals > yourPortal > Communities > yourCommunity.
  2. Go to the Members page.
  3. Click Edit next to the user whose capabilities you want to change.
  4. In the Membership Details window, select the capability you want, and click Save.

Removing Members from Communities

Removing a member does not delete the member from the user store. It only removes the member from the community.

 


Propagating Communities

You cannot propagate a community back to staging or development. You can only propagate community templates.

For information on deployment and propagation, see the Production Operations Guide.


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