19.5 Using Oracle Drive as a WebDAV Client

Oracle Drive is a powerful WebDAV client that maps the Portal schema in the MDS Repository as a drive and enables you to perform desktop authoring and publishing and portal-specific metadata attribution directly from the Windows desktop.

Key highlights include:

• Mount Oracle Portal Repositories as Microsoft Windows Drives

• Edit and view content with any Windows application

• Work with offline content and synchronize when online

• Extra capabilities available in the right-click menus

• Set properties, grant access, and preview content and pages

• Access the repositories with a command line (DOS) utility

• Search from Windows Explorer

You can use Oracle Drive with Oracle Portal 9.0.4.2 or later and Windows 2000 or Windows XP. No additional configuration is required on the Oracle Fusion Middleware middle tier, infrastructure, or Metadata Repository.

The instructions in this section cover installation, configuration, and portal-related menu options. Oracle Drive provides online help to assist you with its functionality. This section contains the following subsections:

• Section 19.5.1, "Installing Oracle Drive"

• Section 19.5.2, "Configuring Oracle Drive to Work with Oracle Portal"

• Section 19.5.3, "Oracle Portal Right-Click Menu Options"

19.5.1 Installing Oracle Drive

The Oracle Drive software must be installed on each Windows client. The Windows client must fulfill the following requirements:

• Windows 95SE/ 98/ ME/ NT/ 2000/XP

• Internet connection

• 32 MB RAM

• 10 MB free disk space

You can download Oracle Drive from the Oracle Technology Network at:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/cs/index.html

Installation is easy. Simply select a directory, and follow the installation instructions provided through the Oracle Installer. Restart the Windows machine once the installation is complete. After restart, the Oracle Drive icon displays in the system tray (Figure 19-4).

Figure 19-4 The Oracle Drive Icon

19.5.2 Configuring Oracle Drive to Work with Oracle Portal

Each installation of Oracle Drive must be configured to connect to the Portal schema in the MDS Repository.

To configure Oracle Drive to work with Oracle Portal:

1. Double-click the Oracle Drive icon in the system tray.

   This opens the Oracle Drive dialog box.

2. If necessary, click the Connect tab to bring it forward.

3. From the Service drop-down menu, select New Service.

4. In the Service Properties dialog, specify the following properties:

   • Service name: Provide a name for your WebDAV connection.

   • Username: Enter the user name of the Oracle Portal Single Sign-On (SSO) user

   • Server: <MIDTIER_HOST:PORT>/dav_portal/portal/

     For example: http://mycompany.com:7781/dav_portal/portal

5. Click OK.

6. From the Drive drop-down list, select a drive letter to map to the new Oracle Drive connection.

7. Click Connect.

8. Enter your Oracle Portal SSO username and password to authenticate and establish the connection.

The Oracle Drive WebDAV connection is assigned to the drive letter selected in step 6 and is available in Windows Explorer. When you right-click any file or folder under the mapped Oracle Drive, file/folder options specific to Oracle Portal display on the resulting menu.

If you encounter any problems using Oracle Drive, check the log files, which are written to the following location:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Oracle\ODrive\cache\logs

19.5.3 Oracle Portal Right-Click Menu Options

Oracle Portal menu options are available when you right-click any file or folder under the mapped Oracle Drive. You are prompted to enter your SSO user name and password the first time you open an Oracle Portal file or folder through Oracle Drive. You will not need to re-authenticate for any other files or folders during this session.

Oracle Drive's right-click menu offers menu options for items and pages. The item menu options display under File Menu Options. The page menu options display under Folder Menu Options.

File Menu Options include:

• Set Properties—Displays the Edit Item screen for the current Active version of the item. If approvals are enabled, and a user is accessing a Draft, Set Properties displays the user's own draft version of the item if a draft exists and the current user created it. If the current user is the approver of the item, Set Properties displays the Edit Item screen for the Pending version of the item if one exists.

• Change Access Control—When item-level security is enabled, Change Access Control displays the Item Access screen for the current Active version of the item.

• Preview Content—Previews item content of the current Active version of the item. If approvals are enabled, and a user is accessing a Draft, Preview Content previews the user's own draft version of the item if a draft exists and the current user created it. If the current user is the approver of the item, Preview Content previews the Pending version of the item if one exists.

• View Versions—When versioning is enabled, View Versions displays the version history of the item.

• Approve/Reject—This menu option is usable only when the current item is Pending and the current user is an approver; otherwise, when a user selects Approve/Reject, an error message displays.

• Submit for Approval—This menu option is usable only when the current item is a Draft item and the current user is the creator of the draft; otherwise, when a user selects Submit for Approval, an error message displays.

Folder Menu Options include:

• Set Properties—Displays the Page Properties screen.

• Change Access Control—Displays the Page Access tab in the Page Properties screen.

• View Page—Displays the page.

For information on which items are accessible in what states, see Section 18.9.3, "Item URL Security".