Oracle Content Services (formerly known as Oracle Files) is the file and content management component of Oracle Collaboration Suite. Oracle Content Services is a database-centric content management application that provides you with a comprehensive, integrated solution for file lifecycle management and business process automation. All content is stored in an Oracle database.
Built on the powerful and proven Oracle Files infrastructure, Oracle Content Services provides the tools and facilities needed to manage and make sense out of a large and expanding amount of content, reduce risk associated with both information discovery and information loss, and support the establishment of a broad range of content compliance policies. This new functionality is all seamlessly accessible in familiar environments when and where you need it and without changing the way that you work.
The content management functionalities of Oracle Content Services are integrated with other Oracle Collaboration Suite applications. For example, you can upload a file to a Library and then e-mail a link to the file to all members of your team.
Oracle Content Services makes it easy to:
- Work on Your Files
- Control Access to Your Content
- Automate Your Business Processes
- Manage Records
- Use Categories to Add More Information to Your Files
- Version-Control Your Files
- Collaborate with Groups
- View User Reports
Work on Your Files
A new Web interface allows you to easily access your content from any Web browser. Advanced integration with Microsoft Windows through Oracle Drive allows you to access your content and functions of Oracle Content Services directly from Windows Explorer. Integrating Oracle Drive with Oracle Content Services provides seamless offline content management capabilities, allowing you to easily access and manage content when you are disconnected from the network.
Oracle Content Services makes file management and collaboration easier with new features that include the following:
- Edit-in-Place. You can now open and edit files directly in Oracle Content Services through the browser, by using Oracle Drive, the Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol, Web Folders, or through an ActiveX plugin in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
- Improved link management. In addition to e-mailing links to files, you can now create and store links to a file or folder in Oracle Content Services folders to which you have access.
- Integrated automatic antivirus protection. Oracle Content Services integrates with the Symantec Antivirus Scan Engine, which automatically scans your files for viruses when the files are downloaded or opened by an application.
- Containers and Libraries. A Container is a special type of folder that provides users and Administrators with greater flexibility in organizing files and folders. For instance, Containers can be used to organize an Oracle Content Services Site by a company's business divisions or office locations. A Library is a special type of folder that has a Trash folder and an allocated quota of disk space. If enabled, each user in a Site has their own Personal Library.
Control Access to Your Content
Oracle Content Services provides you with greater and more flexible control over access to your work. You can lock your files to prevent other users from accessing them while you work. You can also specify who may access any file, folder, or Library that you manage. User and security management in Oracle Content Services includes role-based access control at the folder and file level and access management through groups as well as individual users.
Automate Your Business Processes
Oracle Content Services allows you to associate workflows with specific folders, and then have the workflows triggered automatically when events such as file check-in or deletion occur in those folders. You can use event-driven workflows to drive review and approval cycles, notify another user that a new version of a file has been checked in, or prevent the deletion of a file from a folder without a manager's permission.
Manage Records
Because regulatory compliance issues are becoming increasingly important, records management capabilities are available in Oracle Content Services. Oracle Content Services integrates with Oracle Records Management Application, which provides the following functions:
- Specify that a file is to be retained for a certain period of time
- Prevent or control changes to the file during the retention period
- Dispose of the file in a prescribed way once the retention period ha`s expired.
You can declare records manually or through policy-based record declaration applied on a folder-by-folder basis.
Use Categories to Add More Information to Your Files
Oracle Content Services enhances your ability to manage categories (metadata) for your files. Categories allow you to apply additional metadata to your files. A Category defines a set of attributes that you can apply to the file. The attributes can be arbitrary values, limited to a range of values, or defined as an explicit set of possible responses. You can enter the values by accessing the Category information for a file in its Properties tab. You can also search for their files based on Category information. You can apply more than one Category to the same document. Categories are not associated with any specific type of file. You can apply the same category to graphics, word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, or any other types of document stored on a file server.
Version-Control Your Files
Oracle Content Services extends your ability to manage file versions with check-in/check-out functions. When a you check out a file, Oracle Content Services creates a working copy of the file, visible only to you. You can make changes to the working copy, and, upon check-in, those changes are visible to all users who have access to the file.
In Oracle Content Services, you can also set folders and libraries to create a new version of a file automatically whenever a file is updated or overwritten.
You can enable versioning and set default versioning options at the folder, Library, and Container level.
Collaborate with Groups
Oracle Content Services user groups make communication and collaboration more efficient. For example, you can create a group for the members of a project team, a special interest group, or any other collection of users that makes sense. In a single action, you can e-mail all members of a group, or give an entire group access to a file, folder, or Library.
View User Reports
To help you manage your files, Oracle Content Services provides reports that provide the following information:
- All of your checked-out files
- The files that you have accessed recently
- All of your locked files
- Workflow requests directed to you, and workflow requests that you have initiated
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