Sun Java System Portal Server 7.2 Administration Guide

Administering Portal Server Discussions

This section describes the discussions channel and how to manage it.

This section contains the following:

Understanding DiscussionProvider

The Discussions channel is based on the DiscussionProvider, similar to the search channel’s JavaServer Pages^TM (JSP^TM) files. The discussion channel has a query portion and a display portion, and uses Desktop themes.

The DiscussionProvider:

Uses the Desktop themes
Is based on JSP technology
Retrieves data from the back-end Search service using search tag libraries and API

Discussions and comments are stored as different Resource Descriptors (RDs) in the discussion database. The DiscussionProvider supports:

A full view (using the Discussions channel) and an abbreviated view (using the DiscussionLite channel) that:
Starts a new discussion from the discussion channel
Posts replies to an existing discussion
Starts a new discussion based on web documents from the search channel
A Discussion List that:
- Retrieves main posts sorted by last-modified date
- Has pagination so users can access older discussion
A discussion view that displays each discussion subtree. The main item is displayed in detail and the subtree is displayed below the main item. View discussion includes:
- Several filters on the page. A document display can be based on filters such as document rating (irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read).
- Display preference can be set to threaded or flat display.
- Expansion threshold to help control displayed items in the subtree. The users can choose to expand only highly rated documents, or expand all or collapse all. Default value is collapse all. Expand all displays all the filtered comments, shows a description of the discussion, provides a menu for rating the discussion, and allows the user to post a reply.
- Support to search within a discussion. The user also has the option to set these preferences through the channel edit page.
Commenting and rating a discussion. For example, users can:
- Add a comment on an existing discussion.
- Rate all discussions and comments. User rating is not immediately visible. The rating calculation is based on an algorithm, and the rating for any comment goes up gradually. For example, a comment must be rated important three times before it is marked as important.
- Searching all discussions and within a discussion. These functions are routed to the search provider. Users can also search by rating in Advance Search.
- Subscriptions. Authenticated users can choose to subscribe to a particular discussion by selecting the subscribe link. The request is handled by the SubscriptionProvider.

Administering the DiscussionProvider

You can create a DiscussionProvider channel and manage it from the portal server management console:

End users can configure the discussion channel using the channel edit page.

To Create a Channel from DiscussionProvider

To Login to the Management Console.

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.

Select the container where you want to create the channel.

The container Task and Properties are displays on the right panel.

Under Tasks, click New Channel or Container to launch the wizard.
1. From the Select Portal drop-down menu, select a portal server.
2. From the Select DN drop-down menu, select any DN.
3. Under Type, select channel, and click Next.
4. Under Channel Type, select Provider Channel, and click Next.
5. From the Provider drop-down menu, select DiscussionProvider, and click Next.
6. Type a name for the channel in the text box, and click Next.
7. Review the channel information, and click Finish.
8. Click Close.
The channel based on DiscussionProvider is created.

To Delete a DiscussionProvider Channel

To Login to the Management Console.

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

From the Select DN drop-down menu, choose the DN where the DiscussionProvider channel resides.

Tip –
Select DP XML Tree as the View Type from the drop-down menu for a listing of all the channels and containers under DP_ROOT.

Select the container where the channel resides.

The container Tasks and Properties page displays.

Click Select Channel or Container to delete.

Select the DiscussionProvider channel.

Click Delete.

To Configure a DiscussionProvider Channel

To Login to the Management Console.

Select the Portals tab.

Select a portal server under Portals.

Choose DN organization where the DiscussionProvider channel resides from Select DN drop-down menu.

Tip –
Select DP XML Tree as the View Type from the drop-down menu for a listing of all the channels and containers under DP_ROOT.

Select the DiscussionProvider channel you want to configure.

For more information about the attributes, see Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Technical Reference.

DiscussionLite Channel

The DiscussionLite channel displays the top 20 recent discussion titles and the date. Discussions are sorted by creation date (last modified), and the newest discussion is displayed first. Titles can be reconfigured.

The DiscussionLite channel view has links for:

Viewing each discussion.
Viewing all discussions that target the Discussions Channel.
Starting a discussion.

By default, the channel is displayed in a single container, and all links are brought up in a JSPDynamicSingleContainer.

Properties can be configured from the management console. By default, the end user cannot edit properties of this channel.