Using Collections in Oracle Social Network Desktop

In Oracle Social Network Desktop, you can view collections, create new collections, post messages to a collection's wall, view the items added to a collection (related), and view the items the collection has been added to (referring).

Note: To learn about collections, see Collections.

To see your list of collections, click in the sidebar.

The Options menu under the Collections banner () has filters for adjusting your view of the collections list.

Note: Your sort and message preview settings are saved and applied whenever you view the Collections panel.

Click the collection name. The collection opens in the Detail window. For more information, see How do I open an item?

Marking a collection as a favorite is an easy way to keep track of the collections you use most frequently.

To mark a collection as a favorite, click next to the collection. Click the star again to unmark it.

In the Collections panel (click in the sidebar), click , and complete the information in the dialog.

For more information, see How do I create an item?

Open the collection. At the top of the collection's tab is a membership bar with pictures of all the people who are members of the collection.

Note: If you're viewing a public collection that you haven't joined, you can view the members by clicking the Options menu (), then selecting Show Membership.

To manage members, in the membership bar, click to open the Update Members dialog. For more information, see How do I view and manage an item's members?

See Working with Messages.

Open the collection, click the Documents tab. For more information, see Working with Documents.

Open the collection, click the Related Items or Referring Items tab. For more information, see Working with Related and Referring Items.

Let's say you want to share a link to a collection in an email or while you're instant messaging. Open the collection, click the Options menu (), then select Copy Link. The link to the collection is copied to your clipboard, and you can paste it anywhere you like.

Note: When people click the link, they are taken to Oracle Social Network in their browser.

Open the collection, click the Options menu (), click Collection Settings, select Rename Collection, then enter a new name.

For more information, see How do I rename an item?

If your messages start going off-topic or a new question or idea is raised, you might want to split that discussion into a new Conversation.

Open the collection's wall, click (under the text box), then complete the information in the dialog. For more information, see How do I split a Conversation off from an existing Conversation or wall?.

When you create the new Conversation, messages are posted both in the new Conversation and on the wall of the original collection showing a link to the other item.

If you have items in your collection lists that you never look at (for example a collection that doesn't apply to you), or you're seeing updates on the Overview panel or in your email digests about collections you don't care about, you can mute those collections. Muting a collection hides it and its activity from your view. It's still there; you just won't hear about it anymore. (The only exception is if you're flagged on a message in a muted item, for which you will still be alerted by email.)

To mute a collection, in the Collections panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the collection, then select Mute Collection.

To unmute a collection, view the Muted collections in the Collections panel, right-click the collection you want to unmute, then select Mute Collection to clear the check mark.

For more information, see How do I mute or unmute an item?

You can close any collection you belong to, even if you didn't create it. Closing a collection prevents people from adding new content to it and moves the collection to the list of closed collections in everyone's Collections panel.

To close a collection, open the collection, click the Options menu (), click Collection Settings, then select Close Collection.

To reopen a collection, open the closed collection, click the Options menu (), click Collection Settings, then select Reopen Collection.

For more information, see How do I close or reopen an item?

You can discard a collection if you are the only member and it's private. The collection, its messages, and its documents are deleted. Although the relationships between the discarded collection and any related and referring items are deleted, the related and referring items aren't affected in any other way.

Note: All content is retained on the system for legal or forensic purposes, but only an application administrator can recover discarded content.

In the Collections panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the collection, then select Discard Collection.

For more information, see How do I discard an item?

At some point you might want to download an archive of a collection, possibly to view when you're offline or maybe to keep a record of the collection's content at a certain point.

The archive is in the form of a .zip file (named after the collection). It contains the collection's list of members, messages, and replies in an HTML file (named by default index.html) and all the documents added to the collection.

Open the collection, click the Options menu (), then click Download Archive.

For more information, see How do I download an archive of an item?

Note: You can't make changes to an archive of a collection (though you can click a link to open the collection in a browser and make changes there). If you want to be able to make offline changes, instead add the item to your Offline Briefcase (see Working Offline in Oracle Social Network Desktop).

Tip: For information about offline briefcases, see Understanding the Offline Briefcase.

In the Collections panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the collection, then select Add to Offline Briefcase.

For more information, see How do I add an item to my Offline Briefcase?

Open the collection, click the Options menu (), then click View in Web Browser. Your browser opens to the selected collection.

For more information, see How do I view an item in the web version of Oracle Social Network?