Working with People in Oracle Social Network Desktop

This section describes how to work with people in the desktop:

What is the People panel?

You can access people-related features by clicking in the sidebar.

The People panel has a menu of viewing options.

Table 15-4 People Panel Viewing Options

Viewing Option	Description
Contacts	View the people you've added as your contacts
People You Follow	View the people you follow
Your Followers	View the people who follow you

The Options menu under the Contacts banner () has additional filtering and sorting options for adjusting your view of the list.

Table 15-5 Contacts Filtering and Sorting Options

Filter or Sorting Option	Description
Online Only	When selected, view everyone, whether online or off. When not selected, show only contacts who are online.
Sort By: Name	Sort the list alphabetically by first name
Sort By: Status	Sort the list, putting all those online first, away second, and offline last
Sort By: Ascending	Arrange the list of contacts from 0 to 9 and A to Z
Sort By: Descending	Arrange the list of contacts from Z to A and 9 to 0

Note: Your online only preferences and sort settings are saved and applied whenever you view the Contacts panel.

Here's a short list of what you can do on the People panel in Oracle Social Network Desktop:

Table 15-6 Short List of Things You Can Do with People Features

Action	For more information, see …
Create and maintain a list of contacts Note: You can add an outside user as a contact, but outside users can't add you. Outside users can't have contacts in Oracle Social Network.	How do I add a contact? How do I remove a contact?
Hold One-on-One Conversations	How do I start a One-on-One Conversation?
View someone's profile	How do I view someone's profile and wall?
View and post on your wall and other people's walls	How do I view someone's profile and wall?
View a list of people you follow	How do I see who I'm following?
View a list of people who follow you	How do I see who's following me?

Right-click a person in the list for a menu of useful actions.

What are "unregistered users"?

Unregistered users are people who are in your company's directory but are not yet members of Oracle Social Network. When you add people to a Conversation or wall, the word unregistered appears next to the names of unregistered users in the Manage Members dialog. When you try to add an unregistered user, a warning alerts you to their unregistered status.

When you add an unregistered person to a Conversation, they receive an email with a link to set up their account.

What are "outside users"?

Outside users are people who don't work for your company, but who collaborate with you and your co-workers in Oracle Social Network. They are members of Oracle Social Network with limited privileges. For example, outside users can be contacts but they can't have contacts in Oracle Social Network. They can participate in Conversations only when they are added by you or some other member of the Conversation.

Note: One outside user can't add another to a Conversation.

Wherever an outside user is a member of a Conversation, a banner appears at the top of the page to alert you. All outside users have the same avatar () and their name is in purple text so you can easily tell who they are.

Wherever an option to view a person's wall is available, rather than seeing the option View Wall, for outside users you'll see View Profile. That's because outside user's don't have walls where you can post messages.

Since outside users do not have walls they can post to, you won't see Follow or Following buttons on their profile page. Instead, you'll see Add to Contacts or Remove from Contacts buttons.

How do I view someone's profile and wall?

A person's profile and wall both appear in the Detail window. The profile view can be expanded and collapsed, and appears above the wall's message area.

When a person is an outside user—someone who works for another company but is using Oracle Social Network in collaboration with your company—you, as an inside user, can follow them, add them as a contact, and initiate a One-on-One with them. But you can't post to their wall because outside users don't have a traditional wall.

Note: The stream of messages posted to walls differs from those posted to Conversations. In Conversations, the latest message is listed last. On walls, the latest message is listed first.

To view someone's wall:

Click to bring the panel forward.
Click the person's picture to open his or her wall in the Detail window. For more information, see What is the Detail window?
To see someone's full profile, click the Profile link.

To see fewer details, click Profile again.
Post to the wall as you would to any other Conversation.

For more information, see How do I post a message?

Profiles show three tabs:

Wall—Shows the messages posted to the person's wall
Followers—Shows a list of those following the current person

Note: If you follow the person, you can also see the person's followers in the membership bar on their wall. For more information on the membership bar, see How do I view and manage an item's members?
Following—Shows a list of those the current person is following

How do I add a contact?

Note: You can add an outside user () as a contact, but outside users can't add you. Outside users can't have contacts in Oracle Social Network.

Click to bring the panel forward.
Click to open a search field.
Enter a name or part of a name to open a list of results.
Click a name in the results list to add that person to your contacts.

How do I remove a contact?

On the Contacts panel, right-click the person you want to remove and select Remove from Contacts.

How do I view a profile from the People tab?

On the People tab:

Right-click a person's name, and select View Profile.
Select the person's name, and click the View Profile icon.

How do I work with messages on a person's wall?

See Working with Messages.

How do I work with a person's documents and folders?

Open the person's profile, click the Documents tab. For more information, see Working with Documents.

How do I see who I'm following?

There are several ways to see who you're currently following:

Click , then, in the menu, click People You Follow.
Open your profile page, then click Following.

How do I see who's following me?

There are several ways to view the people who follow you:

Click , then, in the menu, click Your Followers.
Open your profile page, then click Followers.

How do I share a link to a person's wall?

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

Note: When people click the link, they are taken to the web version of Oracle Social Network.

How do I split a Conversation off from a person's wall?

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 person'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 person showing a link to the other item.

How do I download an archive of a person's wall?

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

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

Open the person's wall, 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 person's wall (though you can click a link to open the person's wall 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).

How do I add a person's wall to my Offline Briefcase?

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

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

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

How do I view a person in the web version of Oracle Social Network?

Open the person's wall, click the Options menu (), then click View in Web Browser. Your browser opens to the selected person's wall.

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