Using Social Objects in Oracle Social Network Desktop

Note: For information about Social Objects, see Social Objects.

To see a list of Social Objects, click on the sidebar.

To narrow the list to a selected type or group of related types of Social Object, open the selection list in the Social Objects banner and select a Social Object type or group of types.

Right-click a Social Object on the list for a menu of useful actions.

The Options menu under the Social Objects banner () has filters and sorting options for adjusting your view of Social Objects.

Note: Your sort, message preview, and summary information settings are saved and applied whenever you view the Flags panel.

When you're looking at the list of Social Objects, you might see a preview of the latest message posted to each object's wall (Message Preview) and all the field labels and values associated with the object (Summary Information). You can control your view of the Social Objects list to show or hide any of this information.

Note: For Summary Information, the field labels and values that show depend on how the Social Object type was defined when it was created. So sometimes you might see a lot of summary information on one type of Social Object, while seeing no summary information on another type.

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

Marking a Social Object as a favorite is an easy way to keep track of the Social Objects you use most frequently.

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

In the Social Objects 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 Social Object. At the top of the Social Object's tab is a membership bar with pictures of all the people who are members of the Social Object.

Note: If you're viewing a public Social Object 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 Social Object, click the Documents tab. For more information, see Working with Documents.

Open the Social Object, 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 Social Object in an email or while you're instant messaging. Open the Social Object, click the Options menu (), then select Copy Link. The link to the Social Object 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.

Open the Social Object, click the Options menu (), click Social Object Settings, select Rename Social Object, 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 Social Object'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 Social Object showing a link to the other item.

If you have items in your Social Object lists that you never look at (for example a Social Object that doesn't apply to you), or you're seeing updates on the Overview panel or in your email digests about Social Objects you don't care about, you can mute those Social Objects. Muting a Social Object 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 Social Object, for which you will still be alerted by email.)

To mute a Social Object, in the Social Objects panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the Social Object, then select Mute Social Object.

To unmute a Social Object, view the Muted Social Objects in the Social Objects panel, right-click the Social Object you want to unmute, then select Mute Social Object to clear the check mark.

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

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

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

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

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

You can discard a Social Object if you are the only member and it's private. The Social Object, its messages, and its documents are deleted. Although the relationships between the discarded Social Object 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 Social Objects panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the Social Object, then select Discard Social Object.

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

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

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

Open the Social Object, 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 Social Object (though you can click a link to open the Social Object 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 Social Objects panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the Social Object, then select Add to Offline Briefcase.

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

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

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