13 Viewing and Participating in Discussions

Create and participate in text-based discussions with other members of a portal. Use discussion forums to preserve and revisit discussions.

Topics:

Permissions: This chapter is intended for WebCenter Portal users who want to view, create, and manage portal discussion forums and topics. To perform the tasks in this chapter, you need one or more of the following portal-level permissions:

Note: Tasks discussed in this chapter are not available if discussions are not enabled and exposed. The portal manager adds and configures discussions, as described in Adding Discussion Forums to a Portal in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Parent topic:Connecting and Collaborating with Other Users

About Discussions

You can use the discussions feature to post, respond to, and preserve topical information in discussion forums scoped to portals or to the entire WebCenter Portal application. Users post topics to a discussion forum, and other users post information relevant to those topics. All of this information is preserved within the forum.

A new portal is assigned a single discussion forum by default; however, portal managers can specify to include multiple discussion forums in a portal. Discussions are scoped to portals. That is, you can create forums and topics only within the context of a portal. You can view and participate in discussions in both portals and the Home portal, depending on your permissions.

Access to discussions is influenced by portal security. Users can access discussions according to the permissions they are granted by their specific user roles within a given portal.

Scoping additionally limits the users who can view and participate in discussions. For example, only members of the Finance portal can view discussions that transpire in Finance portal forums.

Discussion forums provide configuration settings for specifying which forum content to show. This is of particular use in the Home portal, which exists outside a specific portal scope.

Discussions provides a wide variety of ways for viewing and participating in discussions. These include:

See Showing or Hiding Information in Watched Topics for more information.

Discussions is tightly integrated with other assets, such as links and mail. For example, mail sent to a portal distribution list can additionally be posted to that portal’s default discussion forum. The portal manager must choose Monitor Incoming Mail in the portal Tools and Services for Discussions.

See Publishing Portal Mail in a Discussion Forum in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

Every discussion topic provides the opportunity to link from the topic to another portal asset, such as a document or an announcement.

See Linking to an Existing Discussion Forum Topic and Adding and Linking to a Discussion Forum Topic for more information.

Working with Discussions

The Discussion Forums feature is rich, providing controls for creating and managing discussion forums (available to the portal manager only) and posting and managing discussion topics and replies. The other views, such as Watched Topics or Watched Forums are useful windows into discussion forum content. They provide different views of the discussion forums and topics available to a particular portal or all portals.

Most of the topics in this section describe tasks you can accomplish through the Discussion Forums page (or console). It is noted when you can use other views to perform the described actions.

Note: Only portal managers can create discussion forums and edit discussion forums (unless portal members have Create, Edit, and Delete Discussions permissions). See Creating a Discussion Forum and Editing the Forum Name and Description in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

This section includes the following topics:

Creating and Managing Forum Topics and Replies

The life of a discussion forum takes place in its topics and replies. Users can ask questions, post information, exchange ideas, and otherwise communicate in interesting and useful ways.

Note: Only portal managers can create, edit, and delete discussion forums. See Creating a Discussion Forum, Editing the Forum Name and Description, and Deleting a Discussion Forum in Building Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal.

This section describes how to work with discussion forum topics and replies. It includes the following topics:

Posting a New Forum Topic

When you consider discussion forums hierarchically, the forum is the top container and topics are the next level down. Each posted topic can have subordinate replies, and the replies themselves may have replies (Figure 14).

To post a topic under a discussion forum:

  1. Go to the Discussion Forums console and then navigate to the forum topics page, and click Create Topic (Figure 15).

    The Create Topic dialog opens (Figure 16).

  2. In the Subject field, enter the subject of the topic.

    You can enter up to 200 characters.

  3. In the Message field, enter more details about the topic.

    You can enter up to 4000 characters.

  4. Click Create.

    The newly-posted topic appears under the selected forum in Discussion Forums. Click the topic subject to view the message (Figure 17).

Replying to Topic Posts

To reply to topic posts:

  1. Go to the Discussion Forums console and then navigate to the forum topics page, and click the relevant topic link (Figure 18).

    The selected topic opens.

  2. Click Reply Topic (Figure 19).

    The Reply Topic dialog opens (Figure 20).

  3. In the Subject field, either leave the text as is or revise it.

    You can enter up to 200 characters.

  4. In the Message text box, enter your reply to the topic.

    You can enter up to 4000 characters.

  5. Click Reply.

    Your reply appears below the main topic post (Figure 21).

To post a reply to a reply, click the Reply to message icon (Figure 22) and follow the steps described in this section.

Viewing Topic Posts and Replies

With Discussion Forums, topics and replies to the topic open directly in Discussions Forums. To navigate back up the forum hierarchy, click the locator links that display above the topic reply area.

With all the other Discussions views, topics open in a separate window.

For example, in Figure 24, the topic and its reply displays in a window after clicking the topic from the Watched Topics view.

To return to the main view, click Close.

Editing Topics and Replies

After you post a topic or a reply, you retain the option of returning to it and revising its content. Only you, as the topic author, and portal managers (or a member with the required permissions to edit discussions) can edit your replies. This section describes how to edit topics and replies.

To edit a topic or a reply:

  1. Go the Discussion Forum that displays the topic or reply you want to edit, and click the relevant topic.

    The selected topic opens.

  2. To edit a topic or a reply, do the following:

    • To edit the topic, click Edit Topic (Figure 25).

    • To edit a reply, click the Edit message icon (pencil) associated with the reply (Figure 26). Only the user who authored the reply or the portal manager can view the icon.

    The Edit Topic or Edit Message dialog opens (Figure 27).

  3. Revise the topic (up to 200 characters) or reply (up to 4000 characters).

  4. Click Save.

    Your changes are posted to the forum.

Deleting Topic Posts and Replies

When you delete a topic, the original topic post and all of its subordinate replies are deleted. When you delete a reply, you can select to delete the original reply as well as all of its subordinate replies or to delete only this message and keep its replies.

The steps to delete topics and replies are similar.

Note: To delete a topic post or reply, you must be the user who created it or you must have access equivalent to the portal manager (Create, Edit, and Delete Discussions permissions). If you do not have the permission to delete, you will not see the option to delete.

To delete a topic or a reply:

  1. Go to the Discussion Forum that displays the topic or reply you want to delete, and click the relevant topic (Figure 28).

    The selected topic opens.

  2. Your next step depends on whether you want to delete a topic or a reply:

    • To delete a topic, click the Delete Topic link (Figure 29).

      A Delete Topic confirmation dialog opens (Figure 30).

    • To delete a reply, click the Delete message icon associated with the reply (Figure 31).

      A Delete Message confirmation dialog opens, with the option to select if you want to delete this message and all its replies or delete only this message (Figure 32).

  3. Select an option, and then click Delete to confirm the deletion.

Selecting the Number of Topics or Forums to Display

You can decide how many topics or forums to display; for example, 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 (Figure 33).

For example, if you choose to display 10 topics, and if there are more than 10 topics available, then you click the More link to see the next 10 topics, and so on. (Note that your portal manager may have configured the portal to not show the More link or to show a specific number of topics.)

Toggling Between Topic View Modes

You have the option of viewing a topic and all of its replies in a hierarchical (indented) mode or a flat (unindented) mode. The hierarchical mode (Figure 34) uses indenting to indicate whether a reply is to the topic or to another reply.

For example, in Figure 34 the first entry is the main topic, the second is a reply to the topic, and so on.

The flat mode (Figure 35) makes no such distinctions.

All Discussion views that show topics and replies on the same screen provide Show view mode options.

To toggle between topic view modes:

  1. Go to the Discussions view that contains the topic you want to view, and click the topic.

  2. From the Show drop-down list, select Flat or Hierarchical.

    The topic view renders according to your selection.

    Note: (You might have to click Refresh or click another page and then return to the page where the Discussions view is to see the changes.)

Watching Forums and Topics

Watching discussion forums and topics provides a convenient means of keeping a close eye on the information most current and relevant to you. The forums and topics you choose to watch are personal, in that your selections appear in your view. No other user is affected by the forums and topics you choose to watch.

When you select to watch a forum or a topic, whenever users add to that forum or topic, in addition to it appearing in the user’s watched forums or topics list, you receive a mail notification.

This section includes information about how to add, view, and manage watched topics and forums. It includes the following topics:

Adding a Discussion Forum or Topic to Your Watch List

To add a discussion forum or topic to your watch list:

Note: Selecting the Watch Forum or Watch Topic option only affects your view.

  1. Go to the discussion forum or topic you want to add to your watch list.

  2. The next step depends on whether you want to watch a forum or a topic:

    • To watch a forum, click Watch Forum at the top of the forum (Figure 36).

    • To watch a topic, click the topic link, then click Watch Topic at the top of the topic (Figure 37).

Notice the eyeglass icon that appears next to a watched topic or watched form. Figure 39 shows the eyeglass icon next to a watched topic.

The watched forum or topic is listed on all Watched Forums or Watched Topics views, for example, in Watched Forums and Watched Topics (Figure 38) views.

Note: If the Watched Forums or Watched Topic views have not been added to the portal, you will not be able to view the selected forums or topics from these viewers. You can also view watched topics and watched forums from the Forums view (see Viewing Watched Forums and Topics from the Forums View).

Removing a Discussion Forum or Topic from a Watch List

To remove a discussion forum or a discussion topic from your watch list:

  1. Go to the discussion forum or topic you want to remove from your watch list.

  2. Click Remove Watch on the forum or topic (Figure 39).

    The selected item is removed from your forum or topic watch list upon refresh.

Viewing Watched Forums and Topics from the Forums View

To view a watched forum or topic from the Forums view:

  1. From the Forums view, set the panel display option to Watched Forums or Watched Topics (Figure 40).

  2. Click the link to the discussion forum or forum topic you want to view.

    The forum or topic opens (Figure 41).

Showing and Hiding Additional Discussion Forum Information

Most discussions views provide personalization settings for determining the amount of information to show in addition to the forum or topic title (the Discussion Forums view does not provide such settings). Additional information can include forum or topic author, creation date, and replies or topics.

How you set these display settings is personal, affecting only your view. How you access these display settings varies slightly from each discussion view.

This section describes how to configure display settings. It includes the following topics:

Showing or Hiding Information in Forums View

To show or hide additional information in Discussions Forums View:

  1. Go to the Forums view where you want to select display settings.

  2. Click the Select the data to display icon (Figure 42).

    The Display Settings dialog opens (Figure 43).

  3. Select the data you want to show, or deselect the data check box you want to hide. Select or deselect one or more from:

    • Author—The user name of the person who created the forum or topic (for Watched Forums, this option does not appear).

    • Date—The date the forum or topic was last updated.

    • Replies—The replies associated with the topic (for Watched Forums, this displays Topics).

  4. Click Save to save your changes and close the dialog.

Showing or Hiding Information in Popular Topics

To show or hide additional information in Popular Topics:

  1. Go to the Popular Topics view where you want to show or hide additional information.

  2. Click the Personalize icon (pencil) in the header (Figure 44).

    The Show panel opens, from where you can select or deselect additional data (Figure 45).

  3. Select the data you want to show, or deselect the data check box you want to hide. Select or deselect one or more from:

    • Author—The user name of the person who posted the topic

    • Date—The date the topic was last updated

    • Replies—The replies associated with the topic

  4. Click Save to save your changes and close the panel.

Showing or Hiding Information in Recent Topics

To show or hide additional information in Recent Topics:

  1. Go to the Recent Topics view where you want to show or hide additional information.

  2. Click the Personalize icon (pencil) in the header (Figure 47).

    The Show panel opens, from where you can select or deselect additional data (Figure 47).

  3. Select the data you want to show, or deselect the data check box you want to hide. Select or deselect one or more from:

    • Author—The user name of the person who posted the topic

    • Date—The date the topic was last updated

    • Replies—The replies associated with the topic

  4. Click Save to save your changes and close the panel.

Showing or Hiding Information in Watched Forums

To show or hide additional information in Watched Forums:

  1. Go to the Watched Forums view where you want to show or hide additional information.

  2. Click the Personalize (pencil) icon in the header (Figure 48).

    The Show panel opens, from where you can select or deselect additional data (Figure 49).

  3. Select the data you want to show, or deselect the check box of the data you want to hide. Select or deselect one or more from:

    • Date—The date the forum was last updated

    • Topics—The topics associated with the forum

  4. Click Save to save your changes and close the panel.

Showing or Hiding Information in Watched Topics

To show or hide additional information in Watched Topics:

  1. Go to the Watched Topics view where you want to show or hide additional information.

  2. Click the Personalize icon (pencil) in the header (Figure 50).

    The Show panel opens, from where you can select or deselect additional data (Figure 51).

  3. Select the data you want to show, or deselect the data check box you want to hide. Select or deselect one or more from:

    • Author—The user name of the person who posted the topic

    • Date—The date the topic was last updated

    • Replies—The replies associated with the topic

  4. Click Save to save your changes and close the panel.

Sending Mail from Discussion Topics

Each discussion topic in has an associated Send Mail icon on its toolbar (Figure 52). Click the Send Mail icon to initiate a mail message containing the discussion text, location, author, and date it was created. This feature makes it easy for you to communicate interesting discussions to others.

The portal manager determines the mail client to use with the Send Mail icon. If a local mail client was specified, then a plain text message opens (if you have not logged into your mail application, you will be prompted to do so). If WebCenter Portal’s Mail service was set as the mail client, then the HTML Mail Compose dialog opens. With either mail client, you can add or edit the standard, perpetuated message before sending.