This chapter covers the following topics:
Detailed instructions on how to set permissions on a portal, page, category and portlet.
Steps to create/edit/delete a portal, and to switch between various portals.
Manage a sample accessible website
Introduction to a sample accessible website and its features, as well instructions on how to create/access an accessible site.
Actions which can be done on a navigation, such as adding/editing/copying/pasting/cloning/cutting/deleting a node, or changing the node orders.
Step-by-step instructions on how to create a new page by using Page Creation Wizard or Page Manager, and to edit/delete a page and to manage types of page navigations.
Actions which can be done on applications inside a portal and a Desktop.
Instructions on how to set the Access and Edit permissions on a portal for groups and memberships.
Steps to set the Access and Edit permissions on a page for groups and memberships.
Set Access permission on a category
Steps to set the Access permission on a category.
Set Access permission on a portlet
Steps to set the Access permission on a portlet.
Permissions play an important role in accessing and performing actions in eXo Platform. Depending on these permissions assigned by an administrator, users can gain access to various components and another actions, such as editing portals, pages, or portlets.
Details about permission types and levels can also be found in the Permission section.
See also
You can set the portal permissions (Access permission and Edit permission) for a specific user via the Permission Settings tab.
The Permission Settings tab can be opened in some various ways, depending on the following approaches.
For new portals:
Hover your cursor over
in the Administration bar, then click → .
Select the Add New Portal button to open the Create New Portal form.
Click the Permission Settings tab.
For existing portals:
The first way
Hover your cursor over
in the Administration bar, then click → .
Select → tab.
The second way
Hover your cursor over My Sites on the Administration bar, then select your desired portal from the drop-down menu.
Select → → on the Administration bar.
Click Site's Config in the Edit Inline Composer window, then select the Permission Settings tab.
Note
To access a portal, you must belong to one of the groups that have the Access permission to that portal.
After entering into the Permission Settings tab, you first need to select the Access Permission Settings sub-tab to set the access permissions on a portal.
If you want to assign the Access permission to users in the public mode (without signing in), simply select the Make it public (everyone can assess) checkbox.
If you do not want everyone to access the portal, first deselect the Make it public (everyone can access) checkbox, and do the followings:
Click the Add Permission button to open the Select Permission form.
Select one group in the left pane, and one membership type in the right pane. In the list of membership types, the asterisk (*) means that any membership types of the selected group are allowed.
Click to finish your settings.
After you have selected a membership type, the selected permission is displayed in the Access permission list.
- You can select only one group with one membership type at each time. If you want to add more, click the Add Permission button and select again.
Note
Only members under the Editor group can edit that portal. Access rights can be given to several groups but edit rights can only be given to a group with a membership type. To assign the Edit permission to a user, you must add him/her to the editors group of the relevant portal.
After entering into the Permission Settings tab, you first need to select the Edit Permission Settings sub-tab to set the Edit permissions on a portal and do the followings:
Click the Select Permission button to open the Permission Selector form.
Select one group in the left pane and one membership type in the right pane. You can select * if you want to assign all available membership types to the selected group.
Click to finish your settings.
To set permissions on a page, you first need to go to the Permission Settings tab via different ways:
Via Edit Page:
Hover your cursor over My Sites on the Administration bar, then select the page you want to configure from the drop-down menu.
You will be directed to your selected site.
Continue hovering your cursor over Edit on the Administration bar, then select → from the drop-down menu.
Click View Page Properties in the Page Editor window.
Select the Permission Settings tab.
Via Page Management:
Hover your cursor over
on the Administration bar, and select
→
to open the
Pages Management
page.
Locate the page you want to edit using the Page Id column, then click
corresponding the page in the Action column. You will be taken to the Page Editor window.
Select the Permission Settings tab.
Note
To be able to access a page, you have to be in one of the groups that have the Access permission to that page.
To assign the Access permission on a page, simply follow steps as stated in the Access permission section.
Note
Only users under the page's editors group can edit it. The Access permission can be set for several groups but the Edit permission only can be set for one group.
To give users the Edit permission, you must add them to the editors group of that page via Permission Settings and follow steps as stated in the Edit permission section.
Setting the Access permission on categories allows these categories to be listed when a page is edited to add portlets or widgets.
Hover your cursor over
in the Administration bar, then select
Applications
from the drop-down menu to open the
Manage Applications
page.
Select one category from the list of available categories in the left pane, then click
.
Select the Permission Settings tab.
Set the Access permission on a category that is similar to the Access permission section.
Go to the Manage Applications page.
Select the category containing the portlet you want to set the Access permission, then click the relevant portlet under your selected category.
The selected portlet will be highlighted in grey in the left pane with its detailed information in the right pane.
Follow steps stated in the Access permission section to assign access permission on your selected portlet in the Default Permission Settings form.
Steps to create a new portal and configure its settings.
Steps to navigate between portals.
Ways and steps to edit the layout, navigation and configuration of a portal.
Steps to remove a portal.
See also
You can perform this action only when you are a member of the /platform/administrators group.
Open the Create New Portal window by following one of the two ways:
The first way
Hover your cursor over → on the Administration bar, then select Add site from the drop-down menu.
The second way
i. Hover your cursor over
on the Administration bar, then select → from the drop-down menu.
ii. Click the button.
By default, the Create New Portal window, which contains the Portal Settings tab, will open.
Enter a string into the Portal Name field. This field is required and must be unique. Only alphabetical, numerical and underscore characters are allowed for this field with the length from 3 to 30 characters.
Select the default display language for the portal from the Locale field.
Click the Properties tab to set the properties of a portal.
Details:
Field Description Keep session alive Keep the working session for a long time to avoid the time-out. There are 3 options: Never: The session will time out if the logged-in user does not do any action after a given period. In this case, there will be a message which asks the user to log in again.
On Demand: The session will time out to the application's requirement. If there is no request from the application, the session will time out after the given period that is similar to that of Never.
Always: The session will never time out even if the logged-in user does not do any action after a long time.
Show info bar by default Tick the checkbox to show the info bar of the porlet by default when the portlet is used in a page of the portal. The "Show info bar by default" option only takes effect on new porlets as from the time you select the checkbox rather than all portlets of the portal. In particular, after creating your new portal with the "Show info bar by default" option checked, newly created portlets of the portal will be displayed with the info bar by default. However, if you deselect the "Show info bar by default" option when editing the portal's configuration, the former portlets with the shown info bars are remained; meanwhile new portlets, which are created after this option is deselected, will be shown without the info bars.
Click the Permission Settings tab to set permissions on the portal.
The list of Access permissions for the portal is empty by default. You have to select at least one or tick the Make it public (everyone can access) checkbox to assign the Access permission to everyone.
Note
For more details on how to grant permissions on the portal, see the Set permissions on a portal section.
Click the Portal Templates tab to select the template for your portal.
Click to accept creating your new portal.
This function enables you to select and use another portals (gateway, starting site). You can perform this action only when you are assigned the appropriate permission by the administrators.
To switch between portals, hover your cursor over My Sites on the Administration bar for a list of all portals in which you have at least access rights, then click the desired portal. You need to wait a few seconds to be switched to your selected portal.
Note
The function allows you to edit layouts, navigations and properties of a portal. To do this, you must have the Edit permission by contacting your administrator.
When you have the Edit permission, follow either of two ways below to go to the relevant form that allows you to do actions related to editing a portal.
Hover your cursor over My Sites on the Administration bar and select the portal you want to edit from the drop-down menu.
You will be switched to your selected portal just after a few seconds.
Hover your cursor over Edit on the Administration bar to open the drop-down menu.
i. Select → .
You will be directed to the Edit Portal page. From here, you can make changes on the layout of your selected portal, or on its configurations by selecting Site's Config at the bottom of the Edit Inline Composer form.
ii. Select → .
From here, you can edit your selected portal's navigation.
Hover your cursor over
to open the drop-down menu.
Select → to show the list of active portals.
Specify your desired portal, and do the following actions:
Edit the portal's layout by clicking Edit Layout.
Change the portal's navigation by clicking Edit Navigation.
Edit the portal's configurations by clicking Edit Portal's Config.
Delete the portal by clicking Delete.
To edit your selected portal's layout, your first need to follow one of ways above to open the Edit Layout form.
New applications, containers or gadgets can be dragged and dropped from the Edit Inline Composer window to the main portal body.
You can rearrange elements in the portal body by dragging and dropping them into your desired positions. Also, you can edit or remove any element by hovering your cursor over it and selecting
, or
respectively.
Note
For more details on how to edit elements, see the Edit a specific portlet section.
To edit your selected's navigation, your first need to follow one of ways above to open the Edit Navigation form.
The Navigation Management form appears.
Note
For more information about actions, which can be done in the Navigation Management form, see the Manage navigation nodes section.
Configurations of a portal include settings, properties and permissions that can be set by following one of ways above to open the Edit Configurations window.
In this window, you can make changes on fields in the various tabs, except the Portal Name in the Portal Settings tab.
Note
For more details on these fields, refer to the Create a new portal section.
Note
To delete a portal, you must be in the group that has the Edit Permission on that portal.
Open the list of existing portals by following steps as stated in the second way.
Click Delete corresponding to the portal you want to delete.
Click in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
The accessibility subject is quite vast, but we have some guidelines like WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and also the RGAA for the French Administration. eXo Platform has been improved to be compliant with these rules. eXo Platform has priority in providing users with a way to create an accessible site and accessible contents regardless of their roles, by using the "Sample Accessible Website" template. This site is accessible without JavaScript enabled on the browser.
To check the compliance of this template, the following tools are used:
W3C validator XHTML 1.0 Transitional
Achecker with the rules of WCAG 2.0 AA
Create an accessible site
To create an accessible site, simply follow steps described in the Create a new portal section. Next, in the Portal Templates tab, select Sample Accessible Website from the templates list.
Access an accessible site
After creating the accessible site, you can access the site by hovering your cursor over My Sites on the Administration bar, then selecting the newly created accessible portal from the drop-down menu.
The homepage of the accessible portal appears as below.
Features of an accessible portal
The accessible portal provides you with some following features:
Skip to content
: Allow you to ignore navigation links, banner, or redundant information, and directly go to the main content of a page.Site map
: Show a list of pages of the current template.Accessibility
: Allow you to access a specific page about the accessibility policy. It explains what the accessibility is, how to navigate into the site, and describes the available features of the accessible portal.Font size
: Allow you to select your desired font size, including Normal, Medium, and Large sizes. The default size is Normal.Color themes
: Allow you to change the skin color of the website into High Contrast, or return to the default skin with Normal Contrast.Search
: Allow you to search for accessible content in the website.Breadcrumb
: Allow you to ease and keep a consistent navigation. With the breadcrumb, you can easily navigate in an accessible website.Navigation without JavaScript: One of the successful criteria of a website is to have accessible links and menu before the content when it is displayed like a screen reader. If JavaScript is disabled, you are still able to navigate, and the menu is expanded by default in this case.
See also
In the following sections, you will learn to Add a new node, Edit a node, Copy/Paste a node, Clone a node, Cut a node, Delete a node, Change nodes order.
If you are the portal administrator or granted the appropriate permission privileges by the portal administrator, you can execute some special actions related to portal nodes, including copying, editing, cutting, cloning, deleting, adding existing nodes. To do so, you first need to go to the nodes list by following steps described in the Edit navigation section, then right-clicking your desired node to open the drop-down menu.
Select Add New Node to create a node as a sub-node of the selected node.
If you want to create a new node at the root level of the portal, click
, then right-click the empty space and select Add New Node;
Or, simply click the button.
The Add/Edit Page Node form appears.
Enter values in the Page Node Settings tab.
Details:
Field Description Asterisk (*) This mark next to each field means that it is required to enter values in the field. Uri An identification of the node that is auto-created after the new node has been created. Node Name The node name which must be unique. Only alphabetic, numeric and underscore characters are allowed with its length from 3 to 30 characters and without ANY SPACES. Extended Label Mode Tick this checkbox to activate the extended label mode for your page node's label. If this checkbox is deselected, the Language field will disappear. Language Select your desired language for the node label from the drop-down menu. Label The display name of the node on the screen in the selected language. This field is not required and may be changed. Its length must be between 3 and 120 characters, including SPACES. For example, if you want to create a French label for your node, first select the Extended Label Mode checkbox. Next, from the Language drop-down list, select your desired language and enter your French label into the Label field. Visible This checkbox enables the page and its node to be shown or hidden at the navigation bar and sitemap. Publication Date & Time This option enables this node to be published for a given period. Two fields, including Start Publication Date and End Publication Date only display when this option is checked. Start Publication Date The start date and time to publish the node. End Publication Date The end date and time to publish the node. Note
You can set date and time by clicking Start Publication Date and End Publication Date and selecting a date from the calendar pop-up.
Select a page for this node in the Page Selector tab if you want.
Details:
Field Description Page Id The identification string of the page which is created automatically. Name The selected page's name. Title The selected page's title. Clear Page Remove the inputted page information from fields. Create Page Create a new page with the inputted name and the title. Search and Select Page Search and select an existing page. If you select Create Page, input the name and title for the page.
If you select Search and Select Page, you do not need to enter values in these fields. They are automatically recorded after you have selected an existing page from the Select Page form.
This window lists all existing pages of Portal or Group with basic information for each page.
You can select a page for creating a node by simply clicking
, or search for a specific page as
follows:
i. Enter your page title into the Title field to search by title;
Or, enter the site name into the Site Name field to search by the page's site name;
Or, enter values into both fields to further limit your search results by both Title and Site Name.
ii. Select the area in which you want to search into the Type field.
iii. Click
to perform your search. All pages matching your search criteria will be listed.
iv. Click
on the row of the page to select.
After selecting a page, you will see the page details in the Page Selector form.
Select one icon in the Icon tab if you want.
Click to accept the new node page, or X to close the form.
Note
To select a page, you must be a member in the Access Permission or Edit Permission list of the selected pages. When the page type is 'User', you cannot select a page of another users.
If you do not have the Access permission for any page in the list, please contact your administrator to get appropriate permissions.
This function is used to edit the node settings and reselect a page for a node.
Select Edit this Node from the drop-down menu to open the form with all similar fields when you add a new node.
Change values in fields of the current node, except the Node Name.
Click to complete your changes.
These functions are used to reproduce a node in another place.
Select Copy Node from the drop-down menu.
Right-click the position you want to paste this node and select Paste Node.
Click to accept your changes.
Note
Two same node names in the same place are NOT allowed.
The Clone Node function allows you to copy a node. The difference between cloning and copying a node is that the cloned node has its own page with the same content as the selected node. Therefore, there will be a new page that has the same name as the cloned node's page shown in the pages list when you access the Pages Management page.
Select Clone Node from the drop-down menu.
Right-click the position that you want to paste this node and select Paste Node.
The cloned node will be reproduced in a new place.
Click to accept your changes.
This function enables you to change the position of a specific node, such as changing the page path.
Select Cut Node from the drop-down menu.
Select the position that you want to paste this node, then click Paste Node.
Click to accept your change.
The cut node will be moved to your newly selected place.
Note
Two same node names in the same place are not allowed.
This function is used to remove a node linking to a page. After the node has been removed, the page has been still existing.
Select Delete Node from the drop-down menu.
Click in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
Click to accept your change.
You can easily move the position of nodes up or down in the navigation bar following these steps:
Select Move Up or Move Down from the drop-down menu.
Click to accept your changes.
See also
Add a new page using Page Creation Wizard
The whole process to create a new page using Page Creation Wizard, including: selecting a navigation node and creating the page, selecting a page layout template, and finally arranging the page layout.
Add a new page using Page Management
Step-by-step instructions on how to add a new page using Page Management.
Steps and ways to edit the page properties and layout.
Steps to remove a page.
Information and actions related to the page navigation of portal/user/group.
See also
The Page Creation Wizard is available to the portal's administrators and facilitates them to create and publish portal pages quickly and easily. The whole process to create a new page can be divided into 3 specific steps:
Select a navigation node and create the page
In the first step, you have to set Node Name and Display Name of your page. You are also able to decide the pages visibility and the publication period of the page.
Hover your cursor over My Sites and click one portal/site to which you want to add a new page from the drop-down menu.
You will be switched to your selected portal only after a few seconds.
Hover your cursor over Edit on the Administration bar.
Select → from the drop-down menu to open the Page Creation Wizard form.
The wizard is divided into two sections.
The left pane contains existing pages/nodes displayed in the tree hierarchy. Here, you can navigate up and down the node/page structure.
The right pane displays Page Editor where you can make changes on the selected navigation node. You can input parameters for your new page in this pane.
Details:
Field Description Selected Page Node The path of the selected node to add a new sub-page. Node Name The node name of the added page. This field is required with its length between 3 and 30 characters. Extended Label Mode Tick the checkbox to show the Language field for you to select another language for your created node's display name. It means that if this checkbox is deselected, the Language field will be deactivated. Language Select your desired language for the node's display name from the drop-down menu. Display Name The display name of the node which contains the added page and must have a length between 3 and 120 characters. Visible This checkbox toggles the global visibility of this page.
If this option is checked, the page or the page node appears on the navigation bar, the page navigation and the sitemap. If "Visible" is checked, the visibility also depends on the Publication Date & Time option.
If not being unchecked, the page is hidden under any circumstances, even if the publication period is valid.
Publication Date & Time This option allows the page to be published for a given period. If this option is checked, Start Publication Date and End Publication Date will be shown. Start Publication Date The start date and time to publish the page. End Publication Date The end date and time to publish the page. Click Next or number '2' of the wizard steps to go to Step 2.
Select Empty Layout or click the down-arrow icon in the right pane to see more templates.
Click Next or number '3' of the wizard steps to go to the last step.
In this step, you can arrange the page's layout as follows:
Add your desired applications, containers or gadgets by dragging and dropping them from Page Editor to the main page body.
Details:
Tab Description Applications This tab lists all existing categories and their portlets that you easily can drag and drop into the container. Containers This tab contains all existing containers to build your page layout. You can add a container to your page area by dragging and dropping available containers from Page Editor to the main page body.
There are various layouts available, including Rows Layout, Columns Layout, Autofit Columns Layout, Tabs Layout, and Mixed Layout.
For Tabs Layout, you can add more tabs to the layout, and reorder the position of the tabs.
For each layout, you can edit different layers, from the parent container to its child containers. The parent container holds its child containers and the child containers can hold applications. You can also drag a container to another one that helps you create various layouts to your desires.
Remember that you can also drag and drop the container to another one that helps you create your own various layouts to your desires.
For any container layout, you can edit the parent container or its child containers separately. Deleting the parent container means that its child containers are removed as well.
You cannot drag and drop a child container to change its location, but can drag it outside its parent container.
Rearrange elements in the page body by dragging and dropping them into your desired positions. Also, you can edit or remove any element by hovering your cursor over it and selecting
, or
respectively.
View page properties by clicking View Page Properties at the bottom of the Page Editor window.
Preview your changes by clicking Switch View Mode.
Note
Click
in the
Page Editor
window to save all changes, or
to close without saving your changes.
Hover your cursor over
to open the drop-down menu.
Select → to go to the Pages Management page.
Click Add New Page to open the Add New Page form with the Page Settings tab.
Details:
Field Description Page Id The page's identification string which will be automatically generated when the page is created. Owner Type If Owner Type is "portal", the page is created for a portal. Therefore, only users who have the Edit permission on the portal can create this page type.
If Owner Type is "group", the page is created for a group. Therefore, only users who are the manager of that group can create this page type.
Owner Id The identification name of the page's owner which will be automatically created after you have selected Owner Type. When the owner type is set to "group", a list of groups will allow you to select one user as the 'owner'.
The name of the current portal is automatically selected for Owner Id, ensuring the Edit permission is assigned to users who can edit the current portal.
Page Name The page name which is required and must be unique. Only alphabetical, numerical and underscore characters are allowed with its length from 3 to 30 characters. Page Title The page title which is optional with its length from 3 to 30 characters. Show Max Window The option enables the page to be shown at the maximum size or not. Define the page layout in the Page Layout template.
Define permissions in the Permission Settings tab. This tab consists of two sub-tabs named Access Permission Settings and Edit Permission Settings.
The Access Permission Settings tab shows all users who can access the page:
If the value of the Owner Type field is "Portal", the name of the current portal is automatically selected for the Owner Id field, so that the Access permission is assigned to all users who can access the current portal.
If the value of the Owner Type field is "Group", the Access permission is assigned to all users who are the members of the group that is selected in the Owner Id field of the Page Settings tab.
To reassign the Access permission for the page, see details in the Access permission section.
The Edit Permission Settings shows all users who have the edit permission on the page.
If the value of the Owner Type field is "Portal", the Edit permission is assigned to users who can edit the current portal.
If the value of the Owner Type field is "Group", the Edit permission is assigned to all users who are the members of the group that is selected in the Owner Id field of the Page Settings tab.
To reassign the Edit permission for the page, see details in the Edit Permission section.
Click to accept creating a new page.
Open the Page Properties page by following one of the two ways:
The first way
i. Open the Navigation Management form by doing the steps in the Edit navigation section.
ii. Right-click your desired node and select Edit Node's Page from the drop-down menu.
The second way
i. Hover your cursor over
and select →
to open the
Pages Management page.
ii. Click
corresponding to the page you want to edit.The Edit Page form will be displayed in the Page Properties window.
Click View Page Properties in the Page Editor window to edit page properties.
i. In the Page Settings tab, you cannot change values in Page Id, Owner Type, Owner Id, and Page Name.
ii. In the Permission Settings tab, you can change or add more Access and Edit permissions. This form is only supported for pages of a group or a portal. Because the user's page is private, no one can access or edit it, except the creator.
Note
For more details on how to assign permissions on a page, refer to the Set permissions on a page section.
Click , then select
in
Page Editor
for all changes to take effect, or
to abort.
Hover your cursor over
and select →
to open the
Pages Management page.
You will see a list of all existing pages.
Click
in the row of the page you want to delete.
Click in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
Navigation types in eXo Platform are outlined in the Manage navigation nodes.
The /platform/administrators group can do actions related to the page navigation of a portal, including adding/deleting portals, editing the layout/navigation/portal configuration.
Note
The page navigation of portal is created automatically when a portal is created.
The navigation will be deleted automatically after its portal has been deleted.
Actions related to the page navigation of users include adding a new page, editing a page/page layout. These actions are based on permission settings set to a page.
Note
The page navigation of a user will be created automatically when the user is created (registered).
Only the user who is the owner of the user page navigation can edit it.
No one can create a user page navigation so that no one can delete it. The navigation will be deleted automatically when its user is deleted.
Each group has only one page navigation. Only managers of the navigation group and users of the administrators group can add/list/edit/delete the navigation or edit properties.
To manage the group's page navigation, hover your cursor over
on the Administration bar, then select →
from the drop-down menu.
The Group Navigation Management page will appear.
Here, you can do many actions, including:
Click Edit Navigation corresponding to the group navigation you want to edit. The Navigation Management form will appear.
In this form, you can edit the group's page navigation through doing many actions, such as adding a new node to this group, cloning, moving up/down, and more. To learn more about specific actions, refer to the Manage navigation nodes section.
Note
Only users who are "managers" of a group can create new pages for that group, while others in this group cannot.
Select Add Navigation at the bottom of the Group Navigation form. The groups list will be displayed with the Add Navigation buttons.
Click Add Navigation corresponding to the group you want to add the new page navigation.
After being added, the new group navigation will be displayed in the Group Navigation page.
Each group has only one navigation. If you add a new group navigation that has been existing, there will be a message, informing that you cannot create the navigation.
This function is to change the priority of a navigation. Only users who have the right can take this action.
Click Edit Properties corresponding to the navigation you want to edit.
The Page Navigation Form will appear.
Select another priority from the list of available priorities.
Click to accept changes.
This function is used to delete the existing navigation. It is only supported for the group navigation. A user navigation or a portal navigation will be automatically deleted when the user or portal is deleted respectively.
Click Delete Navigation corresponding to the navigation you want to delete.
Click in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
After the navigation deletion has been confirmed, the selected navigation will be removed from the Group Navigation page and its nodes/hyperlinks to pages will also be deleted.
Information related to managing gadgets and portlet. Also, this section introduces you to the Dashboard portlet which hosts many mini-applications known as gadgets.
Use Gadgets in your dashboards
Introduction to various types of gadgets, including Engagement, Management and Monitoring, Audit and Collab, Intranet gadgets and how to use them.
Introduction to the Desktop application, and actions you can do in this application.
In eXo Platform, applications can be managed inside a portal or inside Desktop.
See also
To manage categories, portlets and gadgets in a portal, you first need to go to the
Manage Applications page by hovering your cursor over
on the Administration bar, and select Applications. The
Manage Applications page will appear.
Details:
Tab bar
consists of three items, including Categories,
Portlet, Gadget.
Action bar
consists of some actions related to a category.
Left pane
lists all categories and portlets of each category.
Breadcrumb bar
is the path from a specific category to a specific portlet in that category.
Right pane
provides detailed information of a specific portlet.
Portlets and gadgets are organized into different categories. Each category contains one or several portlets or gadgets. You can also mix portlets and gadgets into one category. By default, all gadgets are placed in the Gadgets category.
Here, you can do the following actions:
Click
on the Action bar to open the form to add a new category.
Details:
In the Category Setting tab:
- Category name
The category's name that you want to add. This field is required and its length must be between 3 and 30 characters.
- Display name
The display name of the category and its length must be between 3 and 30 characters.
- Description
A brief description of the category. Any length from 0 to 255 characters is allowed.
Enter values in the Category Setting tab.
Set the Access permission for your category. Accordingly, another users can only view and use portlets in your category to which they have access.
For more details about how to set the Access permission, refer to Section 7.1, “Manage permissions”.
Click to accept adding a new category to the categories list. Your newly created category will be added to the list in the left pane.
Click
located next to the title bar.
Update the category information.
Click the Save button to apply changes.
Click
located next to the title bar.
Click OK to accept deleting in the confirmation message.
This function helps you add portlets to a specific category easily as follows:
Click
located next to the category name to which you want to add portlets/gadgets.
- Display name
The display name of a portlet/gadget.
- Application Type
Either Portlet or Gadget.
Enter the display name and select an application type.
Select a portlet/gadget by checking the radio button.
Click to add the selected portlet/gadget to the category.
The selected portlet/gadget will be added to the category in the left pane.
This section shows you how to add a portlet/gadget to the Application list on the left pane of the Manage Application page.
Click Portlets/Gadgets on the Tab bar to open a list of portlets/gadgets respectively.
Click the portlet/gadget which you want to add to the Application list.
The information of the portlet/gadget is displayed.
Click the Click here to add this portlet to a category link to open a form which allows you to select a category for the portlet.
Click to accept adding the portlet/gadget to the Application list.
Note
In case, the portlet/gadget was already added to the Application list, there will be no the Click here to add this portlet to a category link.
Note
You can perform this action only when you are a member of the /platform/administrators group.
By default, the Import Applications function is hidden. To activate it, you can do as follows:
Go to the → → → on the Administration bar.
Hover your cursor over the Application Registry portlet, then click
at the upper left corner of that portlet.
The Edit form will be displayed.
Tick the Change Show Import checkbox, then click to accept the changes.
Click to close the Edit form, then click
to quit the
Page Editor
page.
The Import Applications button is displayed on the Manage Applications page.
This feature enables you to import default portlets and gadgets into different categories as follows:
Click
at the right corner on the
Action
bar.
Click in the confirmation message to accept importing portlets and gadgets automatically.
All portlets and gadgets of all categories will be imported and listed on the left pane.
Note
You can see only when the
Import Applications function
is activated.
To view details of a portlet/gadget, simply select one portlet/gadget in the left pane. The details of that portlet will be shown on the right pane.
- Left pane
All portlets and gadgets grouped by categories.
- Right pane
Details of a portlet: Name, Display Name, Description.
Click
on the top corner of right pane.
The Edit Application Information form will appear.
Make changes on these fields, except Application Name.
This section tells you how to access the edit mode of a portlet and edit it.
Define your desired portlet to check if this portlet has been existing in the portal or page. If not, drag and drop it from Edit Inline Composer to the main portal body while editing the portal's layout, or from Page Editor to the main page body in the Step 3 while creating a page and/or while editing a page.
Hover your cursor over your desired portlet, then click
at the upper left corner of that portlet.
The Edit form will be displayed.
Normally, a portlet has four tabs: Window Settings, Select Icon, Decoration Themes and Access Permission. However, some portlets may also have Edit Mode and Preferences tabs. For example, IFrame and Dashboard portlets have the Edit Mode tab where administrators can define the interface details.
Make changes on fields in the various tabs.
The Window Settings tab allows you to change values related to settings of your selected portlet.
Details:
Field Description Display Name The display name of portlet which cannot be changed. Window Title The portlet title with the length between 3 and 60 characters. Width The portlet's vertical size. The value of this field must be in numeric format. Height The portlet's horizontal size. The value of this field must be in numeric format. Show Info Bar The option enables the information bar to be shown or hidden. If the Show Info Bar checkbox is not selected, portlet mode and window state will not be displayed in that portlet. Show Portlet Mode The option enables the portlet mode to be shown or hidden. Show Window State The option enables the portlet's window state to be shown or not. Description The brief information of the portlet. The length must be between 0 and 255 characters. The Select Icon tab allows you to select an icon for the portlet. By clicking Get Default, you do not have to select any icon from the list, the suitable icon will be got automatically.
The Decoration Themes tab allows you to select a theme for the portlet from the themes list. By clicking Get Default, you do not have to choose any theme, it will be automatically set.
The Access Permission tab allows you to set the access permission on the portlet. The portlet can be made public to everyone or restricted to specific groups.
Note
See the Set Access permission on a portlet section for details on how to assign the access permission on a portlet.
Click to accept your changes.
To add a gadget, you first need to turn into the Gadget page by selecting Gadget on the tab bar of the Manage Applications page.
You can add a remote gadget using its URL or create a new gadget into the list.
Click the Add a Remote Gadget link.
Enter the link of your desired gadget which is in the .xml format in the Gadget URL field.
Click Add to accept your inputted URL.
The selected gadget will be added to the gadgets list in the left pane with its details in the right pane.
Click the Create a New Gadget link.
Enter values in the form.
For example:
Click to accept creating your new gadget.
Note
To add the newly added remote gadget to a specific category, simply click the "Click here to add into categories" link at the bottom of the right pane. The table listing all categories will appear that allows you to select your desired category.
To update information of the added gadget, simply click
to refresh information.
You can delete a local gadget using
corresponding to each gadget in the left gadgets list.
See the Add more external gadgets from Dashboard section for instructions on how to add new gadgets from the dashboard.
This portlet is to host mini-applications known as gadgets. The dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening and using gadgets.
In the Dashboard portlet, you can do some specific actions as follows:
Note
You can open many gadgets with different settings at once.
Click Dashboard on the Administration bar to access the Dashboard portlet.
Click Add Gadgets to open the Dashboard Workspace window which lists all available gadgets.
Select a gadget in the Dashboard Workspace window.
Drag and drop the selected gadget into the workspace.
In addition, eXo Platform is compatible with most gadgets which can be found here.
The edit icon on gadgets only displays when the gadget has some gadget preferences. This icon enables users to display the edit form and change preferences of a gadget.
The following is an example of changing preferences of the RSS Reader gadget.
Click
to open the edit form of the RSS gadget.
Enter your preferred RSS into the FEED URL field and one numeric character (from 1 to 100) in the Items field. The numeric character you entered is the number of items displayed in the RSS gadget.
Click to accept your changes.
Add more external gadgets from Dashboard
Obtain the URL (.xml or .rss) of the gadget you want to add from the gadgets source. For example, http://bejeweledg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/bejeweled.xml.
Note
Remote gadgets can be only created using an .xml link or RSS URL. However, if you use a link that generates an RSS feed (for example, http://feeds.feedburner.com/gatein), a new RSS reader gadget will be created automatically even if the URL does not end with .rss.
Return to your portal and click Dashboard in the Administration bar.
Click Add Gadgets in the Dashboard to open the Dashboard Workspace window.
Paste the URL in Step 1 into the textbox.
Click
to add the new gadget to the page.
This section provides you with the information related to managing applications including gadgets and portlet. Also, you will learn about the Dashboard portlet which hosts many mini-applications known as gadgets.
Engagement gadgets include gadgets designed to aid users in engagement activities and events. These gadgets analyze the existing communications and community engagement in your organization, then show what is going on by providing statistics.
eXo Platform currently provides 4 types of Engagement gadget as follows:
The Latest Forum Posts gadget shows the latest posts in Forum. You can decide the specified number of the latest posts to be shown. This gadget helps you always stay updated with what is going on in the forum.
Latest Forum Posts settings:
1. Click in the Title bar to open the form to edit the gadget settings.
Details:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Total | The number of last posts to be displayed in this gadget. |
| Forum portlet | The URL pointing to the Forum portlet. |
| Subscription url | The link to the service which you request to get data from (in this case, the data are last posts). For example: http://mycompany.com:8080/portal/rest/ks/forum/getmessage. |
2. Input the values for all the fields, then click to accept your changes.
The Top Voted Topics gadget lists the highest rated topics in a forum. You can decide the maximum number of posts to be shown.
By clicking the post previewed-content, you will go to that post in the forum.
Top Voted Topics gadget settings:
1. Click in the Title bar to open the form to edit the gadget settings.
2. Select the maximum number of topics to be displayed in the Maximum to display drop-down list, then click to accept your changes.
The Forum Statistics gadget displays statistics about the forum's activity. This gadget is especially useful for administrators who always need global as well as detailed view about how the forum is going on. Based on these statistics, the administrators can find the solution to increase the forum activities.
The statistics include the total number of the topics, posts, members, active members and the maximum number of online users.
You can switch between different views:
Global statistics view: This is the default view.
Weekly statistics view:
Click
to switch to the Weekly statistics view.Click
to back to the Global statistics view.
After switching to the Weekly statistics view, you can display the statistics in a list or a chart.
List view
Click
to switch to the Chart view.
Chart view
Click
to go back to the List view.
The Friend Suggestions gadget will suggest you to connect with people that have mutual friends with you.
To send the invitation to connect with the suggested people right on this gadget, simply click Send invitation under their usernames.
The Management and Monitoring gadgets include gadgets designed for providing the overall vision of the system. These gadgets monitor the system and provide the current system performance statistics which are especially useful for the system administrators and developers.
eXo Platform provides 7 types of Management and Monitoring gadget as follows:
The Memory Charts gadget provides the chart of memory used during runtime.
The chart shows:
The ratio between free and used heap memory.
The ratio between free and used non-heap memory.
The Cache Levels gadget displays the eXo cache levels and settings. Based on these statistics, the administrators can configure the cache settings properly to get better performance:
If the cache is full but the hit ratio is low (or missed ratio is high), it means the cache is full of unnecessary data. It should be cleared and/or its size is increased, or its lifetime is decreased.
If the cache is full and the hit ratio is high, this is good. It means most data are retrieved from the cache not the database, so the system gets better performances.
If the cache is empty, it should be configured differently, for example, increasing its lifetime.
The Consumption tab shows the overall cache consumption in the system.
The Hit ratio tab shows the ratio between requested data fetched from cache and data fetched from database.
The Details tab shows the cache level and the current cache settings.
In which:
Max size: The maximum size of the cache.
Time to live: The lifetime (in seconds) of cache entries before being cleared.
Hit/Missed: The percentage of data fetched from cache versus the percentage of data fetched from database.
The Application Statistics gadget displays how fast applications are. It shows administrators and developers which applications should be optimized.
Applications that take long time to execute will be highlighted so that you can easily recognize.
Each application is provided with these statistics:
The number of executions (exec).
The minimum execution time (min).
The maximum execution time (max).
The All Template Statistics gadget displays how fast templates are. It shows administrators and developers which templates should be optimized.
Each template is provided with these statistics:
The number of executions (nb exec).
The minimum execution time (min).
The maximum execution time (max).
The average execution time (avg).
The 10 Slowest Templates gadget displays the 10 slowest groovy templates and their speed statistics. It helps administrators and developers specify what templates are slowing down the system performance most.
Similar to the All Template Statistics gadget, each template is provided with these statistics:
The number of executions (nb exec).
The minimum execution time (min).
The maximum execution time (max).
The average execution time (avg).
The Services Management gadget provides an easy access to REST management API.
Select the service from the Services drop-down list. For each selected service, its respective methods and properties are shown.
Click
to get the description of the selected service.
Manage a remote service on another Platform settings:
1. Click in the Title bar.
The form to edit the gadget settings appears.
2. Enter the link to the service in the Services URL field, then click to accept your changes.
The eXo Scripting Console gadget provides a Groovy console that developers can use to interact with the runtime. This gadget is useful when you want to experiment on code. It accepts eXo API and can access eXo components deployed in the portal container, so this can be used as a tool for drafting code, testing or exploring eXo API/components/data interactively on a live system. The eXo Scripting Console gadget is better viewed on the entire screen. You should configure an entire page or a Dashboard tab for it.
Click
to change the font size.Click
to change the font color.Click
to view the Groovy Console Help.
eXo Platform currently provides:
One type of Audit gadget that is named Login History.
One type of Collab gadget that is named eXo Calendar Gadget
Under the group of Audit gadgets, Login History records user login history and provides statistics.
You can look up a specific user by entering his username in the User field and click Find.
Click to clear the User field and return the default list of users who have signed in.
Click the Statistics and History links to view the global statistics and global history respectively.
Click
corresponding to the user to view his login statistics.
Click
corresponding to the user to view his login history.
Under the group of Collab gadgets which are designed for collaborative activities, the eXo Calendar gadget displays a mini calendar and allows you to quickly add an event.
There are three tabs in this gadget, including Appearance, Quick add, and Refresh.
Appearance:
If you have more than one personal calendar, you can select which calendar to display. Select the calendars from the list, then click . Only the event in the calendar of your choice will be displayed.
Quick add:
You can add a new event to your personal calendar in this gadget by simply entering the date, time and description, then selecting .
Intranet gadgets are ones which come with the Intranet homepage, including:
Note
Intranet gadgets only work in the Intranet context.
My Profile gadget provides a quick access to your profile page where you can update your profile information.
My Invitations gadget displays number of invitations from people or spaces. You can click the People/Space to view invitations from people/space or you can click Find more to open the My Connections page and view all the requests received.
My Agenda gadget displays the upcoming events and tasks created in your calendars.
To change the My Agenda settings, click
.
Here, you can:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Number of Items to Display | Set the maximum number of tasks and events to be displayed. |
| Calendar | Choose the calendar that you want to show tasks and events. |
| Save/Cancel | Save/Discard changes. |
| Show My Calendars | Show your calendars in the Calendar application. |
Featured Poll gadget displays the poll created in the Forum or Poll application that you have permission to vote. You can directly vote and see results on the gadget. This gadget also provides links to create your own poll or discuss about the poll topic in the Forum.
Vote for a specific poll: Normally, the latest poll will be displayed on this gadget. However, you can indicate another poll to vote by clicking
, then choose one from the drop-down list.
Here, you can:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Vote/Vote Again | Vote for option(s)/ Change your vote (appeared when the option "Change your vote" is enabled). |
| Create Your Own Poll | Create a new poll in the Forum application. |
| Discuss in Forum | Go to the topic in the Forum application. |
Who is online? gadget displays people that are currently connected to the Intranet.
| Fields | Description |
|---|---|
| My Connections | Display social connections and their avatars, full names and excerpt of their last posted status. Clicking the link on a name will lead to the profile of that person. |
| Others | Display names of other people who are not in social connections. Only their names are displayed. Clicking the link on a name will lead to the profile of that person. |
Bookmarks gadget is a simple link management gadget which displays your quick links. You can add or remove any links.
To change the Bookmarks gadget settings, click
.
Here, you can:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Add bookmark | Add a new bookmark. |
| Name | The bookmark name. For example: "Documents". |
| URL | The bookmark link. For example: "http://int.exoplatform.org/portal/intranet/documents". |
 |
Accept/Delete changes. |
 |
Save gadget settings. |
Favorite Documents gadget lists your favorite documents in the Sites Explorer so you can quickly access them.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| My Favorites | Show a list of favorite documents by created date. |
| My Documents | Show a list of your document by created date. |
| Show all | Show all your favorite documents in Sites Explorer. |
To go into the Desktop application, simply click Desktop on the Administration bar. You will be directed to the Desktop user interface as below:
| Number | Meaning |
|---|---|
 |
The administration bar which allows you to access and manage tasks quickly. |
 |
The background of Desktop. |
 |
The Dockbar which provides easy access to applications via icons. |
 |
The application icons which are used as shortcuts to gadgets, applications or pages. |
 |
The application. |
In the Desktop, you can do the following actions:
1. Open the Add Application form via one of two ways:
The first way
Hover your cursor over the Dockbar and click the Add Application icon.
The second way
Right-click any area inside the Desktop background and select Add Application from the drop-down menu.
The Add Application form will appear.
2. Select a category on the left pane. The applications of this category will be shown on the right pane.
3. Click 
corresponding to your desired application. Your selected application is then automatically added to the Dockbar.
To open an application, hover your cursor over the Dockbar and click your desired application icon. The hovered icon will display the application name, allowing you to recognize your desired application easily.
The application window will be shown on the Desktop. When an application is running, 
will appear right under its icon on the Dockbar to indicate that application is running.
To minimize the running application window, click
on the info bar of the application or 
on the Dockbar. is remained, stating that the application is still running.To show the running application window, click
or the application icon on the Dockbar.To maximize the opened application window, click
on the info bar of the application to view its full size. will be changed into 
. Click if you want to restore to the original size of the application.
To reset a changed application, right-click any area outside the application window and select Refresh.
Each application added inside Desktop has a permanent link which is very useful for your bookmark.
Get the application's permanent link
1. Add the application that you want to get the permanent link to Desktop, for example Content Explorer.
2. Click 
on the application's info bar;
Or, right-click the application icon on the Dockbar and select Permanent link:
The permanent link of Content Explorer will be generated on your web browser's address bar.
Now, you can bookmark and use this link later to directly access the application without browsing and selecting it again.
Note
You are required to have logged in before being directed to the link's application.
The first way
Click 
at the right top of the application window.
The second way
Right-click the application icon on the Dockbar and select Quit.
The third way
This way allows you to close all running applications. Right-click any empty area on the desktop page and select Close All from the drop-down menu.
The icon will disappear after the running application has been closed.
First, right-click any area on the Desktop background.
Change the title
1. Select Page Title from the drop-down menu.
2. Enter your desired new name into the Page title field, and click to accept your change.
Change the background
1. Select Change Background from the drop-down menu.
All available images for the Desktop background are displayed in the Choose Background Image form.
2. Click 
to preview your background.
3. Click 
to select and apply the relevant background.
To get the default background again, click the Get Default link at the right corner of this form.
Also, from this form, you can do the following actions:
Delete any background
Click corresponding to the background you want to delete.
Upload an image from your local device
1. Click the button at the bottom of the Choose Background Image form. The Upload Images form will appear.
2. Click to locate the image you want to set as background image and upload it.
After the image is uploaded, you can click 
to add more another image, or 
to delete the uploaded image.
3. Click to accept your upload, or to go back to the previous step.