- 1. Preface
- 2. Get started
- 3. Portlets
- 3.1. Functional Portlets
- 3.1.1. Register portlet
- 3.1.2. Account portlet
- 3.1.3. Organization portlet
- 3.1.4. Application Registry portlet
- 3.1.5. Group Navigation portlet
- 3.1.6. Page Management portlet
- 3.1.7. Portal Navigation portlet
- 3.1.8. Star Toolbar portlet
- 3.1.9. Tabbed Dashboard portlet
- 3.1.10. User Info portlet
- 3.1.11. User Toolbar Dashboard portlet
- 3.1.12. User Toolbar Group portlet
- 3.2. Interface portlets
- 3.3. Dashboard portlet
- 4. Portal Administration
- 5. Category, Portlets and Gadgets Administration
Beginning as an open source project in the year 2002, eXo is well-known as the industry's first Java portlet container. With the aim of dominating the potential portal market through robust and easy-to-use applications, eXo Project succeeded in attracting consumers in the whole world. eXo actually opened the floodgates to various options in many markets, and customers have been choosing eXo as the best method for their success.
Today, eXo is a rapidly growing global company, with U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, California, global headquarters in France, and offices in Tunisia, Ukraine, and Vietnam. eXo has established technology leadership and proven values by their large European installed base and strategic partnerships with Red Hat, Capgemini, Atos Origin, and Bull.
GateIn 3.2 is the perfect merge between Red Hat and eXo Platform in creating a new generation of Open Source portal that is robust and intuitive. With GateIn, both normal users and enterprises can enjoy many personalization and collaboration applications wherever and whenever. Advantages generated in GateIn, such as the interactive user interface, customizable look and feel, flexible internationalization and localization, facilitate the birth of many useful applications with a variety of rich utilities in the world market.
The guide was written as a handbook, aiming at instructing step-by-step on how to use and to implement this application to the utmost. The information included here will give basic steps that makes easy for users to follow through in-depth examples and clear explanations about the eXo Platform technology. Whether you major in technology or not, you are able to learn about or to work on GateIn easily and efficiently.
An enterprise portal is a Web application that provides means to aggregate and personalize information via application-specific portlets.
Users and administrators are able to integrate information, people and processes across organizational boundaries via a web-based user interface.
The framework enables aggregation of enterprise content and business applications with flexible management and personalization options.
A portlet is a small, self-contained web application. Portlets are managed and displayed within a Portal. Typically, a portal page is displayed as a collection of non-overlapping portlet windows, with each portlet window displaying a different portlet. Hence a portlet (or collection of portlets) resembles a web-based application hosted in a portal.
Portlets can be configured to generated differing content and GateIn 3.2 has a number of default portlets that can be used in any portal built in the application.
The Toolbar spans the top of the portal application and provides links to user and administrative actions.
This screenshot displays three Navigations referred to in Section 2.1.4, “Navigation” as well as the main Menu button (on the far left of the toolbar) and the name of the current user (on the far right).
In this example the current user is the site administrator, hence the extra "Site Editor" menu.
Portal navigations are menus that contain hyperlinks to other parts of a Portal. They can help users to visualize the structure of a site. The default navigation menus in GateIn 3.2 are located in the Toolbar (Section 2.1.3, “Toolbar”).
There are three navigation types.
- Site
This navigation links to separate sites of the parent Portal. Each site has only one navigation and it is automatically generated when the site is created.
This functionality allows different sites to administer some Portal aspects (such as portlets) individually while maintaining other content standardized with the parent Portal.
- Group
The content of this navigation differs depending on the type of account logged in.
If a user account in in effect, this navigation holds personal links set up by that user.
When using a management account, this navigation contains links to pages for registered users as well as administrative tasks and personal links.
In an administrator account the navigation adds further management abilities such as Internationalization and community management.
- Dashboard
Each user has own navigation 'Dashboard' that contains links and portlets (or gadgets) that the user has selected. A user's navigation is created automatically when user is registered. This navigation only can be deleted when the user is deleted.
When logged in as an Administrator, a fourth navigation appears in the Toolbar:
- Site/Group Editor
This navigation appears as either Site Editor or Group Editor depending on the administrator's location within the portal.
When in areas of the portal displaying content, the navigation shows as Site Editor and in areas of the portal pertaining to users, the navigation shows as Group Editor.
This navigation contains links to add a new pages to the portal, to edit a page or to change the portal's layout. Administrators can use these links to manage the portal.
A gadget is a customizable mini web application that portal users may add to their web pages.
For more information about the gadgets shipped by default with GateIn 3.2, please check out Section 3.3.1, “Use the Dashboard workspace”
By default GateIn 3.2 offers two access modes:
- Public
This mode is for guest users who are not registered with the Portal. It does not require a log in and restricts the visitor to the public pages in the portal. Visitors can register an account to gain access to the restricted pages. After being registered, they can use the Private mode but must still contact the Portal administrator to get more rights or a group manager to become a member and gain access a group.
- Private
This mode is for registered users only. Users set a username and password during registration which they can then use to sign in. This mode offers users more site privileges. Registered users can manage private resources (creating, editing or deleting private pages), "borrow" pages from other users by creating hyperlinks and change the language for individual needs.
Permission settings control what users can and cannot do within the portal and are set by portal administrators.
Permission types dictate what a user can do within the portal. Two permission types are available as follows:
- Access
This permission type allows users to utilize portal content, that is; sign in, rearrange portlets, etc. This permission can be set for multiple member groups.
- Edit
This permission type allows users to change portal content. This includes actions such as changing page information, deleting pages etc. The edit permission is set for only one group at a time.
Permission levels dictate where in the portal the user's permission type applies. There are three permission levels:
- Portal
The portal permission level includes all pages within the portal. Therefore, a user with the access permission type can view (but not edit) all the pages within the portal. A user with edit permission at the portal level, can change any page in the portal.
- Page
The page permission level restricts the user to particular pages. Users are only able to see and/or edit (depending on their permission type) pages they have been given access to.
- Portlet
The portlet permission level allows users to create a page by dragging and dropping portlets into a page. Some portlets are only used for administrators while some are used for individuals thus administrators have to set the appropriate access permissions.
Permission types and levels can be used to effectively control who can do what within the portal. For more information on setting permissions refer to Section 4.7, “”
As a guest user, you can visit eXo Platform but are limited to many contents and applications. To access more contents or perform some actions in various applications, you first need to register by yourself and contact the portal administrator to gain certain permissions.
Click Register on the top part of your selected portal.
The Create New Account page appears as below.
Table 2.1.
Field Description Asterisk (*) This mark next to each field indicates that it is required to input values in this field. Username The name used to log in. Only alpha, digit, underscore, dash and dot characters are allowed with its length from 3 to 30 characters. Password The authentication string which must be between 6 and 30 characters, including spaces. Confirm Password Retype the password above. Values in both Password and Confirm Password fields must be the same. First Name The user's first name which must start with a character. Its length must be between 1 and 45 characters. Last Name The user's last name which must start with a character. Its length must be between 1 and 45 characters. Email Address The user's email address that must be in the correct form, such as username@abc.com.Text Validation The text to verify your registration. Fill values into fields.
Click Subscribe to accept your new account or Reset to clear all your entered values. If your registration is not successful, there will be warning messages which indicate invalid fields.
After adding a new account, you should contact your administrator to get appropriate permissions for your account.
Click
to check if your entered username already exists or not.
Note
Be sure you enter your email address carefully. Should you forget your username or password, you can recover it from this email address.
To enter the portal in the private mode, you just need to use your registered account. In eXo Platform 3.5, you can sign in the portal via two ways:
Click directly the default user accounts at the lower of screen right in the welcome page or after entering your selected page.
Or, after entering your selected portal, for example ACME website, click one of the default users at the bottom of body as below.
Click the Login link to open the Sign in form.
Input your registered Username and Password in the Sign in form.
Select the Remember My Login checkbox for the first time if you want to automatically return to this portal without signing in again. This feature enables you to be automatically authenticated to avoid doing an explicit authentication when you access the portal.
Click Sign in to submit the form, or Discard to quit.
Note
After selecting Remember My Login, if you do not sign out when you leave the portal, you will be automatically authenticated for your next visit.
Users who return to GateIn 3.2 regularly can be automatically authenticated to avoid performing an explicit authentication each time they access the portal.
Input your registered user name and password.
Select the Remember My Login check box when logging in GateIn 3.2 at the first time.
Click the Sign in button to sign in the portal.
Do not sign out when you leave the portal and you will be automatically authenticated next time you visit it.
To change your account information, hover your cursor over the account name at the top right corner of the site and click My Account from the drop-down menu.
The Account Profiles form appears.
Change your profile information
Select the Account Profiles tab.
Change your First Name, Last Name, Email. Your Username cannot be changed.
Click Save to submit your changes.
Change your password
Select the Change Password tab to go to the following form.
Input your current password to identify that you are the owner of this account.
Input your new password which must have at least 6 characters.
Re-enter your password in the Confirm New Password field.
Click Save to accept your changes.
Note
If the default accounts' passwords have been changed, you can no longer sign in the portal by clicking the default accounts directly as stated in the first way.
In case you forget your account or password, you can recover your username or password as follows:
Click the 'Forgot your Username/Password?' link beneath the Password field when signing in.
There will be two options for you to select.
Select the appropriate option and click Next.
You will be prompted to provide identification information, depending on your choice.
If you select the Forgot My Password option, you will be prompted for your username.
If you select the Forgot My Username option, you will be prompted for your email address.
Enter your Username/Email in the form above.
Click Send to submit your entered values.
After you have submitted the form, an email will be sent to your email address with the requested information, either your username or password.
If you forget your password, you will be sent a temporary password. Your original password will not be valid after this email is sent. You will be directed to a page to update your password for your next log-in.
GateIn 3.2 allows users to pick the language of the user interface.
The priority of the interface language setting follows this hierarchy:
User's language
Browser's language
Portal's language
Note that users should pay attention to this order in order to change the language type appropriately.
You may switch the interface language in various places as follows:
You may set the interface language for your account alone and not for the entire Portal as follows:
Open up the Start menu and click on Change Language :
The Interface Language Setting window lists all available languages installed in the Portal:
Click on the desired language. The associated native word is highlighted.
Click Apply to save your change. The site should refresh and display its attributes in the language you've just chosen.
There are two modes to set the interface language for a specific user.
- Public Mode
When accessing the portal in Public Mode, the interface language is dictated by the language setting of your web browser.
If you have set the language of your browser to one that GateIn 3.2 does not support, the displaying language will be the language set at the Portal level (see above).
- Private Mode
The interface language in Private Mode is set when registering each user. See step four of the process to register a new account Section 2.2.1, “Register new account”.
GateIn 3.2 supports Right to Left (RTL) languages.
The Account Portlet
The Application Registry Portlet
The Organization Portlet:
GateIn 3.2 supports a multi-language environment for your portal allowing you to internationalize any menu entry on the navigation.
As the navigation bar is composed of nodes, you have to modify the display names of the nodes to enable this. Instead of entering the display name of the node in a defined language (English, for example) you have to use a language-neutral 'resource key'.
This resource key is then used to define the label that is shown for that node on the navigation bar, the menu and the breadcrumb.
The resource key format is: #{key}
The resource key can contain any text that you consider appropriate to satisfy your business needs. It should, however, be human-readable and must not contain spaces.
There are two ways to create a key for a node:
Open the Site Editor menu and pick Add New Page.
Enter a name for this new page
Enter a resource key in the Display Name field.
Click Next. On the next screen you may define a page layout out of existing templates.
Click Next to finalize the page creation with portlets for instance.
Click on Site in the Toolbar then Edit Navigation
Click on Add Node
The Create/Edit node dialog appears. Enter a resource key in the Label field
Reusing Keys
You can reuse the same resource key in several nodes.
- 3.1. Functional Portlets
- 3.1.1. Register portlet
- 3.1.2. Account portlet
- 3.1.3. Organization portlet
- 3.1.4. Application Registry portlet
- 3.1.5. Group Navigation portlet
- 3.1.6. Page Management portlet
- 3.1.7. Portal Navigation portlet
- 3.1.8. Star Toolbar portlet
- 3.1.9. Tabbed Dashboard portlet
- 3.1.10. User Info portlet
- 3.1.11. User Toolbar Dashboard portlet
- 3.1.12. User Toolbar Group portlet
- 3.2. Interface portlets
- 3.3. Dashboard portlet
Portlets are pluggable user interface components that are managed and displayed within a portal. Functional Portlets support all functions of a Portal. They are built into the portal and are accessed via toolbar links as required when actioning portal tasks.
GateIn 3.2 provides the following portlets by default:
This portlet is used to register a new account, including User Name, Password, Confirm Password, First Name, Last Name, Email Address, and Text validation.
The Account portlet allows users to register a new account and choose a preferred language for displaying the Portal interface.
The Organization portlet is used to manage user information, groups of users and groups memberships.
The Application Registry portlet is used to manage different application categories. You can add, edit, set permissions and delete a category and its applications.
The Group Navigation portlet is to manage the navigation of different groups. In this portlet, you can add, edit, or delete a specific navigation.
The Page Management portlet is used to manage all pages on the portal. In the Page Management portlet, you can add, edit, or delete a specific page.
The Portal Navigation portlet is to manage all portals in GateIn. In the Portal Navigation portlet, you can add, edit, or delete a portal.
The Star Toolbar portlet displays a list of actions: Change Language, Change Skin, Sign out.
The portlet displays Dashboard tabs that you can add gadgets inside by dragging and dropping them.
The portlet displays personal information of a specific user that can be viewed and edited.
The portlet displays the main dashboard menu that you can go inside to create dashboard tabs, add, or remove gadgets for each tab.
The Interface portlets are the front-end components of the Portal. They provide ways for users to interact with the portal. GateIn 3.2 provides the following Interface Portlets:
This portlet is used for hosting mini-applications known as gadgets. The dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening, and using gadgets.
Refer to Section 3.3, “Dashboard portlet” or Chapter 5, Category, Portlets and Gadgets Administration for more information.
This portlet provides the footer for a site. This footer provides information or links about the site's author/institutional sponsor, the date of the last revision made to the site, copyright information, comments form and navigational links.
This portlet is the home page for a portal. The home page is the first page displayed when you visit the site.
This portlet is used to create inline frames (IFrame) elements for a site. An Iframe is an HTML element which can embed another document into a parent HTML document. By using IFrames, the embedded data is displayed inside a sub-window of browser. This does not mean the full inclusion, the embedded document is independent and both documents are considered as separated documents.
This portlet provides a navigation bar. A navigation bar is a menu that helps users to visualize the structure of a site and provide links to quickly move from page to page.
This portlet displays a sitemap page of website. It is a graphical representation of a website. It lists pages on a website, typically organized in the hierarchical architecture to help visitors find pages on the site quickly.
This portlet is to host mini-applications known as gadgets. The dashboard uses a variety of graphical effects for displaying, opening and using gadgets.
Gadgets within the Dashboard portlet may be moved or rearranged. Users can create new gadgets and delete unnecessary ones. Also, users can open many gadgets with different settings at once.
In addition, eXo Platform is compatible with most gadgets which can be found here.
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.
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.
Change preferences of a gadget (for example, RSS Reader)
Click the edit icon 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 Save to accept your changes.
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.
Note
The functions stated in this section are advanced and for users as administrators only.
The Administration bar is a toolbar which allows users and administrators to execute tasks within the portal quickly and easily.
- My Sites
This navigation contains different sites available in eXo Platform and allows users to directly edit the navigation tree.
- Dashboard
This navigation is used to create your own pages of gadgets.
- Desktop
This navigation allows you to store and perform all applications and actions in one bar that is similar to working on a desktop.
- Edit
This navigation allows you to manage content, page and site (for example, editing the content, adding new pages to the current portal, editing properties of a page, or changing a page's layout).
- User Menu
You can use the main menu (located under your display name) to change your account information, the portal language or to sign out, and more.
You can perform this action only when you are a member of the /platform/administrators group.
Hover your cursor over
on the Administration bar, then select Portal --> Sites from the drop-down menu.
Click the Add New Portal 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:
Table 4.1.
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 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 Save 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.
Continue hovering your cursor over Edit on the Administration bar to open the drop-down menu.
i. Select Site --> Layout.
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 Site --> Navigation.
From here, you can edit your selected portal's navigation.
Hover your cursor over
to open the drop-down menu.
Select Portal --> Sites 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.
Also, 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 OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
If you are the portal administrator or the portal administrator has granted you the appropriate permission privileges, 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 Add Node button.
The Add/Edit Page Node form appears.
Enter values in the Page Node Settings tab.
Details:
Table 4.2.
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:
Table 4.3.
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. You do not need to enter values in these fields. They are automatically recorded after you have selected an existing page by clicking Search and Select Page.
The Select Page form appears.
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, the details of this page will be displayed in the Page Selector form.
Select one icon in the Icon tab if you want.
Click Save 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 Save 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 Save 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 Save 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 and click Paste Node.
Click Save 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 OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
Click Save to accept your change.
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:
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 Page --> Add Page 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:
Table 4.4.
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:
Table 4.5.
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, Tabbed Layout, and Mixed Layout.
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 Portal --> Pages to go to the Pages Management page.
Click Add New Page to open the Add New Page form with the Page Settings tab.
Details:
Table 4.6.
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 permissions at the portal level can create this page type.
If Owner Type is "group", the page is created for a group. Therefore, only users who have the manager permissions for 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 permissions are 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.
Click Save 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
Portal --> Pages
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, noone 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 Save, then select
in
Page Editor
for all changes to take effect, or
to abort.
As an administrator, you can easily add users, edit their information, manage users, groups and memberships easily and effectively.
To perform these actions, you first need to hover your cursor over
at the top right of the site, then select
User.
Click Add Users from the drop-down menu.
The Create New Account window will open with two tabs: Account Settings and User Profile.
Fill all fields in the Account Settings tab which must be completed. For more details on these fields, see here.
Further information about the user, such as nickname, or birthday, can be added in the User Profile tab that is not required.
Click Save to accept your new account. If you want to refresh the input information, simply click Reset.
By clicking Groups And Roles, you will see the Organization form which allows you to manage users, groups and memberships.
As an administrator, you can easily find, edit information of users, and even remove them from the system via the User Management tab. By default, all registered users will be shown in this tab.
Via the User Management tab, you also can define each user belonging to user groups and his memberships (roles) in these groups. You cannot add users to a group but can remove them from the group.
You can search for specific users by username, first name, last name or email address.
Type the search term related to the user you want to search. You do not need to enter an exact term.
Select the information type you want to search against.
Click
, or hit the Enter key to perform your search.
Locate the user you want to edit his information.
Click
corresponding to the user with the information you want to edit.
Select the Account Info tab to edit main information of the user, including First Name, Last Name, or Email Address.
- Username
The Username cannot be changed.
- Change Password
The Change Password option allows an administrator to set a new password for the selected user. When the Change Password option is unchecked, New Password and Confirm Password are hidden. Passwords must contain at least 6 characters, including letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
For more details on these fields, see here.
Select the User Profile tab to edit the personal information of the selected user, including Profile, Home and Business. You may also switch the default display language for that user by selecting another language from the Language field where all available languages are displayed in the alphabetical order.
Select the User Membership tab to see the group membership information of the user.
The User Membership tab displays which groups the selected user belongs to.
To remove the user from a group, click
.
Click Save to accept your changes.
Select the Group Management tab in the Organization form. This tab is used to add, edit or delete a group. You can also add or delete a user to a group and edit the user membership in the group.
By default, all existing groups will be displayed on the left pane. The right pane shows information of the selected group and of its members with the Add Member form.
Select the path to create a new group by clicking the group from the left pane or by clicking
if you want to create a group at a higher level. The selected path is displayed in the breadcrumb bar.
Click
in the left pane.
The Add Group form will be displayed in the right pane.
Details:
Table 4.7.
Field Description Group Name Name of the group that is required and unique within the portal with its length from 3 to 30 characters. Only letters, numbers and underscore characters are allowed for the Group Name field. Label The display name of the group with any length from 3 to 50 characters. Description A description of the group with any length from 0 to 255 characters. Fill in the required fields. Once being saved, the Group Name cannot be edited.
Click Save to accept creating the new group.
Note
The creator will automatically become the manager of that group. The creator's username will be added to the created group with the "manager" membership.
Click the group you want to edit in the left pane.
Click
in the left pane to show the
Edit Current Group
form of the selected group.
Make changes on the fields, except Group Name.
Click Save to accept your changes.
Click the group you want to delete in the left pane.
Click
in the row of the membership type you want to delete.
Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.
Note
After being deleted, all information related to that group, such as users and navigation, is also deleted. You cannot delete the mandatory groups, including Platform, Platform/Administration, Platform/Guests, Platform/Visitors.
Select the group to which you want to add a new user in the left pane.
Enter the exact Username of the user that you want to add to the selected group (you can add many usernames separated by commas);
Or, enter at least one character if you are not sure about the exact spelling and do the further followings:
i. Click
to search by your entered characters.
After you have clicked
, there will be a list of all existing users whose Usernames include the entered characters. For
example, if you enter 'o', you will get the following result.
ii. Select the checkboxes corresponding to users you want to add to the group.
After clicking Add, you will see the complete Usernames in the Add Member form.
Select the membership for the users from the Membership list. You can click
to update the memberships list in case of any changes.
Click Save to accept adding the selected users to the specific group with the specified membership type.
Note
By default, the "manager" membership has the highest right in a group. A user can have several membership types in a group. To do that, you have to use the Add Member form for each membership type. The user's membership information is hereafter updated. You can check it by opening the User Management form and editing the user you just added.
The role of a user in a specific group is managed by using the Membership Management tab.
By default, eight membership types available in eXo Platform include Member, Author, Editor, Manager, Redactor, Validator, Webdesigner, and Publisher. The "Manager" has the highest right in a group.
Enter values into the fields of the Add/Edit Membership form. The Membership Name field is required, and only letters, digits, dots, dashes and underscores are allowed without ANY SPACES.
Click Save to accept adding a new membership, or Reset to clear entered values.
Click
corresponding to the membership type you want to edit in the Action column. Information about the selected
membership type will be updated automatically in the
Add/Edit Membership
form.
Make your desired changes on the Description field. You cannot change the Membership Name.
Click Save to accept your changes.
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.
Noone 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
Portal --> Group Sites
from the drop-down menu.
The Group Navigation Management page will appear.
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 Save 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 OK 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.
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.
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 Portal --> Sites.
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 Portal --> Sites.
Select Edit Portal's Config, then select the Permission Settings 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 Edit --> Site --> Layout 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 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 Save 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 an 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 Save to finish your settings.
Before setting permissions on a page, you need to pay attention to the following cases:
If the Owner type of a page is "group", initial permissions on a page are:
Access permission: everyone in that group.
Edit permission: the manager of that group.
If the Owner type of a page is "portal", initial permissions are:
Access permission: users who can access that portal.
Edit permission: users who can edit that portal.
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 Page --> Layout 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
Portal --> Pages
to open the
Pages Management
page.
Locate the page you want to edit using the Page Id column, then click
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 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 access permissions 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.
To administrate category, portlet and gadget, you first need to go to Application Registry by selectingGroup, thenAdministration, and Application Registry on the Toolbar. The form to organize portlets/gadgets into different categories will be displayed as below
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.
Click
on the action bar to open the form to add a new category.
Details:
In theCategory Settingtab:
- 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 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 access permission, refer toSection 4.7, “”.
Click Save 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 the Edit icon located next to the title bar.
Update the category information.
Click the Save button to apply changes.
Click the Trash can icon 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 the
icon 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 the Save button to add the selected portlet/gadget to the category.
The selected portlet/gadget will be added to the category in the left pane.
To manage portlets and gadgets in a portal, you first need to hover your cursor over
on the Administration bar, and select Applications. The
Manage Applications page will appear.
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.
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 OK 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.
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 and 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:
Table 5.1.
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 Save And Close 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 Save 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.
