eXo Platform 3.5

## Chapter 8. Build Social Network

Social is an application of eXo Platform, which gives users rich experiences with many features that are similar to social networks, such as Facebook and Linkedln. With Social, you can establish more meaningful connections and improve your communication and collaboration. Social allows you to add details, including experiences, skills and team information, to your own profile. Besides, Social supports the OpenSocial API standard that allows developers to write social gadgets intuitively and easily for displaying and mashing up activity information for contacts, applications, services and social networks.

This chapter presents the following topics:

- Manage your profile through step-by-step instructions. In this section, you can build your profile with full personal information, such as contact information, work experience, current position, and more.

- Manage spaces which shows you how to create/edit/join/leave/delete a space, or to view its details, or to search for spaces and to accept/deny invitations.

- Build networks which includes actions related to searching for contacts and sending connection requests.

- Follow activities in your organization which allows you to update status, share links, delete activities/comments, comment on activities, or like/unlike activities.

In this chapter, most Social-related actions are demonstrated through the Intranet site which is a default social portal built in eXo Platform.

After entering Intranet, you will be directed to the Intranet homepage as below.

## Manage your profile

By default, your profile is just initialized with the basic account information entered in the Registration form. Therefore, if you only want to view or edit the basic information on account and password, simply hover your cursor over your display name on the top right corner of the page, and select My Account.

The Account Profile form is displayed with information you have set previously.

Here, you can change your account information in the Account Profiles tab, except for Username. These changes will be automatically synchronized with details in the Basic information in your Profile and vice versa. Also, you can change your password by clicking the Change Password tab.

If you want to view and update more details, go to the My Profile page by following either of 3 ways:

The first way

Hover your cursor over your display name at the top right corner of the page, then select My Profile from the drop-down menu.

The second way

Go to the Activity Streams page first, then select the My Profile tab in the left pane.

The third way

Go to the My Network page first, then select the My Profile tab in the left pane.

The My Profile page is displayed as below.

From here, you can:

- Modify your contact information, including basic information, contact details, and experiences.

- Upload your profile avatar.

- Update your current position.

View profiles of other users

1. Hover your cursor over your display name at the top right corner of the page, then select either of the following pages from the drop-down menu:

- Find People; or

- My Network --> All People; or

- Activity Streams --> All Updates

2. Click the appropriate username to be directed to his/her profile.

### Note

Regardless of being an administrator, you do not have right to edit profiles of other users.

`See also`

- Manage accounts

- Build networks

- Follow activities in your organization

- Manage spaces

- Use the Dashboard workspace

### Edit your information

Your own information is visible to all people using the network. You can change your information as follows:

1. Click Edit at the top of each corresponding section in the right pane of the My Profile page.

2. Change your desired information. In both Contact and Experience sections, click Add corresponding to one field you want to add more or Remove to delete your inputted information.

3. Click Save to accept all changes, or Cancel to close the Edit form without any changes.

The followings are changeable information in each pane.

Basic Information

Field | Description
--- | ---
First name | The first name which is required with the length from 1 to 45 characters.
Last name | The last name which is required with the length from 1 to 45 characters.
Email | The email address which must be in a valid format, for example, johnsmith@exoplatform.com. (See more details about the Email Address format here.)

Contact

Field | Description
--- | ---
Gender | The gender of user. Select your gender from the select box, either male or female.
Phone | The phone numbers at work, home or at other sites which must be between 3 to 20 numeric characters.
IMs | The nickname of either IM services that must be between 3 to 60 characters.
Urls | The website address which must be in the correct format, for example: http://exoplatform.com/.

Experience

Field | Description
--- | ---
Organization | Where you have worked. The field's length is limited from 3 to 90 characters.
Position | The job title which is limited from 3 to 90 characters.
Job Details | Brief description of your job without any character-related limitations.
Skills Used | Skills used without any limitations.
Start Date | The start date of your work.
End Date | The end date of your work.
Still in this position | Indicate that you are currently at the described position.

`See also`

- Upload your profile avatar

- Update your current position

### Upload your profile avatar

You easily upload a photo to your profile or to the spaces which you have created or have the Manage permission.

1. Click the Change Avatar link, or directly click your current avatar in the left pane to open the Avatar Upload form.

2. Click Browse... to open the File Upload form.

3. Select your desired image, then click the Open button to upload your selected image. The uploaded photo must be smaller than 2 MB.

4. Click Confirm to open the Avatar Preview form to see some related information, such as file name, file type and image size.

5. Click Save to accept your changes.

### Note

Your image will be automatically resized to a specified value.

### Update your current position

1. Click the Edit link.

The form to update the current information will appear.

2. Enter your new position which is limited from 3 to 30 characters and click Save. Your current position will be immediately updated.

### Note

The information entered in the Position field is only used for providing more details, not for searching. Meanwhile, the information entered in the Position field of the Experience section will be retrieved when you do the Search function.

## Manage spaces

The concept "team work" becomes very familiar in business environment. By establishing one specific team or group, you and your collaborators can work together on important projects. Based on the importance of team working, eXo Platform develops the Space application, allowing you to collaborate with specific people. This means that if you want to work on a team project, you can create a space for your team members to make organizations, share links and information related to the project.

To access a space, click My Spaces on the Administration bar.

The My Spaces page appears as below.

The Space navigation includes the following tabs:

- All Spaces: all spaces which have been created with the Visibility value as Visible.

- My Spaces: spaces where you have the role as a member or a manager.

- Received Invitations: spaces where you are invited to become members by space managers.

- Pending Requests: spaces where you have requested to become their members.

### Note

Administrator, who has the highest permission, can see all spaces regardless of the member role.

### Create a space

After redirecting to the Space application, you can add a new space so that you and your collaborators can work together or discuss specific topics as follows:

1. Click at the right corner of Space page.

2. Enter a space name, description and select the priority level in the Settings tab of the Add New Space form. There are 3 levels: High, Intermediate, and Low with textual explanations corresponding to each selected preference value.

3. Select an access level in the Visibility tab.

- Visibility: By default, the Visibility value is set to be Visible.

  - Visible: The space is always visible in the public spaces list.

  - Hidden: The space is not visible in the public spaces list.

- Registration: By default, the Registration value is set as Validation. There will be an explanation text (within two round brackets) corresponding to each your selection.

  - Open: The users sending their requests can join the space without any validation.

  - Validation: The membership must be validated by the space manager.

  - Close: The user cannot request for joining, but only the space manager can invite him.

4. Select all members of a specific group for your space where you are already 'manager' in the Invite users from group tab.

One of the two following cases occurs when you select this tab.

- The first instance: You have been already the manager of a group. It means that you have created at least a space.

The Invite users from group tab will be displayed as below.

i. Tick the Select a target group for this space checkbox to open the selection form.

ii. Select the group in the left pane, then its child group in the right pane.

You will see your selected group as below.

### Note

To remove the selected groups, untick the Select a target group for this space checkbox.

After you have selected one existing group, all users in that group will be invited to join your newly created space.

- The second instance: You have not been a manager of any group yet. It means that this is the first time you create a space, so you cannot select a target group.

### Note

After being created, your space will be automatically added to the My Spaces button on the Administration bar. Therefore, you can access your space by clicking My Spaces --> [Space Name] from the drop-down menu.

5. Click Create to finish adding your new space.

### Note

When more than two space characters are input between words, these spaces will be converted to ONLY ONE space when being displayed. With space characters at the beginning and end of space names, these space characters will be omitted.

### Edit a space

This function allows you to change the information of a space, manage members and applications if you are the creator or have the Manage permission on it.

To access the Space Settings, follow one of 2 ways:

The first way

1. Click My Spaces on the Administration bar to direct to the My Spaces page.

2. Click Edit corresponding to the space which you have the Edit permission.

The second way

1. Hover your cursor over My Spaces on the Administration bar, then select one space from the drop-down menu.

2. Click .

#### Change space information

This function allows you to edit the basic information of a space as follows:

1. Select the Settings tab in the Space Settings page.

2. Change information in the Description and Priority fields, and the space avatar.

- To change the space avatar, click

  , or directly click the current space avatar to open the Avatar Upload form. For more details, see the Upload your profile avatar section.

### Note

You cannot change the space name.

3. Click Save to accept your changes.

#### Change visibility

1. Select Access & Edit in the left pane of the Space Settings page.

2. Change values of Visibility and Registration if you want. For more details, see here.

3. Click Save to accept your changes.

#### Manage members

Select Members in the left pane of the Space Settings page to open the Manage members form. Here, you can do many actions on members as stated below.

##### Invite new members

You can invite other users to join your spaces as follows:

The first way

- If you know the username of a person, simply enter his/her username in the textbox, then click

  .

To invite multiple people, use commas to separate your multiple entered usernames.

The second way

1. Click to open the Select Users form.

- To search for your desired member in eXo Platform, do as follows:

i. Enter a search term into the Search box.

ii. Select a criterion you want to find in the combo box next to the Search box.

iii. Click to perform searching.

2. Select users by ticking their corresponding checkboxes and click Add.

3. Click to invite your selected users.

After inviting, you will see the list of invited users.

### Note

You can invite multiple users which will be separated by commas in the Select Users field.

##### Revoke your invitations

If your invited users have not accepted your requests, you can revoke your invitations by clicking . The users will be removed from the Invited list.

##### Promote/Demote a member

- To promote a member to the manager position, click

  in the Manager column. The user will be automatically promoted as a manager in the current space.

- To demote a member, click

  .

### Note

Be careful not to remove the rights for yourself; otherwise, you will not be able to edit your space's settings anymore, except that you are an administrator.

##### Remove a member

Click corresponding to the member you want to delete in the Members list.

#### Manage space applications

To manage space applications, click the Applications tab to go the Applications page.

##### Add a new space application

1. Click Add Application to open the Application List.

2. Select the application you want to add by clicking .

If there is no available application, ask your system administrator to gain the access right.

##### Delete applications

To remove an application, click corresponding to the application name.

### Note

You cannot delete the Space Setting application because it is configured as a mandatory space application.

#### Edit space navigation

You can easily edit a space navigation, such as adding a new node, editing a node, replacing in the navigation, moving up/down a node, and taking other actions in the context menu as follows:

1. Click the Navigations tab to open the space navigation.

You can take the following actions:

- Right-click a node name (space name) and takes actions in the context menu, such as adding/editing a node, editing a node's page, copying/cloning a node.

- Right-click any white area to display

  , then select this button. The UI Page Node form appears that allows you to add information to your new node.

For more details, see the Manage Navigation Nodes section.

2. Click Save to accept all changes.

### Join/Leave a space

Join a space

Click My Spaces on the Administration bar, then click the All Spaces tab to display all spaces which Visibility is set to "Visible". There are two cases to join a space:

- The first instance: For spaces without validation required, click Join corresponding to your desired space. You will automatically become their members.

- The second instance: For spaces with validation required, after clicking Join, you have to wait for the validation from the space's owner who can accept or deny your request.

Revoke your request

- To revoke your request for joining a space that has not been validated by its owner, simply click Cancel.

Leave a space

- To leave the space which has been validated, simply click Leave.

If you are the only leader of that space, the message which informs that you cannot leave a space will appear as below.

### Note

After you have left a space, the space will not exist in the My Spaces tab, but in the All Spaces tab.

### View details of a space

To view one detailed page of a space, you must become its member first. Then, do either of the two following ways to view the space.

The first way

- Hover your cursor over My Spaces on the Administration bar, and select your desired space from the drop-down menu.

The second way

- After entering the My Spaces pane within the Spaces application, left-click the name of your desired space.

The detailed page of the space displays information about the space. The functions you can perform depending on your granted permissions or whether you are the space's creator or not.

As a normal user, you can:

- Ask for joining the public space or leave the space.

- Accept or deny to join a space.

- Invite colleagues to take part in your space.

Besides, as a space manager or creator, you can:

- Edit the space settings, including description, priority level, and avatar.

- Change the visibility of your space.

- Invite new members to join your space.

- Accept/Deny requests for joining a space.

- Promote/Demote roles of space members.

- Remove members from your space.

### Delete a space

Only the space managers can delete their spaces by clicking . All information and navigations related to that space are also deleted.

### Search for spaces

The Search function in the Spaces application helps you easily find spaces from one of the tabs in the Space navigation.

After accessing your desired spaces tab, you can search for spaces by Name and Description or Alphabets.

Search by name/description

1. Enter the key word into the Find Space field.

2. Press the Enter key or click .

Search by alphabets

Simply click a specific letter which is covered in the space name.

The found spaces will be listed in the Spaces Found pane.

### Accept/Deny invitations

This function allows you to accept and/or deny invitations that you received from others. Spaces which are being waited for acceptance will be listed in the Received Invitations tab.

- Click Accept to accept joining the space.

- Click Deny to refuse joining the space.

## Build networks

To build your network, you first need to hover your cursor over the display name on the Administration bar and select My Network from the drop-down menu.

The Network page appears and allows you to do the following actions:

- Search for your contact.

- Send connection requests.

This page consists of the following tabs:

- All People: list users who have registered in the eXo Platform system.

- Network: list users who have established connections with you. You can remove these connections by clicking Delete.

- Received Invitations: list users who have sent you connection request. You can click Accept to accept being as his/her contact or Deny to refuse.

- Pending Requests: list users to whom you have sent connection requests. You can also click Cancel to revoke your request.

### Search for your contact

This function allows you to find your desired contact quickly.

1. Select the relevant tab in which you want to do your search.

- To search across all users in eXo Platform, select the All People tab. Alternatively, you can hover your cursor over your display name and select Find People from the drop-down menu.

- To reduce the returned search results, select the appropriate tab first before using the search box. For example, to search for contacts with whom you have established connections, you need to select the Network tab.

2. Enter the contact name you want to search into the Find Contact field. When you type, the application automatically suggests the contact name containing your entered letter. You just need to select one of suggested names from the drop-down list.

- To do advanced lookups for your entered name, click More option. This option allows you to filter your contacts by positions, skills and gender.

- To stop doing advanced lookups, click Hide option.

3. Hit the Enter key, or click to find your contact. The results will be listed in the People Found pane.

### Send connection requests

You easily send a request following one of two ways:

1. Hover your cursor over your display name on the Administration bar, and select My Network --> All People, or simply select Find People from the drop-down menu.

All users will be listed in the People Found pane.

2. Invite your desired contact via one of two ways.

The first way

Click Invite to send your connection request.

The second way

Click the contact name to go to his/her profile, then click Invite to connect at the right corner of the contact profile page.

The icon is then displayed next to the contact name. This means that your connection request is in the pending status until the invited contact confirms it.

### Note

If you follow the first way, the Invite link will become Cancel. Meanwhile, if you follow the second way, the Invite to connect text will be turned into Revoke.

#### Revoke a connection request

In the People Found pane, simply select Cancel, or click the contact name to go to the relevant profile and select Revoke at the right corner of the contact's profile page.

#### Accept/Deny a connection request

You can find all the connection requests in the Received Invitations tab. You can click Accept to accept the request, or Deny to reject the connection request.

#### Disconnect from your contacts

In the Network or All People tab, you can remove the connections between you and the users who are as your contacts anymore via one of two following ways.

The first way

Click Delete to remove your established connections.

The second way

Click the contact name to go to the profile page, then click the Disconnect link at the right corner of the contact profile page.

## Follow activities in your organization

All activities of users are displayed in user's or Space's Activity Streams.

To enter Activities, hover your cursor over your display name (for example, John Smith) on the Administration bar and select Activity Streams.

In Activity Streams, you can follow various activities, including:

- All updates related to users who have registered in your system in the All Updates tab.

- All updates of users who have established their connections with you in the Network Updates tab.

- All updates of spaces where you are a member or a manager in the Space Updates tab.

- All your own activities in the My Status tab, such as your profile updates, link updates or another activities pushed by yourself.

You can see activities of any registered people by clicking their usernames. However, for people to whom you have not connected, you only can view their activities but cannot post any activities, comments or likes on their activity streams.

In addition, you can keep track of activities of a space application. For example, whenever there is a new post in the Space Forum application, it will be updated in the activity streams.

The actions described in this section are those which you can do on activity streams of yours, of your connections or of any spaces where you are a member or manager, depending on the accessed tab.

### Update status

By entering your status message, you can tell people what are you doing on or ask for their helps or ideas. Thereafter, your colleagues who are connected with you can see your updates in their connections.

There are 2 ways to post your status.

The first way

1. Hover your cursor over your display name on the right corner of the page.

2. Input your status into the textbox from the drop-down menu, then hit the Enter key to accept updating your status.

The second way

1. Go into the Activity page.

2. Enter your current status in the Status Update box.

3. Click Share to accept sharing your status.

Your new status will be updated in two tabs: All Updates and My Status.

### Share a link

1. Click .

2. Enter the link into the Attach field and press the Attach button. If the link address is correct, it will be attached, then shown with the overall content of the link.

- If you do not want the thumbnail to be displayed, select the No thumbnail checkbox. If there is more than one thumbnail, you can click blue arrows to go through all available thumbnails.

- You can edit the link content by double-clicking the content you want to edit.

3. Click Share to share your entered link with your connections, or click again to remove your entered link.

### Share a file

1. Click to open the Browse files box.

2. Click Browse files to open the Select Document form.

3. Select the relevant drive category from the Select Drive drop-down menu.

4. Select the folder and the server file, then click Select to finish uploading your selected file.

### Note

You can also click to select a file from your local device; or click to create a new folder.

You will see your uploaded file in the Browse files box as below.

5. Click Share to share your uploaded file with your connections.

- To remove your uploaded file, simply click

  next to your selected file, or click

  again.

### Delete activities/comments

You are allowed to delete your activities/comments that you created, and those in your activity streams and in the space where your are the manager.

1. Select All Updates or My Status to view all your own activities.

2. Select the activity you want to delete, then click . The confirmation message will be displayed.

3. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

### Comment on activities

This action allows you to get ideas, answers, and any additional information when your collaborators respond to your status updates. Besides, you yourself give your ideas about any contacts' status update as follows:

1. Click Network Updates to see all activities of your established contacts.

2. Select one profile containing the activity you want to comment.

3. Click Comment in the bottom line of the profile. The Comment form will appear below.

4. Enter your comment into the Comment form and press the Comment button. Your comment will be displayed right below the profile.

### Like/Unlike activities

The function allows you to show your interest by selecting Like and/or Unlike activities.

Like activities

1. Select the profile containing the activity you want to like.

2. Click Like beside the activity.

Unlike activities

You only can Unlike an activity after you liked it.