JBoss.orgCommunity Documentation

Chapter 4. Basic Actions

4.1. View a site
4.2. Print a Web Content
4.3. Contribute Content
4.3.1. Incontext Editing
4.3.2. Publication Process
4.4. Content Inside Categories
4.4.1. What is a Category in eXo Content?
4.4.2. Create a Content
4.4.3. Organize Content
4.4.4. Pros and Cons
4.5. Dynamic Navigation in eXo Content
4.6. Sites Explorer
4.6.1. Access Sites Explorer
4.6.2. Drives
4.6.3. Views
4.6.4. Actions
4.6.5. Manage Content In Sites Explorer
4.6.6. Actions on Folders and Documents
4.7. Manage Site Content with WebDAV
4.7.1. What is WebDAV
4.7.2. Why use WebDAV?
4.7.3. How to Use WebDAV With eXo Content
4.7.4. Actions
4.8. Search in Sites Explorer
4.8.1. Simple Search
4.8.2. Advanced Search
4.8.3. Quick Search
4.9. Preferences
4.10. Newsletters
4.10.1. Newsletter Viewer
4.10.2. Newsletter Manager
4.11. Fast Content Creator
4.11.1. Edit Mode
4.12. Form Generator
4.13. Categories
4.13.1. The Edit Modes of Category Navigation portlet
4.13.2. The Edit Mode in Parameterized Content List Viewer

These actions are for all registered users after they have logged in the accounts.

In eXo Content, we use the 'Website' term which is equivalent to the 'Portal' term. So, viewing a portal means viewing a website. You can select the site that you want to view by selecting the site name in the drop-down menu on the Administration bar:

The main screen of the site will appear like the illustration below:

Users can easily print any content in a site by following these steps:

Besides publishing a web content in Sites Explorer, you also may use this function to publish a site to everyone or only some groups/users that you want. Use Content List Viewer (CLV) to publish a web content.

CLV allows you to publish multiple content files directly to the Overview page.

Procedure 4.2. 

  1. Activate the Edit mode.

  2. Click the on the page element you want to edit.

    The Content list viewer configuration for that element will appear.

    Table 4.1. 

    Field Details
    Mode This mode is to select web content for list viewer. There are two modes:
    • By Folder: This mode allows you to select a content folder in the Folder path field.

    • By Content: This mode allows you to select by the content in a specific folder in Folder path field.

    Folder Path The path to a location of a folder that contains the content.
    Order By The field is selected to sort content in the list viewer. You can sort content by Title, Date created or Date modified in ascending or descending order.
    Header The title for all content that are listed in List Viewer.
    Viewer Template The template is used to view content list.
    Paginator Template The template is used to view each content in list.
    Items per Page The number of items will be displayed per page.
    Show Image The option is to show or hide the illustration of each published web content/ document.
    Show Summary The option is to show or hide the summary of each web content/document.
    Show Header The option is whether to show a header or not.
    Show Refresh Button The option is whether to show the refresh button at the left bottom of this page or not.
    Show Title The option is to show or hide title of each published web content and/or document.
    Show Date Created The option is to show or hide the created date of each published web content/document.
    Show Link The option is to show or hide the link of web content and/or document.
    Read More The option is to show or hide the Read more to read all the content of a web content and/or document.

  3. Browse the documents available by clicking next to the folder path.

  4. Select content by clicking the content in the Name column and a message informs that you have successfully added it in List Content.

  5. Click Save to publish the new content or.

New content will appear in the Overview page when the above procedure has been completed successfully.

- What is a view?

- Explain view and tab mechanism.

WCM supports you four ways to view nodes in a specific folder and show actions of corresponding tab on the Actions bar.

There are several types of document: File, Article, Podcast, Sample node, File Plan, Kofax.

The table below outlines which nodes types different document types can be added to. The rows indicate what the node in the left column can be added to. The columns indicate what the node at the top can contain.


  • : The corresponding document can be added into.

  • A blank entry means the corresponding document can not be added into.

Follow the horizontal, you will know what the node can be added into.

Follow the vertical, you will know what the node can include.

To add a new document, do the following steps:

Procedure 4.10. Create a new File document

  1. Follow the steps in Add a new document:), to open the Add New Document form then select File from the drop-down list.

    The Add New Document form will be displayed like the following illustration:

  2. Input name for file document in the Name field. Some special characters can not be used in the Name field: @ # % & * ( ) “ ' : ; [ ] {} / !

  3. Click the to see the Mime Type list and select one. There are two types of File document for you to choose:

    • text/html: when creating a text/html File document, you can input value in the Content field like source code (HyperText Markup Language HTML). After being created, it will generate the content you want, then you can see both the inputted source code and the generated content in that document.

    • text/plain: after being created, it will display exactly what you inputted in the Content field.html.

  4. Input a value in the Content field:

    • text/html: If you want to create a File document with a source code and generated content, click in the editor bar. In this mode, only Save, New Page, Preview icons in editor bar are visible for using. Click the to preview the generated content.

    • text/plain: If you select text/plain type, the content field will be displayed like the following illustration:

  5. After inputting all required fields, click Save to accept creating a new file document or Cancel to quit without saving changes.

    After being created successfully, a file document with type text/html will be displayed like the illustration below:

Procedure 4.11. Create a new Article

  1. Follow the steps in Add a new document: to open the Add New Document form then select Article from the drop-down list. (Actually, Article is selected by default).

    The Add New Document form will be displayed like the following illustration:

  2. Input the name and the title of the Article in the Name and Title field, some special characters can not be used in the Name field (@ # % & * ( ) “ ' : ; [ ] {} / !).

  3. Input value for the Summary field, and the Content field.

  4. Click Save to accept the inputted values, or Cancel to quit.

After being created, new added Article document will be like the illustration below:

The Links is used to list all its related documents. After adding relations for a document, Article will be displayed. You can click these links to view a content of the related documents.

The Attachments is used to list all its uploaded files/documents that is attached with the Article. You can remove the attachments by clicking the .

Instructions to add an attachment are in Attach files to a document.

Exisiting Names

Document name can be the same with the existing one. When a new document is created with the same name as other existing document, its name will be added an index (e.g: test [2])

Procedure 4.12. Create a New Podcast

  1. Follow the steps in Add a new document: to open the Add New Document form and select Podcast from the drop-down list.

    The Add New Podcast form will be displayed like the following illustration:


  2. Input values for fields. To upload a media file, click the Browse... button and select the media file from your machine. Then click next to the Browse... button.

  3. Click Save to finish, or Cancel to quit without saving changes.

Once created, a Podcast will appear as so:

Podcasts can be listened to immediately, or transferred to another device.

Procedure 4.13. Create a new Sample node

  1. Follow the instructions in Add a new document: to open the Add New Document window and select Sample node from the drop-down list.

    The Add New Sample Node form will appear liek in the following illustration:

  2. Complete the appropriate fields

  3. To upload an image, click the Browse... button and select an image from your computer. Click the upload icon ( ) next to the Browse... button to upload the selected file.

  4. Click the Save to accept or the Cancel to quit without saving changes.

After being created, a new sample node will be displayed like the illustration below:

The Relations area is used to list all its related documents. See Section 4.6.4.15.3, “View Relations”.

You can click the links to view content of the related document.

The Attachments area is used to list all its uploaded files. See Attach files to a document.

Procedure 4.14. Create a new File Plan

  1. Follow the instructions in Add a new document: to open the Add New Document window and select File plan from the drop-down list.

    The Add File plan form will appear:

    Tabs in the Add File plan form

    The Name tab

    The Record properties tab

    The Process Properties tab:

    Table 4.7. 

    Field Details
    Process cutoffs The boolean datatype is used to break a process. If the process cutoff flag is set in the file plan, the record is cutoff after the expiration, or after it has been obsolete or superseded, depending on the information in the file plan.
    Event trigger The text datatype is an automatic executing code which is used to tell the event to perform some actions.
    Cutoff period The duration for the record cutoff performance.
    Cutoff on obsolete The record is cutoff when it is obsolete.
    Cutoff on superseded The record is cutoff when it is removed or replaced.
    Process hold This boolean datatype is used when a record process may be held before the further disposition is handled.
    Hold period The duration when a record may be held after cutoff which is normally measured in Years.
    Discretionary Hold The boolean datatype is used when a hold may be discretionary, such as after a command change. So, the discretionary hold flag allows the records management module to track these manual checks.
    Process transfer The boolean datatype is used to determine how a record process will be transferred.
    Default transfer location The text datatype is used to determine where a record is transferred by default.
    Transfer block size The float datatype is used to determine in what size blocks for organizational purposes that is normally measured in Years.
    Process accession The boolean datatype is flagged when a record which is held permanently must be ultimately transferred to the national records authority.
    Accession location The text datatype is flagged to specify an area for the accession transfer.
    Accession block size The text datatype is flagged to determine the blocks size for organizational purposes which is normally measured in Years.
    Process destruction The boolean datatype is flagged if there is any record to be destroyed. After that, the record is marked in the Alfresco system to be permanently destroyed so that all information, metadata and physical traces are removed and cannot be recovered.

  2. Complete appropriate fields.

  3. Click Save to accept, or Cancel to quit.

After being created, the new File Plan will be displayed:

Procedure 4.15. Create a new Kofax

  1. Follow the instructions in Add a new document: to open the Add New Kofax form and select Add New Kofax from the drop-down list.

    The Add New Kofax form will appear:

  2. Input a name for a Kofax document in the Name field. This field is required. Some special characters can not be used in the Name field(@ # % & * ( ) “ ' : ; [ ] { } / !).

  3. Select categories for a Kofax document by clicking the icon.

  4. Click Save to commit changes or Cancel to quit.

After being created, a kofax document will be displayed like this illustration:

The File View tab is used to display all added nodes in that kofax. Besides, all added files in kofax are also displayed in the Document View tab:

Procedure 4.16. Create new Event

  1. Follow the instructions in Add a new document: to open the Add New Event form and select Event from the drop-down list.

    The Add New Event window will appear:

  2. Enter a title for the event.

  3. Input the location where the event will take place in Location field. Check the Google Maps checkbox if you want the location of the event shown on Google Maps.

  4. Enter the Start and End Date/time of the event.

  5. Fill the Summary and Content fields.

  6. Click Save to commit the event, or Cancel to quit without saving changes.

After being created, the event wll be displayed like the illustration bellow:

The event will be displayed in a website as:

You can create a document immediately in a specific drive; however, to manage documents better, the created folder should contain documents in it.

There are two types of folder:

In default skin, the icon for a content folder node is displayed in blue and the icon for a document folder node is displayed in yellow.

You can create a document folder in a content folder or a document folder.

This function is used to support users to add multiple languages for a document. Each document can be displayed in many languages.

To view the languages list of a document, do the following:

Language Notes

You cannot add multiple languages for a File Plan.

When a document is a sub-node of File Plan, you also cannot add language to it.

This function supports you to upload a file from your machine. All file types can be uploaded. The uploaded file's name must not include some special characters (! @ $ % & + [ ])

Procedure 4.49. To upload file into folder, do as follows:

  1. Select the folder that you want to upload a file into from the left/right panel

  2. Select the Actions tab to show some actions on the Action bar.

  3. Click on the Action bar to open the Upload a file form:

  4. Browse and select a file on your computer by clicking the Browse... button. The selected filename will be displayed in the Select a file field.

    If you want to upload multi files at the same time, click to open more forms to upload more files:

    The enables users to delete the upload file form.

  5. You can change the uploaded file by clicking the icon and select Browse... again to select another one.

  6. By default, the name of the uploaded file will be kept as original but if you want to change, you can type the new name in the Name field, this field is not required. The new name must not contain special characters: ! @ $ % & + [ ].

  7. You can click the icon next to the List Taxonomy field to add categories for this file:

  8. Select categories by clicking the icon. Click '+ ' to open child nodes of categories.

  9. Complete uploading file by clicking Save.

  10. After being saved, the main information of the uploaded file will be displayed:

  11. Click the icon to see more details of its external metadata information. The List external metadatas tab will be enable and you can input value in this tab.

  12. Click Save to accept changes or Cancel to quit without any changes.

  13. Data can be added for the uploaded file. Check the checkbox, then click Add, or Cancel to quit without adding anything.

  14. New metadata is displayed in External Metadatas list and you also can edit it by clicking .

  15. Click Close to quit the Uploaded information form.

  16. After being uploaded, the tree is displayed in the left panel:

    File Size Limits

    The size of the uploaded file depends on the size limit of the uploaded file that you set up in the 'Edit' mode of Sites Explorer. If your file size exceeds the limit, a pop-up message will appears to alert you.

If you want to upload multi files at the same time, click to open more forms to upload more files:

Click the Browse button to upload files that you want to. The enables users to delete the upload file form.

This function allows an administrator to manage the permissions for nodes.

With the Permissions Management form open you can perform the following actions:

A web content is a key resource to make a site. Other resources make a site more dynamic and animated by using layout, color, font, etc.This section focuses on how to manage a web content.

This function is used to add a new web content into a specific site.

Do the following steps:

Procedure 4.60. Add new content

  1. Go to the drive of the site that you want to add a web content.

  2. Select the web content folder on the left:

    In this step, you also can add a new web content into another folders (documents and media folder) of a site but you are recommended to select the web content folder because:

    • Manage web content of a site more easily.

    • You only may add a new web content in this folder so that you don't need to select a web content document in the list of document types. It makes adding a new web content more flexibly.

  3. Open the Add New Document form by clicking on the Action bar.

  4. Select a template in the Select Template field to present web content:

    The Select Template field has two options:

    • Picture on head layout web content:The site's content is presented in two spaces. One for inserting an image and one for editing the site's content. In which, the image is put at the head of a site.

    • Free layout web content:This template is a free layout.

    The Main ContentTab includes:


    The Illustration Taballows you to upload an illustration that makes the site's content more attractive


    To upload an image do as follows:

    The Advancedtab includes two parts: CSS data and JS data:


  5. Enter values in fields of the Add New Document form.

  6. Click Save to accept adding new web content into a site.

This function helps you publish a web content that you have added to web content folder in Sites Explorer.

To publish web-content, do the following:

Procedure 4.64. 

  1. Go to the drive of a site which contains the web content that you want to publish.

  2. Select to view it by double clicking it on the left tree or on the right.

  3. Show the Manage publication form by clicking on the Action bar:

    The Publication status tab:

    This tab lets you know about all statuses of versions. In which, you only may publish a content with the 'Live' status. There are four statuses for a content. They are:

    • Enrolled: The revision is created but never be edited .

    • Draft: The revision's already been created and it is editable. Thus you can still edit it if you want.

    • Live: The revision can not be modified anymore. In this status, the content is ready for publication.

    • Obsolete: The revision is not live anymore and you should unpublish it if is was published.

    Content Status

    You only can switch from one status to its next status. For example, your revision is in the Enrolledstatus and you only switch to the Draftstatus by clicking the Drafticon. After being switched, your revision will be in the Draftstatus.

    The Publication history tab:

    This tab is used to keep track of publishing history of a site.

    Select the Publication historytab in the above form to view detailed information (including: Date, New State, User and Description) of a site's publication:

    If you want to change the position for publishing the selected web content, select the current path and click right to left arrow to remove the path the select another location.

  4. Click Close to close this form and publish successfully.

After being published, all users who have the right to access that position can view the published web content as a page on the Navigation bar.

This function is used to make a copy of a document (include sub nodes) in other places. There are two ways to cope/paste documents:

After the action has been taken, a confirmation message will appear with detailed information about the destination path.

This function is used to make a copy of a document (include sub nodes) in other places. There are two ways to cope/paste documents:

After the action has been taken, a confirmation message will appear with detailed information about the destination path.

There are three ways to search an existing node:

To perform an advanced search:

The tabs in this form offer different search functions:

This search allows you to search with more constraints to limit the returned results.

Extra search constraints are entered in the Advanced Search tab of the Advanced Search form.

The Current location field is not editable. It shows the path selected to search.

Procedure 4.84. 

  1. Enter search terms in the A word of phrase in content field.

  2. Select the Operator.

    • Select AND operator to only return results that meet both the search terms and the entered constraints (see Step 3).

    • Select OR operator to return results that meet either the search terms or the entered constraints (see Step 3).

  3. Click Show/hide constraints form to add more constraints.

    a further constraint options window will appear:


  4. Select the constraint operator(AND/OR).

  5. Add the required constraints using one of the follow methods:

  6. Click Add to add any/all activated constraints.

    The constraints will be converted to an SQL query and displayed in the search form:

    Remove unnecessary constraints with the icon.

  7. Click Search to launch the search. Results will be displayed in the Search Results tab.

  8. Click Save and give this search configuration a name if you want to save it for use at another time.

To perform a quick search:

Procedure 4.91. 

  1. Click the icon to see the list of existing queries.

    A query list will appear. It contains the sections; All Articles, Created Documents, CreatedDocumentDayBefore and allArticles.

  2. Launch, modify or delete the queries as required (see Section 4.8.2.3, “Search by creating a new query” for more information).

  3. Filter results with the entries in the All Items and/or By Type panes on the left of the tab. Items matching the selections will appear in the right pane.

  4. Click on the required document or folder name to view and or download them.

This function is used to set up your browsing preferences.

WCM provides a newsletter service aiming at helping users quickly get the updated newsletters from a website.

WCM facilitates administrators to easily and quickly manage and control newsletters. Go to Groups | Newsletter Manager on the Administration bar to reach the Newsletter Manager.

This section details category management.

An administrator can add more subscriptions to any category. There are two ways to do this:

Administrators can create newsletters for each subscriptions.

These Newsletters can be opened, edited, deleted or converted to a template for reuse.


Each subscription consists of many newsletters. WCM helps you easily create newsletters by following these steps.

Procedure 4.102. Creating Newsletters

  1. Go to Groups | Newsletter Manager on the Administration bar. The eXo Newsletter appears.

  2. Click on the action bar. The Newsletter entry formwill appear:

    Details:


  3. Click to select the template for the newsletter.

  4. Click the Send Date field. The calendar will appear to allow you to choose the date and time when you want to send the newsletter.

  5. Click in the category field to select the category and the subscription in list.

  6. Click the Update sending parameters button to update information about this newsletter. A message pops up and informs you that you have updated information successfully.

  7. Input a title of a newsletter into the Title field.

  8. Create a content for a newsletter by inputting information into the Main content textbox.

  9. Click Save to save this newsletter as draft, or click Send to send this newsletter.

  10. Select Contact Us on the navagation bar, or go to Site | Acme | Contact Us.

    The Contact Us page will appear:


  11. Select a recipient and enter values in this form.

  12. Click Save to save a message.

Site Publisher provides users with the Fast Content Creator portlet that allows users to create document content quickly. The Fast Content Creator portlet is applied in the Contact Us on the navigation bar:

Users can edit templates, take actions, and save locations for the documents in the Contact Us portlet.

Procedure 4.104. 

  1. Go to Contact Us on the Navigation bar or go to Site | Acme | Contact Us.

  2. Click Site Editor | Edit Page on the administration bar. The Page Editor will be displayed.

  3. Click the edit icon to open the Edit Mode tab in the Contact Us portlet.

    The Edit Mode tab appears:


  4. Click the to search for the location to save documents. The Select Location form appears:

  5. Select the parent node on the left panel and click the in the Action column to choose the child node on the right panel. After being selected, this location will be displayed on the Location to save field. Created documents will be saved in this location.

  6. Select a template for documents by clicking .

  7. Change the label for Save, and the message content after clicking Save.

  8. Select the Redirect checkbox if users want to redirect to the path in the Redirect path field after clicking OK in the save message.

  9. Click Save to save all changes of editing properties for documents that users will create in the Contact Us Portlet.

The Form Generator portlet allows users to create and to edit template of document types. Documents are stored in the so-called node; therefore, the term “node” and node types are often applied.

When implementing the Category, users will actually enjoy nice features via the Category model. Thanks to the symbolic link, no matter where the object physically resides, the database can retrieve it. In addition, the relations amongst shortcuts can be managed. Now, you can view documents or web content in the Parameterized Content List Viewer in such an easy way.

Users are entitled to edit the settings in the Parameterized Content List Viewer portlet.

Procedure 4.108. 

  1. Turn on the Edit mode of a site.

  2. Click the icon at the upper right corner of this panel, the edit form of Parameterized Content List Viewer will be displayed:


  3. Select the type and the order displaying document content or web content by selecting the Order by field, and Descendant or Ascendant checkbox.

  4. Click to select the template for Viewer and Paginator.

  5. Input the number of items that will be displayed per page in this portlet.

  6. Select/unselect the checkboxes, including Show title, Show header, Show Refresh buttons, etc.

  7. Click the icon to select the target page. The Page selector form will appear:

    Click to select the navigation, the corresponding pages will be displayed on the left panel and the corresponding path will be displayed on the right panel.

    Click the that corresponds to the selected path on the right panel to select the path. The selected path will be displayed in the Target Path field.

  8. Click Save to accept changes, or Cancel to quit without saving.