Introducing IBM® Workplace Web Content Management™ in WebSphere® Portal V6

Introducing IBM® Workplace Web Content Management™
in WebSphere® Portal V6
Sven Viehweger
IBM Software Services for Lotus (ISSL)
IBM Deutschland GmbH
December, 2006
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2006. All rights reserved.
IBM® Workplace Web Content Management™ (hereafter called Web Content Management) is a key
component in IBM WebSphere® Portal Version 6. It enables users to manage corporate content, from
the creation of the first draft to the final Web presentation. Web Content Management also supports
separate creation of Web design. You create content independently from Web design and then the
content and design are combined at run time.
This article walks through the version of Web Content Management that is included in WebSphere
Portal V6. New features in this release include an enhanced user interface, new components, and
support for in-line editing, all of which are described in detail.
To get the most out of this article, you should already have some knowledge of Web Content
Management. If you have not used an earlier version of the product, then you can get some
background from the WebSphere Portal and Workplace Web Content Management product
information page, listed in the Resources section.
1 LIBRARIES............................................................................................................... 3
2 CONFIGURATION CHANGES................................................................................. 9
2.1 Installation......................................................................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Configuring an Authoring server.................................................................................................................. 10
2.3 Configuring the Rendering portlet................................................................................................................ 13
2.4 Configure pre-rendering.................................................................................................................................14
2.5 Administration................................................................................................................................................. 14
2.6 Logging and tracing........................................................................................................................................ 14
3 LINK MANAGEMENT............................................................................................ 16
4 ENHANCED USER INTERFACE........................................................................... 20
4.1 Search to find content..................................................................................................................................... 21
4.2 Edit locking...................................................................................................................................................... 23
4.3 Creating content.............................................................................................................................................. 24
4.4 Elements vs. Content components vs. Components..................................................................................... 27
4.5 Syndication....................................................................................................................................................... 27
4.6 New views......................................................................................................................................................... 31
4.7 Component changes........................................................................................................................................ 32
4.7.1 Authoring templates.................................................................................................................................. 34
4.7.2 Presentation templates............................................................................................................................... 44
4.7.3 Taxonomy and category components........................................................................................................ 47
4.7.4 Site component.......................................................................................................................................... 47
4.7.5 Site Area Component............................................................................................................................... 48
4.7.6 Workflow component and Workflow Stage component........................................................................... 48
4.7.7 Workflow Actions components................................................................................................................ 48
4.7.8 Component Reference component........................................................................................................... 49
4.7.9 Document Manager component............................................................................................................... 49
4.7.10 Federated Content component................................................................................................................. 50
4.7.11 File Resource component........................................................................................................................ 51
4.7.12 HTML component................................................................................................................................... 52
4.7.13 Image component.................................................................................................................................... 53
4.7.14 JSP component........................................................................................................................................ 55
4.7.15 Menu component..................................................................................................................................... 55
4.7.16 Navigator component.............................................................................................................................. 62
4.7.17 Rich Text component.............................................................................................................................. 63
4.7.18 Taxonomy component............................................................................................................................. 66
4.7.19 Text component....................................................................................................................................... 68
4.7.20 User Name component............................................................................................................................ 69
4.8 New components.............................................................................................................................................. 69
4.8.1 Authoring Tools component...................................................................................................................... 70
4.8.2 Date and Time component.........................................................................................................................72
4.8.3 Link component......................................................................................................................................... 74
4.8.4 Number component................................................................................................................................... 78
4.8.5 Page Navigation component...................................................................................................................... 79
4.8.6 Personalization component........................................................................................................................ 83
4.8.7 Search........................................................................................................................................................ 84
4.8.8 Style sheet.................................................................................................................................................. 90
4.8.9 User selection............................................................................................................................................ 92
4.8.10 Option Selection component................................................................................................................... 93
4.9 Custom launch page........................................................................................................................................ 95
5 JCR........................................................................................................................ 96
6 API......................................................................................................................... 97
7 MIGRATION.......................................................................................................... 98
8 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................... 98
9 RESOURCES........................................................................................................ 98
10 ABOUT THE AUTHOR........................................................................................ 99
11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................... 99
Introduction
Web Content Management Version 6 is fully integrated into WebSphere Portal V6 including all aspects
of managing corporate content, from creation through approval and delivery for Web and mobile
devices. It supports creation of Web design, while separating that design from the content. The user
interface is portlet-based and leverages the services that WebSphere Portal provides (such as search,
personalization, and so on.)
This article describes the many new in V6 features and discusses what has changed since the
previous version of Web Content Management. Those changes include enhanced templating,
better integration with the personalization engine, enhanced rich text editor for creating internal links
and inserting images from the repository, as well as better integration with WebSphere Portal in
general.
This article explains all the new and enhanced features in detail and illustrates them using screenshots
and examples.
1Libraries
Libraries are a new data partitioning feature in Web Content Management V6. By using libraries, you
can split up large sites and manage them separately. Each library has its own security and syndication
settings, and each library can store any of the different types of Web items (Content, Components,
etc.). As the partitioning is virtual, items can be shared across libraries. The administration of libraries
is done in the Web Content Management V6 Administration Portlet. Syndication can be used to
synchronize Web Content between the different libraries.
What are the advantages of using libraries?
-
-
-
Separate site data intended for different audiences or managed by different groups
o All content, templates, etc. for a given site can be kept in its own library
o It’s likely the designer would also have a library for shared assets in this use case
Separate presentation storage from content storage
o One library would only contain Sites and Content
o Another library would contain Presentation Templates and Components
Split content across multiple delivery servers using library syndication
o Sites may be authored in one place and then deployed to multiple delivery
environments
Isolation of test content
o All test content could be put in its own library and prevented from being syndicated
Figure 1 illustrates how libraries can be used to syndicate data.
Figure 1. Example for syndicating libraries
Before creating Web content, the Administrator must create a set of libraries in which to store Web
Content Management V6 items. The Administrator also defines the role that users and groups will
have when working with different item types in libraries.
To manage libraries, the Administrator opens the Portal Content section in the administrative portlet
and selects Web Content Libraries (see figure 2).
Figure 2. Web Content Libraries option in Portal Content section
Libraries can be created, modified or deleted in the Web Content Libraries portlet (see figure 3).
Figure 3. Web Content Libraries portlet
By clicking the Create new Library button, the Administrator can easily create a new library by
specifying the Web content library name, Description, and Library Language (see figure 4).
Figure 4. Create new Library dialog box
If a library is no longer required, it can be deleted or disabled. Deleting a library means also deleting all
objects within that library. To delete a library, the Administrator clicks the trash can icon in the list of
available libraries (see figure 3 above). Disabling a library prevents a user from accessing it from an
authoring portlet or updating any items stored in the library. Any items referenced from this library will
still be rendered by the rendering portlet.
There are basically two methods to assign access rights to both a whole library and the item types
within a library:
-
Additive: The administrator applies the User or Privileged User role to the entire library and
deselects the propagation check box. The Administrator then applies Editor, Manager, or
Administrator roles to specific item types to grant additional access to specified users or groups.
-
Subtractive: The administrator applies the Manager or Administrator role to the entire library, then
applies Editor, Privileged User, or User roles to specific item types, and deselects the inheritance
check box. This reduces the access to different item types for specified users or groups.
Table 1 summarizes the different roles and the respective access rights.
Table 1. Roles and Permissions per item type
Roles
User
Permissions per item type
Users and groups assigned to this role can view items in a Web site or
rendering portlet to which they have been assigned read access.
Tip: The simplest way to assign users to this role is to select any of the default
user groups such as "All Authenticated Portal Users" or "Anonymous Portal
User". Users still require "read" access to an item before it is rendered in a
Web site or rendering portlet.
Contributor
Users and groups assigned to this role can:
• view items in a Web site or rendering portlet to which they have been
assigned read access.
• view the item type section within the authoring portlet.
• view the All Items section of the authoring portlet.
• view items to which they have been assigned read access.
• approve items to which they have been given approve access within a
workflow.
Editor
Users and groups assigned to this role can:
• view items in a Web site or rendering portlet to which they have been
assigned read access.
• view the item type section within the authoring portlet.
• view the All Items section of the authoring portlet.
• create a new item.
• view items to which they have read access.
• edit items to which they have edit access.
• delete items to which they have delete access.
• approve items to which they have been given approve access within a
workflow.
Manager
Users and groups assigned to these roles can:
• view items in a Web site or rendering portlet to which they have been
assigned read access.
• view the item type section within the authoring portlet.
• view the "All Items" section of the authoring portlet.
• create a new item.
• view items to which they have read access.
• edit items to which they have edit access.
• delete items to which they have delete access.
• approve items to which they have been given approve access within a
workflow.
• purge items.
Administrator
Users and groups assigned to these roles can:
• view items in a Web site or rendering portlet.
• view an item type section within the authoring portlet.
• view the "All Items" section of the authoring portlet.
• create a new item.
• purge items.
• view, edit, delete, or approve any item.
Roles
•
•
•
Security
Administrator
Delegator
Privileged User
Permissions per item type
These roles have no access to Web Content Management items.
The difference between Manager and Administrator roles within Web Content Management
Although Manager and Administrator roles have similar permissions per item type, if you assign a user
or group the Administrator role to an entire library, you cannot then remove this role from any itemtype views. This is not true for a Manager role.
WebSphere Portal Administrators automatically have Administrator access to all item types.
If the Administrator wants to set the access rights for a whole library, he sets the permissions by first
clicking the key icon in the list of existing libraries and then the pencil icon to edit the respective role
(see figure 5).
Figure 5. Resource Permissions dialog box
If the Administrator wants to set the access rights for a specific item type, he sets the permissions by
first clicking the
icon in the list of existing libraries and then the
type (see figure 6).
icon to edit the respective item
Figure 6. Library Resources dialog box
After creating a library and setting access rights, the Administrator needs to define which libraries
should be accessible by the respective users in the configuration settings of the authoring portlet, as
specified in chapter 2.2 Configuring an Authoring server on page 10.
It is possible to label all items in a library, in order to restore all items with the same label at a later
time. To do so, the administrator clicks the
icon in the list of all libraries, and a window then pops
up in which the administrator provides a label name (see figure 7).
Figure 7. Label library window
All items in the library get that label and can be restored at a later time. Note that it is also possible to
restore a set of items within a library that were versioned at or before a specified date and time.
To restore items by label, the administrator clicks the
icon in the list of all libraries, which produces
the Restore library by label window, in which the Administrator can type in the label and also provide
default values for replacement of references to items that no longer exist (see figure 8).
Figure 8. Restore library by label window
To restore items by date, the administrator clicks the
icon in the list of all libraries, and a window
pops up similar to that in figure 8, in which the Administrator can type in the date and provide default
values for replacement of references to items that no longer exist.
It is possible to restore or label only one set of items at a time. It is not possible to execute a second
restore or label request until the first request has been completed. Note that if the Administrator
restores or labels a large number of items, it may take some time for the operation to complete.
When restoring items that contain links or references to other items, the Administrator will be prompted
to select a new item to link or reference, if the original item no longer exists.
A library cannot be restored while there are any items currently locked or checked out by users. Before
restoring a library, the Administrator must view all published items in it and unlock any items marked
as checked out or locked.
2Configuration changes
2.1Installation
All files required to configure and use IBM Workplace Web Content Management V6 are installed with
IBM WebSphere Portal by default.
Any configuration tasks are run using the WebSphere Portal Task Interface. Tasks are run from
{WPS}/config/WPSconfig.(sh | bat).
The Web Content Management V6 scripts (for example, wcm_cfg.xml and wcmdb_cfg.xml) are now
found under config/includes.
Before starting any tasks, the Administrator must ensure that the key properties in wpconfig.properties
are correct (for example, PortalAdminId, PortalAdminPwd, WasUserid, and WasPassword). When
running the install script, various options may be specified. For example, to install with security
disabled, use the following:
install.bat -W enableSecurity.active="false"
or without the WebSphere Process Server:
-W installWps.choice="false"
The Web Content Management config files (connect.cfg, aptrixjpe.properties, and
aptrixsearch.properties) no longer exist in version 6.0. General Web Content Management V6
configuration is now contained in a single WCMConfigService.properties file, located under
portal_server_root/wcm/shared/app/wcmservices.
2.2Configuring an Authoring server
When configuring Web Content Management V6 as an Authoring server, you must perform several
tasks.
First, the Administrator needs to install and configure at least one authoring portlet:
-
The Authoring Portlet configuration task will automatically create Web Content Management Portal
pages and install the Web Content Management Authoring Portlet and Local Rendering Portlets.
To run the configuration task (this is unchanged from 5.1.0.x), perform the following steps:
1. Stop WebSphere Portal.
2. Open a command prompt.
3. Go to /PortalServer/config.
4. Run the following command:
 Microsoft® Windows®: WPSconfig.bat configure-wcm-authoring
 UNIX®: WPSconfig.sh configure-wcm-authoring
The Web Content Management V6 Portlets are placed in the main menu under “Web Content” (see
figure 9).
Figure 9. Web Content menu
As with the previous versions, there are a number of configuration settings for the Authoring
portlet. The Administrator can access these options by clicking the Configure link that appears in
the top right-hand corner of the portlet.
- Selecting Web content libraries:
New in V6 is the capability to specify which library(ies) should be available for the authors, as shown in
figure 10.
Figure 10. Library Selection window
If the Administrator specifies more than one library in the configuration settings, the developer or
author must choose in which library the objects should be stored before creating a new object (see
figure 11).
Figure 11. Library Selection in IBM Web Content Management Authoring portlet
For further information regarding libraries, please refer to chapter 1 Libraries on page 3.
- Defining user interface options:
A number of new authoring interface options can be configured using the User Interface Options
section of the authoring portlet (see figure 12). For instance, you can specify:
o whether to hide/view the taskbar in the authoring portlet.
o to use a custom launch page in place of the default user interface. A custom launch page is
o
a JSP that uses the Web Content Management API to provide an alternate user interface.
One way this could be used is to present content authors with a simple menu of possible
tasks. When the user clicks on one of the options, they would be taken directly to the
appropriate form or view to perform that task. (See section 5.9 for more details.)
task and item limits, number of visible table rows, and whether to enable people awareness.
Figure 12. User Interface Options section expanded
-
Defining rich text options
WCM can be configured to use a third-party rich text editor for rich text fields. To do this, the
Administrator must copy the JSP file supplied by the third-party rich text editor to the
was_profile_root/default/installedApps/node-name/wcm.ear/ilwwcm.war/jsp/html directory of the
Web Content Management server. The name of this JSP file must be entered in the Rich Text
Options section of the authoring portlet configuration (see figure 13).
Figure 13. Rich Text Options section
Finally, note that it is now possible to cluster the authoring environment; however, there is nothing
special that needs to be done in the Web Content Management configuration settings to enable
clustering. Refer to the WebSphere Portal Information Center for more information on how to set
up a Portal cluster.
2.3Configuring the Rendering portlet
To edit the configuration settings for the Rendering portlet, the Administrator chooses Configure in the
menu that appears when clicking on the small arrow icon - at the top right corner of the Portlet.
The Portlet Profile section (see figure 14) is new in Web Content Management V6. These settings are
used to select categories and site areas that can be used as menu search options. Click the Select
Category or Select Site Areas button to select categories or site areas to profile rendering portlet
content with.
Figure 14. Portlet Profile section
2.4Configure pre-rendering
As with previous versions of Web Content Management, configuration for V6 pre-rendering is handled
through the configuration files, with the following changes:
-
Configuration changes are made to the WCMConfigService.properties file, located under
(portal_server_root/wcm/shared/app/wcmservices.
To run the pre-renderer for a site, the user must have administrator access to the library that
contains the site.
The parameter connect.moduleconfig.cacher.task.sites=[LibraryA/SiteA],[LibraryB/SiteB],[SiteC]
now provides the option of specifying the library in addition to the site. If the library is specified, the
pre-renderer looks for the site in that library. If no library is specified, the default library is used, as
specified by the defaultLibrary property in the WCMConfigService.properties file.
2.5Administration
Several Web Content Management administration tasks are now handled through specialized portlets
in the Portal Administration pages. These include:
-
-
User and Access management (unchanged from 5.1.0)
Library Management (new to 6.0, for details see chapter 1 Libraries on page 3)
Syndication (moved in 6.0)
Syndication
As in previous releases, Syndication is the mechanism used to replicate data from one instance of
Web Content Management to another.
The introduction of libraries has changed the way syndication is handled. Syndication is now
performed on a library-by-library basis. The Administrator selects which libraries to include during the
creation of a Syndicator.
Note that library access control settings are not included as part of syndication. Access permissions
are not set on the subscriber's library when syndicating for the first time. If the library does not exist on
the subscriber, it will be created during syndication but no access control settings are specified on the
new library.
For more information regarding syndication see chapter 4.5 Syndication on page 27.
2.6Logging and tracing
For installation information and/or troubleshooting, the WebSphere Portal Installation logs can be
found under portal_server_root/log (both for Windows and UNIX).
The file wpinstalllog.txt contains trace information generated by the installation program. If the
WebSphere Portal installation stops before successful completion, the Administrator should check this
log.
See the Logging and Tracing section of the WebSphere Portal Information Center for additional
details.
NOTE: There are no longer separate Release and Debug jars in Web Content Management
V6.
Unlike the previous releases, V6 does not have its own logging facilities; instead, logging is now
handled by the IBM WebSphere Application Server trace facilities.
Log settings can be configured via the WebSphere Administration Server Administration Console.
(This is now started with WebSphere Portal, so no need to start server1. It is usually referenced under
[hostname]:10027/ibm/console).
Choose Troubleshooting - Logs and Traces - WebSphere_Portal - Diagnostic Trace Service, to bring
up the Logging and Tracing dialog box (see figure 15).
Figure 15. Logging and Tracing dialog box
Make sure that the Enable Log check box is selected.
Click on Change Log Detail Levels. This can be done during runtime; you are no longer required to
stop and start servers when changing levels. (There now is the option of applying runtime changes to
the main configuration as well).
Log levels are specified on a package level; you can drill down the packages for more specific logging,
or select the root package for more general logging, for example:
com.ibm.workplace.wcm.*
com.aptrix.pluto.*
com.presence.*
Various log levels are available (see figure 16): ”all” equates to previous version level 5.
Click Apply. The resulting traces of Web Content Management V6 will be written to
portal_server_root/log/trace.log.
Figure 16. Log levels
3Link Management
In Web Content Management V6 a whole new concept of link management has been introduced. This
chapter explains how to manage internal links. Detailed information about how to create links and how
to create link components can be found in chapter 4.7.2 Presentation templates on page 44 and
Chapter 4.8.3 Link component on page 74.
In this context, the term “link management” actually refers to managing link components. Link
components can be created either manually (as described in chapter 4.8.3 Link component on page
74) or automatically when adding a link to a content object or an image resource. The automatically
created link components are called Embedded Link Components and are not visible in the Link
Component section.
The following is an example of managing links in a Rich Text field:
If you attempt to delete (or archive) a document that has been linked to by another document (via the
Create Link button in a rich text field), you receive an error dialog box such as that shown in figure 17.
Figure 17. “Item is still referred by reference(s)” error
The Resolve Items to be deleted section shows a list of all of the documents that contain a reference
to the one that is to be deleted. If you select one of these documents and click the Edit Links button, a
new window will appear that allows you to perform further actions (see figure 18).
Figure 18. Replace or clear references window
Because the link was an embedded link component, you can only replace the link from here, not clear
the link. If you click the Replace Link buttons, another window opens in which you can replace the
existing link (see figure 19).
Figure 19. Select an item to replace window
If you want to see which objects refer to a specific item, that is, which references are available for a
specific content object, select the content object, click the More Actions button, and select View
References (see figure 20).
Figure 20. View references menu option
From the Links Display Dialog window that appears, you can view references to this item (see figure
21) or references from this item.
Figure 21. Links Display Dialog window
In this example there are four other items that contain a reference to this one.
By selecting “Show references from item”, you can see the list of other items that are referenced by
the one you are currently viewing (see figure 22).
Figure 22. Show references from item
You can manage the references to this item by clicking the Manage References button, which brings
up the Replace or clear references window (figure 19 above) in which you can replace or clear the
links to this item.
If you click the Replace Link button, you can exchange the link with a different item and a message
box appears to indicate that the links have been successfully replaced. In this case only the links have
been updated, not the link titles.
NOTE: If an item is linked through a link component, it is also possible to clear the link rather than
replace it. When this is done, the entire anchor link tag is deleted, including the text information.
Caution should be used when clearing links if this content object has been referenced as:
- a link component within a rich text item of another content object, because the text of the other
content object might be incomplete afterwards.
- the default content of a site area, because a navigator might not function correctly.
4Enhanced user interface
Figure 23 shows the new Authoring portlet interface of IBM Workplace Web Content Management V6.
There are a couple of new views that let users find their content much more easily, and some of the
other views have been restructured. All changes to the views and all new views are explained in the
next chapter 4.6 New views on page 31.
There are also a number of new components, which will be explained in chapter 4.8 New components
on page 69. Even components that existed in Web Content Management V5 now have a large number
of new properties that allow you, as the designer, to customize the Authoring Templates to the specific
author’s need. Those properties will be explained in chapter 4.7 Component changes on page 32. V6
also introduces a new search function that is explained in chapter 4.1 Search to find content on page
21.
Figure 23. Authoring portlet interface for V6
4.1Search to find content
In almost every dialog box in which Web Content Management V6 displays a list of objects (content
and/or components), you can reduce the number of elements in that list by using the search box in the
upper-right corner of the screen.
The simple search can be performed with one of the following three search criteria:
-
-
all attributes (searches all editable fields like Title, Name, Rich Text, HTML components)
by description (searches in the Description field only)
by title (searches in the Title field only)
Figure 24 shows a list of all published items. The search criteria field is set to “all attributes”, and the
search string is “coffee” in the search field at the top right corner.
Figure 24. List of all published items
When you click the search icon (magnifying glass), Web Content Management V6 searches all
editable fields for the word “coffee”, the results of which are shown in figure 25.
Figure 25. Search results for “coffee”
You could further refine the search results by replacing “coffee” with the word “brands” as the search
string, in which case you’d receive only those results containing coffee brands.
These new search features make it much easier to find objects in the V6 user interface.
In addition to the simple search, it is also possible to enhance your search criteria (see figure 26) by
clicking on the Advanced Search link just below the search string box.
Figure 26. Advanced Search dialog box
Using the coffee example from above, you could restrict the search results to following criteria:
-
Search in All Libraries:
-
Search in selected libraries:
-
search in selected path:
-
The search can be limited to selected items only; for example, the search below looks for All Text
components that are published:
-
The search can be limited to search on specific fields only:
And you can also combine those search criteria by clicking on the “Add an entry” link:
The search can also be limited to a specific person:
or to a specific date:
or by other fields:
4.2Edit locking
Another new feature in Web Content Management V6 is the concept of Edit Locking. There are two
types of locking:
-
Checkout locks (when content is re-drafted until content is re-published)
Edit locks (for the duration of an edit session to prevent authoring conflicts)
The checkout lock is applied when content is redrafted via the Create Draft button. A new draft content
object is created, and an icon on the published content object indicates there is a new draft that
someone is working on:
When you open either the Draft or the Published content object, there are now buttons available in the
Action bar to cancel the draft version (Cancel Draft), or easily jump to the draft (Go to Draft) or the
published version (Go to Published).
The Edit lock is applied whenever a user opens an item in edit mode. The lock is released when the
user closes the item, returns to read mode, or ends the current session. A small lock icon indicates
that a user has an edit lock on the object:
If a user attempts to edit an item that has an edit lock, they will be denied access and shown a
message detailing who has the lock and when they acquired it.
Note that, if a user does not log out of their editing session and a session invalidation does not occur
(due to a server crash, for instance), an item may be left locked. An administrator can manually clear
an edit lock through the Portal Web Content administration. To do so, the Administrator again selects
Administration - Portal Content - Web Content Libraries, and then clicks the View locked items button
to obtain a list of components that are currently locked (see figure 27).
Figure 27. “View locked items” in Web Content Library portlet
Selecting the desired object and clicking the Unlock button will delete the lock (see figure 28).
Figure 28. Locked items dialog box
4.3Creating content
There are some changes in the UI in V6 when creating a content object:
-
The site area does not need to be selected when creating the content object. Instead, it will be
selected when saving the content object. Further, it is now possible to link several site areas when
saving the content object for the first time.
Since some of the elements on the content object can now be hidden, there are two new buttons-Show Hidden Fields and Hide Hidden Fields--to display the hidden fields or to hide them again.
The buttons are visible only for Administrators and Managers, as defined in the security settings of
the Library (see more information regarding this topic in chapter 1 Libraries on page 3 .
-
When you save a content object, if another item with the specified name already exists in the
library, the following error appears: “An item with this name at this path already exists.”
-
When applying changes of an authoring template to a content object using the Apply Authoring
Template button, you have the following new options available (see figure 29):
o Replace elements that have changed type (with auto data conversion): Replaces
o
o
elements in the content item with elements of the same name from the authoring template
being applied. If the two elements are of different types, the data will be automatically
converted to the new type. If the conversion fails, any data stored in the element will be
lost.
Replace elements that have changed type (without auto data conversion): Also
replaces elements in the content item with elements of the same name from the authoring
template being applied. However, any data stored in an element in the content item will be
lost if replaced by an element of a different type.
Copy hidden element values from authoring template: Includes hidden element values
from the authoring template when changing or reapplying an authoring template.
Figure 29. Apply authoring template dialog box
It is also now possible to select several content objects at a time and apply a new authoring template
to them. To do this, select several content objects, press the More Actions button, and select “Apply
Template” (see figure 30).
Figure 30. More Actions button options
The dialog box that appears after clicking that button is similar to that shown above in figure 29, except
that there are a few more options available:
-
Enter values for mandatory fields: Copies default values from the authoring template to
mandatory fields and elements in the content item that do not already have values.
Save invalid content: Forces invalid content to be saved. For example, if a text field containing
10 characters is replaced with a text field with a maximum of eight characters, the old text will still
be saved in the updated field.
Save content as draft: Creates a draft content item when the authoring template is applied.
4.4Elements vs. Content components vs. Components
In Web Content Management V6, two new naming conventions have been introduced:
-
Library Components (from V5) are now called Components
Content components (from V5) are now called Elements
4.5Syndication
Syndication is no longer configured via the Authoring portlet as it was in V5. There are now two new
portlets, Syndicators and Subscribers, that are automatically placed in the Administrative console. To
see these options, select Administration from the portal’s main launch menu and expand the Portal
Content section (figure 31).
Figure 31. Syndicators and Subscribers portlet options
When selecting either option, you see one of dialog boxes shown in figures 32 and 33.
Figure 32. Web Content Syndicators dialog box
Figure 33. Web Content Subscribers dialog box
To create a new Syndicator (Subscriber), the Administrator clicks the Create new Syndicator
(Subscriber) button. It is recommended to create both the Subscriber and Syndicator in parallel, using
separate browser windows. This will make it easier to fill in the values. It is also recommended to save
and close the Syndicator before saving and closing the Subscriber. The Syndicator dialog box is
shown in figure 34.
Figure 34. Create new Syndicator dialog box
Most of the fields are similar to those in IBM Web Content Management V5, but in V6 you have the
ability to select one or more libraries to include in the syndication by clicking the Add libraries button at
the bottom. This brings up the dialog box in which you can select the libraries (see figure 35).
Figure 35. Add syndicator libraries dialog box
The Subscriber portlet (see figure 36) has the same look and feel as the Subscriber Component in V5.
Figure 36. Create new Subscriber portlet
4.6New views
The new user interface provides a number of usability enhancements for the author and the designer.
The new “My Items” view, shown in figure 37, helps authors find their content much more easily.
Figure 37. My Items view
From here authors can filter their items using a number of different criteria:
-
-
Recent: The past 10 items that have been modified by the current author (works only for the
current session).
Draft: Items that are not approved yet
Pending Approval: Items that are approved, but the publish date is not reached yet.
Published: Items that are approved, and the publish date has been reached.
Expired: Items that have expired.
Deleted: Deletions in Web Content Management V6 are soft deletions and appear in this view.
From here they can be purged or restored.
The design components moved from Design & Development - Component Library, to the Components
view (see figure 38).
Figure 38. Components view
The following components are new in V6 and are explained in more detail in chapter 4.8 New
components on page 69:
-
Authoring Tools (enables Inline Editing for the author)
Date and Time (lets the author specify a date and/or time)
Link (lets the author specify an internal or external link)
Number (lets the author specify a number)
Page Navigation (provides a paged menu)
Search (directly selects a search collection from the Portal Search Engine and displays the search
results like a menu)
Style Sheet (specifies a style sheet that is used in the Web design)
User Selection (stores a selection of users and groups)
The Workflow view moved from Workflow Management to Workflow Items. In addition, there is a new
Items by Workflow view that shows all items that use a workflow (see figure 39).
Figure 39. Items by Workflow view
The All Items view (see figure 40) contains a list of all available items sorted by status. This view
shows not only content objects but also site areas, design components, etc.
Figure 40. All Items view
4.7Component changes
Authoring template fields, which were known as Content Components in V5, are now called
“elements”. A large number of enhancements have been made to elements in V6 to enable such
things as field validation, mandatory components, and limitation of field lengths. This section describes
all these changes.
To create any object, click the New button. The list of options, with Authoring Template chosen, is
shown in figure 41.
Figure 41. New button options
All elements have a new field called “Display title” in the Identification section (see figure 42).
Figure 42. Display title field
You can use this field to display a title of a content object (or any other component) in a Web page,
using the IdCmpnt tag:
<idcmpnt type=″ content″ context=″ current″ name=″ ″ field=″ title″ separator=″ ″ start=″ ″ end=″ ″ />
It is also used in the Authoring Portlet to provide elements with meaningful names to the author. This
field can contain special characters, such as the “&”, that are not allowed in the Name field. In the
example below, the Content By Title view is displayed. In earlier versions, the Name field was used to
show the list of content objects. In V6, the Display title field is used to show the list of the content
objects (see figure 43).
Figure 43. List of content objects
The other change that affects all elements is a change in the security section; that is, the live access is
now included in the read access.
4.7.1Authoring templates
When creating an Authoring Template you first must decide which part of the template to edit:
The “Authoring Template Settings” define general settings of the template, such as:
-
Identification
Content Form Properties
Access
History
Note the new property called “Library” in the Identification section (see figure 44). This cannot be
changed in the Authoring Template itself; rather, it must be configured in the Configuration section of
the Authoring portlet as described in chapter 2.2 Configuring an Authoring server on page 10.
Figure 44. Library property in the Identification section
The Content Form Properties section (see figure 45) is new in Web Content Management V6.
Figure 45. Content Form Properties dialog box
The following properties are defined in this section:
-
-
a default style sheet for rich text fields
the layout of the content form (collapsible sections, labelled sections, tabbed sections, or no
sections)
allow or disallow the author to add additional elements
whether the author is able to select from all site areas or from selected site areas only
whether the author is able to select only one or several site areas
help text that displays when the author clicks the Help button
In the Access section you will notice that there is no longer a Live access level. This is now combined
within the Read access level (see figure 46).
Figure 46. Access section
The second part of the Authoring Template, “Default Content Settings”, defines the properties of the
content objects that are based on this authoring template. Here you can pre-fill the information for the
author that is shown in figure 47.
Figure 47. Default Content Settings properties
The Identification section looks similar to the Identification section in “Authoring Template Settings”,
but in addition there are small properties icons ( ) to further define the settings of each field (see
figure 48).
Figure 48. Identification section showing properties icon
The Name and the Display title fields have the settings shown in figure 49.
Figure 49. Name field properties
In addition, the Description field can be defined as mandatory, can be hidden from the author, and you
can define specific readers and editors for this field (see figure 50).
Figure 50. Description field properties
The Authors and Owners fields have similar properties, and the Profile section of the default content
settings can now completely be hidden (see figure 51).
Figure 51. Profile section
Further, the Categories field in this Profile section has the following properties (see figure 52):
-
-
Identify this as a required field and Hide field check boxes
Category selection options radio buttons
Allow only a single category to be selected check box
Editors and Viewers
Field help text
Figure 52. Categories field properties
Like the Authors and Owners fields in the Identification section, the Keywords field has the following
properties:
-
Identify this as a required field and Hide field check boxes
Editors and Viewers
Field help text
The Content Properties section, which basically provides the author with read-only information about
the authoring template, can be hidden for the author (see figure 53).
Figure 53. Content Properties Hide section
The Workflow section looks similar to that in IBM Workplace Web Content Management V5, but can
also completely be hidden from the author, as shown in figure 54.
Figure 54. Workflow section
Furthermore, each of the fields within the section has its own properties, as in the Default Workflow
example (see figure 55):
-
-
The field can be hidden
The designer can choose to let the author select only specific workflows
The designer can change the workflow choice’s appearance to the author
The designer can specify readers and/or viewers for this field and also specify help text
When you choose “Automatically select the most appropriate option” as the setting for the User
interface property, the field’s appearance will be determined as follows:



1--5 options - radio buttons
6--20 options - dropdown list
20+ options - select button and dialog that shows a pageable table of options
Figure 55. Default Workflow field properties
The properties of the Publish Date, Expiry Date, General Date One, and General Date Two fields all
look the same as that shown in figure 56.
Figure 56. Publish Date field properties
In addition to the other field properties, you can specify a date range from which the author can
choose, and can choose whether to define the range from the beginning of the content creation date
or from a specific date.
The properties for the additional viewers once the content object is published are similar to the
Authors and Owners fields in the Identification section (see figure 57).
Figure 57. Additional Viewers When Published field properties
The Access section and the History section can now be completely hidden from the author (see figure
58).
Figure 58. New “Hide section” option
If you want to add new elements to the authoring template you can do so by clicking the Manage
Elements button from the button bar:
When inserting new elements into an authoring template, you can configure almost all fields using the
properties icon
. Most of the elements have these common settings (see figure 59):
-
a field can be set as mandatory
it can be hidden
readers and authors can be specified
the designer can provide field help text
Figure 59. Common settings for authoring template elements
Most of the elements have additional settings that can be changed. In the next chapters, all the
element types will be described including any additional settings.
4.7.2Presentation templates
There are two new buttons, Insert Link and Insert Image, in the Presentation Template section as
shown in figure 60.
Figure 60. Insert Link and Insert Image buttons
Using the Insert Link button, you can insert a link to
-
Content, files or images
Existing Link component
External URL
Depending on the choice, the user has different parameters to set:
Furthermore, you have the choice of whether the link should be displayed as text:
Or as an image:
Finally, you can add:
- a link description (or use the description of the item being linked to as the link description.)
- a query string (to use it as a search parameter in a menu) and
- a link target
Using the Insert Image button, you can insert an image as an image from the file system (see figure
61).
Figure 61. File System Image option
Or it can be inserted as an image element from the component library (figure 62).
Figure 62. Image Component option
4.7.3Taxonomy and category components
There are no changes to these components in Web Content Management V6 compared to V5.
4.7.4Site component
The site component now has a searchable flag in V6. This means that you can choose whether the
site should be searchable by Portal Search. If so, you must select the search service and the search
collection, and must provide a user name and a password for Portal Search (see figure 63).
Figure 63. Search options
The Search Service field is new in IBM WebSphere Portal V6. Portal Search now lets you integrate
multiple search services in your portal. For example, you can define additional search services, such
as one or more remote Portal Search Services, and administer these search services from a single
administration interface. The following two search services are provided by default:
-
-
Portal Search Service
Content Model Search Service (this is required by the portal for internal purposes)
4.7.5 Site Area Component
There are no changes to this component in IBM Workplace Web Content Management V6 compared
to V5.
4.7.6Workflow component and Workflow Stage component
There are no changes to these components in Web Content Management V6 compared to V5.
4.7.7 Workflow Actions components
As in V5 there are four Workflow Actions available, all of which can now be created separately:
-
E-mail
Publish
Expire
Scheduled Move
In addition, the E-mail Action now has two new recipients from which to choose, check marked in
figure 64.
Figure 64. Email Action options
The E-mail Action not only sends an email to the authors and/or owners of the content object, but now
also emails the references of that content object. For example, if a content object is referenced as the
default content of a site area, the owners and/or authors of that site area would get an email once the
checkbox is selected.
Another example is a library link component that references a content object. The author and/or owner
of that library link component would also receive an email once that checkbox is selected. If both the
site area and the library link component have the same owner and/or author, the email would only be
sent once.
4.7.8 Component Reference component
The component reference element itself does not differ from that in V5, but you can change the
properties (see figure 65) that were mentioned in chapter 4.7.1 Authoring templates on page 34.
Figure 65. Component Reference properties
In addition, you can limit the number of components from which to choose by selecting only specific
component types.
4.7.9 Document Manager component
The component itself does not differ from that in V5, but you can change the properties that were
mentioned in chapter 4.7.1 Authoring templates on page 34. Note that both the “Path” and “Path:
Version:” fields use the same properties (see figure 66).
Figure 66. Document Manager Component properties
4.7.10Federated Content component
The component itself does not differ from that in V5, but you can change the properties that previously
mentioned in chapter 4.7.1 Authoring templates on page 34. The Content Reference, Version, and
User Name fields all use the same properties (see figure 67).
Figure 67. Federated Content Component properties
4.7.11File Resource component
The component itself does not differ from that V5, but when inserting the component as an element
into an Authoring Template, you can now configure additional properties by specifying
a minimum file size, a maximum file size, and the allowed MIME types (see figure 68).
Figure 68. File Resource Component properties
4.7.12HTML component
There are two new buttons in the HTML Element section: Insert Link and Insert Image, previously
described in chapter 4.7.2 Presentation templates on page 44. In addition, you can now define the
field’s size, limit the minimum and maximum number of characters, and limit the minimum and
maximum number of words (see figure 69).
Figure 69. HTML Component properties
4.7.13Image component
The component itself does not differ from that in Web Content Management V5, but when inserting the
component as an element into an Authoring Template, you can now configure the properties shown in
figure 70.
Figure 70. Image Component properties
As you can see in the figure above, the Image itself can be limited to a specific minimum or maximum
number of bytes and to specific MIME types. The Alternate Text field and the HTML Tag Name field
have their own properties, by which you can define the field size and define the maximum and
minimum number of characters and/or words:
You can change the image dimension and border properties using the properties shown in figure 71.
Figure 71. Image dimension properties
4.7.14JSP component
The component itself is the same as that in V5, but when inserting the component as an element into
an Authoring Template, you can now change the properties mentioned in chapter 4.7.1 Authoring
templates on page 34.
4.7.15Menu component
The Menu Component form contains a number of interface improvements. As shown in figure 72, the
menu now consists of five different sections: Identification, Menu Element Query, Menu design
properties, Access, and History.
Figure 72. Menu Component form
The Identification, Access, and History sections are the same as in all other components. The Menu
Element Query element contains different search criteria. For example, if you want to search content
objects based on a specific authoring template, you just select Authoring Templates, as shown in
figure 73, and define the different criteria.
Figure 73. Menu Element Query search criteria
When you click the Select Authoring Templates button, a windows displays in which you can choose
the appropriate authoring template (see figure 74).
Figure 74. Authoring Templates list
Under the “Further options” section of figure 73, the options are defined as follows:
-
-
-
Include authoring templates from the following sources:
o Current template (includes the authoring template used by the currently displayed content
item)
o Query string (searches for content objects using the same query string; for example, if the
designer entered myquery in this field, a menu displayed on a page whose URL contained a
search query ?myquery=coffee would display content that used an authoring template called
coffee)
Merge selected authoring templates with included authoring templates (if this option is selected,
the content objects that are found by the menu based on the settings made in the “Further
options” section will be merged with those content objects that are found based on the selected
Authoring Templates.)
Replace selected authoring templates with included authoring templates (if this option is selected,
the content objects that are found by the menu based on the settings made in the “Further
options” section will replace those content objects that are found based on the selected Authoring
Templates.)
If you want to search content objects based on a specific site area, you just select the Site Areas
checkbox and define the different criteria, as shown in figure 75.
Figure 75. Site Areas search criteria selected
When you click the Select Site Areas button, a windows displays in which you can choose the
appropriate site areas (see figure 76).
Figure 76. List of selected site areas
You can also choose to include the selected site area’s ancestors and descendants. Under “Further
options” you can select the following options:
-
-
User-specified rendering portlet configuration (In the settings of the Rendering portlet there is a
new section called Portlet Profile; when you select this option, the menu searches for site areas
that are defined in those settings.)
Current content (searches for content that is in the same site areas as the current content object)
Query string (searches for content objects using the same query string; for example, if the
designer entered myquery in this field, a menu displayed on a page whose URL contains a search
query ?myquery=coffee would display content that used a site area called coffee)
Merge selected site areas with included site areas (if this option is selected, the content objects
that are found by the menu based on the settings made in the “Further options” section will be
merged with those content objects that are found based on the selected Site Areas.
Replace selected site areas with included site areas (if this option is selected, the content objects
that are found by the menu based on the settings made in the “Further options” section will
replace those content objects that are found based on the selected Site Areas.
If you want to search content objects based on a specific category, just select the Categories
checkbox and define the different criteria (see figure 77).
Figure 77. Categories search criteria selected
When you click the Select Category button, a window displays in which you can choose the desired
categories, similar to that shown above in figure 76 for site areas. You can choose to include the
ancestors and/or descendants and define whether the results must match all categories.
Also, as figure 77 shows, the Further Options section is similar to that for Site Areas.
If you want to search content objects based on a specific keyword, select the Keywords checkbox and
define the different criteria (see figure 78).
Figure 78. Keywords search criteria selected
You can then type in the keywords that the menu should take as the search criteria. In addition, you
can choose from the following under Further options:
-
Current content (searches for content that has the same keywords as the current content object)
Current user (searches for content that uses the same keywords as the current user uses in its
profile)
Query string (searches for content objects using the same query string; for example, if the
designer entered myquery in this field, a menu displayed on a page whose URL contained a
search query ?myquery=coffee would display content that used a keyword called coffee)
Merge selected keywords with included keywords (if this option is selected, the content objects
that are found based on the settings made in the “Further options” section will be merged with
those content objects that are found based on the categories the user typed in.)
Replace selected keywords with included keywords (if this option is selected, the content objects
that are found based on the settings made in the “Further options” section will replace those
content objects that are found based on the categories the user typed in.)
The Menu Design Properties element describes the order in which the search results should appear
and the search result layout (see figure 79).
Figure 79. Menu design properties element
As in IBM Workplace Web Content Management V5, the search results can be sorted in ascending or
descending order. In addition to the sort order options available in V5, the V6 search results can also
be sorted by Title, Expiry Date, General Date One, and General Date Two.
There are two new parameters:
- Maximum pages to include (limits the total number of pages that will be queried for the menu)
- Pages to read ahead (controls the number of results pages to read ahead when using a page
navigation element. For example, if you enter “3”, the page navigation element will calculate
results up to three pages ahead of the current page. Increasing this number improves the
accuracy of the page navigation element; decreasing this number improves the performance of
the page navigation element when rendered.)
The fields to specify the layout are almost the same as in V5, with one new field that defines the layout
if no results are returned (see figure 80). There are two new buttons in all design formatting fields,
Insert Link and Insert Image. For more information about these buttons see chapter 4.7.2 Presentation
templates on page 44.
Figure 80. No result design field
4.7.16Navigator component
There are a few changes in the navigator UI compared to the UI in V5. Specifically, for “Start type”
instead of Top, Current, or Selected, you now can choose these four options: Current Site, Current
Content, Current Site Area, and Selected.
The Expand Current parameter in V5 is now divided into two parameters in V6:
- “Expand current navigator branch one level” is used to display the content items and site areas
one level below the current site area in the navigator.
- “Expand navigator to display current site area” is used to display all the parent site areas from
the start site area down to the current site area.
You now can also create multi-page navigators (by using the new page navigation element) and thus
can now also define the following fields: Results per page, Start page, Maximum pages to include, and
Pages to read ahead.
The final new parameter, Highlight current site area or content using final navigator result design, can
be defined to use the final component design as the design for the current site area or content item. All
other items in the navigator will use the other component designs.
Finally, in V5 you needed to save the content object to get a new component design. In V6 you can
click the Add Result Design button if you need another result design.
4.7.17Rich Text component
There are two functions in the Rich Text Editor that have changed in Web Content Management V6.
Using the first function, Creating a link, it is now possible to not only link to an external URL, but also
to Content, files or images and existing link components (see figure 81).
Figure 81. Insert link dialog box
With the second function, Inserting a picture, it is now not only possible to insert a picture from the file
system but also to insert a picture from the image library, including Image Preview (see figure 82).
Figure 82. Insert Image dialog box
In addition, you can now add an image from the file system into the library. When you select the option
“Add image to library with anonymous access”, a new image component is created using the name of
the image as the name of the component. If there already exists an image with the same name, Web
Content Management V6 will produce an error message and not allow saving this content object
unless you insert an image with a name that does not exist in the library.
When inserting the component as an element into an Authoring Template (see figure 83), you can
now:
-
Change the rich text element’s width and height
Specify a minimum and maximum number of characters
Specify a minimum and maximum number of words
Figure 83. Rich Text Component properties
Furthermore you can select the option “Use stylesheet, hide fonts/size/color”. This means that the
formatting options will be limited. Below is an example of a rich text field, without selecting this option
and here is the same rich text field after selecting the checkbox:
Finally, the Custom JSP field can be used to reference a JSP file instead of the element’s default view
in the user interface. This JSP can control the look and feel of the element or restrict the values that
can be entered into the element.
4.7.18Taxonomy component
As in Web Content Management V5 you can choose a start category, can define whether the start
category should be included, can choose the depth of the category selection tree, and can define the
layout of the header, the footer, the selected design, and the unselected design.
You can also define the settings for the selected categories. Those categories are selected once the
Taxonomy component is rendered. You can choose to:
-
select a specific category
include a category from either the current content categories, the current user categories, or the
Query String
restrict the included categories to specific ones
merge or replace the selected categories with the categories specified at the top
NOTE: The selected categories must be in the tree that you specified above.
Figure 84 shows a sample category selection tree, with some of the properties pre-filled.
Figure 84. Example category selection tree
In this example, the following settings have been assigned:
- Categories to include = "illy" (this is the default category that will be selected in the taxonomy
element)
Current User = "true", and Restrict Included Categories to = "Cappuccino"
Replace selected categories with included categories = "true"
There are three cases to consider; that is, if the current user:
- has no categories at all, then the default selection of "illy" will be used.
- does have categories, but they are not under the "coffee_brands" branch of the taxonomy, then the
default selection of "illy" will be used.
- does have a "coffee_brands" category - in this case "Lavazza", then the user's category will replace
the "Categories to include" value, and "Lavazza" will be selected
If you had selected "Merge selected categories with included categories" = "true" instead, then if the
current user:
- has no categories at all, then the selection will be "illy"
- does have categories, but they are not under the "coffee_brands" branch of the taxonomy, then the
selection will be "illy"
- does have a "coffee_brands" category - in this case "Lavazza", then the selection will be "Lavazza"
AND "Illy".
So the merge/replace is used to decide whether the categories you have explicitly selected are going
to act as either:
- a forced selection that is always selected no matter what other categories come from the other
included category source, or
- a default in case there are no categories coming from the other included category source.
The Restrict Included Categories setting is about which of the user's categories are pulled out. This
allows you to ignore some of the user's categories and only use those that are appropriate for the
portion of the category tree you are showing.
4.7.19Text component
The component itself does not differ from that in V5, but you can set the following additional properties
(see figure 85):
-
-
Change the text element’s width and height
Define the minimum and maximum number of characters
Define the minimum and maximum number of words
Specify a custom JSP that can control the look and feel of the element or restrict the values that
can be entered into the element
Figure 85. Text component properties
4.7.20User Name component
Figure 86 shows the User name Component with the two new buttons, Insert Link and Insert Image,
that are included in all design formatting fields. For more information about these buttons, refer to
chapter 4.7.2 Presentation templates on page 44.
Figure 86. User Name Component
4.8New components
Below are some new components that enhance the content authoring experience in IBM Web Content
Management V6:
-
Authoring Tools component (provides inline editing)
Date & Time component (lets the author specify a date and/or time)
Link component (creates manageable links)
Number Component (lets the author specify a number)
Page Navigation component (creates paged menus or navigators)
Personalization component (links Web Content Management with the personalization engine of
IBM WebSphere Portal)
Search Component (links Web Content Management with the Portal Search Engine)
Style sheet component (stores style sheets within Web Content Management )
User selection component (stores a selection of users or groups within Web Content
Management)
Option selection component (provides the author with radio-button fields or lists)
These elements are described in detail in the chapters below.
4.8.1Authoring Tools component
With the Authoring Tools Component, you can implement the following inline-editing functions on a
Web page:
-
-
Create a new content item.
Edit the content item displayed in a Web page.
Delete the content item displayed in a Web page.
Approve or reject the current content being previewed. This content is only visible to approvers
who open a draft content item from a URL sent by an email workflow action used in a workflow
stage.
The Authoring Tools Component consists of four sections: Identification, Authoring Tools Element,
Access, and History. The Identification, Access, and History sections contain the elements that are
used in other components as well.
The Authoring Tools Element section contains the specific settings for the Authoring Tools component.
For each action (create, read, edit, delete, approve, reject) there are different layout fields available.
There are also layout fields for the header, the separator, and the footer. Figure 87 shows an example
of the “create new content” layout.
Figure 87. Create new content layout
You usually specify the layout by using placeholder tags. The example above will display “New” when
viewing the Authoring Tools Component in a Web page. Of course, the <placeholder tag =”name” />
could also be replaced with different text like “create new content” or with an image.
You can specify which Authoring Template should be used:
-
use selected (the designer must specify an Authoring Template)
use current (the same authoring template is used as the current content object)
-
user selected (the author must specify an Authoring Template)
Using the same methodology, you can also specify which site area should be used.
You can then specify how the content should be edited via the options Edit live content or Create draft
content (see figure 88).
Figure 88. Edit action design properties
The other action designs—read, delete, approve, and reject—are similar to the above edit action
example.
To format the layout further, you can specify a header, a separator, and a footer, shown in figures 89,
90, and 91, respectively
Figure 89. Header layout
Figure 90. Separator layout
Figure 91. Footer layout
Finally the page designer must place the Authoring Tools Component on the Web page. If the
Authoring Tools Component is to be used in a menu or a navigator, the designer can use the
Authoring Tools tag:
<AuthoringTool context=″ ″ name=″ ″ start=″ ″ end=″ ″ />
This tag can also be referenced within presentation templates, but it is recommended to use a
component tag instead:
<Component name="./Auth_Tools_Comp" start="" end=""/>
The example above would appear on the Web page as follows, when the Authoring Tools Component
is referenced in a presentation template:
4.8.2Date and Time component
The Date and Time Component is used to display a date or time on a Web page and consists of four
sections: Identification, Date and Time Element, Access, and History.
The Identification, Access, and History sections contain the elements that are used in other
components as well.
The Date and Time Element section contains a field for the date and a field for the time:
When inserting the component as an element into an Authoring Template, you can specify the
following additional properties (see figure 92):
-
a custom JSP that can control the look and feel of the element or restrict the values that can be
entered into the element.
a range of valid dates so that the author can only choose values in between this range. To define
the range, you can either choose a specific start and end date or define an offset starting from the
content’s creation date and the start date.
Figure 92. Date and Time field properties
4.8.3Link component
A link element stores a link to a Web Content Management item, which can be a content object or an
image, or to external content such as a Web page.
Besides the Identification, Access, and History sections, the Link Component contains a link element
section (see figure 93).
Figure 93. Link Element section
Clicking the “Select Content, files or images “button will display a window in which you can choose a
content object or site area to link to (see figure 94).
Figure 94. Select Content to link window
You can choose whether the link should be displayed as text or as an image. When displaying the link
as text, you have the option to define a link text or to use the display title of the linked item (see figure
93 above).
When displaying the link as an image, you can choose an image from the image library by clicking the
Select image button, which will display the window in figure 95.
Figure 95. Select Image to link window
Besides linking to content, files or images, you can also specify the link component to link to another
link component via the Existing Link Component option (figure 93 above). This option produces the
Select Existing Link button, which in turn displays the window in which you can choose the link
component (see figure 96).
Figure 96. Select Link to link window
Finally, when you choose the External URL option for Link type, a field displays in which to enter the
URL.
After deciding what kind of link to create, you have other parameters to define:
If you link to an internal Reference, you can choose whether the link can be cleared or if it must be
replaced with a link to another item when the original linked element is deleted or archived. If you
select “When managing references, do not allow this link to be cleared” (figure 93 above), a user will
only be able to replace the link.
Furthermore, you can provide a link description that appears when moving the mouse over the link on
the Web page or elect to take the description of the linked item.
You can also provide a Query string, to use it as a search parameter in a menu, for example, you
could enter the query string “myquery=coffee”. In a menu you can then specify ″myquery″ as a search
parameter.
To specify the link target, you can choose from one of the following options in the Link target dropdown list: New Window, Self, Parent, Top, and Name.
Finally, you can specify additional attributes like a style sheet class to format the link.
Note that the Link description and the Query string fields have additional properties that you can
change:
-
-
width and height
minimum and maximum number of characters
minimum and maximum number of words
4.8.4Number component
The Number Component is used to store a numerical value and consists of four sections:
Identification, Number Element, Access, and History. The Identification, Access and History sections
contain the elements that are used in other components as well.
The Number Element section contains a field for the numerical value:
You can also specify the following additional properties (see figure 97):
-
-
-
a minimum and a maximum value the author is allowed to enter
group numbers, for example, if the user enters 100000, the number component will change the
value to 100,000 after saving the content object.
whether the author is allowed to enter decimal values (and how many decimal places are allowed)
or whole numbers only
a custom JSP that can control the look and feel of the element or restrict the values that can be
entered into the element
Figure 97. Number field properties
4.8.5Page Navigation component
The Page Navigation Component provides navigation controls that are used to navigate through a set
of results generated by other components such as menus and navigators.
There are two types of navigation controls:
-
Shuttle controls provide navigation relative to the current page. This includes sequential linking to
the previous or next page of results and quick linking to the first and last pages in the set.
Paging controls provide navigation according to the page number of the result set. A list of page
number links is displayed, along with a continuation link for access to the previous or next set of
page numbers, if all page numbers are not displayed.
The page navigation component can combine both controls.
Besides the Identification, Access, and History sections, the Page Navigation Component contains a
Page Navigation Element section, which consists of four sub-sections:
-
Choose whether to use shuttle and/or paging controls
HTML components for Header, Separator, and Footer
HTML components for shuttle control
HTML components for paging controls
To enable shuttle and/or paging controls, you use the Choose one or both type of paging controls field
The header, separator, and footer can contain example code such as that shown in figures 98, 99, and
100, respectively.
Figure 98. Header HTML
Figure 99. Separator HTML
Figure 100. Footer HTML
Note that in the example above, a new tag, PageInfo, is used (see table 2).
Table 2. PageInfo tag parameters
<PageInfo
Opens an ID component tag.
value=″ ″
The following values can be displayed using a PageInfo tag:
- currentPage
- totalPages
- firstItemOnPage
- lastItemOnPage
- totaltems
- itemsPerPage
- unknownPages
knowntext=″ ″
unknowntext=″ ″
start=″ ″
end=″ ″
/>
The value ″unknownPages″ is used to display different text when the total
number of pages is either known or unknown. When used, you must also use
the ″knowntext″ and ″unknown″ text parameters.
These parameters are used when value=″unknownPages″, for example,
<PageInfo value="unknownPages" knowntext="of" unknowntext="of at least"
/>
This could be used with other PageInfo tags to render the following:
- When the total number of pages is known: ″Page 2 of 5.″
- When the total number of pages is unknown: ″Page 2 of at least 5.″
The start and end attributes are used to wrap the data returned by a Web
Content Management Tag within other tags, such as HTML. These attributes
are not mandatory.
Closes a Web Content Management tag.
When using shuttle controls, there are HTML components available to enter the different design for the
First, Last, Previous, and Next controls. For each of the four layouts, you can specify an active and an
inactive design.
To demonstrate how the page navigation will look in the Web browser, a menu that displays 2 content
objects per page has been created as an example. This menu finds five content objects.
The example only shows the shuttle paging control at this point.
Figure 101 shows the content object that includes the navigation component after opening. The First
and Previous controls are inactive, because it is the first out of three pages, while the Next and Last
controls are active.
Figure 101. Next and Last active
When clicking Next, you see that all controls are active (figure 102).
Figure 102. All controls active
If you click Next again, the First and Previous controls are active, while the Next and Last controls are
inactive, as it is the last page of the menu (see figure 103).
Figure 103. First and Previous active
When you select the Paging Navigation Control option, there are more properties available, as shown
in figure 104:
- If “Show all pages” is selected, all three pages in the example above would be displayed.
- If “Limit number of pages” is set to 5, it would have the same effect as selecting “Show all pages” in
the example above.
- If there are more pages available than the value in the “Limit number of pages” field, you must
specify how to show the site visitor that there are more pages available by specifying a Continuation
design.
Figure 104. Page Navigation Control options
In the example above, “Limit number of pages” has been set to “5”, and the Continuation design has
been set to “…”.
Figure 105 shows the page after also selecting the Paging Navigation Control.
Figure 105. Page 1 of 3
In addition to the First, Previous, Next, and Last controls, there are also direct links to the other pages.
When you click Next, it looks like figure 106.
Figure 106. Page 2 of 3
When you click Next again, the Page looks like figure 107.
Figure 107. Page 3 of 3
4.8.6Personalization component
A new personalization component was introduced in WebSphere Portal 5.1.0.1. It provides the option
to write rules that target content to users depending on their profile or a combination of their profile
attributes. From a Web Content Management portlet it is possible to process a rule and, based on the
results, to display the matching content to the user.
Enhancements in V6 include a rule picker within the content creation wizard. This means that the
author can see a personalization rule embedded in the IBM Workplace Web Content Management
authoring environment rather than just a link to the rule.
When defining a Select Action rule, the content creator can specifically define that the rule is created
for Web Content (see figure 108).
Figure 108. Select Action rule menu
Thus, you can extend the personalization functionality by customizing metadata using specific content
attributes, as shown in figure 109.
Figure 109. Web Content attributes
Within the rule authoring interface, a context menu selection is provided. For example, when you
create a profiler rule, Portal User attributes are automatically discovered based on the IBM
WebSphere Membership Management configuration in Portal (see figure 110).
Figure 110. Profiler rule context menu
4.8.7Search
WebSphere Portal search allows you to create multiple search collections based on different content
sources. For a company, it might make sense to create one collection for the entire content and
several different collections for particular Web Content Management sites.
Search utilizes access control and categories as well as templates filtering by providing corresponding
options within the search query.
Furthermore, the search component provides templates that allow adapting search results to customer
requirements. For example, the footer, separators, header, title and the search query form can be
customized according to customer expectations.
Search administration
All the search administration tasks are done through the portal administration console, which serves
as a single access point for portal and Web Content Management search administration.
You access the UI by choosing Administration - Search Administration from the menu. In the Manage
Search portlet, you create the new collection by clicking the New Collection button (see figure 111).
Figure 111. Manage Search portlet
Once a collection is created, you can specify the content source for the collection by clicking the New
Content Source button (see figure 112).
Figure 112. New Content Source button
In IBM WebSphere Portal 6 the search component ships with a new content source type called
Managed Web Content site. By selecting that content source type, you have the option to specify the
name for the content source and the user whose profile will be used for the crawling process. You also
need to provide the URL to be used as the start URL for the crawling process. This URL is
automatically created when a site within Web Content Management is defined to be searchable (this
step is described in the next section).
Figure 113. Managed Web Content site option
Making a site searchable
When creating the site structure, the site author can make a site searchable by using the Search
function within the Site properties wizard (see figure 114).
Figure 114. Search function
With this step, a new content source for this site is automatically created within the specified search
collection. The URL from which to collect documents is automatically created and specified within the
Collection parameters UI (see figure 115).
Figure 115. Collection parameters UI
Search Center and Search and Browse portlets
The Search Center as well as the Search and Browse portlets have been enhanced to reflect the Web
Content Management search capabilities. The collections are added automatically as tabs to the
Portal Search Center. Web Content Management search is also recognized and used in the search
box that is part of the portal theme.
Search component
The Web Content Management search component provides the ability to search and display results
with a specific presentation. It also enhances the user interface by providing options to sort search
results in various ways such as by name or by relevance. All parts of the search result page, including
the footer, the header, and separators can be customized by use of the search component. In addition,
the search query may be formatted as desired.
You can create a new search component within the authoring UI by choosing New - Component Search (see figure 116).
Figure 116. New search component menu
This component allows you to select a search collection from a list of all search collections defined in
the Portal Search Engine administration console. Further configuration options include paging of
search results, results per page, pages to read ahead, and sort results by relevance, title, summary,
author, date created, or date published (see figure 117).
Figure 117. Search Collection configuration options
In addition, you can customize the Web Content Management components by adding HTML content to
the header, results, footer, or separator, as shown in figure 118.
Figure 118. Header, Footer, Result design panes
Within the HTML content the search designer can access various content attributes such as title, date,
summary, and author name using Web Content Management element tags. The No result design
page can be specified as well (see figure 119).
Figure 119. No result design page
4.8.8Style sheet
The style-sheet component is used to store a cascading style-sheet file. Like all other components, the
style-sheet component has an Identification section, an Access section and a History section. In
addition, it has a Style-sheet Element section, shown in figure 120.
Figure 120. Style-sheet Element section
There are fields available for you to:
-
-
-
upload a style sheet from the file system
select a type:
o Alternate style-sheet (if the selected style sheet is to be used with a number of
mutually exclusive style sheets)
o Preferred style-sheet (if the selected style sheet is to be used as the preferred style
sheet within a set of alternate style sheets)
o Persistent style-sheet (if the selected style sheet is the only style sheet being used)
specify a display title
select a media type (see figure 121)
Figure 121. Options for Media type field
Style sheets can be used to format the look and feel of IBM Workplace Web Content Management V6
pages in the same way as normal Web pages.
To link a style-sheet component to a specific authoring template, you must select a style-sheet
component as the default style sheet in an authoring template. In figure 122, the style sheet element
style1 has been inserted into an Authoring template.
Figure 122. style1 style sheet element
To link a style-sheet component to a specific site, site area, or content item, you must add a
component reference element to them and select a style-sheet component. This style sheet can then
be referenced in a presentation template by use of the styleElement tag (see table 3).
Table 3. styleElement tag parameters
<StyleElement source=" " name=" " start=" " end=" " />
<StyleElement
Opens a component tag.
source=" "
You specify a source of either:
source="template"
This will use the style sheet specified in the authoring template of the current
content item. You do not specify a name when using template as the source. To
use this option, you must have selected a default style sheet in the related
authoring template.
source="path"
This will use the first style sheet element matching the name, specified in the
name parameter below, from either the current site, site area or content item in
that order. To add a style sheet to a site, site area or content item, you will need to
use a component reference element and select a style sheet component as the
component reference.
name=" "
Enter the name of the element to search for when source="path".
start=" "
end=" "
The start and end attributes are used to wrap the data returned by a Web Content
Management tag within other tags, such as HTML. These attributes are not
mandatory.
/>
Closes a Web Content Management tag.
Table 4 lists some examples of how to use the styleElement tag.
Table 4. styleElement tag examples
To use the style sheet specified
in the authoring template of the
current content item, you must
use a <styleElement> tag.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<styleElement source="template"/></HEAD>
<BODY></BODY>
</HTML>
To use the style sheet selected in
a component reference element
stored in the current site, site
area, or content item, you must
use a <styleElement> tag.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<styleElement source="path" name="component
reference name"/></HEAD>
<BODY></BODY>
</HTML>
To use a specific style sheet, you <HTML>
<HEAD>
must use a <component> tag.
<component name="style sheet component
name"/></HEAD>
<BODY></BODY>
</HTML>
When rendered in Web content, references to style-sheet components are converted to external style
sheet links:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<link href="stylesheet" media="media-type" rel="styleheet-type"
type="text">
</HEAD>
<BODY></BODY>
</HTML>
NOTE: If there is just one style sheet in the whole site, the style sheet could alternatively be stored in a
file resource element. The style component provides the ability to load different style sheets depending
on the current authoring template or site.
4.8.9User selection
A user selection element stores a selection of users or groups. The user selection element is stored in
an authoring template, site, site area, content item, or user selection component. The selected users
can then be displayed on a Web page by use of the component tag.
When inserting the component as an element into an Authoring Template, the properties shown in
figure 123 can be configured.
Figure 123. User Selection Component
You can also specify a custom JSP that can control the look and feel of the element or restrict the
values that can be entered into the element.
4.8.10Option Selection component
The Option Selection Component does not exist as a separate component. It can only be inserted as
an element into an Authoring Template. The Option Selection Component allows the author to select
values from a list of predefined values. Figure 124 shows an example of an Option Selection
Component, in which you can:
-
-
specify whether it is a single or multiple option selection field
enter the different options from which the author will be able to select
decide how the selection should appear in the user interface for the author (automatic, radio
buttons, dropdown list or paging table)
specify a custom JSP that can control the look and feel of the element or restrict the values that
can be entered into the element.
Figure 124. Option Selection element
The author’s user interface changes, depending on which layout the designer has chosen.
If you choose the Radio button option under User interface, the author will see following design:
If you choose “Dropdown list”, the author will see this design:
If you choose “paging table”, the author will first need to click the following button:
and will then see the design in figure 125.
Figure 125. Option_Selection_3
4.9Custom launch page
In Web Content Management V6 it is now possible to configure the authoring portlet to use a launch
page with a custom design instead of the default user interface. A custom launch page can be either a
JSP or HTML file. It must be stored in the WAR file directory for the Authoring portlet:
<portalserver>/installedApps/WCM_Authoring_UI_PA_xxxxxxx.ear/PA_xxxxxxx.war/jsp/html,
where xxxxxxx is unique to the respective installation.
You can use either remote actions to call different views and functions from within the authoring
portlet's UI or can use the Web Content Management API to add other functions to the launch page.
Refer to the Web Content Management InfoCenter to get more information about remote actions and
the API.
Once you have created a custom launch page, you then configure the authoring portlet to use the
custom launch page instead of the default authoring portlet UI.
Below is a simple example of a table that you can add to a JSP or HTML file to allow users to create
and view content items using remote actions:
<table>
<tr><td>
<a
href="?wcmAuthoringAction=new&type=com.ibm.workplace.wcm.api.WCM_Content">
Create new Content</a>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>
<a href="?wcmAuthoringAction=openmainview&view=contentbytitle">
Open content by title</a>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>
<a href="?wcmAuthoringAction=openmainview&view=contentbysitearea">
Open content by site area</a>
</td></tr>
</table>
This HTML file has been placed in the WAR file of the authoring portlet in the jsp/html directory.
When opening the authoring portlet and clicking the “Configure” link, the administrator can change its
configuration settings. In the User Interface Options section, the user can select to use either the
standard Repository Browser, or a custom Launch Page, as in figure 126.
Figure 126. User Interface Options section
When clicking OK, the user will see the custom launch page shown in figure 127.
Figure 127. Custom launch page
5 JCR
One of the most significant changes from Web Content Management V5 is the use of the Java™
Content Repository (JCR).
Web Content Management V6 no longer manages its own direct database connections as in V5;
instead, this is now all handled through WebSphere Portal’s use of the JCR.
For large businesses, switching to the JCR will improve Web Content Management’s scalability. The
use of JCR also provides clustered authoring through the use of a shared content repository.
Configuring the Portal database and JCR is handled by Portal, and information is available through the
WebSphere Portal InfoCenter. There are also a number of JCR utilities available for managing data
within the JCR.
Due to the use of JCR, the Web Content Management System directory that existed in V5 and
previous versions is no longer necessary.
At present, the JCR does not provide support for IBM DB2® Content Manager as a data repository.
This means that existing DB2 Content Manager customers will be unable to migrate to version 6.0 until
this is supported.
6 API
The API in V6 is nearly the same as in Web Content Management V5; however, there are three new
interfaces available:
-
Interface DateComponent
Represents a Date component. A DateComponent is a Content Component and cannot be stored
as a separate entity in the repository. A DateComponent can contain Date. This interface provides
methods to retrieve and set the Date contained within this component:
o
o
o
o
-
-
GetDate()  Returns the Date contained in this component as a Date
getDateType()  Returns the formatting type set in this DateComponent
setDate(java.util.Date date)  Sets the Date contained in this DateComponent
setDateType(int dateType)  Sets the formatting type for this DateComponent
Interface NumericComponent
Represents a Number component. A NumericComponent is a Content Component and cannot be
stored as a separate entity in the repository. A NumericComponent can contain Number. This
interface provides methods to retrieve and set the Number contained within this component:
o
getNumber()  Returns the Number contained in this component as a Number
o
getNumberType()  Returns the number type of this NumberComponent
o
setNumber(java.lang.Number number)  Sets the Number contained in this
NumericComponent
o
setNumberType (int numberType)  Sets the Number Type contained in this
NumericComponent
Interface LinkComponent
Represents a Link component. A LinkComponent is a ContentComponent and cannot be stored
as a separate entity in the repository. A LinkComponent represents an HTML anchor tag. It can
contain a reference to a Site, SiteArea, Content, Image, File resources, or another
LinkComponent, and it can also refer to an external URL. This class provides methods to retrieve
the URL that the reference represents and defines the properties of the HTML anchor tag
generated by this component.
There are about 25 methods available, so please refer to the Java API Documentation for a
detailed description of the different methods. The API-Java-doc is now stored under
<WebSphereDir>/profiles/wp_profiles/installedApps/<nodename>/wcm.ear/ilwwcm.war/webinterfa
ce/api-javadoc
In addition to these new elements in the API, it is now also possible to add and remove elements
from a site area.
7 Migration
Only Web Content Management versions 2.5, 2.6, and 5.1.x can be directly migrated to version 6.0.
Thus, if you need to migrate content from any older versions, you must first upgrade to one of these
more recent versions.
First, WebSphere Portal itself needs to be upgraded to V6, the steps for which are described in the
Information Center.
The first step to migrate to Web Content Management V6 is to migrate a single primary server
containing the most recent data. This would normally be an authoring server. In a decentralized
authoring environment, all current data should be aggregated on a single server using syndication
prior to migration. Primary migration will migrate data, rendering portlets, and user profile information.
Once the migration to a primary server is complete, this should be used for migrating to secondary
servers, for example, staging servers, delivery servers, test servers, or other authoring servers. Only
rendering portlets and user profile information are migrated on secondary servers. Syndication is used
to transfer data from the primary server to secondary servers.
There is no need to migrate the authoring portlets.
The migration process does not automatically update the Web content to use all the new features of
the current release. The following steps are recommended to update you old Web content to take
advantage of the new Web Content Management V6 features:
-
Replace anchor tags by using link elements or by using the add links feature of HTML and rich text
fields and elements.
Update the header design of taxonomy elements.
The Web Content Management search module is obsolete. Replace any search forms using this
module with search forms using Portal Search.
The use of "connect" tags is obsolete, with the exception of component caching. Content that uses
"connect" tags will still work, but it is recommended that they be replaced with other standard Web
content features.
The Web Content Management migration process only creates a single library. To implement
multiple libraries, the Administrator must create new libraries and move items from the migrated
library into the new libraries.
8 Conclusion
This white paper has explained the new and enhanced features that come with the version of IBM
Web Content Management that is included in the new IBM WebSphere Portal V6 release, including
enhanced user interface, new components, support for inline editing, and JCR, API, and migration.
9 Resources
developerWorks WebSphere Portal zone
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/
IBM WebSphere Portal V6 announcement
http://www.ibm.com/isource/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=206-163
JSR 170: Content Repository for Java technology API
http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=170
Redbook: IBM Workplace Web Content Management for Portal 5.1 and IBM Workplace Web
Content Management 2.5
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246792.html
Web Portal software from WebSphere
http://www.ibm.com/websphere/portal
WebSphere Portal and Workplace Web Content Management product documentation page
(including Information Centers)
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/portal/proddoc.html
What's new in WebSphere Portal Version 6?
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0607_hepper/0607_hepper.html
10 About the author
Sven Viehweger joined IBM in 2001 as a software application specialist with IBM Software Services
for Lotus (ISSL) in Germany. He has more than eight years experience in the IT/software industry,
particularly in the development of Web content management solutions with IBM Workplace Web
Content Management for Domino and Java, areas on which he’s worked extensively since joining IBM.
You can reach Sven at [email protected].
11 Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his thanks to the many people who have been so helpful during this
project, particularly Dan Makuch, Larissa Schoeffing, Hauke Juhls, Tina Klein, Peter Burkhardt,
Thomas Stober, and Eric Morentin.
Trademarks
DB2, IBM, Redbook, Workplace Web Content Management, and WebSphere are trademarks of IBM
Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
This information is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, and is based on
IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall
not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this document.
Nothing contained in this document is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties
or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the
applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.