Managing Content Effortlessly: Oracle Drive, Bulk Actions in List Mode, Draft Mode

Purpose

This tutorial introduces you to three new content management features in Oracle Portal 10.1.4, specifically Oracle Drive, bulk actions with List edit mode, and draft mode with approvals.

Time to Complete

Approximately 1 hour

Topics

This tutorial covers the following topics:

	Overview
	Prerequisites
	Getting Started
	Using Oracle Drive
	Performing Bulk Actions in List Edit Mode
	Using Draft Mode and the Approval Process
	Summary
	Related Information

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Overview

Oracle Drive is a new Oracle WebDAV client for Windows that is specially designed to be used with Oracle Portal. Oracle Drive helps simplify the process of publishing and managing any type of content by leveraging the Internet WebDAV standard. It maps the Oracle Portal Repository as a drive and allows you to perform desktop authoring and publishing, as well as portal-specific metadata attribution, directly from the Windows desktop. In addition to the default WebDAV functionality, Oracle Drive provides several Portal-only operations.

The key functionality provided by Oracle Drive allows you to do the following:

	Mount your Portal Repository as a Windows drive.
	Use portal-specific menu options to perform certain actions on your portal such as set item/folder properties, specify ACL information, and preview content and pages.
	Access the Portal Repository from the command line.
	Use Windows Explorer search capability on your Portal Repository.
	Perform a virus check on the Portal Repository.
	Work with content offline and synchronize when online.
	Edit portal content with any available editor.

List edit mode has been enhanced in 10.1.4, enabling you to perform bulk actions such as hide/show, change access control, move, delete, and more.

Draft mode lets you work on a document over a period of time before submitting it for approval. Draft content is hidden when the portal page is in View mode.

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Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, you should:

	Have access to or have installed Oracle Portal 10.1.4.
	Have an Oracle Portal user name and password with appropriate access to create pages and items.
	Have access to an Internet browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE).
	Have Oracle Drive installed on your PC. You can download the Oracle Drive software and installation instructions from Oracle Technology Network .
	Have downloaded portalOBE.zip and unzipped it into your working directory (referred to as <portal_unzip> in this tutorial).

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Getting Started

In this section, you log in and create a new page group.

	Log In
	Create a Page Group

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To log in, perform the following steps:

1.	Open a browser window and enter the appropriate URL for accessing Portal Builder; for example, for a default installation, the URL is: http://<hostname>:7778/pls/portal.
2.	Click Login.
3.	Enter your user name and password and click Login.
4.	From the Oracle Portal home page, click the Build tab.

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Create a Page Group

A page group is the structure that Oracle Portal uses to group related portal objects such as pages, page templates, styles, navigation pages, categories, perspectives, and more. The page group typically contains a collection of pages for organizing content. For this tutorial, you need a new page group.

To create a new page group, perform the following steps:

1.	Click the Create Page Group link.
2.	In the Display Name field, enter <Your Name> Content Management, where <Your Name> is your name.
3.	Click Create. When you create a page group, a page is automatically created as a member of the page group. This root page uses the same name as the page group. After you create the page group, your root page automatically displays in Edit mode.

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Using Oracle Drive

In this section, you configure Oracle Drive and use it to manipulate the content in your portal.

	Configure the Oracle Drive
	Use Oracle Drive

Configure the Oracle Drive

To configure your Oracle Drive installation to connect to your Portal Repository, perform the following steps:

1.	Open the Oracle Drive dialog box by double-clicking the icon in the Windows system tray.
2.	Select Service > New to create a new service.
3.	Specify the following service properties: Property Description Service name Name for your WebDAV connection Username Oracle Portal Single-Sign On (SSO) user Server <host:port>/dav_portal/portal For example: http://mycompany.com:7781/dav_portal/portal
4.	Click OK.
5.	Choose a drive letter to map to your new Oracle Drive connection.
6.	Click Connect.
7.	Enter your Oracle Portal SSO username and password to authenticate and establish the connection. As soon as you are connected, a list of all the page groups in your Portal Repository is displayed in Windows Explorer. Note: The page groups in your list will be different from those in the example.

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Use Oracle Drive

To use Oracle Drive to add sub-pages and content to your portal, perform the following steps:

1.	On your desktop, open Windows Explorer.
2.	Expand the <portal_unzip>\files directory.
3.	Copy the New Content Management Features folder (and its contents). Tip: Use [Ctrl] + [C] to copy.
4.	On the drive where Oracle Drive is mounted, notice that each page group is listed as a top-level folder. Find <Your Name> Content Management, which is your page group. Paste the folder and its contents in the <Your Name> Content Management folder. Tip: Use [Ctrl] + [V] to paste. Oracle Drive's Status Monitor lists the files that are being stored in the Portal Repository.
5.	Verify that you have just added three sub-pages and some content to your portal: a. In Oracle Portal, click the Navigator link to go to the Portal Navigator. b. On the Page Group tab, click <Your Name> Content Management.   c. Click Pages. d. Click Sub-Pages.   e. Click the Edit link for Fusion Middleware. The contents of the Fusion Middleware sub-page are displayed.
6.	In Windows Explorer, expand the Fusion Middleware folder. The same four files you saw in the Fusion Middleware sub-page are displayed.
7.	Right-click AnalystsComment.htm and notice the set of six menu options that apply to Oracle Portal content. From Oracle Drive, you can set properties, control access, preview content, view content versions, approve or reject content, and submit content for approval.
8.	Select Set Properties. Modify the display name and provide a description: Display Name: What They're Saying About Fusion Middleware Description: Read the kudos for Oracle Application Server
9.	Click Apply. Then click the Navigator link.
10.	In Windows Explorer, right-click AnalystsComment.htm and select Open With > WordPad.
11.	Below the <body> tag, insert the following HTML: <strong> Read what they're saying about Oracle Fusion Middleware </strong> <br> Save your work and close WordPad.
12.	In Windows Explorer, right-click AnalystsComment.htm and select Open With > Firefox or Open With > Internet Explorer to view the rendered HTML. When you are finished, close the window.
13.	In your task bar, click the Oracle Drive icon.
14.	Explore the Oracle Drive tabs. In particular, notice the Offline tab, which allows you to work offline and then synchronize your work when you are reconnected. When you are finished, close the window without disconnecting from Oracle Drive.
15.	To access the Portal Repository from a command window, perform the following steps: a. From the Windows Start menu, select Run. b. Enter cmd in the dialog box and click OK.   c. Enter the name of the drive where Oracle Drive is mounted, f: for example, and press [Enter]. d. Enter dir and press [Enter]. The page groups in the Portal Repository are listed. Your list will differ from the list in the example below. As you can see, Oracle Drive lets you manipulate Portal Repository content using the command window.   e. When you are finished, close the command window.

 

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Performing Bulk Actions in List Edit Mode

One of the powerful new features in 10.1.4 is the capability of performing bulk actions on your portal content in List edit mode. In this section, you configure List as the default edit mode for the page group.

	Configure List as the Default Edit Mode
	Perform Bulk Actions

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Configure List as the Default Edit Mode

To configure List as the default edit mode for the page group, perform the following steps:

1.	On the Fusion Middleware sub-page, click Page Group Properties.
2.	On the Configure tab, scroll down to Edit Modes and click [Edit].
3.	Select List as the Default Edit Mode for Pages.
4.	To control the columns to display and the columns to hide in List mode, perform the following steps:   a. Scroll down to List View Properties. Notice that you can limit the number of items to display. b. In the List View Column Selections section, select and move Author and Description from the Visible Columns panel to the Hidden Columns panel.   c. Move File Name from the Hidden Columns panel to the Visible Columns panel. d. Select Version and click the up arrow to move it directly above Status in the Visible Columns panel.     e. Click OK. Then click Close.
5.	Click the Navigator link and then click Edit for the Fusion Middleware page to verify that List mode is the default. Notice that the File Name column is visible and Version is displayed to the left of Status.
6.	Click the New Content Management Features link at the top of the screen to navigate to that page.
7.	Click Create Sub-Pages.
8.	Enter 10.1.4 New Features as the display name for the new sub-page and click Finish. The new sub-page appears in the region.

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Perform Bulk Actions

In this section, you perform bulk actions on items and sub-pages in List mode. Perform the following steps:

1.	Select the check boxes to the left of the two items on the sub-page and click Move.
2.	Expand <Your Name> Content Management in the Page Group Map. Then expand New Content Management Features to expose its sub-pages. Click Move Here next to 10.1.4 New Features.
3.	Click Move.
4.	Click 10.1.4 New Features to verify the move.
5.	Select the check boxes to the left of the two items. Then click the list control next to Modify Access Settings. As the menu indicates, you can perform a variety of actions on multiple items in List mode; these include changing access settings, hiding and showing content, and checking content in and out of the Portal Repository.
6.	Select Hide from the menu and click Go. Notice that the items you requested to hide are rendered in red and have a status of Hidden.
7.	Click View Page to verify that the items are hidden. The browser displays an empty page. Click your browser's Back button.
8.	Click the two check boxes again, select Show from the list, and click Go.
9.	Click View Page to verify that the items are now displayed.
10.	Click your browser's Back button.

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Using Draft Mode and the Approvals Process

When you enable approvals and notifications, Oracle Portal provides a special page privilege, Manage Items With Approval (MWA). Each document or file added or modified by an MWA user must be approved before it is published to the portal. This prevents the publishing of items that have not been approved by the appropriate people in your organization.

When an MWA user adds an item to a page, the item is automatically submitted for approval, unless the Draft feature is also enabled for the page group. When drafts are enabled, any content the MWA user adds to a page has Draft status until the user submits the item for approval. This means that the user can edit the draft content multiple times and view it in place before submitting it for approval.

In this section, you configure your page group for approvals and notifications and for item drafts. Then you create a draft item, submit it for approval, modify it, and approve it.

Perform the following steps:

1.	Configure your page group for approvals and notifications: a. Click Page Group: Properties. b. Click the Configure tab. c. Scroll down to the Approvals and Notifications section and click [Edit]. d. Select Enable Approvals and Notifications and click OK.
2.	Click the Approval tab. Note: This tab became visible after you enabled approvals and notifications.
3.	Select the following two options: Option Description Enable Item Drafts Allows users to upload content to the portal without exposing it until they are ready to submit it for approval. Require Approval for All Users Requires any content submitted by any user (including administrators) to be approved before it can be published. Note: For the purposes of this exercise, you must select this option so that content submitted by you, who are an administrator, will require approval.
4.	Look at the Approval Routing List section at the top. This is where you can set up an approval process for item content . By default, the approval process consists of a single step with #CONTENT_MANAGER# as the default approver. #CONTENT_MANAGER# is any user or group with the page privilege of Manage or Manage Content. Note: In this exercise, you will act as your own content approver. In a real work environment, you would select other users or groups of users as approvers in the approval chain, but in this case, it is convenient to be able to approve your own submission.
5.	Click OK.
6.	Create a new text item: a. Click Create: Sub-Pages Items. b. With Content Item Types selected, select Text and click Next. c. Copy the text below and paste it in the Text area of the Rich Text editor. A draft item requires approval before it can be published. Draft items must be explicitly submitted for approval. d. Click Finish. Notice that the new draft item appears in red with a status of Draft.
7.	Click View Page. As you would expect, the draft item is not displayed.
8.	Click your browser's Back button.
9.	Submit the item for approval: a. Click Draft (under Status). b. Click Submit For Approval. c. Click Submit. The item now has a status of Pending.
10.	Before approving the text item, an approver may want to modify it. For example, to add a display name, perform the following steps: a. Click Edit to the left of the text item. b. Scroll down to the Display Name field. Copy the text below and paste it in the field: New in 10.1.4: Draft Mode c. Click OK. The display name appears with the item. Note: Allowing an approver to edit an item in the approval process and then approve the item immediately is a new feature of Oracle Portal 10.1.4.
11.	Review and approve the item: a. Click Pending. b. Scroll down to the Item Details section and review the details. c. Click Approve. The item's status is now set to Active.
12.	Click View Page and verify that you can see the text item.

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Summary

Congratulations! You have explored some of the new content management features in 10.1.4. These include using Oracle Drive to manipulate pages and items in your portal, performing bulk actions in List edit mode, and creating and approving a draft item.

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Related Information

	To see Oracle Drive in action, view the Oracle Drive Demonstration.
	To learn more about Oracle Portal 10.1.4, read the OracleAS Portal 10.1.4 New Features white paper.
	To learn more about Oracle Portal, visit the Oracle Portal Center.

 

 

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