How To Build An Intranet In Sensesnet.Com

Transcription

1 Sense/Net 6 Evaluation Guide How to build a simple list-based Intranet?

2 Contents 1 Basic principles Workspaces Lists Check-out/Check-in Version control Simple approval vs. Workflow Let s build an Intranet! Create a workspace Upload some data to the workspace Add a new field to a list Adding a new list view Add a new list to the workspace Modify the summary page of the workspace Create a new workspace template

3 Foreword Welcome to Sense/Net and thank you for your interest in downloading our opensource, Enterprise Content Management System. This second evaluation guide will take you through the process of building a simple Intranet with the workspaces and list functionality of Sense/Net. You can do much more with the product, though nice websites, complex Intranets, enterprise workflows, document management systems, collaborative portals. If you re looking for deeper knowledge in these areas, please contact us for training possibilities. We take it for granted that you re familiar with the first Evaluation Guide for creating a site from the scratch. So if you have not read that yet, go ahead and do so. If you have any problems installing Sense/Net, take a look at this Wiki article: Additional Sense/Net information can be found at 3

4 1 Basic principles Here we ll cover some of the basic principles for your evaluation. Not even half of the entire system is described by this, but it ll do for a basic evaluation. Contact us, if you need further assistance. Again, we assume that after going through the first evaluation guide for creating a site from the scratch, you are already familiar with the following terms: - Everything is a content - Pages and Portlets - Navigation - Smart application model - Queries - Skin system 1.1 Workspaces A workspace is a collaborative interface in Sense/Net, which is organized typically around a project, a document to be created, a sales task or a process. You decide what you use workspaces for. There are a couple of template workspaces in the system (project, document, sales) and you can create your own. A workspace (by default) has four areas: - document library, for managing documents (with full version control, server side locking, check-out, check-in and workflow) - tasks, for listing and managing simple tasks assigned to one or more user - events, for creating and maintaining calendar items relevant to the users of the workspace (ie. deadlines, meetings, etc) - memos, for quickly creating on-line content to store meeting memos, quick records etc. More about workspaces: Lists A list is a special type of content in the system. It is like a spreadsheet, into which you can upload any kind of records which has attributes. Workspaces default lists (document library, calendar, memos, tasks) as all these kind of Lists. 4

5 You can create your own lists by adding fields and creating list views. More about pages: Check-out/Check-in Any type of content is Sense/Net can be checked out. This means that while you are editing a given content item, nobody else can. If you check it in, a new version is created (according to the settings of the content) and others can also edit it (assuming they have the right permissions). It is a kind of server-side locking which comes very useful for document management scenarios or at more complex Web CMS projects. 1.4 Version control In Sense/Net, any content can have version control from pages to users, really everything. All content types have default version control settings which can be overridden for a given content. 1.5 Simple approval vs. Workflow Every content has an approve settings. This is a simple approval yes/no field, which means that every user who has approve permission for that content can approve it if approval is switched on for that content or content type. This is a not a complicated action-switch-action-end workflow, only a simple mechanism which is suitable for simple approvals. It will be okay for 75% of the times, believe me. If anyone in that group approves, the content is displayed. Simple as that. Complex workflow (meaning complex business processes like quoting, expense report, registration approval, etc.) are handled by Sense/Net s workflow module. That topic is covered in another document and in the wiki pretty well. Of course, you can design and implement very complicated document approval workflows that way with more than 1 approver, approving tied to field values, etc. More about version control, check-out/check-in and simple approval: 5

6 2 Let s build an Intranet! We ll assume that you could install Sense/Net, you ve already done your first site based on the first evaluation guide and now you d like to explore the collaborative capabilities of our product. The workspace we are going to build will be a Document Workspace. This small sample will be a document workspace to simulate a team s work on creating a document (which will be a Business Plan), assigning tasks related to that, organizing meetings and creating meeting memos. 2.1 Create a workspace Do the following: 1. Open your Sense/Net installation, log in as an administrative user and click on the Workspaces box on the opening page, or enter 2. Locate the part of the page where you can add a new Workspace. 3. Click on + Document Workspace (we ll use this is a sample for the evaluation but please go ahead and explore the different type of workspaces!). 4. Fill the form that appears make your current user (probably Admin) as a project manager (users are under the IMS folder in the window that appears). Don t forget to make the workspace active. You can have different skins for different workspaces which can be useful if your company has different departments and they d like to have some different designs. 6

7 Under the Advanced Properties part, make sure that versioning is switched on (for example to Minor and Major). This will make version control alive. Save the new workspace. 5. The new workspace appeared at the bottom of the workspaces list. Note: If you open up the Explore View, you ll find your workspace under /Root/Sites/Default_Site/workspaces/Document/Business-Plan-Workspace in the tree. 6. Open your workspace and take a look around. Note: if you deleted the default structure and you don t want to reinstall, you may create a workspace from Explore view. 2.2 Upload some data to the workspace OK, we have our empty workspace, let s upload some data to make it more alive. I ll let you do this little exercise on your own but please have at least: 7

8 - 2 documents - 2 events - 2 memos - 2 tasks in the system. Tip: before you go crazy, you can find the upload button for the document library on the Document Library page on the left. My populated workspace looks like this: So by now you realized that the latest information appears on the summary page of the workspace, there is a small activity-flood like portlet on the left and that all of the four basic workspaces part is a list. At this point, you should play around with: - checking out, editing than checking back a document o click on the drop-down menu that is the document, then select Check out o edit the document s properties and modify something (eg. the document itself then click on Browse and upload a new version note that clicking on Done will save AND checkin the document) - make yourself familiar with versioning (major and minor versions) o click on the drop-down menu that is the document, then select Versions o note that you have 1 approved and (at least) 1 draft 8

9 o if you click on the drop-down menu of the document again and click Publish, you will have a second Approved - create a folder o In the Document Library, click New and select Folder o Upload something to that folder o Change the View (top-right of the portlet) to Flat and realize that this view digs into each folder and displays all content as a flat list - modify an uploaded memo or task o Just to see how it s done you can check versions here as well! 2.3 Add a new field to a list So, we now how a workspace works it s got a Document Library, Tasks, Memos and Events part. What if the existing field settings are not enough and we need something more? For example, we need an extra field for our uploaded documents which tells us whether this document is a Business Plan, an Appendix or just some Background Material. Do the following: 1. Go to the Document Library s page. 2. Click on Settings (top right corner), then Manage Fields. 3. On the opened page you ll see all the fields that are available for the Document Library. Let s add a new one! Click on Add then select Choice field. 9

10 4. Enter the following: a. Display name: Type of document b. Name: Typeofdocument (Note: This is to be the system name of your field you need this to be able to create filters, etc. Keep is simple, don t use any wild characters.) c. Options: i. Business Plan ii. Appendix iii. Background Material d. Just leave the other settings intact for the moment. e. Save the field 5. You will see your field appearing. 6. Click Done. 7. Now you see your new field appearing on the list of available fields. 8. Open a document in your list and select one of the available options in your new list field. For the sake of the next exercise, select Background Materials. 10

11 2.4 Adding a new list view You might want to need a new view for your list, eg. you want to filter document according to their type (the field we just created). Do the following: 1. Click on Settings (top right corner of the Document Library list) and then select Manage Views. 2. On the new screen click New. 3. Fill the form just opened don t give a too long name to you view because it won t be displayed nicely. I ll use the following (try it): a. Name: Backgrounds b. Include Document Type as displayed field c. Copy in this Filter: #DocumentType:Background* d. Save your view. 4. You ll see your new View appearing in the list of views (top right corner of the portlet). Select it! 5. Something like this appears: 2.5 Add a new list to the workspace Now that we know how to customize an existing list, let s create a new one! For our Business Planning process, we ll need a Financials list into which members of the planning process can upload the potential expenses for the year

12 Important note! By default, only Memos, Tasks, Calendar and Document Library list type is available for a workspace. If you want to add a completely custom list (like we do now), you need to enable that for your workspace. In order to achieve this, do the following: 1. Go to your workspace s page. 2. Click on Workspace Actions (top right of the page) and select Edit Properties. 3. This gives you the properties page of your workspace, which is essentially the same as the one you saw when you created it. 4. Open the Show Advanced fields settings by clicking on the + icon. 5. Locate the Content Type part of the page, it looks like this: 6. Click Add. 7. In the new window find the List content type. It will be under Generic Content / Folder. 12

13 8. Click on the green + sign next to it, than click OK. You ll see List appearing as an available content type. 9. Click Done Editing to save and close the workspace. 10.You ve enabled your workspace to receive custom lists. To create a new custom list, do the following: 1. Click on Workspace Actions, then select New List. 2. Give the new list a name in the new page (eg. Expenses). 3. Click on the + at Advanced Properties to open some more options. 4. Locate the Content Types setting. 13

14 5. Add List Item into the list of available content types by clicking Add and selecting List Item in the new windows. Note: if you re not doing this, ALL of your portal s fields (yes, each and every one for every content type) will be available in your custom list and you ll go crazy. It s hundreds. 6. Save the new list. 7. You ll see it appearing on the left, in the Workspaces menu. 8. Click on the new list you created (in my case, Expenses). You ll see an empty, default list appearing. It already has some fields eg. Created By, Modified By, Created On, etc. 9. Now let s customize the fields by adding some new one. Click on Settings (top right of the portlet) and select Manage Fields. 10.Add a new field with number type, set it mandatory (you should be able to know how to do it by now ) and don t forget to fill the minimummaximum settings. Save the list. 11.Add some expenses. 14

15 2.6 Modify the summary page of the workspace Okay, we have the Expenses list how to add it to the summary page of the workspace? Do the following: 1. Open the summary page of the workspace. 2. Open the Portal Remote Control and click the screwdriver icon in the middle of the remote to switch to application mode. 3. Now you re on the Smart Application Page of the workspace. Click the pencil to go to Edit Mode. 4. Now you re editing the Smart Application Page. 5. Add a new portlet to the center column. 6. It needs to be the List portlet it is in the Content Collection folder. 15

16 7. Open the portlet properties for editing (top right little arrow of the portlet, Edit). 8. Name it Recent Expenses and select Title Only as display mode. 9. The View Frame should be /Root/System/SystemPlugins/ListView/MiniFrame.ascx, the Default View Recent.ascx. 16

17 10.The Bind Target should be CurrentWorkspace, the Relative content selector path is Expenses (or whatever you named your list its system name!!!). 11.Click OK. Your portlet is configured. 2.7 Create a new workspace template So by now you are familiar with workspaces, you can create lists, modify existing ones, add a new feature to the summary page. 17

18 The next obvious step is creating your own workspace template, from which you can create many more for your company. Let s say Finance needs a workspace. It is almost similar to the Document Workspace, but they need an extra page and an extra portlet to display announcements. This is probably to toughest exercise so far but if you ve been successful so far with this Evaluation Guide and the previous one, you ll do fine. 1. Create a new Content Type Definition for your new workspace template. Go the Explore Mode and create a new CTD in /Root/System/Schema/ContentTypes/GenericContent/Folder/Workspace. 2. Copy this to your CTD: <ContentType name="financeworkspace" parenttype="workspace" handler="sensenet.contentrepository.workspaces.workspace" xmlns=" TypeDefinition"> <DisplayName>Finance workspace</displayname> <Description>A workspace for finance</description> <Icon>workspace-document</Icon> <Fields></Fields> </ContentType> 3. Save the CTD. 4. Create a copy of the DocumentWorkspace folder and its contents in /Root/ContentTemplates. 5. Rename the folder to FinanceWorkspace. 6. Rename the Workspace in it to FinanceWorkspace. 7. Open the workspace for edit and add List as enabled Content Type. 8. Create a Folder called Announcements within the Workspace (on the same level as Calendar, Tasks, etc.) and enable only the Article, Folder and System Folder content type for it. 9. Create an Article in the Announcements folder with a nice welcome message. 10.Create a System Folder called (apps) within your Announcements folder. 11.Create a Folder called This within the (apps) system folder you just created. 12.Create a portlet page called Browse within the This folder you just created. 13.Open this page from Browse, open up the Portal Remote Control and open the page for editing. 14.Add a content collection portlet to display Articles: a. Name your portlet b. Select /Root/Global/renderers/ArticleList.ascx as renderer c. Set context binding to Current Content 18

19 d. Save the portlet 15.Add a portlet to enable users to create new Announcements. a. Add an Action Presenter portlet below the one displaying the Announcements. b. Appearance: None c. Action name: Add d. Action text: Add new announcement e. Set context binding to Current Content f. Save the portlet 16.Check in the page. 17.Modify workspace summary page to add Latest Announcements Portlet a. Open /Root/ContentTemplates/FinanceWorkspace/Finance_Workspace/(ap ps)/this/browse in Explore mode. b. Click Browse. c. Launch the Portal Remote Control and switch to Edit Mode. d. Add a Content Collection Portlet e. Renderer: /Root/Global/renderers/ArticleList.ascx f. Bind Target: Current Workspace g. All Children: checked h. Children Filter: Type:Article i. Sort by: ModificationDate j. Sort descending: checked k. Top: 5 l. Save the portlet. 18.Check in the page 19.Go to /Root/Sites/Default_Site/workspaces/Other in Explore mode. 20.Open the folder s properties for editing and add the new Finance Workspace as an available content type for the folder. This way, if you click New from Others in the UI, you ll have the option to create a Finance Workspace as well. 21.Create a new workspace and have fun! 19