sitecore intranet portal 3.2 user's guide intranet...click diff to view the differences between...

Sitecore Intranet Portal 3.2 User's Guide Rev: 2012-11-20

Sitecore® is a registered trademark. All other brand and product names are the property of their respective holders. The contents of this document are the property of Sitecore. Copyright © 2001-2012 Sitecore. All rights reserved.

Sitecore Intranet Portal 3.2

User's Guide A quick guide to using Sitecore Intranet Portal

Sitecore Intranet Portal 3.2 User's Guide


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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2 Creating and Editing Items .................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Creating an Item ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Draft Items ........................................................................................................................... 6

My Drafts ...................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.2 Sharing Draft Items ............................................................................................................. 8

2.2 Editing an Item ...................................................................................................................... 10 Viewing Page Information .......................................................................................................... 11 Editing Properties Dialog Box .................................................................................................... 12

2.2.1 Editing a Draft Item............................................................................................................ 12 2.2.2 Word Field ......................................................................................................................... 13

Configuring Word Fields ............................................................................................................. 13 Editing a Word Field ................................................................................................................... 14

2.2.3 Inserting Links ................................................................................................................... 15 Inserting an Internal Link ............................................................................................................ 15 Uploading a File ......................................................................................................................... 16 Inserting an External Link ........................................................................................................... 17 Creating and Linking to an Anchor ............................................................................................. 18 Creating an E-mail Link .............................................................................................................. 19

2.3 Attachments .......................................................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Viewing Attachments ......................................................................................................... 20

Viewing Attachments in Internet Explorer .................................................................................. 21 Viewing Attachments in Other Browsers .................................................................................... 21

2.3.2 Editing Attachments .......................................................................................................... 22 Editing Attachments in Internet Explorer .................................................................................... 22 Editing Attachments in Other Browsers ..................................................................................... 25 Displaying Attachments .............................................................................................................. 27

2.3.3 Images ............................................................................................................................... 29 Inserting an Image ..................................................................................................................... 30 Uploading an Image ................................................................................................................... 30

2.4 Deleting an Item .................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 3 Personalizing the Intranet ................................................................................................. 34

3.1 Personalizing the Front Page ................................................................................................ 35 3.1.1 Organizing the Front Page ................................................................................................ 35

Normal ........................................................................................................................................ 35 Layout ......................................................................................................................................... 36 Elements .................................................................................................................................... 36 Edit ............................................................................................................................................. 37 Reset .......................................................................................................................................... 38

3.2 Editing your Personal Settings .............................................................................................. 39 3.2.1 Editing your Personal Profile ............................................................................................. 39 3.2.2 Viewing Updates on Intranet ............................................................................................. 40 3.2.3 Managing Your Favorite Intranet Pages ........................................................................... 40 3.2.4 Filtering News (Data Channeling) ..................................................................................... 40

Chapter 4 Other Features .................................................................................................................. 42 4.1 Project Room......................................................................................................................... 43

4.1.1 Creating a Project Room ................................................................................................... 43 Download List ............................................................................................................................. 44 Forum ......................................................................................................................................... 46 Tagwall ....................................................................................................................................... 48

4.2 RSS Feeds ............................................................................................................................ 49 4.2.1 Subscribing to an Intranet Portal RSS Feed ..................................................................... 51 4.2.2 Subscribing to a Workflow RSS Feed and Workflow State RSS Feed ............................. 53 4.2.3 Using the RSS Feeds ........................................................................................................ 54



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4.3 Other Features ...................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 5 Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 61



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Chapter 1

Introduction

This guide is an introduction to the Sitecore Intranet Portal. It describes the basic tasks that you can perform, such as creating and editing new items, personalizing your front page, and editing your personal profile. It also describes various features that the Sitecore Intranet Portal (SIP) contains.

You can only work in Internet Explorer on Intranet site.

This manual contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1 — Introduction This is an introduction to the manual.

Chapter 2 — Creating and Editing Items Step by step instructions for creating and editing items on the intranet.

Chapter 3 — Personalizing the Intranet Learn how to personalize your front page and edit your personal profile.

Chapter 4 — Other Features This is a description of the project room and its components, as well as other major features of the Sitecore Intranet Portal.

Chapter 5 — Appendix This is a list of the most important item types.



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Chapter 2

Creating and Editing Items

Intranet users are able to create new items and edit existing ones. This chapter contains detailed descriptions of how to create new items, add images and other media files, insert links and other functionality.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Creating an Item

Editing an Item

Attachments

Deleting an Item



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2.1 Creating an Item

On any intranet site, creating a new item is one of the most common tasks that users must perform.

The design of your intranet site is determined by the developers who created it. The templates, style sheets, and placeholders that the developers have defined control the layout, design, and functionality that are contained on your intranet.

To create a new item:

1. Open the intranet and navigate to the section that you want to add a new item to.

At the top right-hand corner of the section, you can see a small collection of buttons:

When you move the mouse over these buttons, they display ToolTips that tell you what each button is for.

2. Click Create .

3. In the dialog box, in the Name field, enter a name for the new item.

4. In the Choose type field, select the type of item that you want to create. The items types that you can select vary depending on the section that you are in.

5. Click Create to create the item and add it to the section.

You can now edit the item and add the content that you want it to contain. When you finish editing the item click Save or Save & Close to publish your page on the intranet site.

2.1.1 Draft Items

A draft item is a page that has been edited and saved but not published. If Draft mode is enabled for a page you can edit the content without it being visible to others. Only you — the author — can see it on the site. When you press Save or Save & Close this page becomes a draft item. The following banner is displayed on the page:

If you want someone else to see this page but still don’t want to publish it on the site, you can share it with them. For more information about sharing draft items, see the Sharing Draft Items section.



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To make a draft visible to everyone, you must publish it. To publish an item that has been saved as a draft item, navigate to the page, and in the banner on the top of the page, click Publish. For more details on publishing draft items, see the Editing a Draft Item section.

Important If the item template that the item is based on doesn’t use Draft mode, the item is published when you save it. Before creating items, contact your Intranet administrator to find out which items templates use Draft mode.

My Drafts

In SIP, you use the My Drafts feature to get an overview of your draft items that you have created. To see a list of the items that you have saved in draft mode, click Edit, then in the Personal Area click My Drafts. Alternatively, in the ribbon, on the Page Editor tab, in the Edit group click My Drafts.

Note The My Drafts link is not displayed above the Personal Area if you do not have any draft items.

The My Drafts feature provides you with information about the items you have created or edited but have not published yet:

The following types of items are displayed in the My Drafts dialog box:

Drafts — your draft items.



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Locked — items locked by clicking Lock when you are editing them.

Workflow — items locked by clicking Lock when you are editing them and assigned to any workflow (except for the Draft workflow) which are not in their final state.

In the My Drafts dialog box, you can:

Click Publish to publish the item. To publish selected items or all the draft items, click Publish (selected) or Publish (all) under the list of the draft items.

Click Preview to see how the item looks when it is published.

Click Open to open the item in the Content Editor.

Click Diff to view the differences between the item versions.

Click Unlock to unlock the item. To unlock selected items or all the locked items, click Unlock (selected) or Unlock (all) under the list of the locked items.

For intranets which use other workflows (not the Draft workflow), some additional functionality may be available in My Drafts:

Click Submit to submit the item to the next workflow state.

Click Approve to approve the item and move it to the final state of the workflow.

Click Reject to reject the item and move it to the previous workflow state using the.

Note If you submit, approve, or reject the item in the My Drafts dialog box, the item is processed automatically and disappears from the My Drafts list.

2.1.2 Sharing Draft Items

The Sitecore Intranet Portal allows you to share your draft items. A draft item is not visible to other users on a site until it is published, but you can send a link to a draft page to your colleagues.

The recipient can:

See the draft page.

Edit the draft page.

Publish the draft page.

Share a link to the draft page with others.

To share a draft page in Internet Explorer:

1. Navigate to the draft item

2. Click Share and a link is copied to the clipboard immediately.

To share a draft page in any other browser:

1. Right-click Share link and then click Copy Link Address.

2. Paste this link to an e-mail or a chat window and send it to the person you want to share it with.



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Important Sharing a draft with another user means that they will be able to view and edit this draft. The user with whom you have shared the draft will only be able to see the draft if they do not have the rights to edit it.



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2.2 Editing an Item

After you have created an item, you can edit it. Sitecore Intranet Portal allows content authors to edit items directly on the Intranet Portal with the Page Editor. The Page Editor is the simplest of the editing tools that SIP contains. It is designed for inexperienced content editors who edit and write content items directly on the page. It is a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) and limits the amount of functionality that is presented to the user.

To edit an item:

1. Navigate to the item that you want to edit.

2. Click the Edit to activate the Page Editor.

3. Click Ribbon to expand the Edit ribbon.

Note The View tab is available only for users with administrator’s rights.

4. In text fields, you can enter the appropriate text, format the text, as well as insert links and images.

5. For example, you can make the text bold, italic, or underlined.

6. If you prefer, you can write all the text in Microsoft Word and then paste it into the field.

When you paste from Word, you can:

o Paste from Word and remove all the fonts and sizes.

o Paste As plain text.



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o Paste as HTML.

When you have finished editing the item, click:

o Save to save the changes.

o Save & Close to save the changes and close the Page Editor.

o Close to close the Page Editor without saving the changes.

Viewing Page Information

Sitecore Intranet Portal allows you to view information about the page you are on. Click Show page

information on the page you are interested in:

This is how Page Information window looks:

The Page Information pop-up window provides the following information:

Page version. Every time the page is edited, SIP adds a new version of the item, and all previous versions are shown here.

Page status. This can be In Progress — when the item is being edited or Published — when the item is published.

Who created/edited the page.

When the page was updated.

The Page Information window may also display a message explaining why you are not allowed to edit the page. This could be, for example, if someone else is editing this page at the moment, or if you don’t have the rights to edit the page.



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Editing Properties Dialog Box

You cannot edit every field directly on the page. You can use the Properties dialog box to edit these fields:

1. Click Ribbon to display the ribbon, then in the Page Editor tab in the Edit group, click Properties to open the Properties dialog box:

2. In the Properties dialog box, edit the field you want to.

The list of editable fields can be configured by intranet administrators. If the field that you want to edit is not included in the list of editable fields, they might have decided only to make the field editable by administrators or users who have access to the Content Editor.

2.2.1 Editing a Draft Item

When you open a draft item it displays a banner informing you that this is a draft item:

When you are finished editing the draft item, click Save and then click Close or click Save & Close to save your changes. Your updated draft item is not published yet.

You can:

Click Publish to publish updated item’s version.

Click Discard to discard all your changes. This command deletes all the changes you made since the last time it was published. The last published version is displayed on the intranet.

Note A SIP administrator can modify draft mode by deciding to display or hide some commands in the banner, such as Submit, Approve and so on.

A modified version of draft mode may, for example, require your manager to approve items before you can publish them. In this case, the author of the item and the manager can also use workflow RSS feeds or workflow state RSS feeds to monitor the items that they should update or approve. For more information about workflow RSS feeds, see the Subscribing to a Workflow RSS Feed and Workflow State RSS Feed section.



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For more details about draft mode, see the Draft Items section.

2.2.2 Word Field

Sitecore Intranet Portal supports using Microsoft Word as the text editor. People who are familiar with Word may prefer using this tool to edit lengthy pieces of content, or to insert pictures as well as graphs in a format they are used to. These Word fields are defined in the template by the developer who creates the Intranet site.

You can edit Word fields in the Page Editor.

Important You must have Microsoft Word 2007 installed on your computer to edit Word fields in Sitecore. Sitecore Word fields are only supported on Internet Explorer 7 and later.

Configuring Word Fields

If you are using Internet Explorer 8, the first time you access a Word field in Sitecore, you will receive a message telling you that your security settings won‘t let you run ActiveX controls on the page

If this is the case, you must configure Internet Explorer to support Word fields in Sitecore.

To configure Internet Explorer to support the Word fields:

1. Ensure that you only have one instance of Internet Explorer open.

2. In Internet Explorer, click Tools (ALT-T), and then click Internet Options.

3. In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Security tab, and then click Trusted Sites.



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4. In the Security level for this zone section, click Custom level, and the Security Settings - Trusted Sites Zone dialog box appears.

5. In the Security Settings - Trusted Sites Zone dialog box, in the Settings section scroll down to the ActiveX controls and plug-ins node.

6. In the Automatic prompting for ActiveX controls section, click Enable.

7. Click OK to accept the changes that you made.

Now when you access a Word field in Sitecore, you are prompted to install an ActiveX component.

8. Click Install to install the component.

When the component is installed, you can edit the field in Word.

Note After you have installed this ActiveX component, you should consider undoing these changes and going back to the original security settings.

Editing a Word Field

To edit a Word field:

1. Run Edit mode by clicking Edit



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2. Move the mouse over a Word field and it displays a Word icon.

3. Click Edit to open a new window displaying the content of this field in Word.

You have access to all the functionality that Word contains.

4. To insert a Sitecore link to another item on your Intranet site, click Insert a Link.

5. To insert an image from the Media Library, click Insert Media.

6. To insert an image that is not in the Media Library, use Word’s functionality.

You should upload any images that you want to use regularly to the Media Library.

7. When you are finished editing the Word field, click Accept to save your changes and close the window.

8. To maximize the window, click Maximize.

9. To restore the maximized window, click Restore.

10. To close the window without saving your changes, click Reject.

For more information about Word, see Microsoft’s documentation.

2.2.3 Inserting Links

When you edit a text field, you can also insert a link to another item on the intranet or to a Web site on the internet.

Inserting an Internal Link

To insert a link to another item on the intranet:

1. In the text field, select the text that you want to use as a link.



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Click Insert Link .

2. In the Insert a Link window, in the Internal Link tab, select the item that you want to link to.

The content tree lists all of the items that make up your intranet.

If you want to create a link to another file, such as an image, a Word file, or a spreadsheet, click the Media Items tab.

3. In the media library content tree, locate the file that you want to link to.

4. Click Link to create the link.

Uploading a File

If the file that you want to create a link to is not available in the Media Library, you can upload it and then create a link to it.



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To upload a file:

1. In the Insert a Link window, click the Media Items tab.

Click Upload to open the Upload a File dialog box.

2. Click Browse and locate the file that you want to upload to the Media Library. You can now create a link to this file.

Inserting an External Link

You can also insert a link to an external Web site.

To insert an external link:

1. In the text field click the Edit Text.

2. In the Webpage Dialog window select the text that you want to use as a link.



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3. Click Hyperlink Manager. Do not confuse it with the InsertSitecoreLink button.

In the Hyperlink Manager dialog box, fill in all the appropriate fields and click OK.

Field Meaning

URL The Web site that you want the link to point to.

Existing Anchor The anchor on the page that you want the link to point to.

Link Text The link text that intranet users see on the page – this is the text you selected.

Type The kind of hyperlink that you want to create.

Target You can ignore this field and select the target from the Target (options) droplist.

Target (options) The way the hyperlink opens. You can select the following options: New Window — The link opens in a new window. Parent Window — The links opens in a parent window. Same Window — The links opens in the same window. Browser Window — The links opens in a browser window. Search Pane — The links opens in the search pane. Media Pane — The links opens in the media pane.

Tooltip The text that appears as a ToolTip when the user moves their mouse over the link.

CSS Class The way the hyperlink will be displayed

Creating and Linking to an Anchor

You can create an anchor in the text on the page and link a spot on the same page to this anchor.

To create an anchor:

1. In the text field click Edit Text.

2. In the Webpage Dialog window select the words that you want to use as an anchor.

3. Click Hyperlink Manager .



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Click the Anchor tab.

4. In the Name field, enter a name for the new anchor and click OK.

To create a link to the anchor:

1. Select a word or an area in the text that you want to link to the anchor you created earlier.

2. Click the Hyperlink Manager .

3. In the Hyperlink tab, in the Existing Anchor field, select the anchor that you just created from the list of available anchors.

4. Click OK.

Creating an E-mail Link

You can also create a link that opens the user’s e-mail program and enters the recipients e-mail address when they click the link.

To create an e-mail link:

1. In the text field, click Edit Text.

2. In the Webpage Dialog window, select the words that you want to use as an e-mail link.

3. Click Hyperlink Manager .

4. In the Hyperlink Manager dialog box, click the E-mail tab.

5. In the Address field, enter the e-mail address that the e-mail will be sent to.

6. The Link Text field displays the text you selected earlier.

7. In the Subject field, enter the subject for the e-mail.

8. Click OK and save the changes.



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2.3 Attachments

Sitecore Intranet Portal gives you the ability to view and attach various files to an Intranet page: images, documents, music, video, and so on. This is done in the Attachments section. The Intranet Portal allows you to use drag-and-drop functionality to add files to the Attachments section. You can drag-and-drop files from the Windows desktop or a Windows Explorer window to the SIP drag-and-drop window to add your file to the Attachments section. You can also change where your attachments are displayed on the page by changing the Attachments view. This is how attached files look on a page:

Note If you are using the Drag & Drop or Attachments functionalities and are logged in as a domain user, you must have access to the network. If you do not have access the Drag & Drop and Attachments features will not function correctly.

Internet Explorer supports the drag-and-drop feature, but most other browsers do not. Working with attachments is different in Internet Explorer than it is in other browsers.

Important Attachments must be enabled in the item template to display them on an Intranet page. Contact your Sitecore administrator concerning this question.

2.3.1 Viewing Attachments

If a page contains attached media files, you can easily view them.



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Viewing Attachments in Internet Explorer

To view an attached file, click it.

The file opens in the default program for that file type.

The file is opened in Read-Only mode. This means that you can view and edit the file but you can only save it to a local disk. To learn how to edit a file directly on the server, see the Editing Attachments section.

Viewing Attachments in Other Browsers

You can open or save the file to the local disk.

To view an attached file:

1. Click the file you are interested in.



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2. In the Opening dialog box, select the Open with option and click Ok.

The file opens in the default program for that file type.

2.3.2 Editing Attachments

You cannot edit an attached file if it is being edited by another user. In this case, an attached file will appear with a “locked” icon:

Editing Attachments in Internet Explorer

When you are in Edit mode, you can work with an attached file in the same way as a local file. Right-click on the attached file to copy it, delete it, and so on. Every change that you make to the file is saved on the server. You can also save it wherever you want (local disk, flash memory, and so on). When you edit the attached file, Sitecore Intranet Portal creates a new version of this attachment.

To add or edit a file:

1. Click Edit on the page that you want to update.



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2. In the edit frame click Manage Attachments and then click Manage Files.

3. The Drag & Drop window opens. You can use two types of drag & drop window with Sitecore Intranet Portal:

o The Sitecore Drag & Drop dialog box:



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o The Windows Explorer window:

4. To add a file, drag-and-drop it from a separate window to the Drag & Drop window.

If you use the Windows Explorer drag & drop window, new attachments are only displayed after you save the changes and update the page or click Save & Close.

5. To edit a file: double click the file that you want to update, edit the file, and save your changes.

6. Click Done to close the Drag & Drop window.

If you use the Windows Explorer drag & drop window, close it.

7. Click Save & Close to exit Edit mode.

Note The way the Drag & Drop window is displayed depends on the local settings on your computer.

You can add a description and some keywords to the attached file by entering information in the Description and Keywords fields.

Note Some Attachment views do not display the Description and Keywords fields.



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Click the Show History button to see additional information about the file:

In the Show History pop-up window you can:

See why you cannot edit an attached file.

See the file’s version number and status.

See which user edited each version and when they edited it.

Open previous versions of the attached file in Read-Only mode.

Editing Attachments in Other Browsers

You can also add and delete files in other browsers. You cannot edit a file directly on the intranet site.

To add or delete a file:

1. Click the Edit button on the page that you want to update.

2. In the edit frame, click Manage Attachments and then click Manage Files.



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3. The Manage Media Files dialog box opens:

4. To add file on the server, click Upload, then click Browse,

5. Select the file that you want to add.

6. To delete a file, in the Manage Media Files dialog box, select it, right-click it and then click Delete.

7. Click OK to close Manage Media Files dialog box.

You can add a description and some keywords to the attached file by entering information in the Description and Keywords fields.

Note Some Attachment views do not display the Description and Keywords fields.

The attached file can be updated several times and therefore may contain several versions. Click the

Show History button to view the attached file information:

In the Show History pop-up window you can:



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View the file’s version number and status.

See which user edited each version and when they edited it.

Open and view previous versions of the attached file in Read-Only mode.

Displaying Attachments

By default, Attachments are displayed on the right-hand sidebar. To change this location, change the Attachments view:

1. Click Edit

2. To expand the ribbon, click Ribbon.

3. On the Page Editor tab, click Properties.

4. In the Properties dialog box, in the File Drop Area View select the way that you want to display the attachment and click OK.

5. Click Save & Close to leave Edit mode.

Note The new Attachments view is applied only when the changes are saved.

The following Attachments views are available:

Icons and Descriptions Content View



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Icons Content View

Icons Horizontal Content View

Icons Side Bar View



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Inline Icons and Descriptions Content View

This view looks the same as the Icons and Descriptions Content View while viewing attachments, but differs from that view while editing attachments.

Table Content View

Note If none of the views fit your needs, contact your Sitecore administrator to customize the view.

To hide the Attachments section use the procedure described above and choose Don’t show attachments for the File Drop Area View parameter.

2.3.3 Images

You can insert images into items on the intranet.



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Inserting an Image

To insert an image into an item:

1. In the editor, locate an Image field. If no image is currently inserted into the image field, a placeholder image will be displayed on the page:

2. Click Choose Image to open the Media Browser:

3. In the Media Browser dialog box, select the image that you want to use and click OK and then image is inserted into the Image field.

Note Pages using the Word field do not contain this Image field. You can paste an image into the Word document directly when editing a Word field.

Uploading an Image

If the image you want to use is not available in the Media Library, you can upload it to the Media Library and then insert it into the item.

There are two ways to upload images in Sitecore Intranet Portal:

Upload files

Drag and Drop files



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To upload an image file:

1. In the Media Browser, click Upload.

2. In the Intranet Upload dialog box, click Browse and locate the image that you want to use.

To drag and drop an image file:

1. In the Media Library, select the folder that you want to upload the files to.

2. Click Drag & Drop to open the Drag & Drop dialog box:

3. Open Windows Explorer.



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4. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder where the images are stored and select the images you want to upload.

5. Position the Windows Explorer window next to the Drag & Drop dialog box.

6. Drag the selected images from Windows Explorer to the Drag & Drop dialog box.

7. Click Done to close the Drag & Drop dialog box.

Once the image has been uploaded to the Media Library, you can insert it into an item.



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2.4 Deleting an Item

You can delete items that you do not want to be displayed on the intranet any more.

To delete an item:

1. On the intranet, locate the item that you want to delete.

2. Click Edit.

3. Click Ribbon on the top of the page to activate the ribbon.

4. In the Page Editor tab click Delete and the item is deleted.

Note You can use this procedure to delete an unpublished draft item.



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Chapter 3

Personalizing the Intranet

Sitecore Intranet Portal users can personalize the front page that they see when they log in. Furthermore, they can edit the personal information about them that is stored on the intranet.


Personalizing the Front Page

Editing your Personal Settings



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3.1 Personalizing the Front Page

You can personalize the front page of the intranet by selecting the items that you want to see and arranging them to suit your needs. The way you organize items on the front page will only be seen by you. Each user can personalize their own front page.

3.1.1 Organizing the Front Page

You use the Personalize your front page panel in the top right corner of the front page to organize the items that are displayed on the front page.

The Personalize your frontpage panel contains the following options:

Normal

Layout

Elements

Edit

Reset

Click the arrow to expand the panel and see some information about each option.

Move the mouse over a button to see the help text for that option.

Normal

In normal mode, all the elements are ‘glued’ to the page. You browse the intranet in normal mode.

In the top right-hand corner of an element, click the arrow to see the actions you can perform on the item.

In normal mode, you can:

Minimize an element.

Restore an element that has been minimized.



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Close an element.

When you close an element, you do not delete it, you just remove it from the front page.

You can restore any element that you have removed from the front page. To learn how to restore an element, see the section Elements, on page. 36.

Layout

You can also move the elements around the page and place them where you want.

To move an element:

1. In the Personalize your front page panel, click Layout.

2. Place your mouse over the bar of the element that you want to move.

3. Drag the element to the area on the page that you want to move it to.

4. You can place the element anywhere in the current zone or move it to another zone. The element will be resized to fit the zone that you place it in.

Elements

You can also add or remove elements from the front page.

To add en element:

1. In the Personalize your frontpage panel, click Elements and the Elements section appears:

The elements section contains two catalogs:

o My catalog — this catalog contains the elements that you closed. Click My catalog to see these elements. You can place them in any zone you want.

o Shared catalog — this catalog contains all the available elements.

The number in brackets indicates the number of elements in the catalog.



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2. Select a catalog to see the elements that it contains:

3. Select the element that you want to add to the front page.

4. In the Add to field, select the zone that you want to add the element to.

5. Click Add and the element is displayed at the top of the zone. You can then reposition the element anywhere in the zone.

Edit

You can change the configuration of some of the elements on the front page. For example, in the default installation, the elements in the shared catalog have configuration options.

Note Every intranet site can be designed differently and you should therefore be aware that some elements may not have any configuration options while others may have more configuration options.

To change the configuration of an element:

1. In the Personalize your frontpage panel, click Edit.

2. In the element that you want to edit, click the arrow at the top of the element:

3. In the dropdown list, click Edit to open the Edit panel on the right-hand side of the page.



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4. In the Select a configuration item field, select the option that you want to use.

5. Click Apply to save the changes or click Save to save the changes and close the panel.

Reset

You can easily restore the front page to its original design.

Click Reset, to restore the default settings for the front page.



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3.2 Editing your Personal Settings

Apart from personalizing your intranet front page, you can customize your personal settings. When you change your personal information, you can:

Edit your personal profile.

View the updates that have been made to the intranet.

Manage your favorites.

Filter the news that you want to see.

3.2.1 Editing your Personal Profile

To edit your personal profile, in the Personal Area panel, click Edit .

In the editor, you can change all the information in your personal profile. The information that you can edit includes your:

Name

Title

Date of Birth

Local Phone number

Canteen

Image (your photo)

Interests

Preferred language

And so on

Click Save to save the changes.



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3.2.2 Viewing Updates on Intranet

To see a list of the latest changes that have been made to the intranet, in the Personal area panel, click Updates.

Click on an update to read the item in question.

3.2.3 Managing Your Favorite Intranet Pages

Sitecore Intranet allows you to manage your favorite intranet pages or favorites.

You can view your favorites in the Add to Favorites area.

To add an intranet page to your favorites, navigate to the page in question and then click Add to

Favorites . This page now appears in your list of favourites.

Note

The Add to Favorites button is only displayed when you are on a page that is not one of your favorites.

To delete a favorite from the list, click the button beside the entry.

3.2.4 Filtering News (Data Channeling)

You can define which kinds of news you want to subscribe to.



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To filter the news items, navigate to the News page.

To create a custom news subscription:

1. Click Mine and then click Edit to open the Data channeling panel:

2. In the Data channeling panel, select the types of news that you want to subscribe to.

3. If you click Use profile settings, the settings you set in your personal profile are imported into the News page and will be used.

4. Click the upward arrow to close the Data channeling panel.

The changes are saved automatically.

To view the news that you subscribed to, click Mine.

You can also see the data channeling filter on:

the news item

your user profile

To make news items available for filtering, set data channeling filter on the news item. For example, when you select the Management check box in the news item, it can be seen by users who select the Management check box in their filter on the News page.

If you use the filtering often, you can make pre-sets in your personal profile. Use the data channeling filter when you have to filter a number of check box options.



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Chapter 4 Other Features

This chapter describes some other important features that can be added to intranet sites. These features include: project rooms, RSS feeds, download list, forum, tagwall, calendar, phonebook, slideshows, quick polls, and some others.


Project Room

RSS Feeds

Other Features



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4.1 Project Room

You can use a project room to store information about the project, such as all the documents that describe the project, discussion forums, and message boards.

Project rooms can include:

Document libraries

Forums

Tagwalls

4.1.1 Creating a Project Room

To create a project room:

1. Navigate to the Project Rooms page and click Create .

2. In the dialog box, in the Name field, enter the name of the new project room

3. Click Create and the new project room is created.

The editor opens so that you can enter the details about the new project room.

4. In the editor, enter all the appropriate information and click Save.

5. The project room is displayed in the left-hand menu.

When you create a project room, the following elements are added to it automatically:

Download list

Forum

Tagwall



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Download List

The download list allows you to upload, view, and download images and files.

To add a file to the download list:

1. Navigate to the download list page and click Create .

2. In the dialog box, enter the file name, and click Create.

3. In the editor, enter a short description of the file.

4. In the File text field, click Edit link.

5. In the Media Library, select the document that you want to add to the download list.

If the file is not available in the Media Library, you can upload it.

For more information about uploading files, see the Uploading a File section.



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6. Click OK.

7. In the editor, click Save.

When you have added a file to the download list, it looks like this:

To download the file, click Download .

To change the uploaded file or image, click Edit and then in the editor, edit the fields you that you want to change. Click Save to save the changes.

To delete a file, select the file, open the editor and then click Delete on the ribbon.



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To delete the download list, click Edit above the list to open the editor for the download list and then click Delete on the ribbon.

Forum

You can use a forum to allow intranet users to discuss a particular topic. Intranet users can create topics, as well as post comments and replies to all the topics in the forum.

To create a forum:

1. Navigate to the Forum page, and click Create .

2. In the dialog box, enter the name of the forum and click Create.



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3. In the editor, enter the appropriate information and click Save.

To create a topic:

1. Navigate to the forum that you want to add topics to and click Create .

2. In the dialog box, enter the name for the topic and click Create.

The topic appears in the forum.

To create an answer to an entry in the debate:

1. Click the existing forum entry to be forwarded to the entry page. Click Answer.



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2. Enter your answer to the entry and click OK.

To delete a topic from the forum:

1. Navigate to the topic.

2. Click Edit .

3. In the editor, click Delete.

Tagwall

A tagwall is a message board that you use to post quick messages (or tags) for informal, as opposed to corporate, communication. A tagwall is created automatically when you create a project room, but you can create tagwalls in any areas of the intranet.

To create a tag:

1. Navigate to the Tagwall page, and click Create .

2. In the dialog box, enter the name of the tag, and click Create.

3. In the editor, enter the information that you want this message to contain, and click Save.

To delete a tag, navigate to the tag, open the editor, and click Delete.



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4.2 RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a Web feed that is used to publish frequently updated material — such as blogs, news headlines, audio, video, and so on — in a standardized format. An RSS feed can contain either the full text of the material or a summarized version, as well as metadata, such as, publishing dates, and authorship.

RSS feeds allow publishers to syndicate content automatically. Conversely, Web site visitors can subscribe to these feeds and automatically receive updates from their favorite Web sites.

Web site visitors subscribe to a feed by clicking an RSS icon in a browser and this initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly to see if there are any updates and then downloads the updates that it finds, and provides the Web site visitor with an interface to monitor and read the feeds.

Note RSS Feeds are displayed on the user preferred language. For more information about how to set the user preferred language, see the Editing your Personal Profile section.

As Sitecore Intranet Portal is normally located inside the local network you cannot read feeds using RSS readers located outside your network, like, for example, Google Reader.

Sitecore Intranet Portal contains the following client feeds by default: intranet portal feeds, workflow state feeds, and workflow feeds.

Intranet Portal Feeds

These RSS Feeds deliver the content of the updated pages: a page body, images, title, short introduction and so on. The exact content of the RSS Feed is set up by a SIP administrator. Intranet Portal RSS Feed may contain updates for all sub-pages as well as the updates for the current page only. Here is an example of how an Intranet Portal RSS Feed would look in Microsoft Outlook:

There are three types of default RSS Feed in Sitecore Intranet Portal:

Content feeds:

i) Contain all the updates to a page:

o Are used by all the feeds on the Intranet site except for the Updates page and News section pages.

o Contain only one feed for each intranet page that you have subscribed to. It does not matter how many times the page has been updated – this feed is updated automatically.

o Include updates for all the sub-pages of the page that the user has subscribed to.

News section feeds contain the new articles in the News pages:



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o Use the data channeling settings on your profile to filter the news updates which will be included in the feed. For more details about filtering news read the Filtering News (Data Channeling) section.

o Only contain updates to news pages.

Updates feeds contain more advanced information for each update to a page.

o New feeds are generated every time a new record is added to the Updates page.

Workflow State Feeds

These RSS feeds contain information about a particular step in a workflow that you are interested in. It includes information about any items which have been moved to the specific workflow state that you have subscribed to.

This client feed is useful for content authors and managers who only have access to particular workflow states. If, for example you are a manager who approves content for publishing to the intranet site, you might want to be informed about all the items that are ready to be published. In this case you should subscribe to the final workflow state. In this example, you should subscribe to the “Awaiting Approval” workflow state:

Then you can use the direct link to approve the item and publish it on the site or reject it.

Workflow Feeds

These RSS Feeds contain information about all the steps in a workflow: workflow history, item version changes, and validation information. Workflow RSS Feeds are used when you want to monitor all the



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items in a specific workflow.

4.2.1 Subscribing to an Intranet Portal RSS Feed

When a visitor logs on to the Intranet site they can easily subscribe to an RSS feed to receive information about the updated content of the page they have subscribed to.



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To subscribe to the RSS feed:

1. Navigate to the intranet page that you want to follow up.

2. Click RSS Feed at the top of the page.

3. Click Subscribe to this feed in the displayed window. For example, it may look like the one on the following image:

You have now subscribed to this feed and can read it in your default RSS feed client (usually this is Internet Explorer, but it can also be configured to use, for example, Microsoft Outlook).

To be able to read the RSS feed in Microsoft Outlook, do the following:

1. Navigate to the intranet page that you want to follow up.

2. Right click RSS Feed at the top of the page, and click Copy Shortcut.

3. Run Microsoft Outlook and browse to the RSS Feeds folder.

4. Right click RSS Feeds folder, select Add a new RSS Feed.

5. In the New RSS Feed window, paste (Ctrl+V) the RSS feed link copied in step 2 and then click Add.



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6. In the Microsoft Office Outlook dialog, click Yes to finish the procedure or click Advanced for further configuration.

You have now subscribed to this feed. When you open Microsoft Outlook, you can click the appropriate RSS feed folder, under the RSS Feeds folder, to see a list of all the subscribed feeds.

Tip To follow up all updates on the Intranet site, subscribe to the RSS Feed on the Updates page.

Important Do not share your RSS Feeds links. If someone else gains access to the URL of the RSS feed they can view the content of the feed, but cannot perform any actions on the content and cannot gain access to your credentials.

4.2.2 Subscribing to a Workflow RSS Feed and Workflow State RSS Feed

Sitecore Intranet Portal contains workflow feeds that you can subscribe to. Workflow feeds contain all the workflow information: workflow history, item version changes and validation information. Use the appropriate links in the feed to submit, approve, or reject an item version and edit it.

To subscribe to a workflow feed:

1. Click Edit on an intranet page.

2. On the Edit Ribbon, in the Page Editor tab click Workbox to open the Workbox.

3. To subscribe to the workflow feed, click the RSS feed for the workflow. To use another RSS Reader, copy the URL of the opened Web page and paste it to your reader.

4. To subscribe to a workflow state feed, click the RSS feed for the workflow state. To use another RSS Reader, copy the URL of the opened Web page and paste it to your reader.



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4.2.3 Using the RSS Feeds

When you have subscribed to a workflow or workflow state feed, you can perform all the workflow commands you have the rights to perform using the Page Editor in Sitecore. For example:

Approve or approve and add a comment

Reject or reject and add a comment

Submit or submit and add a comment

Publish or publish and add a comment

Edit an item

For example, in the following RSS feed:

The user can:

Submit the item.

Submit the item and insert a comment.

Edit the item.



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If you click Submit, the following page appears:

Important You must select the Remember me check box on the Sitecore login page to perform these tasks without having to log in. If you haven’t selected the Remember me check box, you must log in before you are directed to the appropriate page.



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4.3 Other Features

The Sitecore Intranet Portal contains a number of additional features that you can use, including:

News

Calendar

Phonebook

Slideshow

Quick Polls

Contact

Send to a Friend

Blogs

Search

Some of these features, such as news, calendar, phonebook, slideshow, contact, and blogs are displayed as pages. The News feature is displayed in the following image:

Others features, such as quick polls, send to a friend, and search are displayed as sections. Search looks like this:

Some features can be added to the intranet by users who have the appropriate permissions. Other features can be only added by intranet administrators and developers.

News

You use the News feature to create, edit, and delete news sections. Furthermore, you can create, edit, and delete news items within each news section.

You can use data channeling to filter the items in the news sections. For more information about data channeling, see the Filtering News (Data Channeling) section.



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Activity Calendar

You use the Calendar to advertise activities on the intranet. You can add, edit, and delete activities.

To access the calendar, click Calendar at the top of the page you are on.

To search for an activity, enter some text in the search form and click Search.

Phonebook

You use the phonebook to search for information about employees on the intranet.

To access the phonebook, click Phonebook at the top of the page you are on.

Enter your search criteria in the appropriate field and click Search.



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Slideshow

You use the Slideshow feature to view a collection of photographs in a slideshow.

When you edit a slideshow, you can upload and delete pictures from the slideshow.

Quick Polls

You use the Quick Polls feature to add polls to your intranet. You can use these polls to learn and evaluate the opinion of the employees on a given topic. Quick polls can only be created by intranet administrators.

Send to a Friend

You use this feature to send a link to any page on the intranet in an e-mail to a friend.



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To send a link to an e-mail address:

1. On the page that you want to forward to another person, click Send to a Friend

2. In the To field, enter the e-mail address that you want to send the message to.

3. In the Message field, enter your message.

4. Click Send to send the message.

Blogs

The Blogs feature allows you to create and edit posts and blogs.

Use the Blogs feature to create and edit blog entries. Users can add comments to blog entries.

Search

You use the search feature to look for entries on the intranet. The search function searches all of the items on the intranet.

There are two types of search — simple search and advanced search.

Use the simple search to browse your intranet data by keyword(s).



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Click Advanced search to access the advanced search options.

With advanced search, you can search for keywords and you can specify that the search should include all the documents and files on the intranet and that it should search all the different languages that the intranet contains. Use the advanced search to find attachments.

Note Using advanced search you can only find documents and files that were uploaded on the intranet as attachments or uploaded to the Download list items.



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Chapter 5

Appendix

Content Item

Use this type of item to fill a content page.

Intranet DocumentList Item

Use this type of item to create a list of items. The items can contain various types of content, such as text, links and images.

Intranet DocumentList Paged

Use this type of item to create a paged list of items.

Intranet DownloadList Item

Use this type of item to create a list of downloadable files.

Intranet File Item

Use this type of item to add a file to the list of downloadable files.

Intranet Forum Item

Use this type of item to create an Intranet Forum.

Intranet ForumItem Item

Use this type of item to create an Intranet topic.

Intranet Menu Item

Use this type of item to create an Intranet Menu. You can also use this type of item to create other content items that are similar to the Menu Item.

Intranet Tagwall Tag

Use this type of item not only to create tags on a tagwall. Select it, if you want to add entries to an auction or other similar message boards.

Intranet Weblog Archive

Use this type of item to create the archive for your web log.

News section

Use this type of item to create a news section, for example, Sales News. You can also use it to create similar items, such as a jobs section.

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