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IBM Web Content Manager (WCM) has added many areas of improved functionality in Version 7.0.
This section describes some of the key improvements in Version 7.0 of the product.
Improved authoring user interface views
The Web Content Manager Version 7.0 authoring portlet has been revamped for a cleaner and more user friendly experience. There have been many improvements. Here are just some of the improvements.
Library Explorer navigation
The Library Explorer navigation allows for quick access to some of the views within the authoring portlet:
Different view structures
Within the authoring portlet navigation, you can choose between flat or tree views:
Flat view:
Tree view:
Improved quick navigation
Along the top of the navigation within the authoring portlet, users now have access to a mechanism for more quickly navigating through the items within the libraries. This allows for more user friendly experience.
Improved filtering capabilities
When navigating through many items in the same view, it is often easier to find what you are looking for by filtering the items within the view. Web Content Manager has added an improved filter selection interface:
Favorites
The updated authoring portlet allows users to select favorite items and views. This makes it easier to access these items in the future.
To mark an item a favorite is very easy. The heart allows you to select and deselect an item as a favorite.
API enhancements
There have been various enhancements to the Web Content Manager API in version 7.0.
Check the Web Content Manager API javadoc
for the full list of operations available in the Web Content Manager API.
Syndication API
Web Content Manager now allows some syndication operations to be performed using the Web Content Manager API. Users can retrieve status, view the numbers of items in the last syndication event, push an update or a rebuild event to the syndicator and subscriber objects.
Query API
Web Content Manager Version 7.0 has added a great deal of functionality with the new query API. It is now possible to retrieve Web Content Manager objects using the API by creating queries to run against the repository. In the past versions, you could do very simple retrieval such as selecting by exact name or all items of a specific type. Now, there are many more options of how to retrieve items, as well as the availability to sort the results.
Custom plugin API
Web Content Manager Version 7.0 has added the ability for custom plugins to be used to allow for extended functionality. Plugins can be created to provide custom workflow actions, validation plugins for file attachments, custom localized text during authoring, and plugins that can be used during rendering.
Projects and folders
One of the great new features that has been added to Web Content Manager is the ability to group items in projects and folders.
Folders is a way to group items within the authoring portlet. You can group authoring templates, presentation templates, and library components within folders. This makes managing content easier for authors, as it is possible to group items within the same library under folders.
Projects on the other hand provide more than just the ability to group items in a common location. One of the difficulties that content authors have had is the challenge of publishing a group of items all at the same time. For example, if you have an announcement concerning a new product launch, there may be many Web Content Manager assets that are related to this announcement. It may be difficult to line up all of these items to publish at the same time, because some items may have to go through workflow and some do not, so it is not possible to set future publish date. Also, there is no guarantee that all items related to the announcement would be ready by announcement time.
Projects solve this problem by allowing multiple items to be placed within the same project. Then, when the condition to publish the project is complete, all items within the project will be published. The project owner has control over how the project will be published, whether manually, automatically (when all items in the project are pending publish), or based on a specific date.
See the infocenter for more information on Projects
File resource based content objects
There are times that content administrators will want to use menus to return links to both content and files. With Web Content Manager Version 7.0, it is now possible to create an authoring template that will return the link to the file embedded into the content, instead of the link to the content, when the content is returned by a menu, navigator, search result, or link to the content.
The end result of this is that links directly to the embedded file resource element can be returned instead of the link to the content itself. This functionality is useful when trying to generate lists of links to files stored within Web Content Manager.
Taxonomy based option selection elements
When creating content in Web Content Manager, authors have the ability to profile these items with categories. In the past, there was no way to modify the way that the category selection dialog was built. In order to aid with that, Web Content Manager has added the ability to tie option selection elements within a content object to Web Content Manager categories. This allows for easier selection of categories by the content authors, and also allows customizing the selection element by using a custom JSP within the element.
Workflow enhancements
Workflow has always been one of the main strengths of the product. With Version 7.0, additional functionality has been added to make using workflows even more powerful.
Multiple drafts
In Version 7.0, Web Content Manager now allows content authors to create more than one draft version of a published object. In the past, only one draft object was allowed at a time. Now, you can have multiple drafts of the same workflow item:
Reject to prior stage
Since its inception, Web Content Manager has allowed workflow items to be rejected. However, that always meant that the item would return to the first stage in the workflow. Now, workflows have been enhanced to allow content to be sent back to the prior stage, instead of only back to the first stage in the workflow. You will be able to sent to the prior stage or still reject or restart the workflow.
To use this functionality, the workflow stage must be configured to allow items to return to the previous stage:
See the infocenter for more information on the previous stage button.
Workflow API methods for non-content items
In addition to the workflow enhancements that have been made to Web Content Manager, the API has also been extended to allow workflow operations on non-content items. In the past, any non-content item that went through workflow would not be able to be modified using the Web Content Manager API. In Version 7.0, however, it is possible to perform workflow operations on non-content objects using the Web Content Manager API.
Check the Web Content Manager API javadoc
JSR286 portlet features
The web content viewer portlet for Web Content Manager Version 7.0 is the JSR286 version of the portlet. This portlet has several enhancements over the standard API version, which has been deprecated in Version 7.0. Some of the enhancements include:
WSRP
In the past, to retrieve content from a remote Web Content Manager server involved the Web Content Manager remote rendering portlet. This involved additional configuration above and beyond a typical portlet configuration. Now, the JSR286 portlet can take advantage of WSRP to retrieve content from a remote server.
Friendly URL
The JSR286 portlet allows for friendly URLs to Web Content Manager content to be processed and rendered through the portlets. Constructing Web Content Manager friendly URLs is a powerful and complex to explain.
Check the infocenter for more information on this process.
Portlet caching
The JSR286 portlet can store information in the portlet cache. The portlet configuration allows administrators to determine what caching options will be used for a particular portlet, including the cache timeout behavior, and whether the cache should be shared across users, or specific to individual users.
WebDAV
Web Content Manager has added the ability to manipulate some items within Web Content Manager using WebDAV. This allows you to create, delete, and modify Web Content Manager assets using operating system tools, instead of using the Web Content Manager authoring interface.
JMS
Web Content Manager has added the functionality of generating JMS Messages to allow for notification of various events within Web Content Manager. This allows applications to be alerted when specific actions take place within Web Content Manager, mostly items being changed.
Check the infocenter for more information on enabling JMS within Web Content Manager.
Configuration changes
In the past, Web Content Manager stored its configuration within configuration files for the various services. In Version 7, this has been moved to be stored within WebSphere Application Server, within resource environment providers. This makes it easier to access and change configuration parameters.
