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Site Administration - Library Management

The concept of WCM libraries was introduced for the first time with WCM v6.0 and WCM v6.1 continues to build on this concept. In this section we will discuss the WCM library features available in WCM v6.1. A WCM library can be thought of as container for WCM sites and they provide means to -
a) Control access to the WCM site
b) Partition WCM site design from the WCM site content
c) Share items across WCM libraries
d) Syndicate WCM libraries independently from one another


Figure: Example Showing Use of WCM v6.1 Libraries

The illustration above describes an example of a WCM v6.1 deployment containing the following environments -
a) WCM Authoring
b) WCM Intranet delivery
c) WCM Internet delivery

Note: Please note that this is only an example deployment topology which is used for the purpose of describing how WCM libraries can be used.

The example Authoring environment contains an Intranet library containing Site A and Site B and an Internet library containing Site C.
The Intranet Sites are delivered separately from the Internet Site. This is possible because WCM v6.x allows you to store sites within libraries and only syndicate libraries you want to selected environments. In WCM versions before v6.0, it was not possible to syndicate selectively Sites.
It is also possible to create separate WCM libraries for WCM content and WCM design. An example of this scenario is well documented in the “Best Practices for using IBM Workplace Web Content Management V6.0” (Section 4.4.2.1 Separating Content and Design Editing with optional design review) available at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0701_devos/0701 _devos.html
WCM libraries are created and maintained by using the WebSphere Portal administration portlet. This requires the user to have administrative rights.

Access the Web Content Libraries portlet
As an administrator, follow these steps to access the Web Content libraries portlet -
1) You will need administrator rights to work with Web Content libraries. Log in as an administrator.
2) Access the WebSphere Portal administration portlet.
3) Click on the left hand navigation link Web Content Libraries available under Portal Content.
4) The screen shot below shows the Web Content Libraries portlet. By default every WCM v6.1 environment comes populated with the default Web Content library.

Figure: Web Content Libraries portlet

As an administrator, the following actions are available in the Web Content Libraries portlet to the manage WCM libraries -

Search

If the WCM environment you are working on has many WCM libraries, you can use the search option to search the WCM library you want to manage. The Search by drop down field provides the following options -
1) Name contains (selected by default)
2) Name starts with
3) All available

Create new Library

Use this action to create a new WCM library.

View locked items

This is a very useful action that allows the administrator to identify all the WCM items that are locked by users (authors/web developers) across all the WCM libraries. The administrator also has the ability to unlock selected items from the view that displays as a result of using the View locked items action.

System Reports

This action displays a list of WCM library deletion reports. The screen shot below illustrates the view displaying the system reports. You can choose to view the respective library report or choose to delete the report.


Figure: System Reports View

The screen shot below illustrates the system report for the SampleWCMLib WCM library that was deleted. Please note that this library was created for the purpose of demonstrating the system report that is generated when the WCM library is deleted and did not contain any items and that reflects in the Execution Summary of the system report.

Items that were previously deleted using the WCM Authoring portlet but not purged from the library are not included in the "total items deleted successfully" count.


Figure: Example of a System Report

Set Access on Root

Only users with administrator rights have access to work with Web Content libraries. The Set Access on Root action can be used to assign other users access to the JCR content root node and thus allow them to work with Web Content libraries. This action can be used to -
a) assign users a specific level of access to all libraries available through the Web content authoring portlet
b) assign virtual portal administrators "contributor" or "administrator" access to the JCR content root node so that they can administer libraries through the Web Content Library view of the Administration page. Although it is possible to assign non-administrator users "contributor" or "administrator" access to the JCR content root node, they will not be able to work with Web content libraries because only administrators have access to the administration page.

Refresh

Use this action to refresh the Web Content libraries portlet. For instance, when a WCM library is deleted, the deleted library will still continue to appear in the Web Content libraries portlet with the library status Deleting. Using the Refresh action clears the deleted WCM library from the Web Content libraries portlet view.

Figure: Web Content Libraries portlet view showing the Deleting status of a WCM library

Edit Library

Use this action to edit the selected WCM library.

Set permissions

Use this action to set access permissions on the selected WCM library.

Library resources

Use this action to set access permissions to the library resources on the selected WCM library. This controls the access to the views and actions available from within the WCM authoring portlet.

Delete Library

Use this action to delete the selected WCM library.

Additional tasks

Use this action to perform version management related tasks on the WCM library.

Create a new WCM library

As an administrator, follow these steps to create a new WCM library using the Web Content Libraries portlet -
1) Click the Create new Library action.

Figure: Creating a new WCM library

2) The screen shot above shows the various fields required to create the new WCM library. Enter the name and description fields. Select a language from the drop down list.

3) If the checkbox Prohibit library from being deleted is enabled, the Delete Libraries action available in the Web Content libraries portlet will be disabled for the respective library.

4) Enable the Enabled checkbox to use the WCM library in the Authoring portlet. If the checkbox Enabled is disabled, this WCM library will not be available in the library selection list in the WCM Authoring portlet. If you want to prevent any changes being made to items stored in a library, but would like those items to still appear on a rendered site, you should disable the library instead.

5) Click OK to create the new WCM library.