Getting started¶

This chapter covers the following topics:

Terms which are commonly used in eXo Platform applications.

Introduction to what you need to do for the first startup of eXo Platform.

Introduction to the navigation on the Digital Workplace, the Digital Workplace widgets, spaces and settings.

Introduction to the Legacy Social Intranet homepage, the Legacy Social Intranet applications and how to change your language.

Signing in/Signing out Legacy Social Intranet

How to sign in and sign out Legacy Social Intranet.

Changing your account settings

How to change your account profile and password.

Forgot Password

How to request a link to reset your password.

Using the Activity stream

How to post status updates, share links and documents, delete activities/comments, comment on activities, or like/unlike activities.

Note

According to your roles, not all features described in this guide are available to you. Check with your administrator to assure which features are for your account or ask for more appropriate rights.

Glossary¶

This section provides a number of terms that you will encounter when implementing eXo Platform.

Site¶

A web-based environment which is used for aggregating and personalizing information via specific applications with an interactive and consistent look and feel. Users and administrators are able to integrate information, people and processes via a web-based user interface.

Portlet¶

An applicative component pluggable to a site through which users can access some specific information, including supports, updates, or mini-applications. The portlet produces fragments of a markup code that are aggregated into a page. Typically, a page is displayed as a non-overlapping portlet windows collection, where each portlet window displays a portlet. Content generated by a portlet can be customized, depending on the configuration set by each user. Portlets can be divided into two following types:

Functional portlets which support all functions of a site. They are built into the site and accessed via toolbar links when the site-related tasks are performed.
Interface portlets which constitute the eXo Platform interface as front-end components of the site.

Super-user¶

A super-user is a special user who has full privileges and used for the administration. In eXo Platform, this account is configured with Root, Root, root@localhost and its memberships are member:/organization/management/executive-board, *:/platform/administrators, *:/platform/users, *:/platform/web-contributors, *:/organization/employees. A super-user has all permissions on all features of eXo Platform.

Space¶

A collaboration workspace where you can share documents, tasks, events, wikis and more. A space can be open or closed, private or public and space administrators can manage members and applications that are available.

Connection¶

A bond among people in a network. By connecting to other people, you will be able you to track their activities through the activity stream.

Activity¶

An activity is published on the Activity Stream and allows you to follow what your connections are sharing, such as links to documents or just moods. An activity can be made out of different parts:

The author
The author’s avatar
The space
The type of the activity (for instance Documents, Wiki, Forums, Spaces or Connections)
The activity message
The featured content
The action bars including the buttons Comment and Like
The like section
The comment section

Gadget¶

A mini web application which is run on a platform and can be integrated and customized in the website. You can add these gadgets to your dashboards by yourself.

Modes¶

eXo Platform offers two access modes by default:

Public mode is for guest users (visitors) who are not registered. In this mode, you are not required to sign in, but limited to public pages in the site. After being registered successfully, you can use the private mode, but must contact the site administrators to get more rights or the group manager to become the member and gain the access to the group.
Private mode is for registered users who will apply their usernames and passwords to sign in. This mode supports users in taking many actions, such as creating private pages, editing or deleting them, “borrowing” pages from others by creating hyperlinks, changing languages to their individual needs, managing private information.

Permission¶

Permission settings control actions of a user within the site and are set by the administrators. See Managing permissions <Administration.ManagingPermissions> for more details.

Repository¶

A locus where content or digital data are maintained. Users can access without traveling across a network.

Drive¶

A shortcut to a specific location in the content repository that enables administrators to limit visibility of each workspace for groups of users. It is also a simple way to hide the complexity of the content storage by showing only the structure that is helpful for business users.

In details, a drive consists of:

A configured path where the user will start when browsing the drive.
A set of allowed views that will allow the user to limit the available actions, such as editing or creating content while being in the drive.
A set of permissions which limits the access and view of the drive to a specified number of people.
A set of options to describe the behavior of the drive when the users browse it.

Node¶

An abstract unit used to build linked data structures, such as linked lists and trees, and computer-based representation of graphs. Nodes contain data and/or links to another nodes. Links between nodes are often implemented by pointers or references.

Also, a node can be defined as a logical placeholder for data. It is a memory block which contains some data units, and optionally a reference to some other data. By linking one node with other interlinked nodes, very large and complex data structure can be formed.

WebDAV¶

This term stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning. In eXo Platform, it is used as a mean to access the content repository directly from the Sites Explorer.

Symlink¶

A special file which contains a reference to a document or a folder. By using symlinks, you can easily access specific nodes (target) to which symlinks point. In Documents, a symlink has a small chain symbol next to its icon.

Welcome to eXo Platform¶

eXo Platform is a full-featured application for users to have many experiences in building and deploying transactional websites, authoring web and social content, creating gadgets and dashboards with reliable capabilities of collaboration and knowledge. When you initialize eXo Platform for the first time, the Terms and Conditions Agreement screen is displayed as follows:

Note

The Terms and Conditions Agreement screen appears in the Commercial editions only.

This agreement contains all terms and conditions that you need to read carefully before deciding to use eXo Platform. By ticking the checkbox at the screen bottom, you totally agree with the eXo Platform’s terms and conditions. Next, click Continue to move to the Account Setup form.

The Account Setup window consists of 2 sub-forms:

Create your account: Create your primary account.
Admin Password: Change the default password of the “root” user. You can use this account to log in eXo Platform as a super-user who has the highest rights in the system.

You can select Skip to ignore this step, then sign in as the root user with the default password (password).

Setting up your account¶

Enter your information in fields.

It is required to fill all fields, except the Username field of the Admin Password form, which is pre-filled with “root” and disabled. See Adding auser for more details.
Values entered in both Password and Confirm fields must be the same.
You can change these entered information after logging in eXo Platform. See Changing your account settings for more details.

Click Submit to finish setting up your account.

Once your account has been created successfully, a Greetings! screen appears that illustrates how to add more users.

3. Click Start to be automatically logged in with your created account and redirected to the Legacy Social Intranet. Now, you can start adding more users to collaborate, creating/joining spaces, or creating/following activities.

Note

After your accounts have been submitted successfully, the following memberships will be granted to your primary account:

*:/platform/administrators

*:/platform/web-contributors

*:/platform/users

*:/developers

If the server stops before your account setup data is submitted, the Account Setup screen will appear at your next startup.

Navigate in Digital Workplace¶

This section introduces the navigation in the Digital Workplace site. Besides, you will further learn about the following topics:

Navigation How to navigate in the Digital Workplace.

Snapshot Introduction to the Snapshot page, all your Digital Workplace at a glance.

Digital Workplace Widgets Introduction to widget blocks that come with the Digital Workplace.

Changing the UI language Instructions on how to change the UI language of eXo Platform.

After signing in your account successfully, you are redirected to the Digital Workplace homepage, the starting point for exploring eXo Platform. This homepage provides you a perfect overview of all social and collaboration activities available in eXo Platform.

There are 3 main divisions in the Digital Workplace homepage:

Navigations

Top navigation : Take common actions via the following menus:
- Help: Access online guides by clicking . For example, if you are in the Wiki application, but still not know how to get started with it, simply click . You will then be redirected to the instructions page regarding to Wiki in another browser tab.
- User Profile: Change your profile information, preferences, language or quickly navigate to your personal pages by clicking your display name, for example: John Smith.
- Notification: Clicking will show all on-site notifications. See Managing your notifications for more details.
- Search: Search for any types in eXo Platform, such as people, spaces, files, events, tasks, activities, by clicking . See Searching In eXo Platform for more details.
- Administration: Perform advanced actions, such as managing users, content, applications, monitoring your system or organizing sites, by clicking . This menu is only visible to members of the web-contributors and administrator group.
- Edit: Manage certain aspects of eXo Platform, including content, pages and sites by clicking . This menu is only visible to members of editor and administrator groups. See Customizing eXo Platform for details.
  
  Note
  
  The number of menus which are displayed on the top navigation may vary, depending on your role. For example the Edit icon menu appears only for members of the group /platform/administrators.
Left navigation : It is a hamburger menu which allows you to quickly jump to :
- Applications: By default, the following applications are available:
  - Snapshot: To come back to your digital Workplace homepage from any page.
  - Stream: To come back to your stream page from any page.

People: To display the whole list of the platform users. You
can manage your connections, search for users using different filters…

Spaces in the “MY SPACES” list. It is also possible to search
for spaces by clicking on Join a space.

Last visited Spaces. It is also possible to view

the list of your last visited spaces with a recent visited space short list just below the Last visited spaces button.

Note

A mouse over the Last visited spaces will opens a second level navbar with the full list of your visited spaces listed by last visited first.

Settings : You can configure your account by acceeding in the Settings.

Administration : Just you mouse over this menu and a second level navigation will display with multiple administration choices.

Logout : By a simple click on this button, you will logout from the digital workplace.

Note

you can choose your default Homepage page, by a mouse over a non default page, a home icon is displayed so that you can change the existing default one to a new page. A confirmation message will be displayed to confirm my action. By default, the Snapshot page will be the default home page.

This hamburger menu will opens a navigation menus clicking which you can navigate to the various applications and spaces :

When connecting to the platform, the menu is by default hidden. To open or hide it, you should click on the hamburger menu icon .

Clicking on an application, or space, icon redirects you to the concerned application, or space.

Note

The order of applications and pages in the applications list may change in case some applications are not deployed, or some additional applications/pages are implemented.

The Last visited Spces list shows the latest spaces browsed by the user. The system will display the last 5 spaces in a quick list just below the Last visited spaces label, and once you mouse ouver this label, a second level navigation bar will open the Show [X] More Spaces link appears at the list bottom. Click this link to view more spaces.

The Show More Spaces link is displayed in the Last visited spaces navigation menu so that you can display more spaces in the list.

You can also quick search for a space just by typing the spaces name you want to quick display and the list will be filtered and will display only spaces containing text you added.

Even if you were in the Last visited spaces navigation menu, you can create your own space just by clicking on Create Space just below the spaces filter field.

Activity Composer & Activity Stream

From Activity Composer, you can update your status, upload and share your document/link. See `Updating status <Share-AS>`for more details.
From Activity Stream, you can follow activities of your colleagues and spaces, create your own activities (liking or commenting). See Using the Activity Stream <Share-AS> for more details.

Applications

Quickly perform key actions through the following applications:

Getting Started: See a list of suggested actions you can start. See Getting Started application for more details.
Calendar: Get an overview of calendar events. See Calendar application for more details.
Invitation: See a list of spaces and users who have sent connection requests to you. See Invitations application for more details.
Suggestions: See who you may want to connect with and spaces which you can ask to join. See Suggestions application for more details.
Who’s Online?: See who are online or send your connection request to them. See Who’s Online? application for more details.

Snapshot

This section will be developed soon

Digital Workplace widgets¶

Digital Workplace comes with several widget applications preinstalled on default pages to provide useful info and handy shortcuts to all apps and key information such as :

Getting Started

CalendarApp

InvitationsApp

SuggestionsApp

WhoIsOnlineApp

Getting Started¶

The Getting Started application is displayed first in the list of the Intranet homepage applications on the top right. This application helps you start exploring the Social Intranet by suggesting you where to go and what you should do first via the following links:

DW-1

Clicking each link will direct you to the related page to do the action.

After each action is performed, it will be remarked as completed with a check-mark even though it is not performed via this application.

When all the actions are performed, you can dismiss this widget permanently by clicking Close on the header|DW-2|.

Note

You can’t get the Getting Started widget back after you closed it.

Welcome Back¶

The welcome back widget is an block that welcomes you with some information about your spaces, connections, the points you earned and the rank you reached this week. See Leaderboard in Gamification for more details.

DW-3

You can see your profile picture and your name just after the welcome Back label.
The widget also displays the total number of spaces that you’re member of. A counter of your pending space invitations is displayed in a small badge. Click the badge to display all invitations and easily accept or refuse them.
Note
- When you don’t have any space invitation, the badge is hidden.
This widget also reminds you the size of your social network by displaying your current number of Connections. When you have some pending connection requests, a small badge displays a requests counter. Click the badge to display the list of pending requests and accept or refuse them.
Note
- When you don’t have any connection request, the badge is hidden.
- You can see the points you earned this week and by clicking on your points, you can see a pie chart
that presents your points distribution by domain.

DW-4

You can also see your rank for this week and by clicking on your rank, you can see a leaderboard that presents your position comparing to other members and how many points you earned this week so far. See Leaderboard in Gamification for more details.

DW-5

Suggestions¶

The Suggestions application suggests you to connect with other users or to join spaces. Usually, it suggests two people having the most common connections with you, and two spaces having the most members who are your connections. Otherwise, it will suggest the newest users or the latest created space in the portal.

DW-6

To accept the people/space suggestion, you can click on Connect or Request respectively.
To refuse the suggestion, you can click on Decline icon.

When the suggestion is accepted or refused, it will permanently removed from the list.

Note

You can click a person’s name suggested in the list to see his profile.

If there is no suggestion, the Suggestions application is not displayed.

Perks Store¶

The Perks Store widget displays pending orders you have in the Perks Store application. By clicking on this number, the Perks Store application will be opened on the list of all your orders.

DW-8

Wallet Balance¶

The Wallet widget displays the token balance of your wallet. You will receive tokens regularly in your wallet by collaborating through the digital workplace apps. See Total rewarded funds for more details.

DW-9

Note

All applications are floating containers in the Activity stream page, so that when you scroll up or down, all widget will scroll with you.

DW-11

Changing the UI language¶

To change the language of eXo Platform, do as follows:

1. Click your display name on the top navigation bar, then select Change Language from the drop-down menu.

2. In the Interface Language Setting form, you will see 23 languages that eXo Platform supports. Select your preferred language to display, for instance English:

Click Apply to commit your changes.

Note

In eXo Platform, the priority order of the display language is as the following: User’s language –> Cookies’ language –> Browser’s language –> Site’s language It means the language set by the user will be at the highest level, and the site’s language at the lowest level. Accordingly, you should pay attention to this order when selecting your preferred display language.

Managing Account¶

To change your account information, click your display name on the top navigation bar of the site and click Settings from the drop-down menu.

The account settings appears.

Changing your profile information¶

1- Select the Account Profiles tab.

2- Change your First Name, Last Name and Email. Your Username cannot be changed.

3- Click Save button to submit your changes.

Note

The email address changed must be in the valid format. See details about the Email Address format here.

Changing your password¶

1- Select the Change Password tab.

2- Input your current password to identify that you are the owner of this account.

3- Input your new password which must have at least 6 characters.

4- Re-enter your password in the Confirm New Password field.

5- Click Save button to accept your changes.

Note

The users who just did their login via the social networks will not have a password defined. They should be able to reset a password via their Account Settings or via the Forgot Password feature or ask the administrator to set it (in the Manage Community page). Once the password is set, the user can either log in via the login/password or via the social networks.

When the reset password link is clicked: - An information message is displayed: Reset password guidelines have been sent to you. Please check your mailbox. - The Forgot Password function is executed, and the users receive an email to guide them to change their account password.

Forgot Password¶

If you forget your password, you can request the system to send you a link to reset it. The link will be sent to your email. It helps if you forget the username also, but it requires an email that is set in your account properly.

In Login screen, click Can’t access your account? link.

In next screen, input your username or email, then click Send.

Check your mailbox. The email looks like this:

4. Click the link in the email, then input your new password and click Save.

If the password is saved successfully, a popup will notify you in seconds, then you are redirected to the Login screen.

In case the link has been expired already, you will see a notification like this:

The link expires as soon as you successfully reset the password, or after 1 day by default. The system administrators can configure the expiration time.

Using the Activity Stream¶

Sharing in the activity stream Steps to post status updates through the Activity Stream.

Sharing a news in the activity stream Steps to post a news in the Activity Stream.

The formatting toolbar in activity messages and comments This sections describes possible actions with the microblog toolbar.

Mentioning someone Steps to refer to someone in your activity composer or comment box.

Editing an activity Steps to refer to someone in your activity composer or comment box.

Liking activities Steps to show your reaction (like/unlike) towards an activity.

Deleting an activity Steps to remove activities from the Activity Stream.

Getting permalink of an activity Steps to get permanent link of an activity.

Commenting on activities Steps to comment on an activity that allows you to get ideas, answers, and any additional information.

Editing a comment Steps to edit a comment in the Activity Stream.

Liking comments Steps to express emotion (like or remove like) on a comment to an activity.

Replying to comments Steps to reply to a comment.

Deleting a comment Steps to remove a comment from the Activity Stream.

Getting permalink of a comment Steps to get permanent link of a comment.

After logging in, you will be directed to the Intranet homepage as below.

homepage

You can see activities of other users by clicking their display name to reach their profile page, then selecting Activity Stream. However, for people that are not in your connections, you only can view their activities but cannot post, comment or like on their activity streams.

The homepage also aggregates activities from spaces, so you can keep track of their activities without visiting every space. For example, when there is a new post in a forum of a given space, it is displayed in Activity Stream of the space and of the Legacy Social Intranet homepage.

You can filter what you want to see on the homepage:

filter

All Activities: shows all activities from spaces, connections and your activities. This stream is selected by default.
My Spaces: only shows activities created in spaces where you are member.

Connections: shows activities created by your connections.
My Activities: shows your activities (inside and outside a space) and activities where you were mentioned in, that you liked or where you left comments.

To access your Activity Stream page, click your display name on the top navigation bar, then select My Activities.

You will be then directed to your Activity Stream page.

Note

In Activity Stream, the order of activities is based on the last date when you create a publication action, or post a new comment. This means the last publication or comment will be auto-updated and pushed up to the top of the Activity Stream so that you will not miss any recent activities.

Sharing in the activity stream¶

A new way to share in the activity stream is available via a clickable text “Post” from the home page and “Post in ‘$Space Name’ ” from space’s home page.

Once you click on the text, a drawer allowing you to type and post a short message is displayed. You can write up to 1300 characters and post to your connections or a space’s audience.

In case you exceed the maximum number of characters, the characters counter colour changes to red and the post button is disabled.

If you are typing your message in a space for which you are manager or if you have the role redactor or publisher, when you exceed the maximum number of characters, a clickable text “Switch to an article” appears under the editor area. When you click on “Switch to an article”, a creation form opens in a new tab and the text written in the composer is included in the ‘Content’ field of the creation form.

Posting files in the activity stream¶

You can add a file or many files to your post by clicking on the “Add a file” option from the composer’s drawer.

From the displayed interface, you have three options to add a file :

Drag and drop a file into the upload area
Upload manually from your device
Select from drives

Once you attached your file(s), you have to click on ‘Apply’ button to save the action and be redirected to the first composer’s drawer.

You can add a text message or not and then click on ‘Post’ button to share the file(s) in the activity stream.

Note

If the upload is still in progress when you apply the attachments, it will continue in the background. An animation around the attachments counter badge indicates progress. Note that the post button will be disabled until all files are uploaded.

Selecting destination folder for uploaded files¶

You can select the destination folder of the uploaded files in the new composer. Once the files are uploaded, you can use the ‘folder’ icon to choose the folder in which it will be stored. It is possible to select the storage for all uploaded files using the folder icon above all files or file per file separately.

When you use the principal folder icon, all uploaded files will be stored in the selected folder. When you select a destination folder for one file, the information will be displayed and it is possible to undo the action using the ‘X’ icon

If the attached files are selected from existing uploads, it is not possible to change the destination folder. A forbidden sign icon is displayed instead of the folder one for these files.

If the attached files are a mix between uploaded (by drag and drop or manually) and selected files, the folder selected as a destination folder will be applied only for uploaded files.

Note

The default destination folder is the following for: Home page composer: /Public/Activity Stream Documents under the Personal Documents drive. Space composer : /Activity Stream Documents under the space’s drive.

You can create a new folder from the select folder drawer by clicking on the appropriate icon:

You just have to set the name for the automatically created folder, and then press enter to validate the action.

You can delete a folder from the select folder drawer by right clicking on the folder icon then choosing the delete option. You just have to confirm the action from the confirmation popup to delete definitely the selected folder.

In the same way, you can also rename a folder by doing the same action and choosing the rename option.

Posting links in the activity stream¶

When you copy and paste a link or a video link into the text area, if the link is recognized, a preview appears at the bottom of the typing area. You have the possibility to delete it if you don’t want to have a preview in your post using the ‘X’ icon.

Normal links preview:

Note

If the link doesn’t contain any image or isn’t recognized, the following default image appears as a preview

Video Links preview :

Note

The supported video players are Youtube, Vimeo and Dailymotion.

Connecting to drives¶

With the V6 of eXo Platfom, you are able to attach documents from your external drives. For that, you need first to connect to your external drive through the “Select from drives” drawer.

From the root folder “Drives”, folders are organized by blocks :

My drives: Contains your personal documents and shortcuts to your connected cloud drives.

My spaces : Contains folders from the spaces in which you are a member.

Others : displays “Users” folder if you are a regular member and other administrative folders if you belong to administrators group.

To connect to a cloud drive account, you must use use the icon .

It redirects you to “Connect your service” drawer allowing to choose either to connect to a google drive account or a one drive account.

Once you choose the desired option, you only have to accept the permission request of the service provider to be redirected to the initial tab containing a shortcut of the Gdrive or one in the “My drives” section of the drawer.

A loader is displayed while the connection is in progress and the shortcut color is grey.

The confirmation message is displayed when the connection is succesfully done and the shortcut’s color turns to blue.

Note

The actual supported cloud drives for eXo 6.0 version are Google drive and One drive.

Note

It is possible to delete the connection to a cloud drive by deleting the related folder from document application.

Posting a News in the activity stream¶

It is possible to write an article directly from a space composer. This feature is intended to improve and simplify the way information is shared. Users can contribute content intuitively without any former training to the content management system. News offers an inclusive and collaborative way to manage communication. Publishing a news lets you easily write, broadcast and share communication content into other spaces. You can also make it visible to all platform users by pinning articles on the home page.

Creating and posting a News¶

To create a news article, you have to click on the space’s composer. In the displayed drawer you just have to click on the option “Write an article”.

The creation form is opened in a new tab.

Write or paste your article content in. Choose a title, a summary and an illustrative image as desired.

Insert a video

You can insert a video in the article’s content by clicking in the video icon from the ckeditor toolbar.

You have to paste the video’s url in the field of the displayed popup. The supported video players are Youtube, Vimeo and Dailymotion.

If the inserted URL format is incorrect, a red icon is displayed (with a tooltip displaying the message “Invalid URL”) and the “OK” button is still disabled.

If the inserted URL format is correct, a green icon is displayed and the “OK” button is enabled.

When you click on the “OK” button a preview of the video is displayed in the content field and you can continue writing the article.

Insert an attachment

You can insert attachments in the article’s body by clicking on the paper clip icon in the creation form.

A drawer panel opens where you can either upload by selecting your files from existing uploads, by uploading files manually or by using a drag and drop in the dedicated area. You can attach up to 20 files and each file must not exceed 200 MB.

Once you add files, you can see the upload progress as well as the number of selected files. You can cancel the upload of a file in progress or delete it if it is already uploaded using the close icon.

You can close the drawer using the ‘X’ icon, the close button or simply by clicking outside the drawer panel. If the upload is still in progress as you close the panel, it will continue in the background. An animation around the attachments counter badge indicates progress. Note that the post button will be disabled until all files are uploaded.

When you finish writing your article, press the “Post” button in the top-right corner of the screen.

Once you post an article, you are automatically redirected to it in read mode.

The attachments list will be available in the articles details after posting it.

You can preview the file by clicking on it.

The article will be posted into the space’s activity stream

Note

The post button is grey and unclickable until the mandatory fields title and content are filled.

You can access the content of the article either by clicking on its title or by clicking on “read more”. The details of the article are available on the current page and display all the information, including the publication date, the author, the space’s name and all the activity reactions (likes, comments and sent kudos). You can also edit or share the article from this interface using the appropriate icons. You can exit the interface using the return button on the top left of the page.

Editing a News¶

You can change the content of the article using the edit icon. The possible actions from the edit mode interface are Update, Update and post and Cancel. The buttons Update and Update and post are disabled until changes are made. The Update action allows you to make changes in the article without reposting it unlike the Update and post action that allows to apply the changes in the article details and rise up the article’s preview in the activity stream.

When an article has been edited, the details view display the update date and user if different from the author besides the initial information.

Pinning a News in the home page¶

As a platform-wide publisher (publisher:/platform/web-contributors role required), you get permissions to pin any article to the home page. Pinning an article effectively publishes it from wherever it was originally posted to all users of the platform. Pin function is available from three locations :

1- Pinning a News from creation form :

After filling in the article details, tick “Pin article” checkbox then click on “post” button. A confirmation message appears.

After confirmation, the article is posted to the space’s activity stream and automatically published to the home page’s News block.

2- Pinning a News from the activity stream : the “pin article” function is also available from the three-dots menu of the article’s activity.

When you choose this option, a confirmation popup appears:

After confirmation, a success message appears:

*3- Pinning a News from News details : To pin a News from details, you only need to click on the available pin icon.

The action is successfully done after confirming it as for the two options above.

You may display the home page to verify that the news is available in the appropriate block.

You can display the pinned articles with one of the following layouts :

Blog layout:

Latest News layout:

When you click on the “See all” button, you are redirected automatically to news application filtered by pinned articles.

Unpinning a News from the home page¶

As a platform-wide publisher (publisher:/platform/web-contributors role required), you can unpin any pinned article from the home page. The unpin option lets you undo the pin action for an article by removing it from the home page news block.

As for pin, the unpin function is available from three locations :

1- Unpinning a news from edit form :

To unpin an article from the edit form, display the article’s details then click on the Edit icon. Once the edit form is displayed, just click on the unpin article icon and validate.

A confirmation message appears :

After confirmation, the article is no longer available on the home page.

2- Unpinning an article from the activity stream : the unpin article entry is also available from the three-dots menu of the news activity.

When you choose this option, a confirmation popup appears:

After confirmation, a success message appears:

3- Unpinning an article from news details : to unpin a an article from details, just click on the unpin icon.

The action is successfully done after confirming it as for the two options above.

You may display the home page to verify that the article is no longer available in the news block.

Drafts management¶

When you start writing an article, a draft is automatically saved as long as you write or modify the information in the form. The information about the saving status is displayed in the creation form :

You can access to your drafts from the creation form. A draft button is displayed indicating the number of drafts available for the current space.

To view all the drafts, click on the button. A drawer is displayed with the list of drafts and allows either to resume or delete each draft using the appropriate button.

To delete a draft, you have to confirm this action:

To continue writing in a draft, you have to click on the draft title or the resume icon. The content of the related draft will be displayed in the form and you can update the different information and post the article.

News application¶

The News application displays all the articles posted in the spaces that you have access to, as well as the articles pinned on the home page. This application is accessible through the News link in the left navigation.

By default, the page displays the 10 latest articles of the “All News” list. You can load more articles using the “Load More” button.

For each article you can see the title, the illustration, the first words of the summary or the article body, the author, the publication date, the number of views and the original space where the article was posted as well as the spaces where it was shared. You can share the displayed articles as explained in the Sharing a News chapter. You can also edit, archive or pin the articles when you have the permission to do it.

You can look for articles easily using the available search bar in the topbar of the application. It is possible to search by the article title, its author or content.

Different filters are available from News application so you can easily find articles posted in specific spaces, pinned articles, your posted articles, your scheduled articles, your drafts or your archived articles.

**Filter articles per spaces : ** You can search articles by spaces using the filter button from the top bar.

In the displayed drawer, you can select the spaces of the articles you want to filter. A search input is available to easily find the spaces you want to select. Only the spaces you are member of are available. A click on the Apply button allows to apply the filter.

**Filter by pinned articles : ** To display the pinned news list, select this option from the dropdown menu of the application topbar.

After applying this filter, the list will only contain the articles that have been pinned on the home page. You can reset the filters using the appropriate button inside the drawer.

**Filter by your posted articles : ** To display the articles written by you, select the option “My posted News” from the dropdown menu of the application’s top bar.

After applying this filter, the list will only display the articles posted by you. You can either archive, edit or share them directly from the news application.

**Filter by archived articles : ** To display your archived articles, select the option “Archived News” from the dropdown menu of the application topbar. After applying this filter, the list will only display your archived articles or all archived articles if you have the publisher role

Archiving News¶

As an article’s author or as a platform-wide publisher (publisher:/platform/web-contributors role required), you can archive articles from News application interface. An “archive/unarchive” icon is available on the right side of the article’s preview next to “share”, “edit” and “pin” icons.

When you click on the archive icon, a confirmation message appears :

Once you confirm the action, the article is automatically moved into the archive and is no longer available to other users. The archive can be accessed from the “Archived News” entry in the dropdown. Only the authors and publishers can see articles in the archive. Archived articles have a different display in the activity stream :

Other users won’t able to click on this preview as long as the article remains archived. Also, for them, accessing an archived article by URL won’t let them read it. In such case, the following message appears :

However, you, as the author (or publisher), maintain access to the article’s details and you can unarchive it from there.

The same icon allows to unarchive articles from the News application.

When you confirm the unarchiving of an item, it becomes accessible again to other users.

Note

When you archive a pinned article it gets automatically unpinned. However, if you unarchive the same article afterwards, it won’t be re-pinned automatically.

The formatting toolbar in activity messages and comments¶

The formatting toolbar (or the microblog component) is present at every place where you can add text message. It allows you to:

format your text: bold, italic, numbered list, bullet list
quote a previous message.
insert a link in your status message/comment
insert an image in your status message/comment.

toolbar

Tip

The spellchecker is by default enabled in the CKeditor.

SCimage

Text formatting in the microblog¶

You can format your text to make it richer and more readable by using different effects.

Select the text you want to format. Then click on one of the buttons from the formatting toolbar to apply its effect:

The first button formats the text as bold.
The second button formats the text as italic.
The third button clears the existing format.
Writing a text then clicking on the fourth button adds the text to a numbered list. Clicking on Enter button of the keyboard adds a new line with the following number. When the listing is finished, to exit from the numbered list, you should click twice on Enter button of the keyboard.
Typing a text then clicking on that button adds a bullet list. When you finish your listing, you need to double click on Enter button of the keyboard.

Quote text in the microblog¶

The formatting toolbar allows you to quote a previous text message. To do this, click on the Quote button and then copy and paste the text you want to quote.

Double click on the Enter button on your keyboard to leave the quote area.

Insert link in the microblog¶

To insert a link in your text message/comment, click on the link button to bring up a Link form . Type the text and link into this form.

The text you type will appear in your message/comment and will redirect users to the inserted link.

You can also link to text that has already been typed. Select the text, then click on the Link button .

The Link form will appear with the Text field already completed. To finish, type the link.

Note

It is also possible to add a link by right-clicking in the text area then selecting Link.

Insert image in the microblog¶

The last button of the formatting toolbar in the microblog is the Insert Image button allowing you to insert an image in your message/comment.

To insert an image in your text message/comment, follow these steps:

Click on the Insert Image button to open the Select image form.

You have four options:

Drop an image: drag and drop an image from your computer. A progress bar will appear to indicate the upload progress.

When the upload has ended, the image will appear in the dedicated area.
Upload an image from your desktop: It allows you to select an image from your computer. Browse for the image and double-click on it to select. A progress bar will appear to indicate the upload progress.

When the upload has ended, the image will appear in the dedicated area.
Select on server: select an image already on the server from your drives. Clicking on the link opens the Select files form.

Navigate through your drives and then select an image. This will be directly displayed in the dedicated area.
Pick an image online: insert an image using its URL. Paste the image link into the Image URL field. An upload time will appear and the OK button will be greyed.

When the upload has ended, the image will appear in the dedicated area and the OK button will become clickable.

Note

Click on the Cancel button to return to the screen showing the options. When picking an image online, click on the Back button. This button will disappear when the image is fully uploaded.

To choose the alignement you want, click on one of the three buttons.

3. Click on the OK button. The image will appear in the comment/message area.

To resize, hover over the image to bring up a black frame. Manipulate the frame to the size you want.

When you right click on the image, a contextual menu appears:

Click on Copy followed by Paste to duplicate the image in the editor.
lick on Cut followed by Paste to move the image to another location in the editor.
Click on Change Image to open the Insert Image form prefilled with:
- the image preview.
- the image alignment as previously selected.
- the Remove Image link allowing you to remove the image and start again.
Click on Link to open the Link form allowing you to insert an image using its URL.

Note

After you’ve finished resizing the image and posted it in the activity stream, the image will appear with the exact size you defined. Otherwise it appears in its default size.

Mentioning someone¶

Mention is a way to refer to people so that they are informed of who and what you are talking about. Mentioning someone is possible in activity stream composer, activities comments and also document comments. To mention someone, do as follows:

1. Type the “@” symbol into the activity/comment composer, then type the person name you want to mention.

A suggestion list that contains matching characters will appear.

Only one person can be selected at one time.

Note

When mentionning a user with “@”, it displays in first positions contacts in your connections, then other people

2. Go through the suggestion list with the “Up” and “Down” arrow keys or by moving your cursor over it, then click or hit the “Enter” key to validate your selected person.

Note

Only one person can be selected at one time.

After being validated, “@” and following characters will be replaced with First name and Last name which are wrapped in a label. You can click [x] in the label to dismiss it.

In the Activity Stream, the mention is displayed as a link to the mentioned user’s profile page.

Note

You can do the same steps above to mention someone in your comments (document comments and activity comments).

The person you mention also sees the post in his/her Activity Stream.

Document comments appears also in the Activity Stream.

Editing an activity¶

With eXo Platform you can edit an activity you posted. To edit an activity, proceed as follows:

Click the pulldown menu on the top right of your activity : . Two entries appear: Edit and Delete.
Click on Edit –> Your activity’s text appears in the editor area allowing you to make changes.
Make the needed changes and then click on Update button.

Note

The Update button remains disabled until at least one change is done.

If you click the Cancel button, your changes will be ignored.

Note

Edition is only possible on written text or inserted images added via the CKEditor toolbar. Attached images, files or link (added through the dedicated tab) can’t be edited.

If the activity contains only attachments (link or files and/or images) the edit button opens the editor allowing you to type a text message.

After saving the change you made on your activity, the activity creation timestamp will be updated by a new label under your name indicating the time of the last edit:

If you mouseover the timestamp, a popover appears indicating the original time of activity post.

Warning

Activities automatically generated from other aplications such as:

Adding a topic or replying to a forum discussion

Creating or joining a space

Updating your profile

Adding/Editing a wiki page

Closing, opening or locking a topic in Forum application

Adding a poll to a topic

Editing an event in Calendar

Moving a wiki page

Editing a space’s description/avatar

Connecting with a new user

are not editable, you just can delete them when you click on button.

Only activities generated following a document upload in Documents application are editable, you can add a text message to that activity.

Liking activities¶

You can “Like” an activity to show your interest and support to that activity.

Liking an activity¶

Click under the activity you like, a tooltip appears . When you like an activity, the “Like” button will be highlighted to show that you already click “Like” on that activity. The activity displays the information of like numbers or people who also like the activity right below it. If many people have liked the activity, you can click to expand the view to see other “likers”.

Unliking an activity¶

To unlike a “Liked” activity, simply click .

When disliking, a tooltip dislike appears.

Deleting an activity¶

You are allowed to delete your activities that you created, and those in your activity stream and in the space where your are the manager.

Change the activity filter to All Activities or My spaces to view all of your activities.
Click on the pulldown menu on the top right of your activity you want to delete. Two entries appear: Edit and Delete.
Click on Delete button –> A confirmation pop up appears.
Click Yes button in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Note

As an eXo Platform user, you can only delete your own activities. If you are manager of a space, you can delete any activity posted in your space.

If you click Cancel button, nothing happens.

Getting permalink of an activity¶

You can easily get the link of any activity (either edited or not) from the activity stream to share with others. With this feature, you can bring the attention of other users to an activity/comment without the need to mention them.

To get the permalink to an activity, just click on its timestamp.

This permalink will then take you to the activity with all comments expanded.

If the activity is edited, when you mouse over its timestamp, a tooltip appears displaying the original timestamp of the post.

Commenting on activities¶

This action allows you to get ideas, answers, and any additional information when your collaborators respond to your status updates. Besides, you can comment by yourself about any activities as follows:

Click on the the activity you want to comment.

2. Enter your comment into the Comment box and press the Comment button. Your comment will be displayed right after the activity.

Note

A formatting toolbar appears once you click in the comment composer. It allows you to change the formatting of your message, attaching images and links and preview how it will look once posted. (like what we have for the activity stream composer)

2000 characters are allowed in the comment message. If you exceed them, the comment button turns to inactive status.

When there are more than two comments on activity, 2 latest comments will be displayed below the activity. You can click “View all XX comments” (XX is the total number of comments) to view 10 more comments. If some comments left are not displayed yet, click View previous comments on the top of the comment part to view more.

viewmore

You can mention people in your comment by “@” symbol into your activity composer, then type the person name you want to mention. See Mentioning someone for more details.

Editing a comment¶

Just like for activities, you can edit any comment you wrote.

To edit one of your comments, proceed as follows:

Click on the pulldown menu at the right of the comment box : . Just like for activities, two entries appear:
Click on Edit –> Your comment’s text appears in the editor area allowing you to edit it.
Edit your comment and then click on Update button.

Note

The Update button remains disabled until you change the comment.

If you click the Cancel button, your changes will be ignored.

Note

You can change an inserted link/image to your comment.

Like for activities, after saving the change you made to your comment, a text appears near your name indicating that an edit has been done:

Warning

Comments generated from other aplications such as:

Adding a topic or replying to a forum discussion

Creating or joining a space

Updating your profile

Adding/Editing a wiki page

Closing, opening or locking a topic in Forum application

Adding a poll to a topic

Editing an event in Calendar

Moving a wiki page

Editing a space’s description/avatar

Connecting with a new user

are not editable, you just can delete them when you click on button.

Only activities generated following a document upload in Documents application are editable, you can add a text message to that activity.

Liking comments¶

With eXo Platform 5, it is possible to express emotion on a user’s comment to a status or any other activity by liking the comment.

Under the comment text, a like icon is displayed which has 2 statuses:

The active status: When a user clicks on the like button, it turns to blue color.
The inactive status: The button is greyed when it is unclicked or clicked twice i.e first for liking and the second for removing like.

Clicking on the like button adds a number between brackets which indicates the number of users who already liked the comment. If the like button is already clicked and the user reclicks on it, it becomes inactive and the number is decreased by 1.

Mousing over the number between brackets shows a popover which indicates the persons who liked the comment.
If the number of likers is more than 10, the pop over shows 9 usernames and “X-9 more”. To view the full list of usernames, you should click on the number between brackets.
Clicking on the number between brackets displays a popup named People who liked which lists the users who clicked the comment. The pop up contains:
- The user avatar.
- The user name.
- And one of these three buttons ahead each liker name:
  - Remove connection to delete a user from your connections.
  - Cancel Request to cancel a user invitation.
  - Connect to send an invitation to a user or accept his invitation.

Liking comments on documents preview¶

The like on comments feature is available for the documents preview.

It behaves the same as in the activity stream:

Mousing over the number between brackets displays a pop up with the names of the likers in a list.
To display the whole list when the number of likers exeeds 10, you should click on the number between brackets which displays the form People who liked.

Replying to comments¶

In addition to Liking comments feature in eXo Platform, it is possible to reply to a comment.

Under each comment, a Reply button appears allowing you to reply to that comment:

When you click on the Reply link, a comment composer appears with your avatar just below the last reply if it exists:

When you click on the comment composer to type your message, a rich text editor toolbar appears allowing you to format your text:

When more than two replies are posted to a comment, the replies are collapsed and a link to View all X replies (X is the total number of replies) is displayed allowing to view the whole replies.

Note

Some other details about the reply to comment feature: - There is only one level of replies, it is the reply to comment. There is not a reply to a reply. - Deleting a comment with replies induces the replies deletion. - In addition to activity stream comments, the reply to comment feature is available for activities of these applications: Documents preview, forum and tasks. - Same as for comments, it is possible to like replies except in tasks application.

Reply to comment for Forum application¶

As mentioned above, the reply to comment is also available for forum posts activities:

When you reply to a comment in the activity related to a forum, the reply will appear as comment in the forum application which quotes the original comment.
When you post a reply to forum topic and quote the previous post, it will appear as a reply to the first comment of level 1 in the corresponding activity.

Note

When you use the quote option of the CKeditor toolbar in the reply to comment, it will be considered as a simple quote.

Reply to comment notifications¶

When someone replies to your comment, you receive an onsite notification which contains:

The avatar of the user who replied to your comment.
A label: “UserA has replied on one of your comments”.
The reply timestamping.
The comment to which the user replied and if the comment is too long, an ellipsis of it.

All the watchers of the activity i.e it’s likers and the space’s members if it is a space activity receive a simple comment notification.

When a user replies to an another user’s comment to your activity:

The user who commented your activity receives a reply to comment notification.
You receive a simple comment notification.

If the email notification is enabled, you will receive an email when someone replies to your comment which contains:

The label “User X has replied to one of your comments. See below:”
Your comment content.
The source link i.e the platform link.
The user name who replied followed by his reply.

A new line in my notifications settings is added to manage reply to comment notifications:

Default values are:

Send me an email right away: checked.
Send me a digest email: Daily.
See on site: checked.

Deleting a comment¶

You are allowed to delete your comments you wrote, and those in your activity stream and in the space where your are the manager.

Click on the pulldown menu on the top right of your comment you want to delete. Two entries appear: Edit and Delete.
Click on Delete button –> A confirmation pop up appears.
Click Yes button in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Note

As an eXo Platform user, you can only delete your own comments. If you are manager of a space, you can delete any comment posted in your space.

If you click Cancel button, nothing happens.

Getting permalink of a comment¶

Just like for activities, click on the timestamp of the comment to get its permalink.

This permalink will then take you to the activity in which the comment is highlighted.

Just like for edited activities, a tooltip appears when mousing over timestamp of edited comments to display the original timestamp of the comment.

Getting started¶

Glossary¶

Site¶

Portlet¶

Super-user¶

Navigation¶

Space¶

Connection¶

Activity¶

Gadget¶

Modes¶

Permission¶

Repository¶

Drive¶

Node¶

WebDAV¶

Symlink¶

Welcome to eXo Platform¶

Setting up your account¶

Navigate in Digital Workplace¶

Digital Workplace widgets¶

Getting Started¶

Welcome Back¶

Suggestions¶

Who’s Online?¶

Perks Store¶

Wallet Balance¶

Changing the UI language¶

Legacy Social Intranet¶

Legacy Intranet applications¶

Getting Started¶

Calendar¶

Invitations¶

Suggestions¶

Who’s Online?¶

Social Intranet applications¶

Getting Started¶

Calendar¶

Invitations¶

Suggestions¶

Who’s Online?¶

Changing the UI language¶

Signing in/Signing out Social Intranet¶

Signing in Social Intranet¶

Signing out Social Intranet¶

Managing Account¶

Changing your profile information¶

Changing your password¶

Managing your social networks¶

Forgot Password¶

Using the Activity Stream¶

Sharing in the activity stream¶

Posting files in the activity stream¶

Selecting destination folder for uploaded files¶

Posting links in the activity stream¶

Connecting to drives¶

Posting a News in the activity stream¶

Creating and posting a News¶

Editing a News¶

Sharing a News¶

Pinning a News in the home page¶

Unpinning a News from the home page¶

Drafts management¶

News application¶

Archiving News¶

The formatting toolbar in activity messages and comments¶

Text formatting in the microblog¶

Quote text in the microblog¶

Insert link in the microblog¶

Insert image in the microblog¶

Mentioning someone¶

Editing an activity¶

Liking activities¶

Liking an activity¶

Unliking an activity¶

Deleting an activity¶

Getting permalink of an activity¶

Commenting on activities¶

Editing a comment¶

Liking comments¶