Managing Your Documents¶

This chapter gives you a tutorial of the Documents application and step-by-step instructions on how to use basic actions via the following main topics:

Documents Interface Overall introduction to the Documents interface, and common views which can be switched in the Documents application.

Navigating through Documents Ways to browse your documents in the Documents application, both in the Icons and List views.

Document Viewer Introduction to the document types and how the Document Viewer enhances the readability and the collaboration.

Open in Office Introduction to this feature, as well as compatibility and client requirements that you need to know.

Working with basic actions Step-by-step instructions on how to do basic actions on your documents and folders.

Organizing your content Instructions on various ways for you to arrange your documents efficiently.

Sharing your documents Information about the Share and Auto-share features which are integrated into the Documents application.

Extending your actions Detailed instructions on how to extend some useful actions which are not set by default in the Documents application.

The content management is one of key strategies in the organizational process of each enterprise. A good content management allows you to:

Store, share and work on the same content efficiently.
Trace changes of content intuitively and instantly.
Simplify the way to manage your content.

The Enterprise Content Management system delivered by eXo Platform not only satisfies basic demands (for example, uploading, previewing and sharing/editing), but also makes useful capabilities available (versioning, metadata, advanced searches, and more). These new management solutions featured in the Documents application are built on existing content management capabilities in a flexible and practical way.

Note

The “document” denotes a file, script, image or piece of information.
The “folder” denotes a directory which contains a set of documents and even sub-folders.
The “content” is used for denoting both document and folder.

Documents Interface¶

After logging into the Social Intranet homepage successfully, you simply click Documents on the left panel to be redirected to the Documents interface. As a normal user, you can switch between Icons and List views by clicking or respectively.

If you are an administrator, you can see Documents in the Admin view.

The way to do actions on content is different between Icons and List views as follows:

In the Icons view, you can do actions via the Right-click action or directly on the Action bar.
In the List view, the Right-click action is disabled.

Depending on your various purposes, you are free to switch between the Icons and List views just in one click. That is, if you want to see your content as images, it is recommended you use the Icons view.

But in case you want to see more details directly in the view, the List view is an optimal choice.

Here’s what you can do in the List view:

Seeing important details of your content, including name, created/updated dates, creator, file size, directly in the view. Other information (such as extension, version number) is also present here, if any.
Showing/Hiding children of content without going inside it. Thus, you can have multiple folders opened in the view.
Changing the current context for a specific content simply clicking its name.
Doing basic actions on your content.

Navigating through Documents¶

In the Documents application, you can store your content in both drives and folders. However, to make ease for browsing your content, you are advised to keep them in relevant folders. You can browse your content in various ways, for example:

In the Icons view, double-click the content to open it.
In the List view, click to expand a specific folder that allows you to see its children without going into the folder. To hide its children, simple click to collapse this view.
Enter the path of the relevant content directly into the address bar.

You can come back to the previous content by clicking .
Browse your content from the left sidebar in the Icons view. In the List and Admin views, the sidebar is disabled by default. To browse in this way, refer to Hide explorer panel in sidebar.
Switch to another drive by clicking on the Action bar. A list of drives which are accessible to you will be shown.

Note

Depending on your role and permission, you will see various drives. See Drives for more details.

Document Viewer¶

The viewable document types¶

The Documents application allows users to build custom content types and provides some built-in content types. It also provides a viewer for common file types so users can read Office documents, view images or play videos directly from the activity stream.

When a document has a preview, a part of it is displayed, if not a thumbnail icon is displayed:

When clicking to preview, here is what we got in the two cases:

The following types are viewable i.e has a preview:

Printable files: pdf, doc (and other Office files) or any other type of files JODConverter supports. See the full list of types at JODConverter, Administrator Guide.
Images: png, jpg, jpeg, gif.
Audios/Videos: mp3, mp4.
ECMS content, either custom or built-in templates, such as a web content template.

For these viewable types, when you click a document preview thumbnail in the Activity Stream or select the View Document menu from Documents in the left navigation pane, the Document Viewer opens. The viewer provides a large viewing area and some functions, such as Search, Download and Print.

Tip

To exit the Viewer, hit Esc key or click X icon at the top right corner.

Office documents and pdf files¶

You can always view pdf files, whereas Office documents require JODConverter to be installed on the server. If you cannot view an MS Word file, for example, contact your administrators.

For these file types, the Document Viewer provides maximized reading estate and all the functions listed.

Page Navigator

Although you can simply scroll to go to another page, the Page Navigator provides many page selectors (e.g. previous, next, first and last page links, page number selector). You can also show/hide the Page Thumbnail pane by clicking the leftmost icon in the toolbar. Click it again to close it.

Search: Click the Search icon to open the Search bar and click it again to exit.

Download: Click the Donwload icon to download the file.
Full screen mode: Click the Switch to Presentation Mode icon to read in full screen. Hit Esc key to exit this mode.
Print: Click the Tools icon then select Print.
Comment: You will see the Comment area on the right side when you open the viewer. If it is hidden, you can bring it back by clicking the rightmost arrow icon.

Like: In the Comment area, click the Like icon to like the post. Click it again to unlike.

Images, Audios and Videos¶

For viewable media types, the available functions are Download, Comment and Like.

ECMS Content¶

If the document is ECMS Content, it is viewable. The following screenshot shows illustrated web content, which is one of the built-in templates.

Open in Office¶

With the Open in Office feature, you are able to easily edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations in the native applications installed on your client, without keeping a local copy.

In fact, this feature already existed before, but since PRODUCT 4.2, more operating systems and browsers will be supported. You will be able to open not only Office formats, but also virtually any file format as long as an application is associated with it in your client.

Depending on the file type, a new contextual action appears as below:

Open in Word for file types: .docx, .doc, .docm, .dot, .dotm, .dotx.
Open in Excel for file types: .xltx, .xltm, .xlt, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .xls, .xll, .xlam, .xla.
Open in Powerpoint for file types: .pptx, .pptm, .ppt, .ppsx, .ppsm, .pps, .ppam, .ppa, .potx, .potm, .pot.
Open on Desktop for Non-MS Office files that are different from Word, Excel or Powerpoint files.

Note

The labels used for these buttons can be set by an administrator. See how-to in Administrator Guide.

This feature can be used not only in the Activity Stream (like above), but also in many places:

Admin and List views (directly on the Action bar):
Categories, Icons and Web views (on the right-click menu)
File Preview

By default, in some views (including Admin, Icons and List view), these buttons will be displayed as an action on the Actions bar. These buttons can be configured in any views (Categories, Web) like any other actions by your administrator (Administration –> Content –>Content Administration –> Explorer –> View–> –> Action tab –> –> Remote Edit checkbox).

Note

These buttons will not be displayed in case multiple files are selected.

How to use?

By clicking either of these buttons, you can open and edit that document in one native application that is registered on your client. A new version of the document will be automatically created when it is saved within the Office application.

When one document is currently opened by one user, the Lock icon will appear next to that file: . If you still want to open this file, one message saying that you can open it in the Read-only format will appear.
In case there is no application registered for one file type, one message appears, saying that you have no application registered to open that file.

Note

To make this feature work well, you need to learn about Compatibility as well as Client requirements.

Compatibility¶

Basic compatibility¶

eXo Platform core has a basic compatibility for Microsoft environments. So, if you are using Windows (7, 8 or 10) with Microsoft Office 2016 installed, you can work with Word, Excel and Powerpoint files in many browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Edge.

Enhanced compatibility¶

For editing more file types and in various platforms, it is required your administrator install the Remote Edit add-on on eXo Platform server (by the command: addon install exo-remote-edit). With this installation, you can start using Open in Office in more various environments. Here are the client environments that are currently supported in eXo Platform:

OS	Browsers	Office suites
Windows 7, Windows 10	Firefox, Chrome, Edge	Microsoft Office 2016
MAC OS 10.12+	Firefox, Safari, Chrome	Microsoft Office for Mac 2016
Ubuntu 18.04	Firefox, Chrome	LibreOffice 6.0

Note

It is recommended to use the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome.
For Chrome in Windows and MAC OS, you need to enable NPAPI, as said here.

Client requirements¶

In client side, you need to pay attention to the following environment requirements before using this feature.

Windows¶

Note 1. Allowing to open and edit MS Office file types.

Configure WebDAV Redirector on the client.

On Windows 7, click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press Enter. If you are in Windows 8, hold the Windows key (WINKEY) + F, highlight Apps in the Menu bar, type regedit in the Search box, and press Enter.
Locate to the following: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type BasicAuthLevel, and then press Enter.
Right-click BasicAuthLevel, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 2, and click OK.

Update the Registry on the client.

Locate to the following: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Internet (for MS Office 2010) or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Internet (for MS Office 2013).
On the Edit menu, create BasicAuthLevel with the same value as in Configure WebDAV Redirector on the client.

Exit Registry Editor, and restart your client.

Tip

Starting from MS Office 2013 and if you are using the https mode either using a reverse proxy or running your Platform itself under HTTPS, you don’t need to proceed by the configurations steps cited above.

Note 2. On Chrome browser

If you install both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, you need to choose Microsoft Office as default application for office files.

Note 3. For Non-MS Office files

When you open/edit a Non-MS Office file, one NPE exception is thrown on eXo Platform server and even when the file is opened successfully, the client gets very slow. See here for understanding the problem.

Linux¶

On Firefox, to open/edit one file, you need to install davfs2 that allows mounting a WebDav server as a disk drive:

$ sudo apt-get install davfs2

To open a document using untrusted SSL, you should export your server certification and then register and trust it on davfs2 by following these steps:

To export the server certification, use this command:

$ openssl s_client -connect ${REMHOST}:${REMPORT} | sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' > myserver.pem

Register the certification on davfs by copiying it to davfs2/certs/:
```
$ sudo cp myserver.pem /etc/davfs2/certs/
```
Trust the certication on davfs2 by editing the file /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and adding this content:
```
$ trust_server_cert /etc/davfs2/certs/myserver.pem
```

Note

For Linux Operating systems, to work with Open in Office functionnality, it is recommended to run the platform server on SSL mode with a trusted certificate. If it is not the case, you can workarround by adding the certificate under /etc/davfs2/certs. More details in this link .

MAC¶

Enable BasicAuth None SSL with the command:

$ defaults -currentHost write com.microsoft.registrationDB hkey_current_user\\hkey_local_machine\\software\\microsoft\\office\\14.0\\common\\internet\\basicauthlevel -int 2

In case you cannot open Microsoft Office files, you should close or force closing Microsoft Office Application, then re-open it.
In MAC OS 10.12, to edit a text file, it is recommended you use TextWrangler (not default TextEditor) to edit it.

Working with basic actions¶

eXo Platform features some ways for you to do actions on your content flexibly, regardless of in which view you are using.

Before doing any actions on your content, it is recommended that you clarify the following points:

In the Icons view, you can right-click the content that shows a drop-down menu.
In the List view, you cannot right-click the content. Instead, click anywhere under a specific area of the content (marked with the ticked checkbox). You will see a list of actions on the Action bar that are similar to those from the Right-click menu.

Note

Depending on the display width of your device, some actions (for example, Download And Allow Edition and Copy URL To Clipboard) may be grouped in the More drop-down menu.

The available actions shown in the Action bar when you double-click the content in the Icons view are quite similar to those when you click directly the content title in the List view. The difference is that the Overload Thumbnail function is only featured in the Icons view.
See the comparison table as below to have an overview of actions:

Uploading files¶

Uploading files from your local devices is a fast and efficient method to create and store your documents in Documents.

Note

You now can upload multiple files from your local devices by holding Ctrl (on Windows) or Command (on Mac) to select them at the same time.

There are 2 available ways to upload:

Using the Upload button.
Dragging and dropping.

When you start your upload, you will see the Upload Status window at the bottom. In this window, the progress bar will appear next to the files which are being uploaded.

Abort all uploads by clicking Abort all.
See necessary information of upload by clicking .
After your uploads are finished, you can click at the right top corner of the dropzone to close it.
Cancel your progressing upload by clicking next to the progress bar.

Note

The upload size depends on the size limit that your administrator set up in the ‘Edit’ mode of Sites Explorer. If your file size exceeds the limit, the alert message will appear.
If the name of your uploaded file is the same as that of an existing file in the same location into which you are going to upload, you will receive one warning in the dropzone that your file is already in use. Here you can decide to keep both (your uploaded file and the existing file), replace the existing file with your uploaded file or cancel your file upload.

Using the Upload button¶

1. Define the folder where your files will be stored. Click Upload on the Action bar to open the File Upload window. Browse and select your desired document, then click Open to start uploading your selected files.

Dragging and dropping¶

Simply drag and drop files from your local device to your desired folder.
Or, drag and drop files to the dropzone which appears when there are files ready to be dropped at the bottom.

Creating a folder¶

To make your content management neat and easy to find, you should create appropriate folders to store them.

Go to the location that your want to create a folder.
Select to open the New Folder form.

If you create a new folder in a drive which allows creating more than one folder type, you will see the Use a custom type of folder checkbox. For example, in the Collaboration drive:

By default, if you do not select the Use a custom type of folder checkbox, a Document Folder type will be created. Tick this checkbox, then select another folder type from the drop-down menu.

Enter a folder name, then click Create Folder to finish.

Note

The name of a folder may be the same as that of the existing ones. In this case, an index will be added to your newly created folder that can be seen on the address bar.
The list of available folder types which can be created in each drive is different depending on the drive configuration.
Child folders will have the same folder type as that of their parent folders.

Viewing a document/Editing document properties¶

Viewing a document¶

Define the document, then select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

Your selected document is opened in another tab with the link containing the document path.
Simply double-click the document in the Icons view, or click the document title in the List view. Your document will be opened directly in the main panel with its path at the address bar.
- Here, you can also save your opened document as a PDF file or download it to your local device.

Editing document properties¶

1. Select Edit Document Properties from the Action bar to open the File form.

Change information for your document, except the Name field.

Note

You can edit the Categories field only by clicking .

3. Click Save to commit your changes, or Save & Close to save and close the form, or Close to cancel your changes.

Copying/Cutting & Pasting¶

These functions are used to make a content copy (including its children and references) to other places.

There are 2 ways to cut/copy & paste content:

The first way

Select or from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.
Select the destination where the copied/cut content is stored, then select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

Note

The Paste function is enabled only after the Copy/Cut action is selected.

The copied/cut content (and its children) will be pasted into the new selected path.

The second way

Note

To do this way, you have to enable the Show Sidebar checkbox.

Select or from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.
Select the destination that you want to be the parent of the content which is copied/cut.
Select on the Filter bar to open the Clipboard window.

4. Click in the Clipboard window to paste the copied/cut content into the selected destination.

You can click to delete the specific content from Clipboard.
You can also click the Clear All link to delete all from the list.

Note

You only can take the Copy action if you have this right on the source content.
You only can take the Paste action if you have the right on the destination.
If the destination has the same name with the copied content, after being pasted, an index will be added to the name of the pasted destination, for example Live and Live[2].
You cannot copy a “content” folder into a “document” folder.
After taking the Copy action, you can take the Paste action on the different destinations before taking another Copy action.

Deleting¶

Note

You can only take the Delete action if you have the permission on that drive.

You can delete multiple content at the same time by holding theCtrl (on Windows) or Command (on Mac) key and clicking the desired files and folders.

If any folder is deleted, it means its child folders and references (if any) will be deleted accordingly.

Deleting content¶

Select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.
Click Delete in the confirmation message.

Note

If the deleted content has a symlink, this will be also deleted.

Restoring content¶

Once you have deleted the content, you will see a message at the top, indicating that your deletion is completed successfully. If you want to restore your deleted content immediately, click the Undo link.
The deleted content is stored in the Trash drive. By going to this drive and selecting Restore From Trash, you can restore your deleted content.

Note

Currently, only administrators have the right to access the Trash drive.
Deleting any content from the Trash drive will remove them permanently.

Voting for a document¶

The Vote feature is used to assign a rating to a document. In eXo Platform, you can vote for a document via the 5-star rating. The more stars you select, the higher rating you evaluate.

1. Open the document for which you want to vote, then select on the Action bar.

The Vote Document form appears.

Rate the document by clicking the appropriate star level.

After a vote has been added, the rating will appear at the bottom of the document:

Avg. Rating: The average value of all votes assigned to the document.
Votes: The number of votes assigned to the document.

Tagging a document¶

A tag is a keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (picture, geographic map, blog entry, clip, and more). Each tag describes one item that enables the keyword-based classification and search.

Note

All tags are in public. This means all users can view them. However, to edit or delete them, you need to have the appropriate right granted by your administrators.

Adding a new tag¶

1. Open the document for which you want to tag, then select on the Action bar to open the Tag Manager form.

Details:

Field	Description
Tag Names	The tag names you want to add to your documents.
Linked Tags	List of all tags added to your documents.

Input a value into the Tag Names field. You can add many tags to one document at one time by separating with commas.
Click Add to accept, or Close to quit.

Note

To view the whole list of tags, you just need to click on from the sidebar.

In case many tags are added to the documents, the tags cloud is paginated:

Removing a tag¶

1. Open the document for which you want to tag, then select on the Action bar.

Click to delete an added tag.
Click OK in the confirmation message to delete the tag.

Adding a thumbnail¶

If you do not want to represent a content with an existing but boring icon, you can change this by adding your desired thumbnail to your content.

Select content to which you want to add a thumbnail.
Select on the Action bar to open the Add Thumbnail Image form.

3. Click Choose Thumbnail Image to select the image which will be used as the display icon for your selected content.

Click Save to accept your changes.

For example, you have the folder with a default icon in the Icons view as below:

After you have overloaded your desired thumbnail, the folder will be displayed:

Watching/Unwatching a document¶

By using this function, you can follow all changes made on the document.

Watching a document¶

Open the document you want to watch and click on the Action bar to open the Watch Document form.

Select the Email checkbox to receive the notification message via your email, then click Watch to finish.

One message of successful watching will display as below.

Note

A notification message will be sent to your email address which is set in your profile. However, if your account is suspended, the function will stop working.

Unwatching a document¶

Simply open the watched document, then click Unwatch in the Watch Document form.

One message of successful unwatching will display:

Versioning¶

A versioned document is one which can be recovered at any given time. You need to clarify the following points:

Once “Version” is activated for a document, this is called a “versioned” document.
The saved state of a document is called “version”.
Versions created for a document behave as parts of the versions history.
The version on which you are currently working is called the “base” version.

Versioning is an optional feature, so you need to activate this for either an independent file or a whole folder.

Enabling versioning for a file

Open the document you want to enable versioning.
Click on the Action bar.

The following message will appear.

Click Activate to enable versioning for the document.

Enabling versioning for a folder

You can enable versioning for an entire folder instead of doing it on every child document of the folder.

For example, here are steps to enable versioning of the folder collaboration:/sites/test.

In Sites Explorer, open the drive Collaboration, then select the folder.
Switch to Admin view, and click Actions on the Action bar.
Select the Add Action tab. On the dialog that appears, input:

Create Action of Type: exo:autoVersioning.
Name: Auto Versioning.
Lifecycle: Content Addition.
Is Deep: checked.

4. Click the Search icon in the row Affected Node Types. Then check Select All Document Types, and click Save.

Click Save, then Close to finish.

Whenever you update a document in the folder, a version will be created.

Adding a version to document¶

Versioning files is done automatically whenever a user overwrites a file. There are many ways in which eXo Platform will help you to create a new document version.

Via Documents application¶

In the Documents application, there are two ways to create a version for a document. You can go to the folder that you want to create a new document version and try one of the following ways.

The first way

Upload a file (or multiple files) to this folder by using the Upload button on the Action bar or dragging/dropping this file directly from your computer.

If this is a totally new document and the versioning is enabled for the folder or the drive that contains this folder, the first version will be created as below:

If the versioning is not enabled, no version is created.
If there is an existing versioned document with the same name as the uploaded file, a popup with the following suggestions is shown:

In which:
- Keep both: no version of the existing document is created, but a new document is created with the same name (as a sibling document).
- Upload new version: a new version of the file is created with other information, such as title or description of the old document kept on the new version.
- Cancel: the upload is cancelled.

The second way

Copy and paste a document (or multiple documents) to a folder which contains a document with the same name.

If the document is versioned, there will be a confirmation popup like this:

In which, the options Keep Both, Save as new version and Cancel are exactly the same as the Keep Both, Upload a new version and Cancel options respectively in the first way. Besides, if you upload multiple files, ticking the checkbox “Remember my choice for all others versioned documents” will apply the selected option for the remaining versioned files.
If the document is not versioned, the options will be the same as those in the first way:

Ticking the checkbox “Remember my choice for all other versioned documents” will apply the selected option for the remaining not versioned files.

Via File Upload¶

There is also an another case in which you probably need to create a document version.

Click in CKEditor of web content or illustrated web content file template.
Upload a file to a folder that contains a document with the same name:

If the document is versioned, there will be an alert like this:

In which, the options Keep Both, Create a new version and Cancel are exactly the same as the Keep Both, Upload new version and Cancel options respectively in this case.
If the document is not versioned, the options will be the same.

Via the Action bar¶

The first way

Open a versioned document that you want to create a new version in the Preview Mode.
Click the Upload a new version button on the Action bar.

3. Select a file to upload. Notice that the uploaded file does not need to have the same name as the versioned document, but it should be the same file type.

Once the file is selected, a new version with the same name as the current document is automatically created. One success message will be displayed.

The second way

1. Right-click the versioned document that you want to create a new version.

Select the Create a new version button from the popup menu.

This will automatically create a new version of the document based on the current version so that you can change the document properties on this version while its content is still kept.

Via WebDAV¶

It is pretty simple to create a version for a document via WebDAV. You just need to access WebDAV and upload a file to a folder. Several cases will happen as below:

If this is a totally new document and versioning is enabled for the folder or the drive that contains the folder, its first version is created.
If there is an existing not versioned document with the same name, the new document will replace the existing one.
If there is an existing versioned document with the same name, a new version will be created.

Managing versions¶

You can manage your versions by comparing with the current version, adding/removing labels, viewing/deleting versions or restoring to a specific version. All such management actions will be done in the Version History window.

Comparing two versions¶

Check two versions among the versions list of the document/content.
Click on Compare selected versions buttons.

3. A page appears to highlight changes done between the two selected versions. If the update contains an addition, it is highlighted in green. If the update contains a deletion, it is highlighted in red.

Adding a summary¶

You can give a summary to each document version. For that purpose, simply double click on the label Click here to add a summary, fill in the text field then save by clicking on

You can abondon the summary addition by clicking on .

Restoring a version¶

1. Define the version that you want to restore as the base version by checking it among the version list.

2. Click from the column Action that is in the version’s line to make the selected version become the base one.

Viewing a version¶

Simply click to view the document at the selected version.

Deleting a version¶

Click corresponding to the version you want to delete.

Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Note

You cannot delete the base version.

Commenting on a document¶

This function is used to comment on a document.

Open the document to which you want to add your comment.
Click on the Action bar to open the Comment form.
Add your comment, then click Save to commit.

The comments are shown at the bottom of the document.

Click the Show comments link to view comments.
Edit your comment by clicking or delete it by clicking .

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)

Note

You can mention people in your comment by first typing “@” symbol then selecting the person name you want to mention. See Mentioning someone for more details.
Document comments are displayed exactly like in the activity stream.

Managing permissions¶

This function allows you to manage permissions on content.

Select content, then click to open the Permission Management form.

Here, you can perform the following actions:

Adding permissions
Editing permissions
Deleting permissions

Adding permissions¶

1. Select a user or a membership or everyone whom you want to assign permissions by clicking or or respectively.

Select right(s) you want to grants by ticking the corresponding checkboxes.

Note

When you select Modify Right or Remove Right only, the Read Right will be ticked automatically.
When ticking any permissions above (Modify, Remove or Read only), if you set the * membership for a group, this permission will be
granted to all users of the group, regardless of their membership role.

Click Save to accept your changes. The new permissions will appear in the permissions table above.

Editing permissions¶

Editing permissions allows you to add more or remove a specific right granted to a user or membership.

Define the permission of a user or membership in the permissions table.

2. Tick/Untick the checkboxes corresponding to the rights you want to grant or remove respectively.

Click Save to accept your changed rights.

Deleting permissions¶

Select the permission of a user/membership in the permissions table.
Click , then select OK in the confirmation message.

Note

You cannot delete your own permissions.

Viewing document information & metadata¶

Viewing document information¶

eXo Plarform supports you to view all information of a document, such as name, title, type, owner, created and modified dates.

To view information, simply select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

The View Information form appears as below.

Viewing document metadata¶

This function allows you to view metadata attached to the uploaded file (nt:file).

Open the document (nt:file).
Click on the Action bar to open the View Metadata form.

Adding/Editing metadata¶

1. Click Add/Edit at the bottom of the View Metadata form to add or edit metadata to open the Add/Edit Properties form.

Complete the desired fields in the Add/Edit Properties form.

Click to add further metadata for each field.
Click to remove corresponding values.

Click Save to accept your changes.

Renaming¶

This function is used to change the content name.

Select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

A mini-form which contains the current content name will pop up:

Give the new name in the input field.

Click Rename to accept your changes. The title of your content is changed into Renaming… while being in process.

Copying URL to clipboard¶

The Copy URL To Clipboard feature enables you to copy the WebDAV URL of content. You then can view it using the WebDAV client as stated in WebDAV.

1. Select the content you want to copy its URL, then click from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

Paste the URL on another tab.

You can view the content you copied its URL or download it to your local device. You can also view other folders by clicking … above the current folder to go up its root.

Locking/Unlocking¶

This function is to avoid changes on a specific content and actions by others, during a specific period.

Locking content¶

Select the content, then click from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar. The selected content will be locked.

Note

Only users with appropriate rights can lock the content.
After being locked, other users can only view the content.
The lock will be kept during the current session only. If the
user who locks the content signs out, the content will be unlocked.
Other users can copy the locked content (by using the Copy/Paste
functions outlined above); however, the original content cannot be removed or altered.
If no action is taken on the locked content within 30 minutes, the lock will be automatically removed.

Unlocking content¶

Select the content which has been locked, then click from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar. The content will then be unlocked and other users can take actions on it.

Viewing WebDAV¶

WebDAV enables users to access, then read/write the content over the web browser. Thanks to its benefits of easy, quick and flexible manipulations and time-saving, WebDAV is often used to view the content.

Select the content you want to view WebDAV.
Click from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

With each type of content, the form to view in WebDAV will be different. For example:

For folder: The list of children under the current folder will be displayed in WebDAV.
For nt:file: The content of the document will be shown.

In addition to web browser, you can access the content through another WebDAV clients. See WebDAV for more details.

Organizing your content¶

One of the simplest ways of making your content management professional and efficient is keeping them well-organized. In eXo Platform, you can practice various ways to keep your content neat, accessible and easy to search thanks to:

Sorting/Paginating
Adding to favorites
Creating a symlink
Customizing your preferences
Filtering

Sorting/Paginating¶

Sorting your content¶

In the List view, your content can be found easily and quickly by using the Sort option. You can arrange your content by sorting them to Name, Date and Size in ascending or descending order.

Note

If you select each Sort option again, the order type will be changed. This means “ascending” is changed into “descending” and vice versa.

Paginating¶

Instead of scrolling all your content in the long list, you can use Paginator to organize them into separate pages.

The Paginator value is set to “20” by default. This means the Paginator button will be visible if the content number exceeds 20.

To change the Paginator value, simply click and pick another one from the Nodes Per Page drop-down list.

Adding to favorites¶

By using the Add to favorite feature, you can easily find your preferred documents easily in the Favorites folder. This is an efficient way to manage your documents.

Define the document you want to add as favorite.
Select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

A symlink of your favorite document will be created in the Favorites folder.

Removing from favorites¶

Define the document which has been added to the Favorites folder.
Select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar.

Note

You can go directly to the Favorites folder, then remove the document from it.

Creating a symlink¶

A symlink is a special type of document that points to one file or folder.

To add a symlink, simply select from the Right-click menu or on the Action bar. The symlink will be added to the selected document immediately that is marked with .

Note

When you perform an action on a symlink, the action is also performed on the content to which the symlink points.
When you delete a symlink, you delete the link’s content, not the content to which the symlink points.

Customizing your preferences¶

This function is used to set up your browsing preferences.

Click on the right side of the Action bar.

The Preferences window will appear.

Details:

Field	Description
Sort by	Sorts content in the list by Alphabetic, Type, Created Date, or Modified Date that is associated with the Ascending or Descending order.
Show Sidebar	Displays/Hides the sidebar.
Enable Drag & Drop	Enables/Disables the “drag and drop” action.
Nodes Per Page	Defines the number of content displayed per page.
Show Non-document Nodes	Displays/Hides items that are non–document.
Show Referenced Documents	Displays/Hides referenced documents.
Show Hidden Nodes	Displays/Hides hidden documents.
Enable DMS Structure	Displays/Hides documents in the tree structure.
Query Type	The query type.

Configure the preferences to your desires and click Save to set them;

Or, click Close to quit without submitting changes.

Filtering¶

You can organize your content effectively based on the existing filters on the sidebar in the main view. Thus, to filter your content, you need to enable the sidebar first.

Next, find out your content quickly by selecting:

Owned by me to show your own ones.
Favorites to show ones added to favorites.
Hidden to show hidden ones.
Filter By Type to show ones by various types, including: Content, Document, Image, Music and Video.

Note

You can combine more than one filter at one time to find out your desired content.

Extending your actions¶

In addition to basic actions stated above, eXo Platform provides a list of additional features for managing your content. Some of extended features are set in the Admin view by default, or your administrator can enable them for any specific views.

Note

This part is mostly for administrators who have right to access the Content Administration page where extended actions can be activated.

The followings are additional actions which are not accessible in the List and Icons views, but are set by default in the Admin view:

Managing actions
Activating document audit
Viewing/Adding document properties
Managing document relations

Besides, administrators can add more actions to any views. The followings are recommended features you may discover.

Exporting
Importing
Showing/Hiding document structure
Viewing document types
Hiding/Showing content

Note

In this section, assume that additional actions have been set in the List view by your administrator. Therefore, you will see them in the Action bar.

Managing actions¶

To manage actions, you first need to select the content, then click on the Action bar to open the Manage Actions form.

Adding an action¶

Select the Add Action tab.

2. Select one type for your action from the Create Action of Type drop-down menu, including:

Type	Description
exo:AddMetadataAction	Adds metadata.
exo:autoVersioning	Adds a version automatically.
exo:enableVersioning	Enables versioning.
exo:taxonomyAction	Creates categories.

3. Complete all the fields in the Add/Edit Action form. The Name and Lifecycle fields are required.

Details:

Field

Description

Name

Name of the action. This name is internal to the JCR explorer.

Lifecycle

Selects the lifecycle for this action. The action will be executed, depending on the lifecycle:

‘User Action’: The action is executed when you right-click the folder and then select the action.
‘Content Addition’: The action will be executed on a new document, but not on a subfolder when the document or the subfolder is created in the folder to which an action has been added. It is also applied to a new document in the subfolder of the folder.
‘Property Addition’: The action will be executed on a document when a property is added to the document.
‘Property Removal’: The action will be executed on a document when a property is removed from the document.
‘Property Modification’: The action will be executed on a document when a property of the document is modified.

Click Save to commit the action.

All actions of the content are listed in the Available Actions tab.

Once an action is added to the content, it is auto-added to any children of the selected content.

If an action is added with the lifecycle named ‘User Action’, it will be applied to the current content. If an action is added with other lifecycles, it will be applied to the child content.

Note

Not all actions are listed in a Right-click menu of the content. Some actions can be performed immediately when that action is added.

Viewing an action¶

Select the Available Actions tab.
Click that corresponds to the action you want to view.

The details will be displayed in the Action Info tab.

Editing an action¶

Select the Available Actions tab.
Click that corresponds to the action you want to modify.
Edit properties in the Action Form.
Click Save to accept your changes.

Deleting an action¶

Select the Available Actions tab.

2. Click corresponding to the action you want to delete, then click OK in the confirmation message.

Activating document audit¶

This function logs property changes in documents.

1. Select the document, then click on the Action bar. The Activate Auditing message appears.

Click Activate to enable auditing on the selected document.

Viewing audit information¶

Select the document which has enabled auditing, then click to view the audit information of the selected document.

If the document has no audit information, the form will appear as below.
If any, the Auditing Information list appears.

Viewing/Adding document properties¶

This function allows users to review all the properties and values of a document. It can also be used to add values to a document.

Viewing document properties¶

Select the document you want to review or add values to.

2. Click on the Action bar (or from the More drop-down menu on the Action bar).

The Properties Management form opens with 2 tabs:

Properties

This tab displays all properties and values for the selected document.

Add New Property

This tab contains fields to add new properties to the selected document.

Adding document properties¶

1. Select the Add New Property tab to add new properties to the selected document.

Select the property type from the Add new Property drop-down menu.
Enter a value for the property in the Value field.
Click Save to accept your new values, or Reset to clear added values.

After you have made changes on a new property, you will be returned to the Properties tab. The newly added values will be displayed.

In this form, you can edit a property by clicking , or delete it by clicking .

Managing document relations¶

Adding a relation¶

You can use this function to create relations between documents.

1. Select the document to which you want to add a relation, then click on the Action bar. The Add Relation form appears.

Select the Select Relation tab to see a list of other documents.

3. Click that corresponds to the documents related to the document selected in the Step 1.

Documents linked to the original via a relation will be listed in the Relation List tab.

Note

Relations can only be added to document types.
A document cannot have a relation to itself.

Deleting a relation¶

1. Select the document that has links to related documents, then click on the Action bar.

2. Select the Relation List tab to view relations of the selected document.

Click corresponding to the relation you want to remove.
Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

The related document will be removed from the list.

Viewing a relation¶

Note

You need to enable the sidebar first.

Select a document that has links to related documents.
Click on the Filter bar.

All documents related to the selected document will be displayed in the Relations list in the left panel.
Click the name of the related document to view the linked document.

Exporting¶

Content can be exported into either .xml or .zip file types.

Select the content that you want to export.
Click on the Action bar to show the Export form.

Details:

Fields

Description

Path to Export

The path of content being exported. This field will be pre-populated.

Format

The format of the original content.

System View

Each content and its property are included in a different tag.
Document View

Each content is a tag and its properties are considered to be elements of that tag.

Zip

If this field is checked, the content will be exported as a .zip file.

Click Export and select a location to save the exported file.

Note

The Export form can contain Export Version History if the exported content or any of its children is versioned.

This action exports all of the content’s version history.

Importing¶

Content which is in the .xml file format can be imported into the JCR Explorer system.

Select the location where you want to import the new content.
Click on the Action bar to open the Import form.

3. Select the file in the Upload File field and navigate to the file you want to import.

4. Select one value from the UUID Behaviour drop-down menu. In case there is UUID conflict - the situation when an imported node has the same UUID as an existing node, the behavior will be applied for those two nodes, as follows:

Create New

New UUID will be generated and assigned to the imported node. There is no impact to the existing one.

Remove Existing

The already existing node (and its subtree) is removed from wherever it may be in the workspace before the incoming node is added.

Replace Existing

The already existing node is replaced by the incoming node in the same path as the existing node. This behavior may result in the incoming subtree being disaggregated to different locations in the workspace.

Throw Exception

The node is not imported. No impact to the existing one.

Select the file for the Version History field.
Click Import to import the file’s selected version.

Showing/Hiding document structure¶

This function allows you to view documents in a tree structure.

Showing the document structure¶

Open a document.
Click on the Action bar (or from the More drop-down menu).

Hiding the document Structure¶

Select a document which is showing the content structure.
Click on the Action bar (or from the More drop-down menu).

Hiding/Showing content¶

Content can be hidden or shown easily.

Hiding content¶

Select the content you want to hide.
Click on the Action bar to hide the document.

A confirmation message, which notifies that the document has been hidden, will appear.

Showing hidden content¶

To show a hidden content, simply click again.

Viewing document types¶

This function allows you to view the detailed information of a document.

Select a document that you want to view its detailed information.

2. Click on the Action bar (or from the More drop-down menu on the Action bar).

3. Click the tabs at the top of the form to view categorized information.

Managing Your Documents¶

Documents Interface¶

Navigating through Documents¶

Document Viewer¶

The viewable document types¶

Office documents and pdf files¶

Images, Audios and Videos¶

ECMS Content¶

Open in Office¶

Compatibility¶

Basic compatibility¶

Enhanced compatibility¶

Client requirements¶

Windows¶

Linux¶

MAC¶

Working with basic actions¶

Uploading files¶

Using the Upload button¶

Dragging and dropping¶

Creating a folder¶

Viewing a document/Editing document properties¶

Viewing a document¶

Editing document properties¶

Copying/Cutting & Pasting¶

Deleting¶

Deleting content¶

Restoring content¶

Voting for a document¶

Tagging a document¶

Adding a new tag¶

Removing a tag¶

Adding a thumbnail¶

Watching/Unwatching a document¶

Watching a document¶

Unwatching a document¶

Versioning¶

Adding a version to document¶

Via Documents application¶

Via File Upload¶

Via the Action bar¶

Via WebDAV¶

Managing versions¶

Comparing two versions¶

Adding a summary¶

Restoring a version¶

Viewing a version¶

Deleting a version¶

Commenting on a document¶

Managing permissions¶

Adding permissions¶

Editing permissions¶

Deleting permissions¶

Viewing document information & metadata¶

Viewing document information¶

Viewing document metadata¶

Adding/Editing metadata¶

Renaming¶

Copying URL to clipboard¶

Locking/Unlocking¶

Locking content¶

Unlocking content¶

Viewing WebDAV¶

Organizing your content¶

Sorting/Paginating¶

Sorting your content¶

Paginating¶

Adding to favorites¶

Removing from favorites¶

Creating a symlink¶

Customizing your preferences¶

Filtering¶

Sharing your documents¶

Sharing directly in the Documents application¶

Who has access section¶

Sharing via Activity Composer¶

Creating a new activity¶

Share multiple documents in activity stream¶

Share multiple files in the activity stream¶

Multiple files preview in the activity stream¶