Collaboration Services
Collaboration services are used by the system to provide and store content and metadata created by various Collaboration functions.
The following collaboration services (with technical name in parentheses) contain these functions:
- Discussion service (discussion)
- Feedback service (feedback)
- Personal notes service (personalnote)
- Review service (comment)
- Rating service (rating)
- Repository attachment service (RepositoryAttachmentService)
Collaboration data is stored in a CM repository (/collaboration). Collaboration data is secondary data that should not be stored in the same repository as the primary data, that is, the documents referred to by feedback items, discussions items, and so on.
The persistence mode is used for this repository, that is, content and metadata is stored in a database (see CM Repository Manager ). This is required because resource URIs generated by the discussion service can become very long, and the file system may have problems in dealing with them.
The service user collaboration_service is defined in the portal user management.
Apart from the rating service, all collaboration services store data in different directories of the collaboration repository.
Collaboration Services Parameters (except for the rating service)
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Root |
Directory in the collaboration repository where data for the respective service is to be stored (for example, feedback). |
|
Repository Prefix |
URI prefix of the repository where collaboration data is stored (for example, /collaboration). |
Configuration of the Discussion Service
Discussion Service Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Only at Folders |
If this parameter is activated, discussion threads can only be created for folders. Otherwise, discussions can be created for documents as well. |
|
No Topics |
In the case of document-related discussions, the number of posts is normally small. It is therefore not beneficial to further subdivide a discussion. If you activate this parameter, no new discussion topics can be created in the Details dialog box for the document in question. However, posts can still be created. If you deactivate this parameter, users can create discussion topics and then create posts for each individual topic. If several document-related discussions already exist when you activate this parameter, the existing discussions and posts continue to be displayed. If you create a new discussion for a document that has not had discussions in the past, the new mode is used as set: Users can create posts but not discussion topics. This parameter is activated by default. |
|
Use Secure HTML Editor |
If this parameter is activated, a text editor is used for creating discussion posts, instead of the HTML editor. This is useful because HTML-formatted discussion posts can be manipulated by including URLs or JavaScript that enable illegal access to user data. |
Configuration of the Feedback Service
Feedback Service Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Use Secure HTML Editor |
If this parameter is activated, a text editor is used for creating feedback, instead of the HTML editor. This is useful because HTML-formatted feedback can be manipulated by including URLs or JavaScript that enable illegal access to user data. |
Configuration of the Review Service
Review Service Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Use Secure HTML Editor |
If this parameter is activated, a text editor is used for creating comments, instead of the HTML editor. This is useful because HTML-formatted comments can be manipulated by including URLs or JavaScript that enable illegal access to user data. |
Configuration of the Rating Service
The rating service does not need a repository since the data generated by rating a document, that is, the individual rating and the (average) total rating, is stored in the form of application properties. However, this service can be configured in another respect: The rating form in which users enter their ratings for a document can be customized using a number of parameters.
Rating Service Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Empty Rating Icon |
File name of the empty icon representing an unchecked item in the rating scale (for example, rating_empty.gif). |
|
Full Rating Icon |
File name of the full icon representing a checked item in the rating scale (for example, rating_full.gif). |
|
Rating Values |
Name of a parameter file that specifies the language-dependent labels for the different ratings. This file needs to be located in the /etc repository in a directory with the name rating, for example /etc/rating/label.properties. Language variants can be stored in files with the same name and a language-specific two-character suffix (for example,label_de.properties). Do not enter a path, suffix, or extension in the field. Only enter the name of the file (for example, label). |
|
Icon Height |
Height of the displayed symbols in pixels. |
|
Icon Width |
Width of the displayed symbols in pixels. |
|
Max Number of Comments |
Maximum number of comments displayed by default. Additional comments are displayed if requested by the user. |
|
No of Rating Points |
Integer that determines the size of the rating scale (for example, 5). |
Example of a rating form with a five-point rating scale
Configuration of the Repository Attachment Service
The repository attachment service is used by Collaboration to store attachments (documents) for tasks. The repository attachment service is preconfigured in the delivery, and you cannot change the configuration. It is activated by default in CM repositories that are used by Collaboration for tasks.
In the standard delivery, the various collaboration services are already preconfigured.
If you want to prevent discussion posts, comments, or feedback from being created in HTML format, activate the appropriate Secure parameter.
To modify the configuration of the Collaboration services, choose the appropriate service from Content Management → Repository Services
To use collaboration services for a repository, you have to select the required services in the configuration of the repository in the Repository Servicesparameter.
If you want to be able to assign the permission to delete collaboration data to arbitrary users, you need to register the Service ACL Service with the repository that contains the primary data. Without this service, only the owner of the primary data is authorized to delete any feedback, comments, and so on, that relate to this data.