4 Introducing the Page Service and Oracle Composer

4.1.1 Understanding WebCenter Spaces Page Types

All WebCenter Spaces pages start out the same: Log on to WebCenter Spaces, and create a page (for more information, see Chapter 6, "Creating, Editing, and Deleting Pages"). The way you create different page types depends on the page style you select when you create the page or the actions you take after the page is created.

WebCenter Spaces includes the following types of pages:

• Personal pages

  Personal pages are exposed in your personal space and are viewable only by you and the people to whom you specifically grant access. All of the pages you create while in your personal space are personal pages.

  Note:

  A shared personal page appears by default in the Manage Pages dialog of the users with whom you have shared it. For more information about the Manage Pages dialog, see Chapter 5, "Working with the Manage Pages Dialog."

  Personal pages can combine with other page types. For example, you can have a personal page that exposes a wiki service or a blog.

  For information about creating personal pages, see Chapter 6, "Creating, Editing, and Deleting Pages." For information about setting page creation defaults for your personal pages, see Section 5.5, "Setting Page Creation Defaults for Your Personal Pages." For information about sharing personal pages, see Section 5.7, "Setting and Revoking Page Access Permissions."

• Secured application pages

  Because the WebCenter Spaces application is secured, secured application pages are simply the pages you create in WebCenter Spaces. For a page not to be secured, that is, for a page to be public, you must override the default page security.

  Like personal pages, secured application pages can combine with other page types. For example, you can have a secured application page that exposes a wiki service or a blog.

  For information about creating a page, see Chapter 6, "Creating, Editing, and Deleting Pages."

• Public pages

  Public pages are pages that anyone can access without having to log on to the WebCenter Spaces application. Creating public pages is a simple operation, which can be performed by the application administrator or by you, through custom page access settings. For more information, see the "Setting Up the Public User Experience" section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter and Section 5.7, "Setting and Revoking Page Access Permissions."

• Business role pages

  Your personal space may provide pages targeted to your professional role. These are called business role pages. A business role page is a page specifically provided for a given role in your organization. After you create a business role page, it appears by default among the other pages provided in the targeted users' personal spaces.

  For example, an administrator can create business role pages targeted to each line of business. When a sales person logs in and goes to his personal space, he sees the Sales business role page. When an engineer logs in and goes to her personal space, she sees the Engineering business role page. Information that is timely and relevant to a specific business role can be provided instantly, without the noise of irrelevant information from other lines of business.

  For more information about business role pages, see the "Managing Business Role Pages" section in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.

• Wiki pages

  Wiki pages fully realize the potential of a collaborative environment by their absence of restrictions on content providers and editors. At runtime, all authorized users can create, populate, revise, and delete the same family of wiki pages. Group knowledge can be aggregated, vetted, published, and retained through wikis. Additionally, wiki pages are useful for publication of spontaneous documents that share vital information with a targeted group instantaneously.

  In WebCenter Spaces, wikis are simple to create: create a page using the Wiki style, and then provide wiki connection information—typically a URL to your wiki server.

  For information about creating wiki pages, see Chapter 27, "Working with Wikis and Blogs."

• Blogs

  Blog pages provide an opportunity to capture the expertise and lore of your enterprise subject matter experts and evangelists. Blog pages are exposed in WebCenter Spaces in the same way as wiki pages. That is, you create a page using the Blog style, and then you provide the blog connection information.

  For information about creating blogs, see Chapter 27, "Working with Wikis and Blogs."

• Dynamically generated pages

  Dynamically generated pages are pages that are created on the spot as the result of a user action, such as a search or a mouse-click on a tag. Dynamically generated pages are not stored anywhere; they are created as needed, and when they are closed, they cannot be navigated to and re-opened. They can be regenerated, simply by taking the same action that caused the page to open in the first place. Dynamically generated pages always open as top-level tabs.

4.1.2 Introducing the Page Actions Menu

The Page Actions menu provides access to a useful selection of actions you can perform on the current page (Figure 4-1).

Figure 4-1 Page Actions Menu

The options that appear on the menu depend on the level of permission you have on the current page. Table 4-1 lists and describes the full range of options that can appear on a Page Actions menu.

4.1.3 Introducing the Manage Pages Dialog

The Manage Pages dialog provides quick access to page information and enables you to perform a wide range of page-related tasks (Figure 4-2).

Figure 4-2 The Manage Pages Dialog

Description of "Figure 4-2 The Manage Pages Dialog"

The Manage Pages dialog provides controls for reordering the display of pages and hiding and showing pages within your view of the application. Additionally, it provides a set of Actions icons you can click to start the process of editing a page, copying a page, deleting a page, and setting page-level security.

For more information about the Manage Pages dialog, see Chapter 5, "Working with the Manage Pages Dialog."

4.1.4 Introducing Page Styles and Schemes

Through the Create Page dialog (Figure 4-3), WebCenter Spaces provides seeded page styles and schemes to enable rapid creation of stylish application pages.

Figure 4-3 The Page Style Selection in the Create Page Dialog

Page styles describe the positioning of content layout areas and the content flow. Out-of-the-box page styles include a style for text-heavy pages, and a style for exposing web content, styles for exposing wikis and blogs. Another style is provided to give you a jump start on your personal and group space home pages.

Page schemes define the color and image that render in the page background. If you want to promote company branding or you have your own ideas about a page's look and feel, you can ignore out-of-the-box schemes and provide your own.

For more information about page styles and schemes, see Chapter 6, "Creating, Editing, and Deleting Pages."

4.2.1 Accessing Oracle Composer

WebCenter applications provide many ways to enter Oracle Composer:

• When you first create a page (for more information, see Section 6.1, "Creating Pages")

• When you select Edit Page from the Page Actions menu (for more information, see Section 6.2.1, "Entering and Exiting Page Edit Mode")

• When you select the Edit Page option from the Actions menu in the Manage Pages dialog (for more information, see Section 5.9, "Entering Edit Mode Through the Manage Pages Dialog")

In page edit mode, page-related controls appear across the top of the page, boundaries for content regions are indicated by dashed lines, an Add Content button appears on each content region, and an Edit icon appears on each component (Figure 4-4).

Figure 4-4 A Page Opened in Design View in Oracle Composer

Because users access WebCenter applications from the Web, multiple users may attempt to edit the same page at the same time. In such cases, a concurrency warning appears in Oracle Composer that alerts each user to the others (Figure 4-5).

Figure 4-5 A Concurrency Warning in Oracle Composer

The final state of the page is determined by the last user to save. That is, the last changes saved override the changes made by other concurrent users.

Because concurrent page editing is supported, there may be occasions where one user deletes a page that another user is editing. In such cases, the user performing the edits sees an error messages with each action he tries to perform, for example, a message that says the user does not have permission to edit the page. When the user tries to save his changes, a Page Not Found error appears with a link redirecting the user to the Home page.

4.2.2 Introducing Design View and Source View

Oracle Composer provides two views for working with page content: Design view and Source view. To open either of these views, enter Oracle Composer, and select Source or Design from the View menu (Figure 4-6).

Figure 4-6 View Menu in Oracle Composer

Design view provides a WYSIWYG rendering of the page and its content, where Edit and Delete controls are directly selectable on each component (Figure 4-7).

Figure 4-7 Edit and Delete Controls on Page Components in Design View in Oracle Composer

Source view provides a combined WYSIWYG and hierarchical rendering of page components, where Edit, Delete, and Refresh controls are available on the header of the hierarchical list (Figure 4-8).

Figure 4-8 A Page Opened in Source View in Oracle Composer

The Code position option on the View menu becomes active when the page is open in Source view (Figure 4-9).

Figure 4-9 View Menu in Oracle Composer

Use the selections under Code position to specify whether the page source code is presented on the top, bottom, left, or right of the WYSIWYG portion of the page.

Source view additionally provides access to page layout components that are otherwise not exposed on the page. Source view enables the selection and configuration of such components. Select a component on the hierarchical list, and it is automatically selected on the page. For more information, see Section 6.5.1.8, "Hidden Layout Components."

Component selection is indicated by a dark blue outline. Access the selected component's properties by clicking the Show the properties of component name icon on the Source view header (Figure 4-10).

Figure 4-10 Show the properties of [component name] Icon in Source View

You can also select components in Source view by clicking them directly on the page. In Source view, your mouse cursor changes to a magnifying glass when you move it over selectable a component (Figure 4-11).

Figure 4-11 Selection Cursor in Source View

4.2.3 Introducing the Oracle Composer Catalog

Users with page edit privileges have access to the Oracle Composer Catalog, a gateway to a wide range of task flows, portlets, and layout components (Figure 4-12).

Figure 4-12 The Oracle Composer Catalog

Open the Catalog by clicking the Add Content button in the region where you want to add content (Figure 4-13).

Figure 4-13 Add Content Button on a Layout Region

The Catalog contains all the resources your application administrator has made available through connection configurations with back-end servers.

The Catalog is organized into components and folders. Some components are readily available at the top-level of the Catalog. Other components are organized into folders and subfolders, which you can drill into. You can distinguish between the two by noting whether a listing has an Open or Add link next to it (Figure 4-14).

Figure 4-14 A Top-Level Component Folder (Open) and Component (Add)

Navigate the Catalog folder hierarchy using the Up icon (Figure 4-15).

Figure 4-15 Up Icon on the Catalog

Use the search feature to locate components by name or description (Figure 4-16).

Figure 4-16 Search Field and Button on the Catalog

Use the Refresh the Resource Catalog icon to update the catalog with newly added components (Figure 4-17).

Figure 4-17 Refresh the Resource Catalog Icon on the Catalog

4.2.4 Introducing the Component Properties Dialog

Page components, such as task flows, portlets, and layout components, have associated properties that enable you to control component content, behavior, and look and feel. You can access these properties in Oracle Composer through the Component Properties dialog.

To open the dialog, click the Edit icon on the component of interest when the page is open in Oracle Composer (Figure 4-18).

Figure 4-18 Edit Icon on a List Task Flow and the Resulting Component Properties Dialog

Component properties can appear on up to five tabs:

• Parameters—Displays properties related to component content, such as the source and scope of content, and a range of time within which content was created or modified. For more information, see Section 7.5.3, "Working with Component Parameters."

• Display Options—Displays properties related to component chrome, such as the component header, an Actions menu, Minimize icon, Resize icon, and the like. For more information, see Section 7.5.4, "Working with Component Display Options."

• Child Components—Displays a component's child components, for example, the task flows in a Box layout component. Provides controls for rearranging the children. For more information, see Section 7.3, "Rearranging Page Content Through Component Properties."

• Style—Displays properties related to the look and feel of the entire component, including its chrome and its content. For more information, see Section 7.5.6, "Working with Style and Content Style Properties."

• Content Style—Displays properties related to the look and feel of component content exclusively. For more information, see Section 7.5.6, "Working with Style and Content Style Properties."

• Events—Displays events and event handlers associated with the component. These are useful in page and component wiring. For more information about page and component wiring, see Chapter 8, "Wiring Pages, Task Flows, Portlets, and UI Components."

Not all components display all tabs. Tabs appear according to the built-in capabilities of the particular component.

4.2.5 Introducing the Page Properties Dialog

In Oracle Composer, the Page Properties dialog provides a means of revising the page scheme and background color, configuring page security, and creating page parameters to use in wiring pages and components to each other (Figure 4-19).

Figure 4-19 Page Properties Button and the Page Properties Dialog

4.2.6 Introducing the Reset Page Button

A Reset Page button is available for returning a page to its original state (Figure 4-20).

Figure 4-20 Reset Page Button in Oracle Composer

Use the Reset Page button to remove all personalizations, customizations—all changes of any kind—from the page, returning it to the state it was in when first created. This is particularly valuable for maintaining user links to pages that you are renovating. Resetting a page enables you to take the page back to its original state without disrupting such connections.