Monday, March 11, 2013

Update the WebCenter Content: Content Server Home Page without Customization


This feature has been a part of the Content Server product for as long as I can remember but no one seems to remember it.

You can change the home page of the content server without customizations. That’s correct! You can do this. And if you act now you can do it twice!! For the price of once!!

OK enough levity. Too much coffee.

The method is relatively simple – use the Web Layout Editor applet.

Log in as an administrator, navigate to the Administration -> Admin Applets page and start the Web Layout Editor.

From the main menu, select Options -> Update Portal

In the Update Portal Page dialog, enter in the HTML and IdocScript that you would like to use on the home page.

Select OK

For example, if it has never been changed before, then the dialog will contain the following:

<!--
This area is fully Idoc Script capable. Use the condition variable IsLoggedIn
to determine if page is delivered to an authenticated user.  Use the condition
variable IsDynamic to see if content is delivered dynamically.  Delete the
file <HomeDir>/data/pages/portal_message.inc to revert back to the default
portal message.  The static portal page is not updated unless the
"Update Portal..." option is used in WebLayout Editor.

To view example script below, copy it out of this comment area.

<div align=left><b>Examples of script:</b></div><br>
       <$if IsLoggedIn$>UserName = <i><$UserName$></i><br><$endif$>
       <$if IsDynamic$>Current Time = <i><$dateCurrent()$></i>
       <$else$>This is a static page.
       <$endif$>
 -->

Simply move the closing comment tag (-->)  above the opening div tag and select OK.

Navigate back to the home page and refresh it and you will see your name and the time on the home page.

You can use any IdocScript functions for this. You can use, for example, a Word Document displayed via Dynamic Converter, then give the Word document to someone to maintain. In this way, anyone can maintain and update messages on the home page.