| |
|
|
3 Navigating Through Your Content
This chapter discusses the Navigate Contents Page, My Channels, Folder and Folder Content Management, and the functions available in the End Users Channel. It covers:
- Navigating through your Content-The Navigate Contents Page
- Viewing your Channels
- End User's Channel
- Performing Searches
- Performing Advanced Searches-The Advanced Search Portlet
- Changing your Profile-The Express User Profile Portlet
- Searching for Data-The Simple Search Portlet
- Folder and Folder Content Management
Navigating through your Content- The Navigate Contents Page
By default, the Navigate Contents Page is published to all users. The Navigate Contents Page will give you the tools you need to navigate through all of the content published to you. It also gives you the ability to change your user full name and password for security purposes.
Figure 7: Navigate Contents Page
Viewing your Channels
My Channels allows you to view a list of all of the channels published to you. The list shows your channels and their icons as well as descriptions of the channels. To view subchannels or the contents of a particular channel, click on the icon or underlined channel name. Once a channel is selected, the view changes to something like this:
Figure 8: My Channels, After Selecting a Channel
This view of a channel provides the ability to sort the columns by name or by description (in ascending or descending order). In order to change from ascending to descending, click on the up or down arrow next to Name or Description.
This view of a channel also allows the user to search and navigate through the channel's contents using very specific criteria (specified within the three fields at the top of the page). This is helpful when navigating channels that contain many objects. The three fields include Search, Page, and Line. More about these below.
Search, Page, and Line
You can enter text to search for in the Search box. Also, the `*' and `?' wild card characters are allowed, where the `*' matches one or more characters and the `?' matches a single character. An example would be to search for all .rpt files in a channel by entering "*.rpt." Also, you may further narrow your search, by searching by Filename, File Type, or Description.
Use the Page field to skip directly to a specific page. To do this, simply enter the page number and click on the Page button.
Use the Line field to limit the number of items listed per page. To do this, simply enter the number of items to be displayed and click on the Line button.
Note: The number of lines you specify as the limit to show per page will become the default limit for any listing displayed by My Folders or My Channels.
Long Channel Listings
The portal administrator may have limited the number of items that will display in a list of a channel's contents. If this is the case, and the object you are looking for does not show up in the list, use the Search fields to limit the number of items returned.
End User's Channel
You can view the End User's channel (and any other channels) in three levels of detail: the detail view, the list view, and the icon view (depending on the type of information you need). If you choose the list view, the icon, file or portlet name and file type will be returned. The detail view will return the file name, file type, description, and last date modified. Below is the detail view of the End User's channel. If you simply want to get a visual picture of the portlets and files in a channel, you may wish to see the icon view which will return a list including icons and the names of the portlets or files published to you. The End User's channel contains the following portlets:
Advanced Search Allows you to specify search criteria during searches such as date modified, content which must be included, content which must be excluded, and allows you to search within specified channels, folders, and subchannels and folders. Express User Profile Allows you to change your password as well as your "full name" (the name displayed on the welcome line of the portal). My Channels Displays all channels published to you. See directions in "Viewing your Channels" for how to use this portlet. Simple Search Allows you to search file names, descriptions, contents, and keywords of content published to your portal. Performing Searches
If many documents are published to you, you may have trouble finding the one you're interested in. To help with this, Viador BI-Portal provides a search function. There are two ways to do this: with a simple search or an advanced search.
If your Viador administrator has configured the portal to work with a search engine (such as Ultraseek), you can use the Viador Portal search functions to find files on your corporate intranet, and you can also search within the content of the reports and documents published to you through Viador BI-Portal. If your Viador administrator has not configured the portal to work with a search engine, you can only search through the names and descriptions of files published to you through Viador BI-Portal.
Note: Searches will not return more than 500 results. If the item you're looking for isn't in the first 500 items returned, you should rerun the search with more restrictive criteria.
P erforming Advanced Searches-The Advanced Search Portlet
You can have more control over the search results by using the Viador BI-Portal advanced search. You can also use the advanced search to search through the content of many of the items which have been published to you (if your Viador administrator has set-up the portal to work with a search engine).
To use the advanced search, you need to run the Advanced Search portlet.
To start the Advanced Search portlet:
- Click the Advanced Search icon. Depending on your view, the icon will look like one of the following:
Figure 9: Advanced Search Icons
The Advanced Search window will be displayed:
Figure 10: The Advanced Search Window
This window allows you to specify the following:
Specifying the Document Source
- Which document source to run a search against
- Where to search
- How to sort the results
- Specify search criteria, such as what part of a file to search, what kind of search to perform, and the search text
The Search in File Source drop-down list allows you to choose the document source (i.e. Ultraseek) to run the search against. The choices you see in this list depend upon which document sources were assigned to you by your Viador administrator.
To specify a document source, choose the appropriate source from the Search in File Source drop-down list.
Specifying Where to Search
First, you may choose to either Search selected folders only or Search selected folders & subfolders depending on how thorough of a search you need to conduct. Click the radio button beside your choice to select it.
Below the radio buttons, you will see a two-paned window which allows you to specify where to search. You may choose whether to search through any or all of the following: the files published to you, your folders, your channels, and your external search collections. (External search collections are built against documents outside of the Viador document repository. To search external search collections, choose My Internet as the document source to search in.)
To choose an item to search, highlight the item in the left window to select it, and click the Add button. This will move the item to right window, indicating that it is chosen as a search item. In order to remove an item from the search window, simply highlight the item in the right window, and click the Remove button. You may also wish to navigate down into folders or channels to choose a more specific item for searching.
To select items from the subchannels or subfolder, click the channel's or folder's name (enclosed in <>), then click Browse. (Click < .. >, followed by Browse to navigate back up to the previous channel.)
Note: If you select My Folders, My Channels, or All Files, these folders/channels and their subfolders/subchannels will be searched, even if you choose Search selected folders only.
Specifying a Sort Order
The Sort By criteria allows you to specify how you want your search results to appear. Click the radio button beside the Search By field to specify how you want search results sorted. You may choose from among the following:
Specifying Parts of Files to Search
The first set of criteria allows you to specify what parts of the files to search and how to match the search text.
In this set, the fields on the left allow you to specify what part of the files to search. This option only affects searches of your folders and channels. (Choosing one of the internet options will search through the Web page content regardless of how the following are set.)
Specifying What Kind of Search to Perform
Beside each of the options is a drop-down list that allows you to specify what kind of search to perform. You may choose from the following options:
Specifying a Search Term
Finally, you will need to specify the search term you would like to use. Enter the term (or terms) in the blank fields beside the Search By criteria you have specified, and click the Search button to perform your search. For example, you might choose to sort by Date Modified, choose is after from the Date Modified drop-down list, enter 08/21/2001 in the Date Modified field, enter the term, "Viador" in the Contents field, and select Must include from the Contents drop-down list. Click Clear to remove the search information you entered, and click Close to exit the window.
Viewing Advanced Search Results
Advanced Search results are displayed in a simple HTML window. This window behaves like the main display window in the portal-i.e. you can open an item by clicking its name. The window may look like the window below:
Figure 11: Advanced Search Results Window
Click the First Page button to return to the first page of search results, and use the Next Page and Previous Page buttons to scroll through the pages of your search results.
Changing your Profile-The Express User Profile Portlet
The Express User Profile portlet allows you change your password and your full name (the name that appears on the welcome line of the default portal).
Figure 12: Express User Profile Portlet
The following fields can be changed in the Express User Profile portlet:
Searching for Data- The Simple Search Portlet
To start the Simple Search portlet, click on the Simple Search icon which will bring up the Simple Search dialog box:
Figure 13: The Simple Search Portlet
- Type the text to search for in the text box.
- Select a type of search from the drop-down list.
The choices are:
- Click Search to perform the search.
Search results are displayed in their own window as static html. The files are viewed as links; therefore, they cannot be copied, moved, published or sorted.
Folder and Folder Content Management
The utilities that provide folder and folder content management capabilities have been gathered together in a channel called "Folder and Folder Content Management." Among other places, "Folder and Folder Content Management can be found in the "My Channels" channel. You may be able to view all or some of the following portlets depending on decisions made by your Viador Administrator.
The "Folder and Folder Content Management" portlets are described below. Some of these portlets may be found in several channels or are discussed in detail in other guides; therefore, be sure to read the corresponding guides for further information on each of these portlets.
- Publish Folder Content- allows you to publish your folder content to a channel, making it easier to distribute Business Intelligence information to other users. This portlet is discussed below.
- My Folders- presents a list of all your folders and their content. This portlet is discussed below.
- Manage Folders- allows you to create, edit and delete a folder. This portlet is discussed in the Viador BI-Portal Express Designer's Guide.
- Manage Folder Content - allows you to move, edit, and delete folder content. This portlet is discussed in The Viador BI-Portal Express Designer's Guide.
Viewing Your Files-The My Folders Portlet
In the Viador BI-Portal, files can be stored in channels or folders. Folders are basically "personal" channels. Some files are placed in folders automatically. For example, all files associated with Business Intelligence tools are saved in a folder by default. In order to share files with others, you will need to publish them to a channel. Use the My Folders portlet to view your folders and to find files that are stored within them. To view your list of folders, click on the My Folders portlet. In Portal Express, folders are displayed as an icon (
) on the page. To view subfolders, or the contents of a folder, click on the folder icon.
Figure 14: My Folders Portlet
Once a folder is selected, the view changes to something like this:
Figure 15: My Folders, after selecting a folder
This view of a folder provides the ability to sort the columns by name or by description (in ascending or descending order). In order to change from ascending to descending, click on the up or down arrow next to Name or Description.
This view also allows the user to search and navigate through the folder's contents using very specific criteria (specified within the three fields at the top of the page). This is helpful when navigating folders that contain many objects. The three fields include Search, Page, and Line. More about these below.
Search, Page, and Line
You can enter text to search for in the Search box. Also, the `*' and `?' wild card characters are allowed, where the `*' matches one or more characters and the `?' matches a single character. An example would be to search for all .rpt files in a folder by entering "*.rpt." Also, you may further narrow your search, by searching by Filename, File Type, or Description.
Use the Page field to skip directly to a specific page. To do this, simply enter the page number and click on the Page button.
Use Line field to limit the number of items displayed on each page. To do this, simply enter the number of items to display and click on the Line button.
Note: The number of lines you specify as the limit to show per page will become the default limit for any listing displayed by My Folders or My Channels.
Long Folder Listings
The portal administrator may have limited the number of items that will display in a list of a folder's contents. If this is the case, and the object you are looking for does not show up in the list, use the Search fields to limit the number of items returned
Publishing Your Files-The Publish Folder Content portlet
In order to allow others to use your files (such as those associated with Business Intelligence tools) in Portal Express, the files must be published to a channel. To do this, you need to use the Publish Folder Content portlet.
Running the Publish Folder Content Portlet
- Click on the Publish Folder Content icon to open the portlet.
You will see the following screen:
Figure 16: Publish Folder Content Portlet
On the left side of the screen is the My Folders column; on the right side of the screen is the My Channels column.
- On the right hand side, select whether you are publishing to a group/user or to a channel by selecting the proper radio button.
- Go to the My Folders column.
- Select a folder from which you wish to publish content.
- Highlight the folder, and click Browse to open it.
- Select the item you wish to publish by highlighting it.
Note: The portal administrator may have limited the number of items that will display in a list of a folder's contents. If this is the case, and the object you are looking for does not show up in the list when the desired folder is browsed, use the Search button to limit the number of items returned.The Search button is located just below the Browse button on either side (Folders or Channels). From this search window, you can search for text to be found in the file name, extension, or description.
Control-click to select more items.
- In the My Channels column, select the channel where you wish to publish content by highlighting the channel name.
- Click Browse to open the channel.
Repeat the process to open any subchannels.
- Click the Publish button on the lower right corner of the dialog box.
A message should appear along the bottom of the dialog box reading, "Content(s) successfully published."
- Click the Close button to exit the portlet.
|
Viador Inc. http://www.viador.com T: (408) 735-5956 F: (408) 735-8926 info@viador.com |
| |
|
|