Sun Java System Portal Server |

Contents Index

> # Discussions Channels

> The sample Discussions channels provide an easy way for you to share information about specific documents or topics. There are two types of Discussions Channels:

> - Discussions Channel
> - Recent Discussions Channel

> The Discussions channels allow you to

> - List all discussions
> - View discussions.
> - Rate discussions.
> - Post replies to discussions.
> - Start new discussions.
> - Search discussions.
> - Subscribe to discussions.

> ## Discussions Channel

> The Discussions channel does the following:

> - Retrieves the main posts of a discussion, sorts them by creation time, and displays the top eight discussions in a Discussion list descending order.
> - Includes pagination so that users can see all the discusssions.
> - Allows you to perform a search of the discussions and comments.
> - Allows you to edit Discussions channel preferences from the edit channel page.
> - Add a new discussion or add comments to an existing discussion.
> - Displays each main item in detail with the subtree displayed below the main item.
> - Rate discussions and comments.

>   Note | The new discussion or new comment may not be immediately visible It must be submitted to the database and indexed before it will display. The rating value assigned to a comment for filtering purposes display is calculated based on an algorithm such that the rating for any comment goes up gradually. For example, a comment has to be rated important three times before it is marked as important.

> When viewing the discussions, the discussion view can be customized as follows:

> - The display preference can be set to view discussion comments in a threaded or flat display.
> - A filter option allows users to display documents by document rating. The following rating levels are available: irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read.
> - An expansion threshold helps to control displayed items in the subtree. The users can choose to expand only highly rated documents, or expand all or collapse all. Default value is Collapse All. Expand All will expand all the filtered comments, that is those equal to or above the defined Threshold. It will also show a description of the discussion, provide a menu for rating the discussion, and allow the user to post a reply.

> The user also has the option to set these view preferences through the channel edit page.

> ## Editing Discussions Channel Preferences

> You can edit the following preferences to control how the Discussions channel works:

> - The Discussions per page drop down menu defines the number of discussions to list on a page. The available values are 5, 8, 10, 16.
> - The Show Description checkbox indicates whether to display the discussion description.The description is displayed in line with the title.
> - Default Filter drop down menu defines the rating level filter to use. The rating levels available are irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read with irrelevant being the lowest level and must read being the highest.When a filter is specified, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without hyperlinks.
> - Default Threshold:drop down menu defines the Threshold level. The available values are Collapse All and Expand All. Collapse all displays the comments by title only. Expand All displays the title and the message contents.
> - Default View drop down menu defines the view level. The available values are Flat or Threaded. Threaded displays the list of comments posted with each discussion thread indented. Flat displays the list of comments posted with all discussion threads unindented regardless of its thread level.
> - View discussion in new window checkbox indicates whether to display each discussion to view in a new browser window.

> ### To Edit the Discussions Channel Preferences

> 1. Choose the edit button on the Discussions channel.
> 2. Make a selection or enter the values you want.
> 3. Choose Finished to save your settings and return to the standard Portal Desktop page, or choose Cancel to return to the standard Portal Desktop without making changes.

> ### To View a Discussion from the Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to view.
> 2. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 3. To view the list of comments posted with each discussion threads indented, specify Threaded in the View drop down menu .
> 4. To view the list of comments posted with all discussion threads unindented regardless of its thread level, specify Flat in the View drop down menu.
> 5. To filter the list of comments displayed by rating, specify a rating level in the Filter field.

> The rating levels available are irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read with irrelevant being the lowest level and must read being the highest.When a filter is specified, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without hyperlinks.

> 6. To view the list of comments with only the titles displayed, specify Collapse All in the Threshold field.
> 7. To view the message of a specific comment when the comment messages are collapsed, click the Title hyperlink for the the discussion comment to view.
> 8. To view the list of comments and the message contents, specify Expand All in the Threshold field.
> 9. To return to the parent message of the current comment, click the To Parent hyperlink.
> 10. To return to the top level message for the current comment, click the To Discussions hyperlink.
> 11. To return to the Discussions channel list of all the discussions, click the All Discussions hyperlink.

> ### To Post a Reply to a Discussion from the Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to which to post a reply.
> 2. Click Post Reply.

> A Post Reply page displays.

> 3. Type your message in the Message field.
> 4. Specify a rating for the discussion from the Rating drop down menu.

> The rating levels available are irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read with irrelevant being the lowest level and must read being the highest.When a filter is specified, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without hyperlinks.

> 5. Click Post.

> ### To Post a Reply to a Discussion Thread from the Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to which to post a reply.
> 2. Click Expand All in the Threshold field.
> 3. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 4. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion comment thread to which to post a reply.

> A Post Reply page displays.

> 5. Type your message in the Message field.
> 6. Specify a rating for the discussion from the Rating drop down menu.

> The rating levels available are irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read with irrelevant being the lowest level and must read being the highest.When a filter is specified, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without hyperlinks.

> Click Post.

> ### To Start a New Discussion from the Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the New Discussion hyperlink.
> 2. Specify a title for the discussion in the Title field.
> 3. Type your message in the Message field.
> 4. Specify a rating for the discussion from the Rating drop down menu.

> The rating levels available are irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read with irrelevant being the lowest level and must read being the highest.When a filter is specified, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without hyperlinks.

> 5. Click Post.

> ### To Subscribe to a Discussion from the Discussions Channel

> If you see a discussion you would like to follow closely over time, you can subscribe to the channel. Subscribing to a discussion adds the discussion to the list of subscriptions available from the Subscriptions Channel.

> Note | You must be an authenticated user to add a discussion to the Subscriptions channel. Users accessing the sample Portal Desktop as Anonymous will not see the Subscribe hyperlink.

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion or discussion comment thread to which you want to subscribe.
> 2. Click the Subscribe hyperlink.

> The Subcriptions setup page displays.

> 3. Specify a name for the subscription in the Name field.
> 4. Specify a query string, similar to the Search text field, in the Query field.

> The number of hits for the discussion subscription is updated whenever a new document is added to the discussion matching the query string.

> 5. Select the amount of time you wish to be subscribed to the specified category. in the Since drop down menu.

> The available time periods are forever, last week, last month, last 6 months, and last year.

> 6. Select the rating from the Rating drop down menu.

> Discussion comments with a Threshold rating above which subscription is valid.The rating levels available are irrelevant, routine, interesting, important, and must read with irrelevant being the lowest level and must read being the highest.

> 7. Click Finished.

> ### To Search a Discussion from the Discussions Channel

> You can perform a basic search for a keyword in a discussion or a more advanced search using a complex search query.

> 1. To perform a basic search on a discussion:
> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion or discussion comment thread you want to search.
> 2. Enter a keyword or keywords in the Find text box and click Search Discussion.
> 3. Click Search.

> Search results or hits are displayed and rated according to how well the document or discussion matches the search criteria. For discussion hits, the search results display both the title of the discussion and the comments for the discussion.

> 2. To perform an advanced search on a discussion:.
> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion or discussion comment thread you want to search.
> 2. Click Search Discussion.
> 3. Click Advanced Search.

> The Search page displays.

> 4. Check Search Discussions.
> 5. Use the Document Fields and Operator Choices options to enter the search criteria for the document. The Rating option is only applicable to searches of discussions. See the Search Channel help for more information on the search criteria.
> 6. Click Search.

> Search results or hits are displayed and rated according to how well the document or discussion matches the search criteria. For discussion hits, the search results display both the title of the discussion and the comments for the discussion.

> 3. To view the discussion subtree for a discussion hit, click the Title hyperlink for the discussion.
> 4. To save the search results of a discussion search, click Save this Discussion search.

> Saving the search results of a discussion search adds the discussion to the list of discussions available from the Subscriptions Channel.

> ## Recent Discussions Channel

> The Recent Discussions channel displays the top ten discussion titles and the creation date for the discussion. The discussions are sorted by creation date (last modified) and the newest discussion is displayed first. The Recent Discussions channel view has the following links: New discussion, View discussion, and All discussions. When you click any of these links, content displays in a new portal window. Click the Home link to go back to the tabbed desktop or the default portal desktop page.

> ### To View All Discussions from the Recent Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to view.

> The Discussions channel window displays the page.

> 2. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 3. See "To View a Discussion from the Discussions Channel" for further information on customizing the discussion view.

> ### To View a Specific Discussion from the Recent Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to view.

> The Discussions channel window displays the page.

> 2. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 3. See "To View a Discussion from the Discussions Channel" for further information on customizing the discussion view.

> ### To Post a Reply to a Discussion from the Recent Discussion Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to which to post a reply.

> The Discussions channel window displays the page.

> 2. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 3. See "To Post a Reply to a Discussion from the Discussions Channel" for the steps to post a reply.

> ### To Post a Reply to a Discussion Thread from the Recent Discussions Channel

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion to which to post a reply.

> The Discussions channel window displays the page.

> 2. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 3. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
> 4. See "To Post a Reply to a Discussion Thread from the Discussions Channel" for the steps to post a reply to a discussion thread.

> ### To Start a New Discussion from the Recent Discussion Channel

> 1. Click the New Discussion hyperlink.
> 2. See "To Start a New Discussion from the Discussions Channel" for the steps to start a discussion.

> ### To Subscribe to a Discussion from the Recent Discussions Channel

> If you see a discussion you would like to follow closely over time, you can subscribe to it from the Recent Discussions channel. Subscribing to a discussion adds the discussion to the list of subscriptions available from the Subscriptions Channel.

> Note | You must be an authenticated user to subscribe to add a discussion to the Subscriptions channel. Users accessing the Sun Java System Portal Server standard Desktop as Anonymous will not see the Subscribe hyperlink.

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion which you want to subscribe.

> The Discussions channel window displays the page.

> 2. See "To Subscribe to a Discussion from the Discussions Channel" for the steps to post a reply to a discussion thread.

> ### To Search a Discussion from the Recent Discussions Channel

> You can perform a basic search for a keyword in a discussion or a more advanced search using a complex search query.

> 1. Click the Title hyperlink for the discussion which you want to search.

> The Discussions channel window displays the page.

> 2. See "To Search a Discussion from the Discussions Channel" for the steps to search a discussion.

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