The Blogs portlet

The Blogs portlet

The IBM Connections Blogs detail portlet gives you access to the blogs from within IBM WebSphere Portal.

Purpose

Use the Blogs portlets to interact with the Connections Blogs feature so we can read or contribute to blogs without leaving the IBM WebSphere Portal environment. We can also view and contribute to Ideation Blogs we can access. Ideation blogs, unlike standard blogs, are used to generate and promote ideas in a community.

If the Blogs portlet is deployed on a community page, Ideation blogs can display in the portlet if the Show Ideation blog in this community option is checked on the Edit shared settings.
The option to show ideation blogs is not available as a setting if the Blogs portlet is on a stand-alone page or if there is no Ideation blog in the associated community.

If the Blogs portlet is deployed on a stand-alone page, and we are in the My Blogs view, we can click a blog to see the entries but we cannot click entries created by other users. To enter comments, vote for an idea, or recommend an entry, open Blogs in the web application.

Pin options in the Blogs Edit Shared Settings mode are not available from the My Blogs view of the portlet. We can pin the Blogs portlet only from the public views (Latest Entries and All Blogs.)

The Blogs Detail portlet has three views, Latest Entries, All Blogs, and My Blogs.
The Latest Entries view displays recent entries and comments posted to blogs. From this view, we can:

Click an entry to read it. If comments are enabled, we can add a comment.

Click an idea to read it or vote on it.

Click the name of a contributor to view the associated business card.

Sort the view by Date, Title, Likes/Votes, Comments, or Visits.

The All Blogs view lists all blogs for the organization. From this view, we can:

Click the name of a blog to open it and view the entries.

Click the name of an Ideation Blog to open it so that we can view the ideas and view voting activity.

Vote on an idea.

Click More to view details for the blog, such as a description or tags.

Click the name of a blog owner to view the associated business card.

The My Blogs view lists blogs for which we are an owner or member. From this view, we can:

Click the name of a blog to open it. We can view the entries and comments or create an entry.

Click the name of an Ideation Blog to open it so that we can view the ideas and view voting activity.

Click Settings to edit the basics for a blog, including the title, description, and tags. We can also add blog owners, authors, or draft users.

Click Start a Blog to start a new blog.
We cannot create an Ideation Blog from the Blogs portlet because it must be created within a community.

If the site has a large number of blogs, use the Tags portlet to find blogs that interest you. We can also edit a blog and then access it by sorting by recently updated blogs.

Edit the shared settings for the Blogs portlet

You must have at least editor access for the page and for the portlet to be able to edit shared settings for Connections features. For more information about access levels, see the WebSphere Portal product wiki. Settings entered on this page can be overridden by settings on the Personalize page for a portlet. Choose Edit Shared Settings from the portlet menu and choose which view to display in the portlet:

Configure the Blogs portlet

You must have administrative access to the portlet to be able to configure it. Choose Configure from the portlet menu and configure these options:

Option Description
Profile photos for Latest Entries Display author pictures next to blog entries.
Display icon to open IBM Connections in a browser window Display an icon that opens IBM Connections in a browser so users can fully access the application.
Display link to open IBM Connections in a browser window Opens IBM Connections in a browser window so that users can interact with the full application.
Display page controls only in bottom bar Hides the page controls in the header of the window. Clear the check box to display paging controls in the header as well as the footer of the page.

Parent topic:
Use the Connections Portlets for WebSphere Portal

Option	Description
Profile photos for Latest Entries	Display author pictures next to blog entries.
Display icon to open IBM Connections in a browser window	Display an icon that opens IBM Connections in a browser so users can fully access the application.
Display link to open IBM Connections in a browser window	Opens IBM Connections in a browser window so that users can interact with the full application.
Display page controls only in bottom bar	Hides the page controls in the header of the window. Clear the check box to display paging controls in the header as well as the footer of the page.