WebSphere Portal Productivity Components

 

WebSphere Portal Productivity Components

Three Productivity Components included in this release of WebSphere Portal provide rich text, spreadsheet, and presentation support. The Productivity Components are integrated with Document Manager and the Internet Mail Box. You need Document Manager to use the Productivity Components. Both Document Manager and Productivity Components are automatically installed with WebSphere Portal.

The lightweight Productivity Components provide many widely used functions typically available in a productivity application of its type. Users can access these lightweight Productivity Components anywhere they have Internet access with the supported Web browsers. The supported Web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, and Mozilla 1.3.

 

Rich Text Component

The Rich Text Component allows you to edit and save documents. As Rich Text Component is integrated with Document Manager, you can open up one type of document and it is automatically converted to an internal document format. For example, when you open a Word document, Lotus Word Pro document, Rich Text file or internal format file, they are converted to an internal document format for editing in the Rich Text Component.

The Rich Text Component can be used on its own or with the Internet Mail Box. All the functions of the Rich Text Component can be used in the Internet Mail portlet except for save document, close document, insert image, and switch to HTML source.

The keyboard accessibility function is available in the Rich Text Component when used on its own or with the Internet Mail Box. There are default key sequences but the Administrator can change the keystrokes for the accessibility functions by editing the KeySequence.properties file located in <WAS_HOME>/lib/ext/com/ibm/wps/odc/editors. After making changes to this file, the Portal Server must be restarted for the changes to take effect.

The default key sequences are:

There is a possibility of malicious javascript rendering without the end user's control when the rich text editor control is administratively or user enabled for viewing email. The Rich Text Component can be disabled through the administrative configuration screen. This is a known issue and will be resolved in a future update.

 

Spreadsheet Component

The Spreadsheet Component allows you to work with Excel spreadsheets or spreadsheets created by Spreadsheet Component. As a lightweight component, you can perform basic functions such as using formulas or creating and printing spreadsheets. If you open an Excel file, it is converted to an internal document used by the Spreadsheet Component or you can open an internal document and convert it to an Excel file.

 

Presentation Component

As a lightweight component, the Presentation Component allows you to create and edit presentations. Your presentation can be viewed or edited. The view mode allows you to view the presentation without providing any editing functionality. The edit mode allows you to edit the presentation. The outline area in edit mode provides a tree view of the content and structure of a presentation. The draw area in edit mode allows you to edit the title, the text, and the image of a page. Each page has a Master page associated with it that sets the style of the pages. You get the basic Master by default but can change the Master. The options include Ruled Master, Wood Master, and Title Master.

You can add pictures to the pages either by uploading pictures from the computer or pointing to a picture on the Web.

The presentation editor manages contents in an internal format.

 

Internet Mail Box

Internet Mail Box (Internet Mail) allows you to compose, receive, and send the e-mail using either a Web browser or wireless phone. You can configure Internet Mail to retrieve mail from either a POP3 or IMAP mail server. You can view many file formats as HTML read only versions from the browser without requiring any additional software. For a complete list, see the Manage Documents > Document Manager section You can also load and save attachments to and from the Document Manager application.

Internet Mail has two modes; basic and advanced. With basic mode, you can receive e-mail, send e-mail with attachments, and use folder support with IMAP protocol. The basic mode can be used on all browsers supported by the portal.

With the advanced mode, you can take advantage of Document Manager integration, the Document Conversion Services, and the Rich Text Component. The advanced mode can only be used on Internet Explorer 5.5, Internet Explorer 6.0, and Mozilla 1.3.

Internet Mail requires the use of a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) server on the iSeries system. For more information, including setup instructions, refer to Install then click Virtual Network Computing.

 

Configuration

The PingInterval in the Config.properties file is used for keeping the user's session active while the user works with the Productivity Components. The value of this interval should be proportional to the timeout value of the portal. For example, if the portal time out value is 30 minutes, the ping interval for the components should be 75% of that value or 22 minutes. The Config.properties file needed to change this interval is located at <WAS_HOME>/lib/ext/com/ibm/wps/odc/editors.

 

See also