Authoring tools element
The authoring tool element is used to add authoring portlet functions to web pages.We can add the following authoring portlet functions to a web page:
- Create a new content item.
- Perform inline editing of a content item displayed in a web page.
- Delete the content item displayed in a web page.
- Approve or reject the current content being previewed. These buttons are only visible to approvers when previewing a draft item, or by opening the URL sent by an email action during a workflow.
Authoring tools can be referenced within presentation templates, menu element designs and navigator element designs. When added to menus and navigators, the edit, delete and approve functions are applied to each item displayed in a menu or navigator.
Create an authoring tool element
We can only use an authoring tool element by creating an authoring tool component. We cannot add an authoring tool element to authoring templates, site areas or content items.
Use an authoring tool
When previewing content, users with access to an authoring tool are able to execute various authoring portlet functions.
Care should be taken when previewing content items that use a presentation template that includes an authoring tool. Some functions are active and ready to use while other functions may not work as normal.
The authoring tool will also be visible when viewing a published site.
Use an authoring tool on multiple servers
When using an authoring tool on more than one server, we use two-way syndication to keep each server being used to author content synchronized. This may lead to the occasional "save" conflict where an item updated on one server will be overwritten with changes to the same item on another server when syndication occurs.
User access to an authoring tool
The authoring tools available to users on a web page are determined by:
- Whether a user has access to the authoring tool component.
- Which tools have been enabled in the authoring tool element.
- The user's level of access to the content item displayed in a web page.
- Whether a user has access to the authoring portlet. IBM recommends that users are assigned at least contributor access to each web content library in a site to ensure they have access to the authoring portlet.
- You only grant "editor" access or higher to users who need to edit the authoring tool.
- You only grant "user" access to users who also have access to the authoring server and who will be using the authoring tool.
- In most cases, users who only have access to the published site would not be granted access to an authoring tool as the tool is designed to be used as an authoring tool on an authoring server, not a published site.
Parent: Use an authoring tools elementRelated: