Continuing with my series about WebSphere Portal 8 Beta 2, today I am looking at the improvements made to Web Content Management. IBM had previously introduced the ability to create custom launch pages for the authoring portlet. The idea here is that the default view – Library Explorer – can be intimidating for casual users, so you could create a simpler view for them. While somewhat easy to do, I don’t think many companies took advantage of this feature because it meant more things to maintain for IT.
Basic WCM Home Page
In Portal 8, IBM added two new home pages for the authoring portlet to simplify the user experience.
In the Basic Home page, shown here, the explorer view is hidden, but still accessible. A nice, friendly banner has been added with a New button. This lets authors quickly create content without having to first navigate through the site structure. Next, the home page shows the user their favorite authoring templates. In the screen shot, it shows the three templates I selected as my favorites. The user can click on one of the templates to start authoring content using that template. It can’t get much easier than that. Finally off to the right, there are links to the most common views an author might want to see.
Taking a step up, IBM has included a slightly more advanced home page. This one is simply called Home Page and is shown in the second picture. With the Home page, you still have the nice banner and New button at the top. Below that is a Create Content section that gives you quick access to your favorite templates as well as any templates you used recently.
Next comes the views section. Here the page lists your favorite views and allows you to launch a view by clicking the Open button.
WCM Home Page
Finally, at the bottom is a list of recent activity. This list shows the most recently edited content. You have access to open or preview each content item directly in the list. IBM has also included a set of filters so you can limit the list according to your needs.
The traditional Explorer view is still the default home page. You can select the home page by opening the Preferences link. An administrator can set a default home page for all users and each user can then personalize the home page for themselves if authorized. If you have a lot of casual authors, it might be wise to set the default to the Basic Home Page. Then you can allow more advanced authors to set their own preference.
Of course, you can still create your own home page if you want. The procedures are still the same as they are for version 7.
This is still Beta code and the launch pages may change before the final product ships. But this is a very nice addition to the content authoring system and should make it much easier for the user to work with content in WebSphere Portal.
