Integrating IBM Connections files

To integrate files with your portal, register the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) entry points with the WP FederatedDocumentsService resource environment provider. After this configuration is complete, content authors insert links to documents hosted on the IBM® Connections server. Using personalization, authors can also render inventories of folders hosted in files.

Before you begin

IBM Connections files offers a set of CMIS service documents that provide specific views of the content stored in files. This set includes service documents defining the:
  • User-specific view for the currently logged in user
  • Views for individual specific communities
Determine which CMIS API service document URL you need before starting the configuration.The CMIS service document location can be determined based on the following pattern: base URL of files service/basic/cmis/CMIS Service Doc identifier where:
  • base URL of files service denotes the entry URL to your IBM Connections files service. The files service URL is typically the IBM Connections base URL concatenated with the files service context root. The default context root is: /files
  • CMIS Service Doc identifier identifies a specific CMIS service document. Information about individual IBM Connections CMIS service document identifiers is available in the file CMIS API documentation. Files CMIS API: Retrieving the Files CMIS API service document
For example, for an IBM Connections server with the following URL: www.example.com:9444 and using the default context root, the CMIS service document location is: https://www.example.com:9444/files/basic/cmis/my/servicedoc

About this task

Configuring integration with files is similar to configuring other federated documents. You must specify the remote server URL, a display name, and the supported interface type of the remote server. To specify the values you must add custom properties. Each property includes a suffix. The value of the suffix is used to group related properties for each server. Use the same suffix value for properties related to the same server. The suffix can be any value if it is unique across the property keys.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console.
  2. Click Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers.
  3. Click WP FederatedDocumentsService.
  4. Under Additional Properties, click Custom Properties.
  5. Register the CMIS service document with the federated documents feature.
    1. Click New and add this property and value: wp.federated.documents.ic_personalized_sc.url=https://www.example.com:9444/files/basic/cmis/my/servicedoc Replace https://www.example.com:9444/files/basic/cmis/my/servicedoc with your service document location.
    2. Click New and add this property and value: wp.federated.documents.ic_personalized_sc.title.default=Your Documents on IBM Connections
  6. Specify whether credential vaults slots are used for authentication with remote servers.

    Because you can access federated documents through either the personalization editor or the rich text editor provided with Web Content Manager, you can configure credential vault slots for each method independently.

    1. If you are accessing federated documents through the personalization editor, click wp.federated.documents.pzn.vaultselection.enabled. To enable credential vaults slots, set the value to true, or, to disable credential vault slots, set the value to false. By default, the value is true.
    2. If you are accessing federated documents through the rich text editor in Web Content Manager, click wp.federated.documents.wcm.vaultselection.enabled. To enable credential vaults slots, set the value to true, or, to disable credential vault slots, set the value to false. By default, the value is true.

    If you enable credential vault slots, users can select a credential vault slot in the user interface. You can also use the property wp.federated.documents.suffix.vault.slot to specify a default credential slot to be used with a given remote server.

  7. Specify the interface type.
    1. Click New and add this property: wp.federated.documents.suffix.type
    2. For the value, specify: CMIS
  8. Specify the IBM Connections CMIS service document you want to use.
    1. Click New and add this property: wp.federated.documents.suffix.url
    2. Specify the URL for the CMIS service document.
  9. Specify the name of the CMIS server as you want it to display in the user interface. If you do not specify a title, the URL displays in the user interface.
    1. Click New and add this property: wp.federated.documents.suffix.title.default
    2. Specify the name you to display in the user interface.
  10. Specify additional properties that you need for your environment.
  11. Optional: Configure the amount of data returned for the summary metadata attribute of the document.
    1. Click Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers.
    2. Click WCM WCMConfigService.
    3. Under Additional Properties, click Custom Properties.
    4. Click wcm.pzn.ecm.max.field.length, and enter the number of characters to be returned. If no value is specified, the default value is 128 characters.
  12. Optional: Configure whether property changes are automatically loaded.

    By default, the Federated Documents service automatically reloads properties at a specified interval, without requiring you to restart the portal. You can change the automatic reloading behavior or modify the reloading interval.

    1. Click Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers.
    2. Click WP FederatedDocumentsService.
    3. Under Additional Properties, click Custom Properties.
    4. Click wp.federated.documents.document.service.reload.disabled, and specify a value of true to disable automatic reloading of properties. The default value is false.
    5. Click wp.federated.documents.document.service.reload.interval, and specify the interval in seconds for reloading properties. The default value is 3 seconds.
  13. Save your changes. The Federated Documents service automatically reloads any updated properties. If you have disabled automatic reloading, restart the portal server.
  14. If you enable credential vault slots, grant access to credential vault slots for all authenticated users.
    1. Log in to the portal as an administrator.
    2. Click Administration > Access > Resource Permissions.
    3. From the list of resource types, navigate to Virtual Resources.
    4. For the ADMIN_SLOTS resource, click the Assign Access icon.
    5. Edit the User role, and add the All Authenticated Portal Users group to the role.

Results

The author can use the generic CMIS file picker dialog, in the IBM Web Content Manager rich text editor, to insert links to documents hosted on IBM Connections files. The author can also use the personalization component in Web Content Manager to render inventories of folders on the IBM Connections server

Authors can also use of the IBM Web Content Manager personalization component to render inventories of folders on the IBM Connections server.

What to do next

You can also add additional properties if needed, such as:
wp.federated.documents.suffix.nls.resources
Value: The name of the resource bundle that contains the translated title and description used to identify this source server in the user interface. If this property is not defined, the default title is used. If no default title and no resource bundle are defined, the value of the wp.federated.documents.suffix.url property is used in the user interface.
wp.federated.documents.suffix.vault.slot
Value: The name of the credential vault slot that stores the credentials used for authentication with the remote server. Credential vault slots are set up and managed by the portal administrator. This property defines the default credential vault slot that is predefined in the user interface, although the user can also select a different slot if one is available. If this property is not defined, the user interface does not display a default credential vault slot, but you can still select a slot from the available list. This property is optional.
Note: The credential vault slot must contain the credentials that are required for authentication with the remote server.
wp.federated.documents.suffix.override.authentication.enabled
Value: true or false. When set to true, the user can change the authentication method for the server in the user interface. When set to false, the user interface does not display the field to change the authentication method. The default value is true.