Adding Documents to the Portal

To add a document to the portal, follow these steps:

1. Add the Document to the Portal's Enterprise Directory

2. Place the document in a secure directory.

3. Define access rules for the document.

4. Use the Personalize tool to make the document appear as a selection on the portal.

When a portal user selects a document for viewing, the browser displays it using the appropriate software based on the MIME type that is assigned to the document.

Step 1: Add the Document to the Portal's Enterprise Directory

Because of potential security issues, users cannot add documents to the portal using the Personalization feature.

If you would like users at your site to be able to add documents to the portal, it is recommended that you develop a custom interface to provide this function. The interface should:

• Require documents to be placed in a secure directory. The directory should be accessible only to the user (or group of users) that owns the document.

• Create an object for the document under the appropriate portal user (or user group) on the enterprise directory. The object should have the following attributes:

  objectclass

  The object class identifier. For documents, this is always sas-PortalDocument.
  
  

  sas-contentprovidertype

  The type of portal content. For documents, this is always file.
  
  

  saslabel

  The name that will identify the document when it is displayed in the portal.
  
  

  saspath

  The complete path, including the filename, for the document.
  
  

  description

  A short description for the document. The description will appear after the name when the document is displayed on a list.
  
  

  sas-contentmimetype

  The MIME type for the document.
  
  

  saskeyword

  Key words that will help users find this document when they use the Search tool. This field is optional.

As an alternative to developing a custom interface, an authorized system administrator can use the enterprise directory console to add the metadata to the directory.

Once a document has been added to the portal, the user who owns the document can use the Personalize tool to edit the name, description, or key words. For more information, refer to Creating and Editing Personal Documents and Creating and Editing Role-based Documents in the portal User's Guide. To edit a public document, the procedure is the same except that you must sign on with public content administrator privileges, and then choose Public as the role to personalize.

Step 2: Place the Document in the Appropriate Directory

Place the document in the path that was specified in the metadata in step 1.

Note: To protect access to documents, you may want to create a separate document directory for each user and/or group, and make each directory accessible only to the portal Web application and the appropriate user or group.

Step 3: Define Access Rules for the Document

Take any necessary steps to control the portal's access to the document. For general information about access control, refer to Controlling Access to Portal Content.

Step 4: Use the Personalize Tool to Make the Document Appear as a Selection on the Portal

Depending on who has access permission to the document, you can use one of the following methods to make it appear as a selection on the portal:

• The public content administrator can use the Personalize feature to add the document to a public list. When the public content administrator performs this function, the portal application displays a list box containing all public documents. From the list box, the administrator selects the documents that are to appear on the public list.

• Group owners can use the Personalize feature to add the document to a role-based list. When the group owner performs this function, the portal application displays a list box containing all role-based documents that are available to the group. From the list box, the group owner selects the documents that are to appear on the role-based list.

• Individual users can use the Personalize feature to add the document to a personal list. When the user performs this function, the portal application displays a list box containing all documents in the enterprise directory that the user is authorized to access. From the list box, the user selects the documents that are to appear on his or her personal list.

For more information, refer to the Personalization topic in the portal User's Guide.