Configuring the features that are available on a desktop

For each desktop in your environment, you can specify which features and components are available to desktop users. Additionally, you can customize the behavior of each feature that is included in a desktop.

About this task

By default, IBM Content Navigator supports the following features:

Table 1. Features provided by IBM Content Navigator

Feature	IBM Content Manager	IBM Content Manager OnDemand	IBM Content Cortex	OASIS Content Management Interoperability Services	Notes
Browse	✓		✓	✓	If you use IBM Content Manager, you can browse for documents and folders, if either of the following statements is true: Your repository is configured to use hierarchical folders. You used the IBM Content Navigator administration tool to define a root folder for the repository if your repository is not configured to use or does not support hierarchical folders.
Entry template manager	✓		✓		The entry template manager feature is available only if you enable entry template management for one or more repositories that are associated with the desktop.
Home	✓	✓	✓	✓	You must configure at least one other feature to use the home feature. You can add favorites only from another view, such as search or browse.
Search	✓	✓	✓	✓
Teamspaces	✓		✓		The teamspaces feature is available only if you enable teamspace management for one or more repositories that are associated with the desktop.
Work	✓		✓		The work feature is available only if one or more repositories that are associated with the desktop have workflows configured.

You can configure a desktop to display all of the features or only a subset of these features. You can also create IBM Content Navigator plug-ins that provide additional features.

The features that are available on each desktop depend on the following factors:

• The repositories that are associated with the desktop

  To use a feature on a desktop, you must associate a repository that supports the feature with the desktop.

• The features that are enabled on the repositories

  Some features, such as teamspaces, are not enabled on the repository by default. To use the feature on a desktop, you must associate a repository that is enabled for the feature with the desktop.

• The feature plug-ins that are registered and configured for the web client
  Tip: If a plug-in includes the feature configuration pane, you can use the administration tool to specify how that feature behaves for each desktop in which it is displayed. If the plug-in does not include the feature configuration pane, the feature behaves in the same manner for any desktop in which it is included.
• The layout that is selected for the desktop

  You can create a plug-in to define a custom layout. If the layout includes custom features and the feature configuration pane, you can specify how the features behave for each desktop in which the layout is used.

To configure the features that are available on a desktop:

1. Open the desktop that you want to configure in the IBM Content Navigator administration tool.
2. Click the Repositories tab and ensure that the repositories that you want users to access are associated with the desktop.
   Remember: The repositories must support the features that you want to make available on the desktop. In addition, any optional features that you want to support, such as teamspaces, must be enabled on the repositories.

   Restriction: The total number of repositories that you can connect to is limited to 400 repositories for each IBM Content Navigator server, regardless of the type. If you connect to more than 400 repositories, you might experience performance problems when you view and select multiple repositories to do administration tasks.
3. Click the Layout tab.
4. In the Desktop Features section, select the features that you want to display on the desktop.
   Tip: The features are displayed in the order in which they are listed. You can reorder the features if you want to group features together or make a specific feature the first feature in the navigation pane.
5. If you want to override the default behaviors of a feature, select the feature and configure the behavior of the feature.

   Table 2. Behaviors that can be configured for each feature

   Feature	Default repository selected when the feature is opened	Repositories available in the feature	Tree view availability	Available document views	My Checkouts pane availability	Document information pane availability
   Browse	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
   Entry template manager	✓			✓
   Home				✓	✓	✓
   Search	✓	✓		✓		✓
   Teamspaces	✓	✓		✓
   Work	✓	✓				✓

   The following table describes the document views that you can configure for most of the features. The first selected view is the default view for the feature.

   Table 3. Document views that can be configured for some of the features of a desktop

   Document view	Description	Restrictions
   Details view	This view maximizes the number of entries that can be displayed in the content list.	This is the only view that is available for the work feature.
   Filmstrip view	This view generates a preview of each document that a user selects. However, using this view can slow the performance of the web client.	This view is not available for the entry template manager feature.
   Magazine view	This view increases the height of each entry in the content list, which reduces the number of items that can be displayed in the content list at the same time. However, this view does not require users to scroll horizontally to see the details of an item.

6. In the Additional Desktop Components section, select what you want to show or hide in the desktop.
7. To display documents in the current window when using the Open and Preview actions, go to Additional Settings and select When using the Open and Preview actions, display documents in the current window.
   The horizontal and vertical split views and Merge and Split capabilities will not be available when documents are displayed in the current window. Users are given the option to move the document to a separate window if they need to use the Views or Merge and Split capabilities. When the separate window is opened, subsequent documents will be opened in the separate window until the window is closed.