Alfresco

Getting Started with Alfresco Share Preview

Alfresco Getting Started with Alfresco Share Preview

Copyright (c) 2008 by Alfresco and others.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be
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If you need technical support for this product, contact Customer Support by email at
[email protected]. If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact us at
[email protected].
This edition applies to Alfresco Share Preview.

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Alfresco Getting Started with Alfresco Share Preview

Typographic Conventions
The following typographic conventions are used in this guide:
Bold User Interface elements
Blue Italicized Bold Hyperlinks

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Table of Contents
GET STARTED .......................................................................................................................................................... 1
SCENARIO .................................................................................................................................................................. 1
LOG IN ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2
SET UP YOUR PERSONAL DASHBOARD ........................................................................................................................ 4
PUBLISH YOUR CREDENTIALS .................................................................................................................................... 6
CREATE YOUR COLLABORATION SITE .......................................................................................................... 7
SET UP YOUR SITE ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
PREPARE YOUR SITE FOR COLLABORATION............................................................................................... 9
CREATE AN INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 10
ADD MARKETING MATERIAL .................................................................................................................................... 12
Update a document ............................................................................................................................................. 12
SCHEDULE A WEBINAR ............................................................................................................................................. 14
INVITE MEMBERS TO YOUR SITE ................................................................................................................... 15
VIEW SITE ACTIVITIES ....................................................................................................................................... 17
USING SHAREPOINT PROTOCOL SUPPORT WITH YOUR MS OFFICE DOCUMENTS....................... 18

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Get started
In today’s workplace, individuals spend most of their time working on teams. To collaborate
effectively, they need tools to facilitate communication, sharing information, and running projects.
Alfresco Share Preview provides these tools.
The Getting Started with Alfresco Share Preview tutorial introduces the basic concepts to accompany
the download of Alfresco Share Preview available on Sourceforge. It takes you through a scenario to
demonstrate the flexibility Alfresco Share Preview provides for working in a collaborative team
environment.
Alfresco recommends you download the Alfresco Share Preview release and walk through this
guided tutorial to familiarize yourself with the features.

Scenario
For this tutorial, you will be walking through the following scenario.
• Set up your personal dashboard and add your credentials
• Create a collaboration site for your team
• Prepare the site for collaboration with other users
• Invite users to the site
• View the site activities

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Log in
Log in to Alfresco Share Preview using the following credentials:
Username: admin
Password: admin
Alfresco logs you in to your personal dashboard.

Your dashboard is where you track all information relevant to you.

Your default dashboard consists of personal dashlets. A dashlet is a summary component that may or
may not have an equivalent Page Component. If there is a complementary Page Component, the
dashlets display the information generated from them. Dashlets only appear on the personal or site
dashboards.

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The following personal dashlets display by default.

My Limited Profile Your My Limited Profile personal dashlet contains summary personal details
about you, based on your detailed profile.

Alfresco Network Alfresco Network is the portal for Alfresco Enterprise customers to get all the latest
news and views as well as the following:
• A knowledge base
• Ability to track your tickets
• Check in notices
• Documentation
• Downloads
• Alfresco Calendar
This dashlet provides you a feed to the latest activities on the Network.

Calendar Your Calendar personal dashlet contains a rolled up view of events that you have
created as well as events for each site of which you are a member, providing quick
access to each of them.

My Sites Your My Sites personal dashlet lists all sites that you have created or of which you
are a member, providing quick access to each of them.

Alfresco Activities Your Activities Feed personal dashlet tracks the most recent activities that have
Site Feed been performed in any site of which you are a member.

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Set up your personal dashboard

You can set up your personal dashboard to tailor the view you have, depending on your
requirements.
You can:
• Modify the dashboard appearance – view as one, two, or three columns
• Add and remove personal dashlets

To modify the dashboard appearance

1. Click Customize dashboard on the title bar. The Customize Dashboard page displays.

2. Click Change Layout to display the available layout.

3. Change the layout to have three columns.

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To modify the dashlets

1. Click Add Dashlets. All available dashlets display.
2. Click and drag the User Calendar to the bottom of the left column to add it.
3. Add:
a. RSS Feed dashlet to the top of the right column
b. Alfresco Network to the bottom of the middle column

4. Click Done to save all your configurations and return to your personal dashboard.

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Publish your credentials

As part of the site, you want to publish your credentials for all site members to view.
To publish your credentials:
1. In the menu bar, click My Profile. Your profile displays.
2. Click Edit Profile and complete the information as desired.

3. Click Save Changes. Your profile displays with the updated information.

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Create your collaboration site

The second step in the scenario is to create a collaboration site for your team.
From here, your team will be able to:
• Share and manage content
• Schedule and manage meeting events
• Have group discussions
• Write blogs
• Author content online and share with others via a wiki

To create your site

1. On your personal dashboard, click Create site in the My Sites dashlet.

2. Add the following information:

Name – A descriptive name that will display as the title of your site. This is mandatory.
Short name – A brief version of the name that is appropriate for a URL; it cannot contain special
characters. This is mandatory.
Description – Information to distinguish your site from others in the My Sites list
Note Your site has public access by default. If you want it to remain private, uncheck the
Access box.

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3. Click OK to access your new site.

Set up your site

You can set up your new site to meet your team’s requirements.
Ensure you are within your new site and click Customize Site in the title bar to add and remove page
components.
All the page components are displayed by default. For this scenario, there is no need to modify
anything.

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Prepare your site for collaboration

To make the new site as collaborative as possible, you want to prepare the following before inviting
any users:
• An introduction and explanation for the site (wiki)
• A set of marketing material documents (document library)
• A scheduled webinar introducing everyone to the site (calendar)
Alfresco Share Preview has the concept of page components which you can add to your site as
customized functionality. A page component has rich functionality and is URL addressable.
The available page components are:

Site Dashboard Always present. The site dashboard displays all information and activities
associated with this site. It is customized by the site owner.

Wiki Optional. The Wiki enables you to create web pages for a collaborative website.
Anyone who accesses it can contribute or modify content using a simplified markup
language.

Blog Optional. A Blog is a page component that enables you to add commentary,
descriptions of events, or other material related your site, such as graphics or
video.

Document Library Optional. A Document Library is a page component that enables you to store and
collaboratively manage any content related to a site, such as documents, media
files, or graphics.

Calendar Optional. A Calendar is a page component that enables you to schedule and track
events for all sites you own or of which you are a member.

Discussions Optional. Discussions is a page component for posting user-generated content

related to a site. These often take the form of questions or comments with threaded
discussions.

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Create an introduction
You use the Wiki page component within your site to write your introduction. Once it is written, you
add it to the Wiki dashlet on your site dashboard.

To write an introduction:
4. Within your site, click Wiki on the menu bar. The Wiki page displays.

5. Click New Page and give the page the title “Welcome to our collaboration site”.
6. Click Save. The new page displays.
7. Click the Edit tab and replace the default content with the following information:
“The purpose of this collaboration site is to share information for the project
and ensure that communication is as easy as possible.”
8. Click Save. Your new content displays in the View tab.

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To add the introduction to your site dashboard:

1. Click Site Dashboard in the menu bar.
2. Click Configure in the Wiki dashlet. The Select wiki page window displays.

3. Select the wiki page you just created and click OK. The text from this wiki page displays in the
Wiki dashlet.

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Add marketing material

You have been preparing for this site for a month now and have three pieces of marketing content
that you would like to upload. For this aspect of the scenario, pick three pieces of content on your
personal computer to add. If you are interested in the SharePoint support protocol, ensure one of
these documents is a MS Word document. For more detail on how to use the SharePoint support
protocol, refer to Using SharePoint protocol support with your MS Office documents.
1. Within your site, click Document Library in the menu bar. The Document Library page displays.
2. Click Upload to load your three content items.
3. Click Browse to locate any three pieces of content on your computer to upload. The Upload files
page displays the three content items as a list.

4. Click Upload File(s). The content items display their upload status.
5. When all content is 100% complete, click OK. The content items display in your document library

Update a document
After uploading the marketing material, you realize you have made an error in one of them.

To update the document

1. Select one of the content items you have uploaded
2. Click the Edit offline action associated with this content. The file moves to the Documents I’m
editing section, indicating that the document is checked out to you.

3. Select Save from the Open page and click OK to save the content item in a location from which
you can edit it.
Note The content name will be appended with “(working copy)” in the location in which you
save it.
4. Navigate to this content item on your machine, change a word, and save it.

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5. In the Documents I’m Editing view, select the content item you modified and click the Upload
New Version action. The Update File page displays.

6. Click Browse to locate your modified file. Remember that it is appended with “(working copy)”.
7. Specify whether it is a minor or major version and type any comments you have, then click
Upload File(s).
8. When all content is 100% complete, click OK. The content item displays in its original location in
the library.

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Schedule a webinar
As part of promoting this collaboration site, you want to schedule a webinar to welcome the new
users and discuss the purpose of the site.

To schedule a webinar
1. Within your site, click Calendar on the menu bar. The Calendar displays
2. In the calendar on the left side of the site, click the date you want to have the webinar and click
Add Event.

3. Enter the webinar details in the Add Event page and click OK. You return to the calendar with
your new webinar displayed on the date you scheduled it.

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Invite members to your site

After you have set up your collaborative site, you can invite members to access it.

To invite members:
1. Within your site, click Members on the menu bar. The Invite page displays.

2. In Search internal users, type the name of an internal user you want to invite and click Search.
Important If you do not have any users for this Technical Preview release, add them in the
Alfresco Web Client interface. Otherwise, skip to step 4.
3. Click Add associated with the user you want to add. The user displays in the Invite Users list.
4. In Add external users , type the first name, last name, and email for the external user you want
to invite, then click Add.

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5. In the Invite Users list, select a role from the Select role menu for each user.
Note If you want to assign all users the same role, select a role from the Select all roles menu
to apply to all of your selected users.

6. Click Invite. You are notified that the invite has been sent via email to each member invited.

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View Site activities

Now that you have prepared your site and invited your users, you can return to your site dashboard
and see the specific activities that occurred to do this under your Alfresco Activities Site Feed.

You can:
• Click the document name for a preview of this document
• Click the documnt library access the library folder in which this document resides

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Using SharePoint protocol support with

your MS Office documents
If you are familiar with editing your Microsoft™ Office documents using SharePoint, Alfresco enables
you to work with the same interface, using Alfresco Share as your repository instead of SharePoint.
Although the following steps apply to all Microsoft Office documents, the steps reference MS Word for
clarity.
To use the SharePoint protocol support with your Office documents
1. Start Microsoft Word.
2. From the File menu, choose Open.
3. In the File name field, type:
“http://[Alfresco instance]/alfresco”
where [Alfresco instance] is the location where the Alfresco Labs 2 web client is installed. For
example, http://alfresco:8080/alfresco
The MS Word document opens with the Shared Workspace pane You are prompted for your
user name and password.
4. Type your user name and password and click OK..
5. From the right pane, navigate to one of the documents you already added your new site to
Alfresco Share Preview site 3 document library. For example,
//alfresco/sites/collaboration/document library/marketing material.doc. The document displays
with the Shared Workspace pane.
6. INSERT GRAPHIC
You can now work with your Office document using the key SharePoint functionality available in the
Shared Workspace pane.
This includes:
• Members tab – add members to your shared workspace
• Documents tab – Add new documents, add new folders
• Document Information tab – Check in documents, Check out documents, View Version History
Refer to the SharePoint documentation for detailed instructions on how to use this functionality.

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