8 Document and Content Management
8.1 Direct editing of documents
Editing of documents stored in BSCW is usually done by downloading the document, editing the document on your local computer and uploading it afterwards. Under certain circumstan- ces, however, documents may be edited from the web-based user interface directly on your BSCW server:
o text and HTML documents, using editors which are integrated into the Web browser; o MS Office files, using WebDAV (only possible when you are using Internet Explorer
o arbitrary documents using a local helper application that supports direct editing with external editors.
In addition, text and HTML documents may be directly created on the BSCW server.
8.1.1 Creating and editing text documents
You can create and edit text documents (MIME type text/plain) directly on the BSCW ser-
ver without restrictions. The text editor used is a simple text box where the contents of the do- cument are displayed and may be entered and edited.
To create a text document
• select File New Text Document in the top menu menu of the current folder.
• Enter name, optional tags and description of the new document. Enter the text of the document into the text box offered.
• Hit [OK] to create the document.
To edit a text document directly on the BSCW server,
• select Change Edit in the action menu of the document. When you use the built-in
simple text editor, this action automatically locks the document, until you are finished with editing.
• The contents of the text document are displayed in a text box where you may edit the document freely.
• By hitting [OK], the edited document replaces the existing one or creates a new ver- sion if the document is under version control.
During document creation (either via upload or directly on the server), the character set of the document has been inferred from the creator’s browser information. You can also explicitly set the character set via Change Properties . Uncheck the check box ‘Try to select the char-
acter set for contents of a text file automatically’ and confirm with [OK]. You can then enter the character set for the document in the action form.
In addition to plain text documents, direct editing is also possible for other types of text docu- ments, e.g. for XML documents (MIME type text/xml). Because of the primitive nature of
the editing method, direct editing of text documents is only recommended for rather short do- cuments.
8.1.2 Creating and editing HTML documents
You can create and edit HTML documents (MIME type text/html) directly on the BSCW
server. With most recent Web browsers, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari, an HTML editor is being used that has been integrated into BSCW. Should you use a browser that does not work with the integrated editor, HTML documents are edited like ordinary text documents.
To create an HTML document
• select File New HTML Document in the top menu of the current folder.
• Enter name, optional tags and description of the new document. Enter the contents of the document into the window of the HTML editor.
• Hitting [OK] or invoking the editor ‘Save’ operation creates the new HTML docu- ment.
• If you click on [Cancel and edit source] you lose your input so far and can enter the HTML document in source text, i.e. with HTML tags.
To edit an HTML document directly on the server
• select Change Edit in the action menu of the document. When you use the built-in
HTML editor, this action automatically locks the document, until you are finished with editing.
Note: The automatic locking generates no events of its own and doesn’t appear in the
history of the document.
• The contents of the HTML document are displayed in the window of the HTML editor where you may edit the document freely.
• By hitting [OK], the edited document replaces the existing one or creates a new ver- sion if the document is under version control.
• If you click on [Cancel and edit source] you lose your input so far and can edit the HTML document as source text.
During creation of the HTML document (either via upload or directly on the server), the char- acter set of the document has been inferred from the creator’s browser information. You can also explicitly set the character set via Change Properties . Uncheck the check box ‘Try to
select the character set for contents of a text file automatically’ and confirm with [OK]. You can then enter the character set for the HTML document in the action form.
8.1.3 Editing MS Office files
Direct editing of MS Office files is based on functionality which has been provided by Micro- soft in more recent versions of MS Windows and MS Office. The requirements are:
o Windows 7 and up;
o Internet Explorer 8.0 or up; o Office 2010 or up;
o the BSCW document is a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, or Visio file;
o the document name on the BSCW server has the correct extension, e.g., .doc for a Word document.
Furthermore, your BSCW server must be configured so that
o WebDAV is enabled (see 13.9 “WebDAV” on page 246) and o cookie authentication is not enabled.
If in doubt, ask your BSCW administrator.
If the requirements are met, you directly edit an MS Office document on the BSCW server as follows.
• Select Change Edit in the action menu of the document.
• The action locks the document and opens the appropriate Office application where you can edit the document.
Note: The automatic locking generates no events of its own and doesn’t appear in the
• Applying the “Save” operation in the Office application writes the file directly back to the BSCW server, replacing the existing one, or creates a new version if the document is under version control.
• Closing the document in the Office application unlocks the document.
Note: When direct editing with the helper application for external editors has been activated
for MS Office files (see next section), this mechanism has priority over the direct editing of MS Office files described here.
8.1.4 Editing documents using external editors
Using a local helper application for external editors you can edit arbitrary documents directly on the BSCW server. The helper application has to be installed on your local computer. For direct editing of a document, the helper application is called from within the browser; the helper application then starts the local editor suitable for the particular document type and writes the results back to the BSCW server during and after editing. Depending on document type, you may use as editor text processors like Microsoft Word or Open Office Writer, graphical editors or spreadsheet programs.
If you want to employ this method of direct editing, you proceed as follows:
• Installation of the helper application for direct editing with external editors on your local computer.
• Configuration of your personal preferences so that the helper application starts the suitable local editor when you are directly editing documents of a certain type.
• Direct editing via Change Edit for document types configured accordingly.
Installation of the helper application for direct editing with external editors
BSCW supports as helper application the Zope External Editor Client which is also used with- in the content management framework Zope (http://www.zope.org). The Zope client is avail- able for the Windows and Linux platforms. After download and installation the Zope client is ready to use; all usual document types are preconfigured.
• Download the Zope client for your platform from http://plone.org/products/zope-externaleditor-client
• Install the Zope client on your local computer (on Windows e.g., start the downloaded setup program and follow the instructions of the installation wizard).
If you use specific network connections (e.g. a proxy server), you may have to further con- figure the Zope client. How to do this and links to more details on the Zope client are to be found on the BSCW website under http://www.bscw.de/english/externaleditor.html.
Configuration of the external editors in your personal BSCW preferences
Select the document types that you want to directly edit in BSCW with local applications – the external editors.
• Select Options Preferences in the top menu and go to the subsection ‘File Handling’
of the section ‘General’ of the action form.
• Under External editors, select those document types for which you want to activate di- rect editing with local (for BSCW external) editors via the Zope client, e.g. MS Office
files or OpenOffice files. If you select ‘plain text’ here, text documents are no longer edited using the simple text editor integrated into BSCW, but using your local text editor via the Zope client.
• Confirm with [OK].
Direct editing using the helper application
For direct editing of BSCW documents via the Zope client you proceed as follows.
• Select Change Edit in the action menu of a document for the type of which an ex-
ternal editor has been configured.
• Your browser will now ask you what to do with the working copy of the document: open, store or cancel. Confirm opening with Zope External Editor. With some brow- sers you may suppress this dialog in the future by checking or unchecking a corres- ponding option.
• Now, the local editor corresponding to the document type is started with the current document; the document itself is locked within BSCW.
• After editing, you store the document using the “Save” operation of the editor and close the editor. You will then be asked by the Zope client to confirm the end of edit- ing. Afterwards, the original document is replaced by the edited document – with ver- sioned documents a new version is created – and the document is unlocked again.
8.2 Document functions
8.2.1 Resubmitting documents
You may have a document ‘resubmitted’ to you at certain dates, i.e. have a reminder e-mail message sent to you by BSCW containing links to the document and the workspace that con- tains it:
• Select Send to Resubmission in the action menu of the document. Enter the date of
the resubmission as well as subject and body of the reminder message. If the document is part of a shared workspace, you may specify whether the message is to be sent only to yourself or also to the other members of the workspace. Confirm with [OK].
• Next, you will be shown the existing dates for resubmission. Click [Add] to enter fur- ther dates. By clicking the icons or in the ‘Action’ column, existing dates may be deleted or changed. Click [Back] to return to the folder view.
8.2.2 Locking documents
You may set a temporary lock for a document to avoid conflicts when several authors concur- rently edit the document. A locked document may only be read by other users, it cannot be modified or replaced. Also, a new version cannot be generated.
• Select Access Set Lock in the action menu of the document and enter a lock note.
Confirm by clicking [OK].
As lock owner, you may change the lock note any time without unlocking the document: click on the icon in the ‘Share’ column of the document entry. Using this very action, you may
also unlock the document again by hitting [Unlock]. Instead of clicking on the icon you may also invoke this action via Access Show Lock .
If you want to modify a document that has been locked by another user in spite of the lock, you may ‘steal’ the lock, sufficient access rights given.
• Click on the icon in the ‘Share’ column of the entry of the document locked, enter your own lock note and confirm with [Steal lock].
Now you have locked the document for other users and may modify it yourself. The former owner of the lock will be notified via e-mail. If you do not have sufficient access rights for stealing the lock, only the lock note will be shown to you. Stealing (or viewing) the lock may also be invoked by selecting Access Show Lock in the action menu of the document
locked.
When you lock a document that you do not own, you become an additional owner of the document.
8.2.3 Freezing documents and folders
By default, creators and managers of a document may freeze the document, thus saving it from further modifications by other members of the workspace. A frozen document may only be read, it cannot be modified any more. After unfreezing it may be edited again.
• In the folder listing, check the check boxes of the documents that you want to freeze.
• Select Edit Freeze in the top menu to receive a listing of the documents that are to be
frozen. Confirm by hitting [OK].
• If you want to freeze only one document, you may also select Access Freeze in
the action menu of the document.
Frozen documents are indicated by the icon in the ‘Share’ column of a folder listing. If you want to unfreeze some documents again, use Edit Unfreeze in the top menu. You may
also choose Access Unfreeze from the action menu of a frozen document.
As creator or manager you can also freeze an entire folder, thus saving the complete contents from modifications by other members of the folder.
• Select File Access Freeze in the top menu of the folder that you want to freeze.
• Alternatively, you can also select Access Freeze in the action menu of the folder.
Frozen folders are indicated by the icon in the navigation bar and the ‘Share’ column of the folder entry in a listing.
If you want to unfreeze a frozen folder, use File Access Unfreeze in the top menu of the
folder. You may also select Access Unfreeze in the action menu of the folder.