Community Pages

A community is a distinctive workspace within the portal containing pages, portlets, and subcommunities. It is created by a business unit or a group to provide a forum for sharing information.

You can perform the following actions on the Community Pages page:

• Selecting or Changing the Community Template
• Setting the Community Home Page or and Ordering Community Pages
• Adding a Page to the Community
• Deleting a Page from the Community
• Editing a Community Page
• Enabling or Disabling the Community Knowledge Directory
• Inviting Users to the Community

Selecting or Changing the Community Template

When you create a new community, you must choose a community template. This community template determines a set of required pages and—if configured—enforces a header and a footer.

To select or change the community template:

1. In the Community Templates section, click Select Community Template. This displays the Community Templates dialog box.
   Note: If you are editing an existing community, the button says Change Community Template. Before changing the template, read the important notes below.

2. Select a template and click OK.

3. If you do not want this community to inherit future changes to the template, clear the box next to Inherit the Template.
   
   If you select to inherit changes, any change applied to the community template affects the community. For example, if a page is removed from the community template, the page will be removed from this community as well.  Additionally, if you inherit changes, you cannot delete pages associated with the template, but you can add new pages and change the order of the pages.

4. Click OK.

Important: After a community is created, you can select a different community template to use. When selecting a different community template, note the following:

• Any pages from the old community template that are not part of the new community template will be removed.

• If you have set special headers and footers for your community, switching to a community template that enforces a header or footer will remove your header or footer.

Setting the Community Home Page and Ordering Community Pages

By default, the first page you add to a community, whether directly or via a community template, will be the home page of your community.

• To change the home page, move the desired page to the top of the Community Pages list by clicking to the far right of the page name.

The order in which pages are displayed in the Community Pages list is the order in which the page links will display to users.

• To move a page to the top of this list, click . This page will become the home page for the community.
• To move a page up one space in this list, click .
• To move a page down one space in this list, click .

• To move a page to the bottom of this list, click .

Adding a Page to the Community

When you create a new page, you must choose a page template. This page template determines the default page name, a set of required portlets, and the page layout.

To add a page to the community:

1. In the Community Pages section, click New Page.
   If there are no pages in the community, the button says Create Home Page.

2. Select a page template and click OK.

3. If you do not want this page to inherit future changes to the page template, clear the box next to Inherit the Template.
   
   If you select to inherit changes, any change applied to the page template affects this page as well. For example, if a portlet is removed from the page template, the portlet will be removed from this page as well. Additionally, if you inherit changes, you cannot delete or rearrange portlets associated with the page template, or change the page layout, but you can add portlets to the page.

4. Click OK.

Deleting a Page from the Community

You can delete any page that says No in the From Community Template column. If you chose to inherit changes from the community template, pages that are part of that template say Yes in the From Community Template column and cannot be deleted.

• To delete a page from the community, select the page and click .
  When you delete a page, it is deleted from the community folder.

Editing a Community Page

Depending on whether you are inheriting changes, you can change the page name, add portlets, delete portlets, rearrange portlets, change the page layout, and set page security by clicking the name of the page. For more information, click here.

Enabling or Disabling the Community Knowledge Directory

The Community Knowledge Directory is a hierarchical list that displays the resources (for example, the members, folders, and document links) in a community. To enable the Community Knowledge Directory, clear the box next to Disable Community Knowledge Directory.

You can only enable or disable the Community Knowledge Directory from this page; to modify the folders and objects in the Community Knowledge Directory, navigate to it, and click Edit. For more information about the Community Knowledge Directory, see Community Knowledge Directory. For more information on editing the Community Knowledge Directory, see Edit Community Knowledge Directory.

Inviting Users to the Community

To invite users to your community:

1. At the top left of the page, click Send To Others.

2. In the dialog box, copy the text, then click Close.

3. In your e-mail application, paste the text into an e-mail message and send it.

When other portal users click the URL in your e-mail, the community opens. If a user does not have permission to see the community, an error message is displayed.

• To display the page associated with this help topic:

• To edit an existing community within the community page:

1. In the My Communities menu, click the community you want to edit.
2. On the right, click Edit Page.
3. In the Flyout Editor, click Go to Advanced Editor.

Note: To edit a community, you need Edit access for the community.

• To edit an existing community from Administration:

1. Click Administration and navigate to the community you want to edit.
2. Click the community name.

3. Click .

• To create a new community:

1. Click Administration.
2. Open an administrative folder.
3. In the Create Object drop-down list, click Community.

Note: To create a community, you need Edit access for the administrative folder and the Create Community activity right.