Core Content Only

Content Profiles allow administrators to craft custom check-in and search screens. They can perform all sorts of default metadata tips and tricks and generally craft targeted, context centric pages that help users properly apply metadata to their content.

On occasion I have been asked about how to hide the Standard Check-In and Search menus once Content Profiles have been enabled. This post explains how to construct a component to accomplish this task. You can also download this Sample Component to Hide Standard Profile Menus.

When you install this component it will prompt you for four (4) preference variables. These variables (2 for each menu) indicate if the functionality is currently enabled and what iDocScript should be executed to determine if the menu item should show or not. The default settings hide the menu from anyone without the admin role.

The idea for this component is not my own, I actually noticed this during a demo at one point.  The concept is to remove the <HR> (horizontal rules) on the check in and search pages and instead use Rule Groupings with headers.

Here we see a check in profile where groupings with headers were setup but the horizontal rules are still in place:

And with this component installed and enabled we can remove the horizontal rules:

This component has a preference variable that allows this functionality to be turned on and off without restarting the content server service/process.  Visit the component manager page in the admin server.  Select RemoveProfileHorizontalRules from the drop down next to the update button.  Click update.

By entering false in the box and clicking update the horizontal rules will be visible again.

Here is a sample component that removes the Profile Horizontal Rules as described above.

I have always wanted a quick way to build components without firing up ComponentWizard. I'm not talking about the actual construction of the component like adding resources. I'm talking about the assembly of the component zip file. Combing through the intradoc user group and other online forums can yield a little discussion about Apache ANT being used to construct component zip files. However, I did not find an easy reference to an actual ant file for such purpose.

So once we have this ability to create component zips what else can we do with it? Most projects do not consist of a single component. The components are also not completed in a linear fashion. Generally components that are completed will typically have adjustments being made throughout the project. Using a tool like ant we can orchestrate the build of multiple components at once. This orchestration can even include tasks such as placing built components in shared folders or uploading them to an FTP location.

As for using the Component Wizard to lay out the component architecture you might want to add the build file as a component extra. Then the installation of the component at a target location brings the build file along for the ride.

Here's an example build file:

<project name="CompName" default="dist" basedir=".">
 <property name="build.home" value="${basedir}/classes"/>
 <property name="src.home" value="${basedir}/src"/>
 <property name="compile.debug" value="true"/>
 <property name="compile.deprecation" value="true"/>
 <property name="component.root" value="component/${ant.project.name}/"/>

 <path id="compile.classpath">
  <pathelement location="${basedir}/../../shared/classes/server.zip"/>
  <pathelement location="${basedir}/../../shared/classes/jspserver.jar"/>
 </path>

 <target name="clean">
  <delete dir="${build.home}"/>
  <mkdir dir="${build.home}"/>
 </target>

 <target name="compile" depends="clean">
  <javac srcdir="${src.home}" destdir="${build.home}" debug="${compile.debug}" deprecation="${compile.deprecation}">
   <classpath refid="compile.classpath"/>
  </javac>
 </target>

 <target name="dist" depends="compile" description="Package as a Fusion ECM Component">
  <delete file="${basedir}/${ant.project.name}.zip"/>
  <tstamp>
   <format property="component.timestamp" pattern="yyyy_MM_dd_hh_mm_ss_aa"/>
  </tstamp>

  <zip destfile="${basedir}/${component.timestamp}_${ant.project.name}.zip">
   <zipfileset dir="${src.home}" prefix="${component.root}src"/>
   <zipfileset dir="${build.home}" prefix="${component.root}classes"/>
   <zipfileset dir="${basedir}/resources" excludes="**/lockwait.dat" prefix="${component.root}resources"/>
   <zipfileset dir="${basedir}" includes="${ant.project.name}.hda" fullpath="${component.root}${ant.project.name}.hda"/>
   <zipfileset dir="${basedir}" includes="build.xml" fullpath="${component.root}build.xml"/>
   <zipfileset dir="${basedir}" includes="readme.txt" fullpath="${component.root}readme.txt"/>
   <zipfileset dir="${basedir}" includes="manifest.hda" fullpath="manifest.hda"/>
  </zip>
 </target>
</project>