Administering Libraries

A Library provides the services of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to Communities. To enable the use of Libraries, you must make some configuration changes to Connections and to each ECM system that you plan to use.

Two types of Library widgets are available in Communities: Libraries, and Linked Libraries. By default, Libraries are enabled and Linked Libraries are disabled. When users create a Library widget, the library is created on the ECM system that is configured to work with Connections. When users create a Linked Library widget in a Community, they specify a server then select an existing library from that server. For more information about enabling Linked Libraries, see Adding Linked Libraries.

If you want to reuse existing content from your ECM server, use the Linked Library widget. If you need a new place to store content and collaborate within your community, use the Library widget.

After you configure your systems for Linked Library, users can add Linked Library widgets to their Communities. Files and folders within a Library are stored and managed on the ECM system, independently of Connections. As a result, users who have access to the Community must also have access to the ECM system before they can use the Library. Unless you configure single sign-on, users must authenticate to the Connections system and to each ECM system separately.

The following table shows the ECM systems that are available for each type of library.