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HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
HCL Digital Experience 8.5
Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
Online Help
This Online Help is made available in the HCL Digital Experience Help Center for quick references on how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Digital Experience.
Online Help topics
Online Help includes HCL Digital Experience information that is available from the product user interface. Online Help for both administrative and content author roles are also available. Help for the Configuration Wizard is also included.
User assistance for administrators
As an administrator, you can manage access to resources in the website, deploy new applications, and more.
Administration Portlets
Administration portlets are only visible to users with adequate access. Members of the wpsadmins group can access Administration. Visitors to your website will not see the administration link.
Portal user interface
Add pages to build your site, and customize its visual identity.
Managing pages
Manage Pages allows you to create, edit, activate, order, and delete pages as well as external Web pages and labels. Available tasks depend on which item is selected. Each page can contain multiple pages. All pages on which you have the User or greater role are displayed in a navigation menu. You must expand pages to access nested pages. The options that you see are dependent upon your access level.
Editing page layout
The Edit Layout portlet allows you to add, remove, and arrange portlets on the page. You can also set column widths and select different page layouts. The tasks that you can perform may be limited if areas or content on the page is locked or you have insufficient access privileges.
Modifying page layout
When you create a page, you can choose one of the layout templates displayed. In most cases, you need only to add portlets to one of those predetermined layouts.

HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5 [Legacy Content]
- HCL Digital Experience 9.0
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 9.0 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
- HCL Digital Experience 8.5
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
  - Overview
    HCL Digital Experience (formerly IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager) empowers you to create, manage, and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to virtually all audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications, and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile. and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).
  - Roadmaps to deploy your system
    Review the roadmaps to understand the common deployment, configuration, migration, and integration patterns.
  - Roadmaps to create your website
    Review the roadmaps to understand how to create your website.
  - Online Help
    This Online Help is made available in the HCL Digital Experience Help Center for quick references on how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Digital Experience.
    - Online Help topics
      Online Help includes HCL Digital Experience information that is available from the product user interface. Online Help for both administrative and content author roles are also available. Help for the Configuration Wizard is also included.
      - User assistance for content authors
        Create an exceptional experience for site visitors. Integrate compelling digital content into your website or intranet by using lightweight content management tools. Edit content and integrate digital assets inline and then publish changes efficiently.
      - User assistance for administrators
        As an administrator, you can manage access to resources in the website, deploy new applications, and more.
        Welcome to your Digital Experience
        Learn about the many capabilities that are available for delivering an exceptional Digital Experience to site visitors. The enhanced content authoring experience means you can invest less time developing custom authoring environments. The flexible framework means you can integrate applications and content into your website and still retain a cohesive user experience.
        Site development with Site Builder
        Site Builder uses a set of wizards to guide users through the creation of Site Builder templates, and the creation of sites and sections by using those templates.
        Applications for Administrators
        Set up the application area for your site users.
        Administration Portlets
        Administration portlets are only visible to users with adequate access. Members of the wpsadmins group can access Administration. Visitors to your website will not see the administration link.
        Portal user interface
        Add pages to build your site, and customize its visual identity.
        Managing pages
        Manage Pages allows you to create, edit, activate, order, and delete pages as well as external Web pages and labels. Available tasks depend on which item is selected. Each page can contain multiple pages. All pages on which you have the User or greater role are displayed in a navigation menu. You must expand pages to access nested pages. The options that you see are dependent upon your access level.
        Searching
        Use the search feature to search the portlet for portal resources by selecting the type of search and the appropriate search parameters. You can limit the number of portal resources that are listed in the portlet.
        Configuring the Manage Pages portlet
        You can change the number of pages that display on a page and the total number of pages that are listed by default. In addition, you can control whether or not the search option will appear.
        Selecting pages
        Pages that you can modify in Manage Pages appear as links in a table. By clicking on a link to select a page, you can navigate to other nested pages to perform page tasks. You can also select labels and URLs in Manage Pages.
        Ordering pages, labels, and URLs
        You can change the order of pages, labels, and URLs on the site and the order of entries in the main menu from Manage Pages.
        Activating or deactivating a page, label, or URL
        You can deactivate a resource to prevent users from accessing it without having to change their user roles. You can toggle pages, labels, and URLs to be active or inactive from Manage Pages. If you deactivate a resource, users cannot access this inactive resource.
        Managing page properties
        Page Properties allows you to set the properties of pages, labels, and URLs. You can access Page Properties through context sensitive links or from the Manage Pages, Theme, Edit Layout, Appearance, or Page Locks portlets.
        Creating a portal page from an HTML file
        You can create a new portal page by starting with a static HTML file or an HTML fragment. If you revise the HTML, you can refresh the page to render the changes in the portal.
        Editing page layout
        The Edit Layout portlet allows you to add, remove, and arrange portlets on the page. You can also set column widths and select different page layouts. The tasks that you can perform may be limited if areas or content on the page is locked or you have insufficient access privileges.
        Adding a portlet to a page
        Portlets are added to the page by submitting a search and then selecting from the list of available portlets. Only portlets available in the portlet list can be placed on the selected page. After you place a portlet in a row or column, you cannot modify the row or column without removing all portlets from that outlined container.
        Organizing objects
        Objects such as portlets and containers can be rearranged on the page.
        Modifying page layout
        When you create a page, you can choose one of the layout templates displayed. In most cases, you need only to add portlets to one of those predetermined layouts.
        Editing portlet unique names on a page
        You can change the unique name of a portlet on a page. The unique name that you set affects only the portlet instance on the page.
        Changing portlet settings
        You can change the settings of each portlet listed in the Edit Layout portlet. These options are available from the drop-down menu on each portlet shown in the container.
        Selecting a personalization rule
        You can manage personalization rules for a particular portlet from the Edit Layout portlet.
        Custom Layout Editor
        Beginning with Digital Experience CF198 and later, a custom layout editor is available with the release for use.
        Changing portlet appearance
        The Appearance portlet lets you change the skin of a portlet on the page. Changing the portlet skin changes the look of the area surrounding the portlet, including the border, margins, and title bar.
        Using Page Locks
        The Page Locks portlet allows the administrator to lock containers on a page and the content of the containers. As the administrator, you can also decide which portlets can or cannot be deleted from the page. These settings control how a user can work with the page in the Edit Layout and Content portlet.
        Using portlet wires
        Use wires to exchange information or actions between portlets.
        Exporting pages and labels
        Exporting allows you to create a response file so that the page or label and its child nodes can be imported into another portal server by using the XML configuration interface.
        Moving pages and labels
        You can move a page and its children to another location in the portal hierarchy from Manage Pages.
        Assigning access to pages, labels, and URLs
        You can set access permissions by navigating to the page, label, or URL to which you want to assign or modify access. Click the Set page permissions icon to change permissions for the resource.
        Deleting pages, labels, and URLs
        You can delete pages, labels, and URLs to remove content and to change the site navigation.
        Field descriptions for the Manage Pages portlet
        Learn more about the fields that are provided with the user interface. These fields appear under the Edit Shared Settings and Configure menus for the Manage Pages portlet.
        Managing themes and skins
        Control the look and feel of the site by changing the theme or skin. A theme controls elements of the overall portal, such as the banner and navigation. A skin controls portlet elements, such as the minimize and maximize icons and the title bar.
        Portlet management
        Manage the portlets and Web services that the site uses.
        Access
        Control who has access to the site.
        Portal settings
        Manage site settings.
        Managing Portal content
        Learn more about managing libraries, cleaning up data, and setting up search. As an administrator you need to periodically assist content managers with library maintenance, such as disabling or deleting a library.
        Manage Search
        You can customize the way the portal search is administered to meet your users need from the Manage Search portlet. The Manage Search portlet provides access to search related resources such as the Search Services, Search Collections, Search Scopes, and custom links. You can use these resources to search for content more effectively. You can view and manage the resources from the Manage Search portlet.
        Manage Search
        Use the Manage Search portlet to administer portal search.
        Portal analysis
        Gather data about the site.
        Managing virtual portals
        The Manage Virtual Portals portlet enables you to deploy additional portals on an existing infrastructure. With virtual portals, you can use a single portal installation to deploy multiple portals with different URLs, anonymous pages, user groups, and themes and skins.
        Search Center
        The portal search engine helps your site visitors to find information easily. Visitors can search HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager sources, along with additional internal and external web search sources that you make available to them. To help your visitors manage searching different information sources, define search collections and scopes.
        Tag Center
        You can use the tag center to search for resources tagged with specific tags.
        Working with feeds
        Syndicated Feed Portlet enables you to integrate, view, and manage RSS and ATOM feeds from your portal pages. You can organize the feeds into new and existing feed categories and extensively customize the presentation style for these feeds.
      - Directory structure
        The topic shows the naming conventions that are used to denote the location of files on the servers and the types of resources you can find in those directories.
      - Configuration Wizard
        You installed your HCL Digital Experience software. Now let the Configuration Wizard guide you through configuring your system. To begin, select a configuration option and provide basic input about your environment. Based on this information, the Configuration Wizard provides you with examples, recommended values, customized instructions, and scripts that you can run.
  - Installing
    HCL Digital Experience provides flexible deployment options that range from proof-of-concept where you can examine and test functionality to a highly available and scalable production environment. Review the planning information to learn more about hardware and software requirements, high availability, scalability, supported topologies, and much more. Select your operating system and then select the installation pattern that most reflects your business needs.
  - Configuring
    Run the following tasks after you install and deploy HCL Digital Experience. They address tasks that are typically run one time and have a global effect. Some configuration changes are made more frequently or do not have a global effect. These tasks are addressed in the Administering section.
  - Backup and restore
    Backup and recovery of data files and databases is an essential operation for any business system, particularly for data and applications that run in production environments. Create and follow a plan for backing up and recovering data on all tiers of your HCL Digital Experience deployment. IBM Installation Manager must also be included in backup and recovery planning. If you back up the HCL Portal file structure and then install a fix pack, your HCL Digital Experience and IBM Installation Manager become out of sync after you restore the HCL Portal file system. This condition is not recoverable.
  - Migrating
    Successful migration requires significant planning and preparation, understanding the tools that are involved, and careful execution of the appropriate steps in the order provided.
  - Integrating
    Integrate HCL Digital Experience with software such as HCL Sametime to enable your users to collaborate more easily. You can also use the unified task list portlet to integrate HCL with your backend business process software, such as IBM Process Server.
  - Administering
    Use the administration tools that are provided with the portal to do various day-to-day administration tasks. There are two methods for editing portal setup: using the administration portlets or the XML configuration interface. The administration portlets are a convenient way to make real-time updates to the portal's configuration. While the XML configuration interface is suited to more advanced administration, including batch processing of updates.
  - Securing
    Security tasks include setting up property extension databases and custom user repositories, configuring and activating SSL, and configuring authentication. In addition, tasks such as activating Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and NIST SP800-131a security modules and configuring external security managers such as Security Access Manager might be required to secure your portal environment.
  - Monitoring
    HCL Portal includes tools and features to help you monitor the portal site.
  - Setting up a website
    Setting up a website includes, creating pages, adding navigation, setting up search, and adding content to the site. Themes are used to customize the portal's look-and-feel. Out-of-the-box templates and the site wizard can help you set up your portal site faster. You can add wikis and blogs to your site and let users tag and rate content on your site.
  - Staging to production
    During portal solution development, the solution is initially developed, tested, and refined on one server or a limited number of servers. The solution is deployed later on live systems, referred to as the production environment. The process of moving the solution from the development environment to the production environment is called staging.
  - Developing
    This section includes developer documentation on extending applications and development assets for HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager.
  - Troubleshooting
    This section helps you resolve problems, use diagnostic tools and tracing to capture HCL Digital Experience system errors.
  - Reference
    View information that can help you use the Digital Experience Help Center including directory conventions, terms of use, trademarks, a glossary, and more.
  - Glossary
    This glossary includes terms and definitions for HCL Digital Experience.
  - Content Template Catalog 4.4
    The Content Template (CTC) is a set of templates that accelerate the process of building a website.

Modifying page layout | HCL Digital Experience

When you create a page, you can choose one of the layout templates displayed. In most cases, you need only to add portlets to one of those predetermined layouts.

About this task

If you need more control over the layout, click Show layout tools to display the advanced layout icons. You can nest spaces and add rows and columns.

Users can click the option Show layout tools only if the check box Show toggle link for Show layout tools/hide layout tools was enabled within the Configuration or Edit shared settings mode of the Edit Layout portlet.

Note: Do not use the Edit Layout portlet to edit pages with static layout that were created by using the site toolbar. The Edit Layout portlet might not display static layout containers as expected.