Welcome
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 EOS
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 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.
Applications for Content Authors
Use the following applications to create and manage content on your site.
Web content user assistance
Use the web content authoring portlet and inline editing tools to create and manage web content items.
Managing content with the authoring portlet
You use the web content authoring portlet to create and manage web content items such as site areas, content items, authoring templates, presentation templates, components, categories, folders, projects, and workflow items.
Creating web content tags
Use HCL Web Content Manager tags to reference elements within presentation templates and element designs.
Creating a plug-in tag
Rendering plug-ins are referenced by using the plug-in tag. Select from preinstalled rendering plug-ins, or select your own custom plug-ins.
Connector plug-ins
Connector plug-ins are used for connections to other systems.
The list-rendering context
Learn how to create a list-rendering context.
Dynamic list-rendering contexts
The Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal makes it possible to dynamically set or modify the list-rendering context. For this purpose, it supports a defined set of public render parameters.

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 9.0 EOS
  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 EOS
  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.
        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.
        Building a site with Site Builder
        Use Site Builder to create sites and add sections using predefined site and section templates.
        Adding pages, content, and more
        As a content author, your goal is to visualize the best way to organize information on your site with pages and content. You might need to create a section in the site for a new product or you might want to change the arrangement of pages in the navigation based on customer feedback. Either way, you always start with a project and end with publishing your updates.
        Configure your content spot
        The Configure Spot feature provides a convenient place for selecting the type of content to display in a web content viewer. You can target content to segments, display content with page context, or select a specific content item for the spot.
        Applications for Content Authors
        Use the following applications to create and manage content on your site.
        Web content user assistance
        Use the web content authoring portlet and inline editing tools to create and manage web content items.
        Managing content with the authoring portlet
        You use the web content authoring portlet to create and manage web content items such as site areas, content items, authoring templates, presentation templates, components, categories, folders, projects, and workflow items.
        Managing items by using the authoring portlet
        The authoring portlet is used to create and manage the items that you use to create websites. There are a common set of features within the authoring portlet to assist you work with items.
        Creating items
        The basic item creation task is the same for all item-types.
        Generated template types
        You can generate author-ready templates in HCL Web Content Manager to provide content authors a set of predefined content templates that can be selected from the toolbar and used to add content to a page.
        Page component types
        Use these predefined page component types to create custom page components for your content authors.
        How to work with elements
        Each content item that you create contains at least one element type. The elements that are stored in a content item are determined by the authoring template that is selected when you created the content item. Depending on the authoring template, and your level of access, you might also be able to manage the elements in a content item.
        Element designs
        You use element designs to define the design and layout of elements.
        Creating web content tags
        Use HCL Web Content Manager tags to reference elements within presentation templates and element designs.
        Creating an alternate design tag
        You use an alternate design tag to display a different component based on whether the item that is returned by a menu or navigator is on the current path or not.
        Creating an attribute resource tag
        You use the attribute resource tag to define the information that is returned by a search query.
        Creating a Content tag
        The Content tag directly renders a content item or site area.
        Creating a component tag
        The Component tag is used to reference the content of a component within a presentation template or element design.
        Creating an element tag
        The Element tag is used to reference an element within a presentation template or element design.
        Creating a page information tag
        You use the page information tag to display page navigation details in the design of a page navigation element.
        Creating a path component tag
        The path component tag is used to represent certain parts of the URL such as the servlet path, the base path, or the context path of the current page. This tag can be added to presentation templates, element designs, and component designs.
        Creating a placeholder tag
        You use a placeholder tag to display metadata within an element or component design.
        Creating a plug-in tag
        Rendering plug-ins are referenced by using the plug-in tag. Select from preinstalled rendering plug-ins, or select your own custom plug-ins.
        Connector plug-ins
        Connector plug-ins are used for connections to other systems.
        The HCL Connections context rendering plug-in
        You can use the ConnectionsContext rendering plug-in to access information that is related to the current HCL Connections integration context.
        Using the list-rendering cache
        The Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal framework allows to cache large fragments of the markup generated by your lists.
        The list-rendering context
        Learn how to create a list-rendering context.
        Setting the list-rendering context
        Learn about how you set the list-rendering context in Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal.
        Accessing list-rendering attributes and list properties
        To generate your list designs with Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal, you can access individual list-rendering context attributes and list properties.
        Accessing error information
        When you use the Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal, you can access error messages for problems that occurred during the bean list computation.
        Dynamic list-rendering contexts
        The Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal makes it possible to dynamically set or modify the list-rendering context. For this purpose, it supports a defined set of public render parameters.
        Content plug-ins
        Content plug-ins are used with the current content item.
        Logic plug-ins
        Logic plug-ins are used for programming logic. This topic contains additional information for some of these plug-ins.
        Page plug-ins
        Logic plug-ins are used with the current page context. This topic contains additional information for some of these plug-ins.
        Portal plug-ins
        These are portal related plug-ins.
        Portlet plug-ins
        These are portlet related plug-ins. These topics contain additional information for some of these plug-ins.
        Rendering state plug-ins
        Rendering state plug-ins are used with the current rendering state. These topics contain additional information for some of these plug-ins.
        User plug-ins
        User plug-ins are used with the current user context. This topic contain additional information for some of these plug-ins.
        Other plug-ins
        This topic contains information for other plug-ins.
        Creating a property tag
        A property tag is used to display various fields and metadata from content items and site areas.
        Creating a style element tag
        The style element tag is used to reference a style sheet component that is selected as the default style sheet in an authoring template, or a style sheet component that is referenced within a site area or content item that uses a component reference.
        Creating a URL tag
        The URLCmpnt tag is used to generate a URL to a site area or content item.
        Creating an editable property tag
        An editable property tag is used to make fields and metadata from content items and site areas editable when rendered by using a web content viewer portlet when the page is in edit mode.
        Creating an editable element tag
        The editable element tag is used to make elements from content items and site areas editable when rendered by using a web content viewer portlet when the page is in edit mode.
        Creating an If Edit Mode tag
        The IfEditMode tag is used to render content in a web content viewer portlet only when a page is in edit mode. This tag can be used to display text, fields, and elements in edit mode that are not required to be displayed when the page is in view mode.
        Creating an If Not Edit Mode tag
        The IfNotEditMode tag is used to render content in a web content viewer portlet only when a page is in view mode. This tag can be used to display text, fields, and elements in view mode that are not required to be displayed when the page is in edit mode.
        Creating an In Context tag
        The InContext tag renders a tag body within a specified rendering context. The new rendering context can be specified as a predefined context by using a UUID, or by path.
        Creating an If Defined tag
        Use the If Defined tag to render something if an element is defined on a content item or site area.
        Creating an If Not Defined tag
        Use the If Not Defined tag to render something if an element is not defined on a content item or site area.
        Indenting element designs
        You use an indent tag to format element designs that require results to be indented.
        Item management features
        HCL Web Content Manager includes a range of features that help you manage the web content items that are used in your system.
        Editing web content portlet settings
        When you add web content portlets to your site, you need to edit the settings of these portlets.
        Personalization
        Personalization can recognize a specific site visitor based on a profile. It can also determine characteristics of a user based on previous purchases, products or pages viewed, or other attributes. If a visitor belongs to a particular geographic region, content specific to that region can be targeted to the visitor. The page is assembled with the personalized information, and the visitor sees a personalized page.
        Search Center
        Use the Search Center to search for documents.
      - User assistance for administrators
        As an administrator, you can manage access to resources in the website, deploy new applications, and more.
      - 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.

Dynamic list-rendering contexts | HCL Digital Experience

The Digital Data Connector (DDC) for HCL Portal makes it possible to dynamically set or modify the list-rendering context. For this purpose, it supports a defined set of public render parameters.

The Web Content Viewer portlet registers these parameters. This registration makes read and write access to these parameters possible in two ways:

Developers can read or write the parameters through the public portal API.
Website designers can read or write the parameters through the render parameter and the render URL plug-in tags.

Digital Data Connector plug-ins can access the current values of these parameters by using the com.ibm.portal.wcm.plr.ListRenderState Java interface. This interface is defined by the public Digital Data Connector API.

The following public render parameters are defined by Digital Data Connector:

sources: The namespace is http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/datatype/content/resource-collections.; The identifier is sources.
filters: The namespace is http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/datatype/content/resource-collections.; The identifier is filters.
sorting: The namespace is http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/datatype/content/resource-collections.; The identifier is sorting.

The values of the public render parameters need to adhere to the URI syntax. For more information, read the RFC 2396 URI Generic Syntax. It is good practice that Digital Data Connector plug-ins use the URI scheme identifier to determine whether a specific parameter value is ignored or recognized. The specified DDC public render parameters are interpreted by the DDC plug-in that establishes the corresponding list-rendering context. To learn about support parameter values, read the documentation of the DDC plug-in that you use.

For example, the social rendering DDC plug-in makes it possible to set a dynamic search term filter for social lists. You do so by setting the public render parameter filters to the value sr:searchterm:searchterm. Replace searchterm by the actual search term that you want to use for filtering the bean list. The social rendering DDC plug-in processes only filters parameters that are defined in the URI scheme sr, in other words, it ignores all filters parameters that do not start with a sr: prefix.