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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 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.
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.
Editing page settings
After you create a page, modify the page settings to change the page title, create a friendly URL name, and more. To access page settings for an existing page, click the page in Site Manager and click the context menu icon. Then, click Open Page Settings.
Vanity URLs
Create a vanity URL when you need a short page address that people can easily remember.
Content types
When you create a vanity URL for a page, you can choose which web content site visitors see when they access the page by using the vanity URL.

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.
        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.
        Exploring site toolbar and Site Manager
        Site toolbar and Site Manager provide quick access to common content author tools as well as a complete view of your site's navigation. Without leaving the context of your website, content authors can create and modify pages and content items, create vanity URLs for promotions, and much more.
        Projects: Organizing and coordinating changes to your site
        Projects organize related updates to the published site and simplify the publication process. You can think of projects as folders that contain related draft updates to the published site. Content owners create projects from project templates. Content authors contribute updates to the projects that content owners create. Updates could include moving a page in the site navigation, creating a new page, adding content to a page, and more. When content authors are ready, they can send their content for approval and publishing.
        Creating pages with page templates
        From Site Manager, you can create pages based on templates and see your draft pages in context of the site navigation. Page creation is as simple as providing a name, using the generated friendly URL name, and selecting your template.
        Creating content with content templates
        From Site Manager, you can create content items based on templates and see your content items in the context of the site navigation. Content creation is similar to page creation; simply provide a content title, use the generated content URL, and specify a content template to create a content item.
        Viewing your content from the content explorer
        The tree view in Site Manager does not always provide you with a complete view of the content items on a page. In contrast, the content explorer in Site Manager provides you with a list of content items, site areas, and associated content for a selected page. From the content explorer, you can select an item from the list and click the context menu to see options for working with your content.
        Adding reusable page components to your page
        Page components are reusable assets that content authors can add to a page to display different types of content. Page components are in the site toolbar, which you can access by clicking the site toolbar icon. Page components display on the page and do not display in site manager and content explorer.
        Adding applications to your page
        Applications are reusable portlets that you can add to a page to show content items in different formats. Applications can also enable the completion of a task, such as viewing external search results or adding someone to your Sametime list. Applications display on the page where you add them and do not display in Site Manager nor in content explorer.
        Moving, copying, and pasting pages and content items
        You can move or copy a page or a content item to a different position in the page hierarchy. Child pages and content items move with the parent page. Associated content remains associated with the page, but does not move.
        Editing page settings
        After you create a page, modify the page settings to change the page title, create a friendly URL name, and more. To access page settings for an existing page, click the page in Site Manager and click the context menu icon. Then, click Open Page Settings.
        Friendly URL name
        Associate friendly URL names with pages, labels, and content items in your website. Then, the URLs are constructed by using the friendly URLs names. As a result, your website has human readable URLs that are easy to remember.
        Page layout
        Changing the page layout takes effect immediately. You can view and modify the assignments of portlets to specific columns on the page in real time. Choose the best layout option for your users by viewing the impact of your selection as it would be seen on a desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device.
        Changing page style
        You can change the appearance of a page by selecting a style from the list of styles. Available styles are defined in the website theme. The site administrator selects the theme.
        Vanity URLs
        Create a vanity URL when you need a short page address that people can easily remember.
        Content types
        When you create a vanity URL for a page, you can choose which web content site visitors see when they access the page by using the vanity URL.
        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.
        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.

Content types | HCL Digital Experience

When you create a vanity URL for a page, you can choose which web content site visitors see when they access the page by using the vanity URL.

Use default content: Site visitors see the default content item that is set for the page.
Use current content: Select this option to associate the vanity URL with the content item that you are currently viewing on the page. Select a content item on the page to set it as current content in the vanity URL portlet.
Use specified content: This option is available when you edit a vanity URL that you have already created and associated content with. This option is not available when you are creating a new vanity URL. Select this option to keep the original content item associated with the vanity URL.