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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.
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.
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.
How to manage versions of items
You can configure your system to either automatically save a version of an item each time it is published, or allow users to select when to save a version of an item. You can restore items individually, or choose to restore a set of items within a library that either have the same label or were versioned at, or before, a specified date and time.

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.
        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.
        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.
        Web content folders
        You use folders to group sets of web content item types into logical groupings.
        Locked and draft items
        As you collaborate with other users, you might encounter items that are locked because they are being edited by another user or because a draft item has been created.
        How to manage versions of items
        You can configure your system to either automatically save a version of an item each time it is published, or allow users to select when to save a version of an item. You can restore items individually, or choose to restore a set of items within a library that either have the same label or were versioned at, or before, a specified date and time.
        How to delete items
        You cannot always immediately delete items. Sometimes you need to take steps to prepare an item for deletion.
        Viewing references
        You can view and manage all of the links between items by viewing references.
        Managing references
        When you delete items that are referenced by other items, you need to resolve any references that are broken by deleting the item. A dialog opens listing the items that cannot be deleted.
        How to manage authoring templates
        From time to time, you might need to reapply or change the authoring templates that are assigned to a set of items.
        How to manage a taxonomy
        From time to time, you need to edit the structure of a taxonomy.
        How to move, copy, or link items
        From time to time, you need to move, copy, or link items.
        How to work with draft items
        Creating a draft of an item allows users to work on changes to that item without changing the published version of the item. Draft items can either be stand-alone items, or form part of a workflow. When the changes are completed, you can choose to either publish the item, or discard the changes by canceling the draft. You can create multiple drafts of a single item.
        How to manage expired items
        Expired items are items that were published but then removed from the live website. Only items that use a workflow can be expired.
        How to manage published items
        Items are not visible on a website until they are published. When published, an item can be expired, or returned to a draft state.
        Removing and adding workflows
        The process of adding and removing workflows on items is determined by the type of item that is being edited, and your level of access.
        Restoring an item
        Previous versions of items can be stored and then restored later if required.
        Editing user profiles
        You can add profile information to users. User profiles can be used as search parameters in menus.
        Batch-editing access controls
        An administrator can apply access control settings for multiple items.
        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.

How to manage versions of items | HCL Digital Experience

You can configure your system to either automatically save a version of an item each time it is published, or allow users to select when to save a version of an item. You can restore items individually, or choose to restore a set of items within a library that either have the same label or were versioned at, or before, a specified date and time.

Item level version control

If automatic versioning is enabled, a version is saved each time that you save an item, or if the item is participating in a workflow, each time the item's state changes to published. You cannot save versions of draft items.
If manual versioning is enabled, users with editor access or higher can manually save versions of published items. You can restore a version by viewing an item's version history and selecting a version to restore.
Any hierarchical relationships to other items are not saved. For example, if you save a version of a site area that has child site areas and you delete the child site areas, the child site areas are not restored if you restore the parent site area.
If you have links to external resources within an item, a copy of the external item is not saved when a version is created. If you delete the external resource, you cannot use the web Content Management version feature to restore the external resource.

Item names: An item name is independent of version control. For example, changing the name of version 4 also changes the name of all versions of that item.

Library level version control

You cannot choose to save a version of an entire library. Only those items that have versions that are saved by using item level version controls are saved within a library.
You can restore a set of items from within a library that either have the same label or were versioned at, or before, a specified date and time.

You can apply a label to the most recent set of saved versions in a library at any time and then restore all the items with the same label later.

Note: Labels that you apply to versions are not syndicated to subscribers.

Clearing version history

The clear versions tool can be used to clear version histories from items. It is configurable and can be used to clear versions within a specific date range, for specific item-types or libraries, or to keep only some of the most recent versions.