Navigating the WebFOCUS Home Page

The navigation bar is located beneath the banner and above the WebFOCUS Explorer area. You can use the navigation bar to move between folders in your repository, search the contents of a domain or folder, change the view of items in the content area, and refresh content in a domain or folder you select.

When you drill down into folders in your repository, the navigation bar generates a breadcrumb trail that you can use to move between folders. You can move back one folder or multiple folders in a single click. You can click a folder name to view the contents of that folder. You can also click arrows between the folders, to see the file structure that is currently displayed, as shown in the following image. The selected folder appears in bold text.

From the navigation bar, you can also search for items in your repository. To search for an item, type a key word in the Search field and press Enter. The results of your search display in the content area.

Note: Until you enter text, the Search field contains the name of the domain or folder as placeholder text. When you enter text into the Search field, an X appears. Click the X to clear the Search field. The X does not appear if you use a Firefox browser.

If the items in your results contain tags, these tags display with your search results. An example of user-defined tags in a search is shown in the following image.

You also can toggle the view of your content between Grid View and List View and refresh all content in a domain or folder. By default, content displays in Grid View. Click the Grid view icon or List view icon to change your view.

Grid View allows you to see the thumbnails of your items, which you can customize to add transparency to your display. When you hover over a thumbnail image in Grid view that contains a summary, the image fades and the summary displays.

Note: When using an Internet Explorer 11 browser, the private status of an item is not indicated by the state of its icon in Grid view or font in the Resources tree. However, Internet Explorer 11 users can see a dashed line around icons for private items in Grid view, and a checkmark for published items in List view.

The List View is useful when you need to see a large number of items at a glance. You can sort your items by various criteria. An example of a List View is shown in the following image.

You can sort the list by clicking any column title. Each column features a three-step toggle sorting: ascending, descending, and back to default. You can also specify which columns display in the content area by clicking the Settings button, and selecting the desired columns from the list. An example of an expanded settings menu is shown in the following image.

To refresh all content in a selected domain or folder, click Refresh .

The Resources tree provides a way to view your repository structure and navigate between domains and folders that are available to you. The following image shows an example of a Resources tree.

You can expand or collapse folders by clicking the plus (+) or minus (-) sign . When you click a folder, its contents display in the content area. You can also right-click a folder to access a shortcut menu of available options. From the shortcut menu, you can perform the following actions:

• Expand or Collapse a folder
• Duplicate a folder
• Cut or Copy a folder
• Paste content or another folder inside a folder
• Delete a folder
• Allow or suppress access to a folder
• Show or hide a folder
• Configure security rules for a folder
• View and edit properties for a folder

You can customize the width of the Resources tree. To do so, put your cursor on top of the right edge of the Resources tree area, as shown in the following image, and drag the edge to achieve the desired width. Your new width is remembered, and displays the next time you sign in to WebFOCUS.

You can also collapse the Resources tree to allow more room for the content area. To collapse the Resources tree, click the arrow on the left side of the tree. Click the arrow again to expand the Resources tree.

You can use the actions bar to create analytical content, upload files and spreadsheets, connect to data, build portals and pages, schedule procedures, and generate sample content using the options available to you for a domain or folder. The following image shows an example of the actions bar an advanced or basic user has access to for a domain or folder.

The default view of the actions bar displays the most common options available to you. You can access additional options by clicking More.

The actions bar only displays the items that you can create for the domain or folder that is currently selected. If you click the Domains node, the actions bar only displays the Domain and Folder options. The items displayed on the actions bar are also subject to permissions. You can only see the items that are available to you based on your role. To learn more about roles, see the WebFOCUS Security and Administration technical content.

Similar to the Resources tree, you can collapse the actions bar to make more room for the content area. To collapse the actions bar, click the arrow in the upper-right corner of the actions bar, as shown in the following image.

The content area displays the items contained within a domain or folder that is currently selected. An example of a content area is shown in the following image.

If a resource contains folders and items, the folders are always displayed first, followed by the items. Items shown in the content area include reports, charts, pages, portals, and more.

You can sort your content by using the two sorting menus in the upper-left corner of the Content Area. One allows you to sort by various criteria, such as title, summary, size, last modified and published dates. The other menu toggles between the descending and an ascending orders. You can also create a customized sorting order, by configuring the Sort Order property for the item. If the sort order is configures, the Default Sort option is added to the menu.

You can right-click any folder or item to access a shortcut menu of options. The following options are available when you right-click a folder or item in the content area.

Expand/Collapse

Expands or collapses a folder. This option is only available for folders.

Run

Runs the report procedure or schedule.

Run in new window

Runs the selected item in a new browser window or tab.

Run deferred

Submits a report procedure or a schedule for deferred execution.

Run with SQL trace

Runs a report and includes an SQL trace of the report results.

Note: The Run with SQL Trace option is not available for visualizations.

Schedule

Launches the scheduling tool, where you can schedules a report procedure to be run. Scheduling options include Email, FTP, Printer, Report Library, and Repository.

View log

Launches the Schedule Log Options dialog box, where you can select whether to view the most recent log report for the schedule, or specify a time range for which to obtain log reports. This option is only available for schedules.

View

Enables you to launch the URL or download a copy of the file to your browser. This option is available for URLs, Excel Workbooks, PDF, HTML, and Image Files.

Edit

Edits an item with the tool that was used to create it.

Edit with text editor

Edits an item in the Text Editor.

Create shortcut

Creates a shortcut to this item.

Duplicate

Makes a copy of the folder or item with an underscore and number appended to the title, for example, duplicating Sales_Report creates Sales_Report_1 in the same location. The number is incremented each time a duplicate is created.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Cuts, copies, or pastes the folder and its contents or item.

Delete

Deletes the folder and its contents or item.

Publish/Unpublish

Allows or suppresses public access to the content.

Show/Hide

Shows or hides the folder or item.

Share/Unshare

Shares content with all users that are permitted to access this content. Unshare stops sharing content with all users.

Security

Provides access to the following options:

Rules

Opens the rules defined for the folder or item. Here you can modify the rules for a given item.

Rules on this resource

Shows the security rules for the folder or item.

Effective policy

Shows the defined rules that specify the permitted functionality on the folder or item.

Owner

Allows you to set the resource owner, either Published (no specific owner), or a specific group or user.

Customizations

Provides access to the following options:

Remove my customizations

Removes your own customizations from a portal and its pages.

Remove customizations for all users

Removes all user customizations and custom pages created at run time.

Note: These options are only available for portals and portal pages.

Manage alias

Opens the Manage Alias dialog box, where you can create an alias for the selected collaborative portal. This feature is only available to Administrators. This option is only available for portals.

Open item location

Redirects to the folder where the item is located. This option is only available for portals in the Portals view.

Comments

Provides access to the following options:

View comments

Opens the blog item and expands all comments.

Remove all comments

Clears all comments from the blog.

Note: These options are only available for blogs.

Unlink

Removes the page from all portals. This option is only available for portal pages.

Add to Favorites

Adds the item to the Favorites folder.

Add to Mobile Favorites

Adds the item to the Mobile Favorites folder.

Remove favorite

Removes the Favorite from the list. This option is only available for Favorites.

Remove mobile favorite

Removes the Mobile Favorite from the list. This option is only available for Mobile Favorites.

Properties

Opens the Properties panel to display the properties of the folder or item..

Authorized users can select the Properties option to review information about a folder or item, including when it was created, the date it was last modified, title, name, and settings that control the Reporting Server and applications it will access. There are also settings that control the functionality available to users when they access the folder, run, or schedule an item.

The following image shows the Properties panel for a stacked bar chart.

The General Properties tab includes the following settings:

• Title. Displays the value that you can use to identify the content in the Resources tree.
• Name. Refers to the unique name of the item or folder. Click the Edit button to change the name.
• Summary. Detailed explanation that provides additional information about the item.
• Path. Full path of the folder or item in the WebFOCUS repository.
• Created. Shows the date the folder or item was created.
• Modified. Shows the date the folder or item properties were last modified, and identifies the user that modified them.
• Accessed Shows the date the folder or item was last opened, and identifies the user that opened it.
• Tool. Specifies the type of an item.
• Owner. Identifies the user who created the folder or item.
• Size. Displays N/A bytes for folders. For items, displays the size in bytes.
• Publish. Provides an option to publish or unpublish the folder or item.
• Show. Provides an option to show or hide the folder or item.

The Advanced tab, which is shown in the following image, allows you to customize the functionality and behavior of the folder or item.

The Advanced Properties tab includes the following properties.

Explorer/Portal Properties:

• Thumbnail. Allows you to preview and change the thumbnail for an item.
• Sort order. Specifies the order to list the folder in the tree or item within other items in a folder.
• Language. Indicates the current language of your environment.
• View All. Opens the Language Properties dialog box, where you can select a language.
• Load in iframe. Grants or suppresses a permission to load an item in an iFrame container.
• Default width. Sets a default width value for the item, when it is displayed inside a portal at run time.
• Default height. Sets a default height value for the item, when it is displayed inside a portal at run time.

Search Properties:

• Tags. Adds tag values to the item that display in the search results and portal lists.

Interactive Reporting Properties:

• Prompt for parameters. Indicates whether to display the Autoprompt HTML page to allow the user to view and select parameter values. When this check box is clear, users will still be prompted if there are any parameters that do not have a value supplied.
• Enable AutoLinking. Establishes drill-down links from column data to the target reports that you link together.
• AutoLink target. Identifies a report as the target report that is run when the drill-down link is triggered.

  Note: The Auto Linking between reports only works if it the target report contains a parameterized field that corresponds to one of the fields in the primary Auto Link report. For more information on Auto Linking, see the WebFOCUS User’s Manual.

• Enable AutoDrill. Creates drill-down links in reports and charts that contain hierarchical data.
• Run with OLAP. OLAP-enables the report.
• Use title for deferred report description. Indicates whether or not to prompt for a custom deferred report description. If selected, this option gives you an alternative to being prompted for a custom deferred report description. If you want to disable prompting for custom deferred report descriptions for all reports, see the Custom Deferred Report Description setting content in the WebFOCUS Security and Administration technical content.
• Schedule only. Indicates that the report can only be scheduled using ReportCaster when the user does not have write access. This option is not available for reporting objects.
• Only run as deferred report. Runs the report in deferred mode.
• Only allow user to run. Specifies to not allow users to use with a reporting object. Depending on the effective policy, users can only use the Run or Run Deferred options.
• Allow user to run. Allows a user not permitted to access the Reporting Object tool to run the reporting object interactively, using the Run or Run Deferred options.

Scheduling and Library Content Properties:

• Restrict schedule to Library only. Prevents emails distribution for security-sensitive scheduled reports, and restricts them to the library distribution only.

The Query Detail Properties tab, which is shown is the following image, is only available for reports, charts, and visualizations. It shows which data elements, parameters, and conditions were used in an item.

The Server Properties tab, which is shown in the following image, allows you to manage the server and application path settings.

To change the server, select the Assign Server check box, and then select a server from the list. You can also change the application path in the same way.

By default, the Properties panel remains open while you browse between folders and items, allowing you to configure several resources quickly without closing the panel. To close the Properties panel, click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the panel.