Archive for the ‘UX’ Category

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Responsive Search with PivotViewer

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

Searching for a specific document out of millions can be a daunting task, particularly if you don’t know what you’re searching for. Often the title is on the tip of your tongue, and you would know it if you saw it. Wouldn’t it be nice if search tools accommodated for vague criteria just as easily as pinpoint queries? What if users could take a heap of guesses and whittle it down into a small set of relevant results?

We set about to solve this problem for WebCenter Content by leveraging a tool designed to handle massive amounts of data. Microsoft’s PivotViewer feeds off data sources and molds them into views for the end user to consume. The most popular example of this technology in action is the Netflix catalog at http://netflixpivot.cloudapp.net, where 1000 movies from Netflix Instant are pulled down and organized by year, cast, rating, and more. The applications for such powerful control over this data are clear for anyone who can’t remember the name of the movie that starred so-and-so and was released at the turn of the century. We immediately recognized the value of this within the domain of Digital Asset Management, and so we brought it to WebCenter.

PivotViewer is a control for Microsoft Silverlight, which is installed as a browser plugin much like Flash. Once it receives a collection of data that it can understand, PivotViewer organizes the data by common attributes called facets, allowing documents to be sorted and filtered on any metadata field. The thumbnail rendition is pulled in to represent the document in the canvas. Silverlight operates asynchronously, meaning that it doesn’t need to wait for every image to download before it can be used.

PivotViewer grid view

PivotViewer grid view

This control is made accessible on the main search result page. In practice, users can perform a quick search for latest documents or use existing search methods to gather a large set of documents, and drill down from those results using PivotViewer. All that it needs is a QueryText parameter in the URL.

For example, say I was looking for a Powerpoint presentation that held an important piece of information, but I could only reliably identify it by its red background. I would first use the full-text search for fragments of content, narrowing candidates down to 200 or so results. These would be piped into PivotViewer to show two-dozen red-colored documents. Using the metadata filters, I would select the Presentation document type and the date range of its release, yielding 2 documents. This process allows quick retrieval in spite of the vague search criteria, and is much more precise than wading through 10 pages of possibilities.

Zoom-in details

Zoom-in details with quick links to the content info page and web viewable

Selecting a document brings up a short list of content information; these fields can be customized for each distribution of the component. Each of these fields is a hyperlink that can quickly create a filter on its value. Say that a collection of documents was checked in together: by finding one document and filtering on its Release Date and Document Type, the entire collection is immediately available to me. I can also create a filter across all fields with a keyword search.

Pivoting with PivotViewer

Pivoting with PivotViewer

Complementing the default grid layout is a bar chart representation of results along any metadata field. This view is helpful for identifying patterns within data, allowing me to actively pivot on fields and drill down on interesting pockets of documents. Every action is recorded in a breadcrumb trail at the top of the control, so if I ever get lost, a few clicks will undo the filters I’ve added and get me back to where I was.

All of these features are packed into a content server component and ready to be installed in a few clicks. Contact our sales team at sales@fishbowlsolutions.com to discuss your search needs and schedule a demo.

 

Posted in Content Management, UCM, UX, WCM, WebCenter | 1 Comment »

WebCenter Content (Oracle UCM) Multi-Upload and Batch Metadata Editor

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Today I would like to share something Fishbowl Solutions has been working on internally for a little while now and started to implement at customer sites – Fishbowl Multi-Upload and Batch Metadata Editor.

This component was initially developed as part of Fishbowl’s Innovation Event. The combination of the first place and second place idea meshed very well together in delivering a seamless method for bulk contributing and editing metadata. This is now within production at a customer site with several modifications made to satisfy their requirements.

The main use case for this component is the mass uploading of content to get it into the system for categorization now, or at a later time.  Providing a staging ground for content to get it in the system and off the user’s desktop is crucial for an enterprise solution. In addition, the mass tagging and editing of metadata all at once is a feature that has been missing within content server from its inception.  As many of you know, Bex Huff of Bezzotech has a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (Remote Metadata Updater) that uses SOAP calls to communicate with content server to perform edits to content’s metadata after a search query is performed.  My goal was extend this functionality within Oracle WebCenter Content using modern-day advancements in JavaScript and browser capabilities.

This was done using a combination of several API’s, PlupLoad (Oracle uses an older version of this for their Drag & Drop upload feature within WebCenter Spaces Document Explorer Taskflow), Handsontable, JQuery, (in addition to extensively utilizing my WebCenter Content and Jquery Framework for calling WebCenter Content services) and Fishbowl’s overall knowledge of WebCenter and web development techniques.

The most compelling feature that was added for this deployment is “Profile Awareness”.  By this I mean all aspects of the profile and rules set up within content server are taken into consideration.  This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Metadata field state (hidden, edit, info only, required, excluded)
  • Custom field labels
  • Standard list and profile restricted lists for drop down lists
  • Date selection
  • Default values for profiles
  • Metadata field ordering if rule is set as a group

Here are several screenshots of the features and use case it provides (click on any of them to see actual sizes):

  • A user had several images to upload and know they will go within a certain profile.  Navigate to the upload page and drag and drop the files into the drop area:

  • All of the items are now checked into the content server into a private workspace for that user.  Within the workspace you can filter by keywords uploaded and categorize content by profile. (Note: You can also tag content without profiles as well).
  • As there are bound to be erroneous uploads of duplicates, or extra files, supporting a delete function was crucial.
  • The user is now ready to check the boxes for the items they want to categories and tag with final metadata.  Here we present the user with a spreadsheet within the browser.  This is built using the Handsontable JQuery plugin which supports common Excel like features; copy / paste, undo, and cell dragging.  UCM is integrated to provide a high level of context while editing this data; Dropdowns, date fields, required fields, and info only fields aid in user tagging.
  • With column support for dropdowns and dates.
  • Once the user is done editing, they can execute an update.  The table will provide feedback in real time as each item is updated.  The result of the update will be relayed to the user via row highlighting and an error / exception table informing them of the failure.

This expands upon the use case of updating content already in the system with the spreadsheet (Note: That use case is still supported, however, locked down to administrators only).

I hope you find this post compelling about the power that Fishbowl can provide by combining ideas from an innovation event with the years of experience Fishbowl has within the WebCenter Content (UCM) world to provide ease of contribution and bulk editing of content. For more information, feel free to reach out to us at 952-465-3400 or info@fishbowlsolutions.com.

Thanks,

AJ LaVenture
Senior Software Consultant

 

Posted in 10g, 11g, UCM, Uncategorized, UX, WebCenter | 1 Comment »

Fishbowl’s ShipIT Hackathon Event Produces Four, New, Value-Add Components for Oracle WebCenter Content

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

The weekend of November 10th was known as Innovation Weekend at Fishbowl Solutions. Fishbowl’s development, sales and marketing teams participated in a “ShipIT Hackathon” event to develop new Oracle WebCenter Content-based products. If you aren’t familiar with hackathons, just imagine a very intense software programming session where the end goal is to develop usable software within a set period of time – here is Wikipedia’s definition, and you may remember that Fishbowl participated in a similar hackathon at Oracle OpenWorld. Anyway, Fishbowl’s WebCenter UI and UX design extraordinaire, John Sim, was visiting from London and he was the catalyst for Fishbowl’s internal hackathon. Here were the rules that he helped establish:

  1. The new software/functionality should either support one of Fishbowl’s current products or provide new ways to interact, utilize, or provide an integration with Oracle WebCenter Content.
  2. The finished product should be deployable to Fishbowl’s internal WebCenter Content system and be usable by Fishbowl employees.
  3. Teams will have only 24 hours to complete their product.
  4. The winning team would be decided by votes from all participants, but participants could not vote for their own team.

At 3:00 PM on Friday, November 9th the hacking commenced. Fueled by Red Bull, pizza, coffee and sugar, four teams of Fishbowl employees developed the following WebCenter-based programs by 3:00 PM on Saturday, November 10th where they were presented and voted on. Here they are in order of finish:

  • 1st Place – WebCenter Content Multi-Checkin
    • Enables users to drag and drop content items directly into Oracle WebCenter Content from desktops or file shares and be tagged with keywords.
    • Checked in content bypasses the check in metadata screen and instead is grouped within a user’s “workspace”.  Users can return to their workspace at a later time to add metadata.
    • Integrates with Fishbowl’s Duplicate File Checker to ensure that duplicate content items do no enter the system.

    (The winning hackers – left to right: Paul Heupel, John Sim, Tom Jaede)

  • 2nd Place – Filtered Search Results and Grid View Metadata Updater
    • Update metadata on multiple items at once using a simple grid format.
    • Content Server query defines items to display in grid view with configurable sorting and result count.
    • Easily configure columns to view and update both standard and custom metadata values.
    • Uses Excel-like functionality within the browser such as copy, paste, drag, and fill-down.
  • 3rd Place – Duplicate File Checker Desktop Application
    • Lightweight desktop application can detect and remove duplicate content items from user desktops or network file shares.
    • Users simply browse to a folder or item and select the content they want to check against already existing in Oracle WebCenter Content. Any duplicate items are returned to the user in a grid view, and the user can select any duplicates for deletion.
  • 4th Place - WebCenter Content and Google Drive (Docs) Synchronization & Contribution
    • Provides ability to import content stored in Google Drive to Oracle Webcenter Content.
    • Google Drive files can be batch imported and their metadata can be mapped or the files can be published directly to WebCenter Content.
    • Includes ability to also link to Google Drive document directly from WebCenter Content.

Aside from some mild cases of indigestion, carpal tunnel, and weariness; the participants in Fishbowl’s ShipIT hackathon all agreed that it was a great event to be a part of. It was really exciting to see what could be developed in a limited amount of time when a group of people worked together and were driven by a deadline. The best part was ending up with four new WebCenter-based products that solve real-world problems and add immediate value. If any of these products interest you, feel free to contact us at 952-465-3400 or info@fishbowlsolutions.com.

You can see more pictures of Fishbowl’s ShipIT Hackathon here.

As always, your comments on this blog are appreciated.

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Posted in 11g, Collaboration, Content Management, Enterprise Search, Integrations, OpenWorld, UX, WebCenter | No Comments »

WebCenter Suite Real Time Chat – Mobile (Android, RIM, iOS, Windows)

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

As our continued drive to improve the WebCenter Suite I’m happy to announce that Fishbowl Solutions WebCenter Mobile Real Time Chat integration is soon to be released supporting Android, RIM, iOS and Windows Mobile Devices.

No true tablet application support yet but this is on the roadmap (you can use the mobile app on the tablets today or if your site has been optimised for tablets access chat via the integrated browser solution).

If you’re not familiar with our WebCenter Messaging and Presence integration here is a quick rundown of it’s features.

Supports browser messaging integration with the WebCenter Suite – Portal, Sites & Content. There are no requirements to have a messaging XMPP server ie MS Lync setup; however if you do our solution can integrate with a number of messaging solutions ie – MS Lync, gTalk, etc.

For a preview of our browser integration check out these earlier posts

Addon:: WebCenter Portal Spaces Real Time Chat Instant Messaging and Presence Integration Video.

WebCenter Portal Spaces – Real Time Messaging & Presence Solution.

Posted in 11g, Collaboration, Content Management, Enterprise 2.0, Integrations, Labs, Mobile, Portal, SharePoint, Stellent, UCM, UX, WCM, Web 2.0, WebCenter | 1 Comment »

OpenWorld 2012 Recap – Fishbowl Solutions Aligned with Oracle’s WebCenter Strategy

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Another year; another OpenWorld. It seems that Oracle’s big event comes faster and faster each year and then goes by in a flash. Amidst the glitz and glamor and the sheer spectacle that is OpenWorld, the event has much to offer customers, vendors, partners and general technology enthusiasts. This is the event where attendees get to hear directly from Oracle’s top brass on what’s new, what’s coming, and what’s faster/better. For WebCenter customers, here are a few takeaways from me and my Fishbowl colleagues on what we felt were some of the major stories from OpenWorld 2012.

New WebCenter Content User Interface

The WebCenter community has been abuzz for many months now regarding a new user interface for Oracle WebCenter Content. This new interface was shown at a few sessions and within the WebCenter demo areas at OpenWorld. The responses from people I chatted with were all positive and how could it not have been. After all, WebCenter customers have been waiting for years for a new user interface, and it looks like in 12c they will finally get one.

Can’t wait until then? Fishbowl has been providing user interface enhancements to the Content Server for many years. These enhancements have specifically aided business users in contributing content to WebCenter. One such product is Fishbowl’s Policies and Procedures Solution Suite, which provides an intuitive, visually-rich interface to specifically manage quality documents, governance manuals, and standard operating procedures. Through a combination of search, browsing, workflow and alerts, Policies and Procedures Solution Suite can help improve access to quality control documents while enforcing their follow through.

Stance on SharePoint

We have mentioned in many other blog posts (here & here) some reasons why Oracle WebCenter customers who may also be using SharePoint should reconsider their decision to use more SharePoint or go to SharePoint altogether for content management, or when building an intranet, portal or any other content-backed business system. Fishbowl Solutions was front and center with our stance on SharePoint at OpenWorld. We featured our SharePoint Connector Version 2.0 for Oracle WebCenter, which provides an integration that enables content resulting from collaboration in SharePoint to be transparently and seamlessly stored in Oracle WebCenter Content. The main value proposition with this connector is that enables organizations to continue to use both SharePoint and WebCenter and leverage the benefits of each.

The key point that we want to have resonate with customers is that WebCenter should be the final system of record for content. This includes content not only existing in SharePoint, but also in other ECM systems, file shares, and even desktops. My colleague George Sokol participated in a session at OpenWorld titled “Living with SharePoint”. This session provided attendees some data and examples on what living with SharePoint would represent, namely high services cost, 3rd-party license costs for additional functionality, and potential governance dilemmas (I documented more of these issues in this white paper). All these things can be reduced with WebCenter, but the reality is most organizations want to continue to use SharePoint for work-in-progress collaboration and pair that with robust enterprise content management. Fishbowl’s SharePoint Connector for WebCenter enables organizations to do just that.

Integrations in the WebCenter Stack

Oracle has done a great job providing integrations between products across their various product/technology stacks. One popular example is the WebCenter integrations provided for E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications. Basically, these integrations enable content management to be invoked in context of business processes, so, for example, when users are processing invoices they can quickly reference the image of that invoice which was processed with Oracle WebCenter Imaging.

At OpenWorld 2012, Oracle also spoke about integrating components of WebCenter with each other. One popular topic was the integration of WebCenter Sites (Fatwire) with Oracle WebCenter Content. Another popular topic was integrating WebCenter Portal with WebCenter Content. Oracle has made this integration possible with the Content Presenter task flow. Although this integration does provide the ability to surface content from WebCenter Content to WebCenter Portal, Fishbowl has found that most organizations are looking for integrations that provide greater scalability while leveraging standards-based technologies (JAVA, JSP) over proprietary (iDoc).

Fishbowl provides an integration framework called Intranet In A Box (IIAB) that integrates WebCenter Content with WebCenter Portal by leveraging WebCenter Spaces as the container to which content will be surfaced to. This framework eases contribution through profiles defined in WebCenter Content, including categories, sub-categories, topic pages, articles, contacts, images and landing page assets. IIAB also includes JSR-286 portlets for interfacing with WebCenter Content. The value of IIAB is it removes some of the complexity around integrating Content with Portal while easing content contribution. Organizations using IIAB have been able to build WebCenter Content and Portal-based corporate intranets in less than 60 days, including the University of Pretoria. Fishbowl’s best demos at OpenWorld were of Intranet In A Box, and organizations that have made the investments in WebCenter Content and Portal but have struggled to build out next-generation intranets and portals were very interested.

Another Go at Social

There was a lot of buzz at OpenWorld regarding the Oracle Social Network (OSN). Oracle announced OSN at OpenWorld 2011, and we are starting to see more and more examples of how OSN can be applied. I had the privilege of participating in the OSN team’s Developer Challenge as I got to present John Sim’s “Avengers Assemble” application. The OSN Developer Challenge was open to any Oracle or Java technologist (hack) that wanted to build an application that leveraged OSN’s REST API and another service or application. The entries must help solve a business problem, and John focused his efforts on helping to keep teams on the go in touch. John specifically used Google Maps and PhoneGap to build an application he described as a Mobile GeoTagging Solution. John provides much more detail on this solution in this C4 blog post.

Mobile ECM  

Oracle provided further details at OpenWorld 2012 on their mobile application – Oracle ADF Mobile. According to this blog post, Oracle ADF Mobile uses a metadata-based development framework enabling developers to develop one application for multiple platforms (iOS and Android, for starters). It can also easily incorporate HTML5, Java, and the devices native container. As business processes become more and more mobilized, Oracle will be in great position to help facilitate the various business process steps that occur between the user and back-end systems like Oracle E-Business Suite. Oracle has the enabling technologies like SOA and BPM to provide a tightly integrated system for mobile processes.

Fishbowl Solutions has been developing Oracle WebCenter-based mobile applications for over two years now, and we were fortunate once again to be joined at OpenWorld with a customer that has succeeded deploying the mobile applications we have available for the iPad and Android devices. Banner Engineering was kind enough to speak during the WebCenter Content Strategy and Vision session at OpenWorld and also during a social business panel. Banner has rolled out a Mobile Library application that has enabled their sales force and distributors to reference sales collateral stored in Oracle WebCenter from their iPad and Android devices. This application has improved the overall sales process, making customer meetings much more interactive and engaging, and also provided a competitive advantage for Banner – their competitors are still bound to paper catalogs and the like to share product information.  Banner created a lot of excitement with their story, and this excitement carried over to the Fishbowl booth. Fortunately, we had enough iPads to circulate to show off the application and its features.

As a WebCenter partner, it was definitely reassuring to see that alignment existed between Fishbowl’s current software and services offerings and Oracle’s stated direction and positioning with the product that was discussed at OpenWorld . We are excited to see where the next year takes us.

Posted in 11g, Collaboration, Content Management, Integrations, Mobile, OpenWorld, Portal, SharePoint, Uncategorized, UX, WebCenter | 1 Comment »

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