What is an item?

Items are the the basic unit in an Oracle Portal content area. Oracle Portal can display any browser-renderable content. Supported item types include file, folder link, image/imagemap, PL/SQL, text, URL, Java application, Zip file (for adding a set of files), and Oracle Portal application components (reports, forms, charts, menus, frame drivers, and so on).

As an item creator, you can add any of these types of content items using the Item Wizard and decide on where the item is displayed in the folder region, the item's link text and description, its category, perspectives, publish and expiration date, which keywords will make the item easy to find in a search, if the item is enabled for document control, and whether to associate an image with the item. Furthermore, if item level security is enabled, contributors can specify which users and groups can view the item and their level of access. You can edit items using the Item Manager.

Note: You must have the appropriate folder or item level privilege to add, edit, or delete an item from the content area.

Arranging your items in advance

Oracle Portal lets you set up your content area without having to wait for content to be finalized. For example, you can add a file item for a document that is being created, then upload the final version of the document later when it is ready. This provides you ample time to determine how you want items arranged in folder regions before actually having the content finalized.

Main Item features

Oracle Portal provides many item-related features which support document collaboration among different users and groups. The main item features include the following:

When item versioning is enabled, previous versions of an item are retained instead of being overwritten when the item is edited. This means that you can have a record of all the changes made to an item and can revert to a previous version if necessary.

By default, any user with the approprite folder privileges can view the contents of that folder. However, what if there are a few items in a folder that require more stringent security? Oracle Portal offers item level security which lets an item creator choose which specific users or groups will be able to access the item.

With document control, groups of users can edit items via a check-in and check-out process. This feature restricts a user from editing the item while it is being edited or checked-out by another user. For more information, see Checking an item in and out.

Publish date lets an item creator add an item to the folder area anytime yet have it displayed in View mode only on a specified date in the future.

Expiration date lets you set a specific date or number of days at which time the item is automatically expired and no longer displayed in the folder area. For more information, see Expiring an item.

Publish on approval lets an item creator add an item to the folder area but the folder owner must first approve the item before it is published. The folder owner grants the item creator the "Create With Approval" privilege. For more information, see Granting access privileges to your folder and Approving an item.

Extending item attributes

If the base item types provided by Oracle Portal do not provide enough flexibility, you can create additional custom item types to meet your requirements.

When you create a custom item type, you are not adding an item to the content area. You are creating a new type of item in addition to the base item types. Custom item types are added to the Item Type list when item creators add an item to the folder area.

Note: You can also incorporate any Web-capable server-side scripting technology into Oracle Portal by writing HTTP portlet providers. For more information, refer to the Oracle Portal Development Kit. This is a self-service guide detailing the Oracle Portal API set as well as numerous examples that demonstrate API implementation. You can find the PDK on the Oracle Technology Network at http://technet.oracle.com/.

Displaying item attributes in the folder area

When viewing an item in the folder area, note that item attributes such as Author, Description, Expiration Date, Image, New Item Indicator, and so on are displayed in the folder area only if they were chosen to display. For more information, see Choosing item attributes to display in a folder region.

Related Topics
Adding an item after this item What are item types? Choosing the item types available in a content area Displaying deleted items in a content area Retaining deleted items	Adding attributes to a custom item type Adding procedure calls to custom item type Creating a container folder Changing a custom item type's basic properties Approving an item