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Integrating with other products
You can integrate HCL Connections applications with other products and features.
Connections Engagement Center
Connections Engagement Center provides the corporate office, management, and workforce with a single user experience for all communications, as well as a state of the art enterprise social collaboration features and the possibility of adding custom applications. All this runs at the office and on all mobile devices, so the entire workforce – from CEO to intern – can access this most valuable tool regardless of where they are, what their role is, or what devices they prefer.
Overview
Connections Engagement Center is a single, accessible hub for organizational news and content within HCL Connections, enabling users to create and manage web content efficiently. People get engaged with finding, creating, owning, and promoting content to improve intranet communication. All content can be found in one place. Communication and collaboration are on the same page or one click away. Connections Engagement Center makes it simple and easy for users to create content; there's no need for multiple systems to create and publish content. This documentation explains and describes role concepts, site structure, functions of the various Connections Engagement Center features and their usage and configuration.
Admin panel
This section describes creating custom grids and layouts and CSS for all pages. If you are Admin, you can reach the Admin panel on every Connections Engagement Center page by clicking the Customize button.
Create widgets
Click Create widget to create a new widget in the admin panel. A dialog will open and you can choose your new widgets type name. widgets cannot have special characters other than minus signs (-) and underscores (_). If the name is valid, the input field will be visualized green. Otherwise, the field will be visualized red and the Create button will be disabled.

Integrating with other products
You can integrate HCL Connections applications with other products and features.
- Connections Engagement Center
  Connections Engagement Center provides the corporate office, management, and workforce with a single user experience for all communications, as well as a state of the art enterprise social collaboration features and the possibility of adding custom applications. All this runs at the office and on all mobile devices, so the entire workforce – from CEO to intern – can access this most valuable tool regardless of where they are, what their role is, or what devices they prefer.
  - Overview
    Connections Engagement Center is a single, accessible hub for organizational news and content within HCL Connections, enabling users to create and manage web content efficiently. People get engaged with finding, creating, owning, and promoting content to improve intranet communication. All content can be found in one place. Communication and collaboration are on the same page or one click away. Connections Engagement Center makes it simple and easy for users to create content; there's no need for multiple systems to create and publish content. This documentation explains and describes role concepts, site structure, functions of the various Connections Engagement Center features and their usage and configuration.
    - Get started
      Connections Engagement Center makes it easy way to build a social intranet by creating a portal-like experience using various out-of-the-box and custom widgets. Engagement Center does not have its own content store, but aggregates content from different backend systems. Mostly, HCL Connections is the back-end system, since it is the underlying foundation for a set of key Engagement Center services, such as user authentication and authorization, personalization, top-level navigation, and news.
    - Roles
      Connections Engagement Center has multiple user roles that provide increasing levels of access.
    - Adding the Engagement Center widget to a Community
      Community owners can add the Connections Engagement Center widget to a Community in the same way they would add any other widget or app by using the Community Actions menu.
    - Admin dashboard
      The Admin Dashboard is reachable through the URL: [your_domain]/xcc/admin apps.[yourLocale].collabserv.com/xcc/admin. You will find system configurations there, so be careful with that.
    - Admin panel
      This section describes creating custom grids and layouts and CSS for all pages. If you are Admin, you can reach the Admin panel on every Connections Engagement Center page by clicking the Customize button.
      - Grid and layout
        The Custom Homepage can either be displayed above the Activity Stream and with the Connections built-in Right-Column or as separate page. You have to choose a layout for your Custom Homepage. Default is Grid 1.
      - Custom CSS and images
        You can customize the appearance of nearly every visible element of your Connections Engagement Center. Include your own CSS or create a custom CSS file. Upload a stylesheet to the Connections Engagement Center-Settings tab. This topic describes how to apply custom CSS to UI elements and includes sample CSS.
      - Include Custom.js
        If you want to include customized JavaScript you have to download the custom.js. You can find this file in the Connections Engagement Center Settings tab in the customization file list. Alternatively, you can use the Direct Edit button.
      - Customize the language file
        You can create a new language file, by downloading the template file and editing a copy of it or by using the Direct Edit button.
      - Direct Edit css and js and json files
        The Direct Edit option allows you to edit stylesheets, Javascript, and language files without having to download the files, edit them, and upload the files again.
      - Include your Favicon
        You can also include a custom favicon. Therefore you only need to upload a favicon.ico file in the Connections Engagement Center-Settings tab. This favicon will be used on every Connections Engagement Center page.
      - Create widgets
        Click Create widget to create a new widget in the admin panel. A dialog will open and you can choose your new widgets type name. widgets cannot have special characters other than minus signs (-) and underscores (_). If the name is valid, the input field will be visualized green. Otherwise, the field will be visualized red and the Create button will be disabled.
      - Integration of the Navigation
      - Access rights for pages
        The access rights can be set individually for every Connections Engagement Center page.
      - Page Management
        Within the Page Management tab you can specify Content Editors for each page. You can also see the page title and who modified the page. In the Action section you can edit, copy or delete a page.
      - Templating and inheritance
        You can mark an Connections Engagement Center page as template and use it to inherit from. If you are on an Connections Engagement Center page itself, open the admin panel, click on the Page Settings tab, then click on the Show Advanced button and you will see the advanced section. In this section you find a checkbox named Is Template. Check this box then click the save button on the bottom right and you will have this page as an Connections Engagement Center template.
    - Widgets
      Engagement Center widgets can be embedded in placeholders on every Connections Engagement Center page. The height of each widget can be defined pixel perfect or set to auto for a height responsive to the content.
    - Embedded experience
      The following widgets have an embedded experience:
    - Anonymous access
      Please make sure, that you configured the Connections Engagement Center for anonymous access.
    - FlyOut page
      The Connections Engagement Center FlyOut Page is managed by the admin or Page Editor. The FlyOut Page may contain any of the over 30 Connections Engagement Center widgets and is available anywhere in Connections. You only need to move your mouse over this icon.
    - Personalization
      Within the individual widgets, personalization can be activated. Upon activation there is the option to configure different channels for different values of a profile. Additionally it is possible to choose a default channel.
    - Personalize homepage
      In the Connections Engagement Center-Settings tab in the admin panel you can personalize the homepage. The source must be an existing Connections Engagement Center page.
    - Creating a custom widget with the custom widget API
      You can copy an existing widget or modify an existing widget to create a new widget using the custom widget API. You can upload a JavaScript file to have access to the Connections Engagement Center. This is necessary for the Custom widget API. The widget API is the only API and where JavaDoc-level documentation is stored.
    - Functions - fields - buttons
      There are different fields and buttons available in the configuration options.
    - Best practices
      Most of the content displayed by Connections Engagement Center pages will be created and maintained within HCL Connections. Therefore we provide some useful best practices in this area to guide your editorial teams to an effective content creation process.
  - Installing and configuring Connections Engagement Center
    This section provides instructions for upgrading an existing XCC Web Content Management Extension to the Connections Engagement Center. For fresh installations, instructions are provided for planning, creating a database, installing, and then configuring the Engagement Center. Also included are browser links to access the various modes of Connections Engagement Center, and instructions for uninstalling Connections Engagement Center.
- Installing integration plug-ins for HCL Connections
  Access and update your Connections content from other applications.
- Using the HCL Connections desktop plug-ins for Microsoft™ Windows™
  Use this plug-in to upload and work with files in IBM® Connections from Microsoft™ Windows™ Explorer and Microsoft Office.
- Using file sync for HCL Connections for Mac
  Use HCL Connections for Mac to keep local files in sync with copies of those files on the server.
- Using the Connections plug-in for Microsoft Office and Outlook
  Use the plug-ins to share files and information between Microsoft™ Windows™ applications and HCL Connections or HCL Connections Cloud.
- Using plug-ins from HCL Connections with other products
  Get help using the plug-ins that integrate the capabilities of HCL Connections with other products.
- Sharing HCL Connections Files in Slack
  Allow users in Slack to open an HCL Connections file picker, select a file, and share a link to that file in a Slack channel or a direct message.

Create widgets

Click Create widget to create a new widget in the admin panel. A dialog will open and you can choose your new widgets type name. widgets cannot have special characters other than minus signs (-) and underscores (_). If the name is valid, the input field will be visualized green. Otherwise, the field will be visualized red and the Create button will be disabled.

The new widget will appear in the admin panel in alphabetical order. If the new widget is not displayed instantly, try reloading the page.

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