Welcome to the HCL Connections documentation site. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
Administer the common areas of HCL Connections.
Perform optional tasks to customize your HCL Connections deployment.
Find out about features that are new or updated in this release of HCL Connections.
Learn how to deploy, customize, and administer the HCL Connections social networking product.
Before installing HCL Connections™, study the system requirements, deployment options, and documentation conventions.
To install HCL Connections™, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.
HCL Connections 7.0 now supports the latest Component Pack based in Harbor, an open-source container and Helm registry hosted by HCL for the Component Pack build. Deployments that are new or carrying Component Pack 7 will use this approach for a simplified installation/upgrade process, while releases prior to 7.0 will first need to upgrade to Component Pack 7 using a zip file and a local Docker registry.
After installation, you need to perform further tasks to ensure an efficient deployment.
The Tiny editors are alternative rich-text editors which can be installed for HCL Connections™. They provide additional features and extensive customization options not available with the default editor.
Complete the post-installation tasks that are relevant to your deployment.
Uninstall HCL Connections.
Upgrade HCL Connections and its supporting software to the latest release and then update the installation with the latest interim fixes or cumulative fixes. Refer to the What's New in HCL Connections to review the features in the latest release and gather download links or links to the latest fix list and update strategy information.
Consider tasks that you might want to complete after you install HCL Connections and before users start using it.
Use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration properties or run administrative commands.
Make sure HCL Connections works properly in your particular environment.
Use superusers, moderation, and other methods to manage HCL Connections content.
The Widget Container is the HCL Connections-specific integration of the Common Rendering Engine, also known as the CRE.
Manage roles, credentials, users, and directories, and allow third-party access to HCL Connections data.
Manage the access that people from outside your organization (external users) have to your HCL Connections implementation.
Configure HCL Connections to prevent email addresses from being displayed in the product to protect the privacy of your users.
Allow email addresses to be displayed in HCL Connections.
By default, the HCL Connections user interface (UI) is displayed in the language that is identified in the locale settings of the web browser. You can set it up to allow users to explicitly select the language in which the product is displayed.
Change the context root of URLs that point to HCL Connections applications.
If an HCL Sametime® server is configured in your enterprise and the Profiles application is deployed, you can enable presence awareness and simple chats in HCL Connections.
You might decide to disable an application temporarily for maintenance or if, for example, you are deploying the product and the application is not yet ready for use.
Disable the Gallery widget and Files grid view to prevent users selecting the thumbnail view of files.
You can remove microblogging functionality from your deployment by disabling the microblogging service reference in the LotusConnections-config.xml file. Microblogging is enabled by default in HCL Connections.
The social analytics widgets help users to discover how they are connected to other users and content, and suggest network contacts and content that might interest them. The social analytics service is enabled by default.
If you installed a subset of the HCL Connections applications, remove the help files associated with the applications that you did not install from the help table of contents. If you add an application, or install HCL Connections Mail, you can add that product's help to the table of contents.
Specify a custom number of suggestions that appear when you use @mentions.
URL preview allows users decide quickly whether to follow a link by displaying a thumbnail preview for URLs.
Customize HCL Connections™ to fit your environment.
HCL Connections™ provides a flexible security infrastructure that supports an open, easily shareable data model.
See the HCL Connections™ Mobile documentation for Connections Cloud and Connections on-premises.
Get information about how to use the APIs provided with HCL Connections™ and how to use Connections Customizer to modify the Connections pages that are returned to users.
To isolate and resolve problems with your HCL products, you can use the troubleshooting and support information. This information contains instructions for using the problem-determination resources that are provided with your HCL products, including HCL Connections™.