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.
Make sure HCL Connections works properly in your particular environment.
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.
The directory paths to HCL Connections application data and other resources are given associated WebSphere® Application Server environment variables. If you change default paths in your environment, you must update the variables.
The session cookie ID for HCL Connections is named JSESSIONID by default. Other products hosted by the WebSphere® Application Server often use the same name for their session cookie. If IBM® HTTP Server is hosting multiple web servers, you might want to change the cookie name of one of them to prevent the cookie from being lost when the user is redirected from one product to another.
The Activities, Communities, Files, Forums, News, Search, and Wikis applications use the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server scheduling service for performing regular tasks. You can use wsadmin commands to change the schedule by which a task runs or to disable a scheduled task altogether.
Each HCL Connections application stores data in a database, and some also store data on a file system. You must back up these databases and file systems on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system that you are using.
You can remove IBM® WebSphere® Administration Server nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console or using a command.
You must back up both the application databases and content stores on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system you are using.
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.
Perform optional tasks to customize your HCL Connections deployment.
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™.