Creating the widget catalog

The widgets catalog centrally houses available widgets. The catalog is an HCL Notes® application that can be used as an XPages application.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have appropriate access to enable agents on the Server document, Security tab, Programmability Restrictions section. At minimum, enable the Sign or run restricted LotusScript/Java agents option.

About this task

Administrators and power uses can use the supplied catalog template to create a widgets catalog on a server. A local copy of the catalog is automatically created on the user's client system when the widget catalog server and widget catalog application preference is applied. The local replica is periodically updated based on whatever replication schedule is set for Normal priority applications.

Procedure

  1. Obtain the widget catalog template (toolbox.ntf) installed with the HCL Domino® server. The application title is Widget Catalog (9).
  2. Create the widget catalog, for example named toolbox.nsf, using the supplied toolbox.ntf template.
  3. Assign ACLs to control access rights to the catalog application for administrators, power users, and end users.

    Administrators and power users need read and write access to the catalog.

    Administrators must be granted the [Admins] role in the catalog Access Control List (ACL). Administrators also need one of the following access rights to the catalog:

    • Manager
    • Designer
    • Editor

    End users may not be set up to browse and access the catalog directly but rather to obtain widget actions automatically by way of their membership in specific widget categories. End users, if they are not allowed to create and configure widgets, need Reader access to the catalog; otherwise it is recommended that end users are granted Author access to the catalog.

    All users that are allowed to create widgets in the widget catalog must be granted the [WidgetAuthor] role.

  4. Optional: Once you have created the catalog, you can create an initial set of categories for the catalog.

    There are two types of predefined categories in the catalog -- administrator categories and categories. Both of these categories can be defined in the Administration/Keyword view. Administrator categories are named ADMIN-Categories, and only administrators can put widgets in these categories. The other categories keyword is named Categories, and any widget author can add a widget to these categories.

    Note: You can assign policies or preferences to designate user access to the catalog.
  5. Optional: Enable the Toolbox Sweeper agent (ToolSweeper), a scheduled agent set to run against new and modified documents. This agent ensures that widget documents are properly created and populated. Each widget document requires a title and an xml file attachment. If a problem is found, the offending document is removed from the user views, is placed in the Administration/Document Queue, and an e-mail is sent to the document author informing him of the problem. Enable the Sweeper agent by selecting View > Agents, highlighting the Toolbox Sweeper agent, and then selecting Enable. When prompted for which server to run the agent on, select the server where you have deployed the catalog.
  6. If you are using the Widget Catalog as an XPage application, configure the following roles in the Access Control List (ACL):
    • [TagAuthor] - allows user to add tags to widget documents
    • [CommentAuthor] - allows user to add comments to widget documents
    • [RatingAuthor] - allows users to rate a widget

    Then enable the agents listed in the following table. Specify the server on which the widget catalog application is deployed; the agents should all run on the same server.

    Table 1. Agents
    Agent Description
    CalcDownloads Ensures that widget documents display the updated number of user downloads. By default, this agent runs every 5 minutes.
    CalcRatings Ensures that widget documents display the updated average user rating. By default, this agent runs every 5 minutes.
    CalcTags Ensures that widget documents display the updated list of tags created by users. By default, this agent runs every 5 minutes.
    CreateStatisticRDoc Ensures that a statistic response document is created for each widget. By default, this agent runs daily.
    RmDupRatingR2R Ensures any duplicate rating response-to-response document from the same user is removed. By default, this agent runs daily.
    Note: A-response-to-response document is created when a user rates a widget in the widget document XPages user interface. If there is more than one such document for a given user - for example due to a replication conflict - the agent removes one.
    Note: In a clustered environment, select only a single master server to run the scheduled agents.
  7. Set the widget catalog application launch options to the XPages user interface, which is the preferred interface for widgets.
    Note: If you do not want to use the XPages user interface, you can open the catalog in the Notes client and set Open designated Frameset in the properties to Toolbox-MainFrameset.
    1. Select the new database, right-click and select Properties.
    2. Click the icon for launch options.
    3. Under When opened in the Notes client, select Open designated Frameset and select the Toolbox-MainFrameset-XPage frameset.
    4. Under When opened in a browser, select home.xsp as the XPage.
    Note: There is no XPages user interface in the catalog application for approving and signing widgets. However, after you change the launch options to those in the procedure, you and other administrators can still see the classic user interface and have the Review button available for approving and signing widgets. To do so, open the catalog in the Domino® Administrator client without the Notes® client running.

What to do next

After the agents are enabled, during the procedure for configuring the credential store, be sure to give yourself the [Admins] role in the ACL of the credential store application, credstore.nsf.