Working With Spaces

The “team work” concept becomes very familiar in business environment. By establishing one specific team or group, you and your collaborators can work together on important projects. Based on the importance of team working, eXo Platform develops the Spaces application, allowing you to collaborate with specific people. The scope of using spaces is so flexible that can be applied for teams, themes, communities or any kind of informal groups to your business requirements. For example, if you want to work on a team project, you can create a space for your team members to make organizations, share links and information related to the project.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Accessing a space

How to access a space and its page via its URL.

Space banner and avatar

How to define a space banner and avatar.

Creating a space

Steps to create a new space with new settings, permission and members.

Managing space settings

Ways to access Space Settings and steps to modify the space information and visibility, to manage members and space applications, or to manage space navigation bar.

Joining/Leaving a space

How to join/leave a space, or to revoke your request.

Deleting a space

How to delete a space where you are the manager.

Accepting/Ignoring invitations

Steps to accept or ignore a request/invitation.

Sharing in Space

How to share content in a space.

Accessing a space

After logging in eXo Platform successfully, you will see a list of your last visited spaces with a short list on the left pane of the page, and you can see all spaces via SPACES.

Details:

• The Filter box which allows you to quickly look for a space from your spaces list.
• The list of last visited spaces where you are a member or manager, sorted by last visit time.

Note

The short list of your last visited spaces displays as many spaces as your screen allows.

• Allows you to access the Spaces page which displays all the spaces in the portal. Here, you can quickly join a space or search for your desired space.
• Lets you quickly create a new space.

Note

You can see a short list of your last visited spaces just below the Last visited button.

The Spaces page includes the following sections:

• This section contains the following options: Add a new space, the number of spaces displayed,

  Filter spaces by name or description and a pulldown to filter the list : All spaces or My spaces.

Note

All spaces, including your spaces, visible spaces, and hidden spaces where you are invited to become members, and my spaces for spaces where you are a member or manager.

• Spaces in which you can see information like space name, avatar and cover image

  and accessing button.

Note

You can click on the information icon of the space’s card which will flip to display the space’s description and its list of managers.

• A block for spaces requests (invitations to join a space, pending requests sent, pending requests for your spaces and the list of the spaces your are managing.

• A suggestion list of recommended spaces to join.

  You can either send a request to join or decline the suggestion.

• A list of the most popular spaces, listed by their harvested gamification points on the current week.

Note

You can either send a request to join the popular space if you are not a member, or decline a request sent pending .

To access a specific space, just click the space name.

Note

For smartphone devices, you have to slide or swipe your finger to display spaces widgets.

Accessing via URL

When you try to access a space or a space page via its URL while you are not its member yet, you will receive various instructions as follows:

• For an Open space, click Join to join that space first.

  

• For a Visible space with Validation Registration, click Request to Join to send the join request first.

  

• For a Hidden or Not existing space, click Find Spaces to open the All Spaces page.

  

• For a Closed space, you just can access it when being invited by your administrator.

  

Note

Super User, who has the highest permission, can see and access all spaces for the administration purpose.

Space banner and avatar

After creating a space, by default it has the default banner (in grey color) and the default space’s icon. You can choose different images for the banner and the avatar.

Space banner

To change the banner just mouse over in the top right corner of the space banner, an icon will appear.

When you click on the icon , an Update button appears allowing you to pick up an image from your computer.

Tip

The banner size should be 130 pixels height minimum.

Having chosen the banner and if you click again on the button in the top right, two buttons appear:

• Update: Allows you to pick up another banner image from your computer.
• Reset: Allows you to delete the current banner image and restore the default grey banner.

Space avatar

Same as for the banner, you can choose an another space avatar, just click on and an Upload button appears allowing you to pick up an image from your hard disk:

Pick up an image by double-clicking on it. The image will be loaded in the space’s avatar.

After setting a space avtar, when you click again on , you can:

• Update the image by selecting an another one from your computer or
• Reset to restore the default space icon.

When scrolling down in the space’s activity stream and when you exceed the cover section limit, the banner image is collapsed and a new space’s navigation bar still appear. It allows you to see all the space’s tabs.

The new navigation bar contains:

• The space’s avatar in a cercle form.

• The space’s name allowing you to know in which space you are.

• The chat button allowing you to start a conversation with the space’s members.

• The space’s applications.

• The More button appears when the number of applications exceeds the number that the navigation bar is able to display or when the spae’s name is long.

  

  Clicking on it displays the list of the remaining applications.

  

In mobile devices, applications navigation bar is scrollable right and left.

Creating a space

After going to the Spaces page, you can add a new space so that you and your collaborators can work together or discuss specific topics as follows:

1. Click at the top left corner of the Spaces page to open the Add New Space form.
2. A drawer panel is displayed containing all information related to the space creation based on 3 steps:

Step 1: Space details

You must enter a space name (3 to 200 characters) and may enter an optional description (max 255 characters).

Note

Special characters are not allowed on space names. Only the character & is allowed.

A pulldown lists all predefined templates that the space creator can use. A description of each template is displayed below the selectors.

Note

Each template defines its default visibility, registration criteria and list of applications, and does have a description of the choice selected to help you choosing the best template for your needs when creating a new space.

Note

You can continue to the next step just by introducing the space name and click on Continue.

Step 2: Space access

You may override the predefined visibility and registration options of the space.

• Visibility: By default, the Visibility (Hidden field) value is set to be the one predefined in the template.

• No: The space is not hidden and always visible in the public spaces list.
• Yes: The space is not visible in the public spaces list.

• Registration: By default, the Registration value is set to be the one predefined in the template.
  • Open: The users sending their requests can join the space without any validation.
  • Validation: The membership must be validated by the space manager.
  • Close: The user cannot request for joining, but only the space manager can invite him.

Note

Visibility and registration fields have a description of the choice selected to help you choosing the best template for your needs when creating a new space.

Note

You can continue to the next step with Continue button, and can also go back to the previous step with the Back button.

Step 3: Invite Users

In the third and last step, the Users field allows to pick users or space members that you intend to invite to the new space.

Type-ahead suggestions allow to facilitate selection users and spaces members to invite.

Note

Only spaces that the creator is member of can be selected.

Users field can be pre-filled by default users or spaces defined in space template.

Note

You can go back to the previous step by clicking on Back.

Finally, click Create button to finish adding your new space. The new space appears.

Space Templates

Space templates concept is not directly exposed to users. From their perspective, they simply pick a type when creating a space.

If the space creator chooses a template from the pulldown, a description of the selected template is displayed below the pulldown:

• Community: A general purpose area for collaboration and communication of a digital community.
• Projects: A project space where members coordinate on tasks toward a predefined outcome.
• Communication : Interpersonal communication where a space groups are involved in exchange of ideas, skills and interests.
• Team: A central destination for members of a team.

Note

The default template for new spaces is: Community

Predefined Space templates

Community

Community is the default space template. General purpose, digital collaboration and discussion area.

Default Settings for the Community template are :

• Title: Community
• Description: a general purpose area for collaboration and communication of a digital community.
• Hidden: No
• Registration : Open
• Predefined Apps : Home, Documents, Tasks, Forum, Wiki, Calendar, Members, Space Settings

Project

Projects is ideal to coordinate actors toward a shared outcome.

Default Settings for the Project template are :

• Title: Project
• Description: A project space where members coordinate on tasks toward a predefined outcome.
• Hidden: No
• Registration : Validation
• Predefined Apps : Home, Tasks, Documents, Calendar, Wiki, Forum, Members, Space Settings

Team

For organizational teams or work groups.

Default Settings for the Project template are :

• Title: Team
• Description: A central destination for members of a team.
• Hidden: Yes
• Registration : Validation
• Predefined Apps : Home, Calendar, Documents, Wiki, Tasks, Members, Space Settings

Communication

Communication is the perfect choice to exchange knowledges and skills.

• Title: Communication
• Description: Interpersonal communication where a space groups are involved in exchange of ideas, skills and interests.
• Hidden: No
• Registration : Validation
• Predefined Apps : Home, Documents, Tasks, Forum, Wiki, Calendar, Members, Space Settings

You can redefine the space banner and the space avatar by mousing over and then clicking on allowing you to pick an image from your computer.

More details about how to redefine space banner and profile here.

Space home

The default space home page contains the following content:

• Activity stream: displays the space’s activities

• Description: displays the space’s description and the list of the space’s managers

  

• Calendar: displays the events of the space’s calendar by day (today’s events by default)

  

Tip

You can view other events of the previous and the following days simply by clicking on arrows .

• Who is on line?: displays the online members of the space. It appears while at least one member is online.

  

Note

Calendar and Who is Online? portlets are the same as for intranet homepage but specific for the space’s calendar and members.

Note

When you are a platform administrator and member of a space, you are able to add more portlets just by clicking on Edit –> Page –> Edit layout and then drag and drop the portelt you want to add.

Space banner and avatar

By default, the space banner is set to be the one predefined in the template and the space.

You can redefine the space banner and the space avatar by mousingover and then clicking on allowing you to pick an image from your computer.

More details about how to redefine space banner and profile here.

Space applications

The space is featured with some default applications pages on the space navigation bar. Simply click each application to use its functions. See Managing space navigation bar for more details.

• Activity Stream: Displays changes on the space information and all the activities of space members. See Using the Activity Stream for more details.
• Forums: Allows space members to exchange their opinions on a subject. See Building Your Forum for more details.
• Wiki: Allows space members to work on the same Wiki pages of the space, such as editing a Wiki page. See Working With Wikis for more details.
• Documents: Allows space members to work on the same documents, such as editing a document in the space. See Managing Your Documents for more details.
• Agenda: Allows space members to create/edit the same events/tasks in the space calendar. See Managing Your Calendars for more details.
• Space Settings: Allows the space manager only to edit the space. This application is invisible to space members, except the space manager. See Managing space settings to know how to edit a space.

• Members: Displays the list of space members.

Note

When accessing the Members application of the space, you will see a list of space members. If there are so many members, the Show More bar will appear at the page bottom. Click Show More to see more members.

Note

In the space seeting, you can have an idea about the space template for your space, the Space template pulldown will display the selected template but you can’t change it.

Others

When a new space is created:

• A forum with the same name as this space is also created in the Forums application of the portal. In case this forum is removed from the Forums application, all members of the space cannot see the space’s forum anymore when clicking Forums on the navigation bar of space.

• A group calendar with the same name as the space is also created under the Group Calendars in the Calendar application of the portal.

• An activity is created on the Activity Stream and a comment is added to the activity and informs that you have just joined the space. In case you or other space members left the space, the number of the space members will be updated to the activity.

  

Note

When more than two space characters are input between words in the space name, these spaces will be converted to ONLY ONE space when being displayed. With space characters at the beginning and end of space names, these space characters will be also omitted. After being created, your space will be automatically added to the list of MY SPACES on the left panel. Therefore, you can access your space by clicking its name.

Managing space settings

If you are the creator or have the Manage permission on a space, you can manage its initial settings in Space Settings, including:

• Space information/visibility
• Space members
• Space applications
• Space navigation bar

To edit a space, access the Space Settings page first by following one of 2 ways:

• The first way

  • Access your desired space, then select Space Settings on the space navigation bar.

    

• The second way

  • Go to the Spaces page <note-access-spaces-page>, choose the space to edit, then you click on area button to display the Edit button.

  • Click Edit.

    

Changing space information/visibility

Changing space information

This function allows you to edit the basic information of a space.

1. Select the Settings tab in the Space Settings page.

2. Change information in the Name, Description fields and the space avatar.

• To change the space avatar, click Change Picture below the avatar to open the Upload an Image form. See Uploading your avatar for more details.

3. Click Save to accept your changes.

Note

The space template combo will be disabled, so that you can’t edit its template.

Changing visibility

1. Select the Access & Edit tab in the Space Settings page.
2. Change values of Visibility and Registration if you want. For more details, see here.
3. Click Save to accept your changes.

Managing members

Select the Members tab in Space Settings page.

Here, you can do many actions on members as follows:

Inviting new members

You can invite other users to join your spaces as follows:

• Inviting users

  • The first way

    If you know the username of a person, simply enter his/her username in the textbox, then click Invite.

    To invite multiple people, use commas to separate your multiple entered usernames.

  • The second way

    1. Click to open the Select Users form.

    

    2. Select your desired users by ticking their corresponding checkboxes, and click Add.

    You can also search for your desired members in eXo Platform, do as follows:

    • i. Enter a search term into the Search box.
    • ii. Select a criterion you want to find in the combo box next to the Search box.
    • iii. Click or press Enter to perform searching.
    3. Click Invite to invite your selected users.

  • The third way

    

    1. Go to Members application of the space.

    2. Enter the username of the person you wish to invite to the space. You can just type in the first letters and a list of suggestions should appear. This list contains persons having those letters in their username, First name or Last name. Press Enter on keyboard to confirm the user selection.

    If you entered a wrong username (i.e it doesn’t exist), it gets underlined in red:

    

    3. Choose one or more persons to invite from the list. You can remove some persons by just clicking on in front of the displayed named.

    4. Click on Invite to send invitations to the chosen persons.

    If you press on Enter to confirm a wrong username and then click on Invite, an error pop up appears indicating that the selected username is not valid.

    

  • Inviting users from a group

    1. Click to open the Select a Group form.
    2. Select a group on the left pane, then select its sub-group on the right pane.
    3. Click Invite to invite your selected group.

After that, you will see the list of invited users. The invitees will see your invitations in the Invitations application at the right panel of their homepage.

Revoking your invitations

If the invited users have not accepted your requests yet, you can revoke your invitations by clicking corresponding to the users’ name. The users will be removed from the Invited list.

Validating/Declining request

As a manager or creator of a space, you can validate other users’ requests for joining your space.

• To accept a user’s request for joining your space, click in the Action column.
• To decline a user’s request for joining your space, click in the Action column.

Promoting/Demoting a member

• To promote a member to the manager position, click in the Manager column. The user will be automatically promoted as a manager in the current space.
• To demote a member, click .

Note

Be careful not to remove the rights for yourself; otherwise, you will not be able to change your space’s settings anymore. Besides, there should be at least one manager in a space, so the last manager of the space is not permitted to be demoted.

Removing a member

Click corresponding to the member you want to delete in the Members list. In case this member is the only manager of the space, there will be a warning like this:

That is, you should promote another member to the manager position before you can delete that member.

Managing space applications

Select the Applications tab to go the Applications page which allows you to manage space applications.

Here, you can:

Adding a new space application

1. Click Add Application to open the Space Application Installer form.

2. Click a category on the left panel to show its applications on the right panel, then select the application you want to add by clicking Add corresponding to it.

If there is no available application, ask your system administrator to gain the access right.

Deleting an application

To remove an application, click corresponding to the application name.

Renaming an application

As manager of a space, you are allowed to rename its applications except the Activity Stream. To rename an application, simply double-click on its name:

Managing space navigation bar

Each space is featured with some “pages” on the space navigation bar. These pages may contain applications or any content. By clicking on each page, you will be redirected to it.

Also, you can easily manage these pages on the space navigation bar through actions on the relevant navigation nodes. To do so, in Space Settings, select the Navigations bar, then right-click the relevant navigation node. See Managing navigation nodes for more details.

Creating a space page

To create a page that is accessible on the space navigation bar, simply add a navigation node that links to your desired page in the Page Selector tab. See Adding a new node for more details.

Also, you can create a space page using:

• Page Creation Wizard; Or
• Pages Management. In this case, Owner Type should be group, and Owner Id should be /spaces/[space_node_name]. For example, if you want to add a page to the space named PLF team, the Owner Id should be /spaces/plf_team. Remember that in this way, you only create the space page that is still not accessible. To make this page accessible, create a node that links to this page (in the Page Selector tab).

Editing a space page

To edit this space page, simply right-click the navigation node containing the page and select Edit Node’s Page from the context menu. The Edit Page window will be displayed in the Page Properties view. See Editing a page for more details.

Removing a space page

If you right-click the node containing the page and select Delete Node from the context menu, only the navigation node linking to the page will be removed from the space navigation bar, but its page still exists. To actually delete this page, see Deleting a page.

Joining/Leaving a space

Joining a space

Go to the Spaces page and you will see All Spaces tab which displays all your spaces and ones whose Visibility is set to “Visible”.

There are two cases to join a space:

• The first instance: For spaces without validation required, click Join corresponding to your desired space. You will automatically become their members.
• The second instance: For spaces with validation required, after clicking Request to Join, you have to wait for the validation from the space’s manager who can accept or deny your request.

Revoking your request

• To revoke your request for joining a space that has not been validated by its manager, simply click Cancel in the Pending requests drawer.

  

Leaving a space

• To leave a space, simply click Leave.

If you are the only leader of that space, the message which informs that you cannot leave a space will appear as below.

Deleting a space

Only the space managers have permission to delete their spaces.

1. Open the Spaces pages, then select the space you want to delete.
2. Click on Remove in the area button.

3. A confirmation message appears:

4. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept deleting the space.

Note

When a space is deleted, all information, contents (documents, tasks, events…) and navigations related to that space are also deleted.

If you click on Cancel button of the confirmation message, nothing happens.

Accepting/Ignoring invitations

This function allows you to accept and/or deny invitations that you received from others. You can see all spaces which are being waited for your acceptance in the Invitations Received drawer, or directly in the Spaces page.

• To accept/ignore the invitations via the Invitations drawer.

• To accept/ignore the invitations in the Spaces page, you can click Accept to join/ Decline corresponding to your desired space to accept/deny joining the space respectively.

  

Sharing in Space

To share an update, a document or a link in a space, you must be a member first. Then follow these steps:

1. Access to the space in which you want to publish a post.
2. Point to the space’s activity stream.
3. Compose your text message or upload documents or attach a link in the activity composer. It is same as Sharing in activity stream.

4. Finally click on Post to share the status.

When you mouse over the space name from the post, a popover is displayed with the space name, the space avatar and the space description.

If you are a member in the space and not an administrator or creator, in addition to the previously cited components, a Leave button is displayed in the popover allowing you to leave the space and Chat button allowing you to start a discussion with the space members.

Once you leave the space, you will not be able to see any activity, nor receiving notifications of your former publications on this space

Only the space managers and authors of the posts can delete the activities by clicking on the delete (1) icon in the corner. All notifications related to that deleted activity in the space are also deleted.