Administering IBM Navigator

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Use IBM® Navigator to search for and work with documents that are stored in content servers.

Authorization

If you are one of the account administrators invited to your cloud subscription, you are automatically assigned the Navigator Administrators role. As a Navigator administrator, you have full access to the IBM Navigator settings in the administration console. You can grant other users IBM Navigator administration permissions from the Access management section in the navigation bar.

IBM Navigator settings

Do not change the following IBM Navigator settings:
  • In Daeja ViewONE > Virtual > Additional settings, the externalHost and internalHost settings. These settings are provisioned for your subscription by the IBM Support team.
  • The Settings > General > Aspera Configuration > Upload documents by using Aspera setting is disabled because it is not supported in cloud environments.

Configuring email integration

If you want to use IBM Navigator email capabilities, you must configure an SMTP email service. This email service must be accessible from your cloud subscription.

IBM Cloud offers an email delivery service that allows you to use a smart host to relay your outbound mail services. The service includes other functions, such as generating metrics, tracking email lists, tracking email activity, assisting with newsletters, and authenticating. For more information about the service, see IBM Cloud Email Delivery.

When your email service is ready, contact IBM Support to get IBM Navigator configured to use the service.

Enabling repositories for Microsoft Office 365 integration

You can configure IBM Navigator so that users can work on Office 365 documents directly from their desktops. Users can create new documents using templates or open existing documents and co-author documents in real-time with other users.

  1. Log in to IBM Navigator as an administrator and navigate to the administration console.
  2. Click Settings and enable Office 365.
  3. Enable a repository for Office 365:
    1. Click Repositories and open the repository you want to enable.
    2. Connect to the repository as a Content Platform Engine administrator.
    3. Click the Edit Integration tab, enable Office 365, then save your changes to the repository configuration.
  4. (Optional) Add custom templates for documents. If you provide custom templates, the blank templates that are provided with Office 365 are hidden. If you want users to be able to create blank documents or use a predefined template, you must add both a blank template and a custom template.
    1. Click Add for the category you want to add a template to.
    2. Select the template file that you want to add to the repository and specify the appropriate values for the file in the repository.
      Important: Ensure that the users who need to use the template have access to the template.
    3. Click Add to add the template file to the repository.
    4. If you have multiple templates associated with a category, specify which template is selected by default. When the user clicks New > Document type, this template is selected by default in the New Document window.
    5. Save your changes to the repository configuration.
  5. Enable desktops for Office 365. To enable desktops, you must have enabled Office 365 integration on a repository.
    1. Click Desktops and open the desktop you want to enable.
    2. On the Repositories tab, ensure that the desktop configuration includes at least one repository where Office 365 is enabled.
    3. On the General tab, enable Office 365. Menu items specific to Office 365 are added to the default Office menus.
    4. Specify whether desktop users can collaborate on documents or whether you want to restrict editing to a single user.

Enabling the Recycle Bin plug-in

IBM Navigator includes a Recycle Bin plug-in that allows users to put documents into the Recycle Bin and remove them or restore them later. You can load the plug-in by using the file path /opt/ibm/intPlugins/recycleBin/RecycleBinPlugin.jar. For more information, see Configuring the Recycle Bin feature.

Using custom plug-ins

You can use custom plug-ins to modify the behavior and appearance of the web client. You can make these customizations available to your users by uploading the plug-ins from the IBM Navigator administration console. To upload plug-ins, follow these steps to ensure that the Upload File Path on the Server setting is configured:
  1. Log in to IBM Navigator as an administrator and navigate to the administration console.
  2. Click Settings > General.
  3. Confirm the Upload File Path on the Server setting is configured to be /opt/ibm. If it is not yet configured, set it to /opt/ibm and save your changes.
  4. Refresh your browser and go to the IBM Navigator administration console.
  5. Click Plug-ins > New Plug-in. You will now see the option to specify a JAR file from your workstation.
For more information, see Registering and configuring plug-ins.

Support for iframes

Your custom application can load IBM Navigator in an iframe, however, your subscription requires additional configuration to support iframes. If you require iframe support for your subscription, open an IBM Support ticket.

Enabling the launching of workflows from IBM Navigator

To enable users to launch document workflows from IBM Navigator, you must configure the workflow server base URL for the IBM Navigator web application in the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine.

  1. Log in to the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine as a Content Platform Engine Administrator and navigate to the default object store, OS1.
  2. Configure the URL of the web application in the isolated region of the workflow system.
    1. Click Administrative > Workflow System > Isolated Regions > OS1_IR1 and go to the Web Applications tab.
    2. In the list of web applications, click IBM Content Navigator and enter one of the following URLs in the Server Base URL field. Use the URL that applies to your subscription setup. 
      • https://hostname.automationcloud.ibm.com/dba/dev|test|run/navigator/
      • https://ban-environment-hostname.automationcloud.ibm.com/navigator/
      Where:
      • hostname is the virtual host name of your cloud subscription
      • dev|test|run is the environment you want to access IBM Navigator from a mobile device
      Make sure you include "/" at the end of the URL. Then click OK.
    3. Click Save on the Web Applications tab.

Configuring mobile access

You can configure mobile access to IBM Navigator so that users can add documents or folders from their mobile devices. You can also configure custom features, such as shortcuts for opening and viewing other web pages on the mobile devices without exiting IBM Navigator. For more information, see Configuring access to IBM Content Navigator from mobile devices.

After you configure mobile access, follow these steps on each mobile device:
  1. Install the IBM Navigator Mobile iOS or Android application.
  2. Open the IBM Navigator Mobile application and select Use your organization's login page.
  3. Enter one of the following URLs to access IBM Navigator. Use the URL that applies to your subscription setup. 
    • https://hostname.automationcloud.ibm.com.com/dba/dev|test|run/navigator/
    • https://ban-environment-hostname.automationcloud.ibm.com/navigator/
    Where:
    • hostname is the virtual host name of your cloud subscription
    • dev|test|run is the environment you want to access IBM Navigator from a mobile device
    Make sure you include "/" at the end of the URL.
  4. Follow the cloud login screens to log in to IBM Navigator on the mobile device.

Using the external data (EDS) service plug-in

You can use the external data service (EDS) REST protocol to create an external data service to get data from an external source, such as a file or a table in a database, to customize field properties and manage property behavior in IBM Navigator. You can configure the EDS plug-in to reference an external EDS web service.

For information about how to set up the plug-in, see Registering and configuring an EDS plug-in to reference a custom EDS data source plug-in.

Using the task manager service

The task manager service is a REST web application for creating and automating scheduled asynchronous tasks that can run on any repository.

The task manager service is available on all subscriptions that include content capabilities. To schedule and run tasks, such as deleting a team space, you must be a member of either the TaskAdmins or TaskUsers group. If you get an error when you access asynchronous tasks in IBM Navigator, you're probably not a member of one of these groups. Contact your account administrator to get assigned.