Working With Discussions

The Discussions service provides a way for you to share information about specific documents or topics.

You can use and share information in the following ways:

The Discussions portlet allows you to do the following:

ProcedureTo View a Discussion

Steps
  1. From Discussions, click the title link of the discussion to view.

  2. Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.

    There are many viewing options available for discussions. See To Edit Viewing Options.

  3. To return to the parent message of the current comment, click the To Parent link.

  4. To return to the top level message for the current comment, click the To Discussions link.

  5. To return to the Discussions page that lists all of the discussions, click the All Discussions link.

ProcedureTo Edit Viewing Options

Steps
  1. Click the Edit Options link on the Discussions portlet.

  2. Make a selection to enter the values you want.

    The following options are available:

    Discussions per page

    Drop-down menu defines the number of discussions to list on a page. The available values are 5, 8, 10, 16. The default value is 8.

    Show description

    Checkbox indicates whether to display the discussion description. The discussion description is displayed in line with the title.

    View discussion in new window

    Checkbox indicates whether to display the discussion in a new browser window.

    Filter

    Filters comments are filtered by the selected rating. All comments with the selected rating for the discussion are displayed. When a filter is selected, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without links.

    The rating levels available are:

    1. Irrelevant

    2. Routine

    3. Interesting

    4. Important

    5. Must read

    Threshold

    Defines the threshold level to control the number of items displayed in the subtree. Default value is Collapse All. Expand All will expand all the filtered comments equal to or above the defined Threshold.

    • Collapse All -- Lists the comments with only the titles displayed.

    • Select Expand All-- Lists the comments and the message contents.

    View

    Defines how the discussion is displayed.

    • Flat -- Displays list of comments posted with all discussion threads unintended regardless of its thread level.

    • Threaded -- View the list of comments posted with each discussion threads intended.

  3. Click Finished to save your settings and return to the Discussions page. Click Cancel to return to the Discussions page without changing the settings.

ProcedureTo Start a Discussion

Steps
  1. Click New Discussions from the Discussions home page.

    A message window appears with a Title field and a browser-based HTML editor.

  2. Specify a title for the discussion in the Title field.

  3. Type your message in the Message field.

  4. Select a rating filter for the discussion from the Rating drop-down menu.

    When a filter is selected, comments rated below the selected filter are displayed without links.

  5. Click Post.

    Other community members can view and post replies to your discussion.

ProcedureTo Post a Reply to a Discussion

Steps
  1. Click the title of the discussion to which you want to post a reply.

  2. Click Post Reply.

    A Post Reply page appears with a pre-filled Title and a browser-based HTML editor.

  3. Type your message in the Message field.


    Note - If your browser is compatible the Message field is replaced by a tool bar. Place the pointer on an icon to display a description.If your browser is incompatible a message is displayed. The tool bar icons are accessible to you to format content in the Message field.


  4. Specify a rating for the discussion from the Rating drop-down menu.

  5. Click Post.

    Your comment is added to the discussion.

ProcedureTo Subscribe to a Discussion

If you want to follow a discussion, you can subscribe to the discussion. Subscribing to a discussion adds the discussion to your list.


Note - You must be a registered user to use the Subscriptions feature. To become a registered user, you must create an account with a user name and password from the Community Home Page. Those accessing the Community Portal as guests will not see or use the Subscriptions feature.


Steps
  1. Click the title of the discussion or comment thread to which you want to subscribe.

  2. Click Subscribe.

    The Subscriptions setup page appears.

  3. Specify a name for the subscription in the Name text field.

    A sample name for the subscription would be JavaTalk.

  4. Specify a query.

    The number of hits for the discussion subscription is updated whenever a new document is added to the discussion matching the query string.

  5. Select the amount of time you wish to be subscribed to the specified category from the Since drop-down menu.

  6. Select the rating from the Rating drop-down menu.

  7. Click Finished.

    The discussion is displayed in the Subscription channel.

ProcedureTo Perform a Basic Search for a Discussion

Steps
  1. Click the title of the discussions comment thread you want to search.

    Type a keyword or keywords in the Find text field.

  2. Click Search.

    Discussion comments based on the keyword search are displayed.

ProcedureTo Perform an Advanced Search for a Discussion

Steps
  1. Click the title of the discussion or discussion comment thread you want to search.

  2. Click Advanced Search from the Search portlet.

    The Advanced Search page is displayed.

  3. Type keywords in the text fields and select operator choices.

    The following options are available:

    Find

    Performs a keyword search for available discussions.

    • All of the words -- Specifies that the search result contains all of the keywords similar to the Boolean AND operator.

    • Any of the words -- Specifies that the search result contains any of the keywords specified similar to the Boolean OR operator.

    • The exact phrase -- Specifies that the search result contains the exact text string similar to using quotation marks.

    • Passage search -- Specifies that the search result contains a combination of words in the order in which they are typed in the text field similar to the Boolean AND and OR operators.

    Include

    Specifies where to search for keywords. You can choose to search for keywords in Main Database, Discussions, or both.

    Title

    Specifies a search for a word or words in the title of the document.

    • Contains -- Limits the search result to names that contain the words that you typed in the text field.

    • Not contains -- Limits the search result by omitting names that contain the words that you typed in the text field.

    Author

    Specifies a search for the name of the person who originally created the document.

    • Contains -- Limits the search result to names that contain the words that you typed in the text field.

    • Not contains -- Limits the search result by omitting names that contain the words that you typed in the text field.

    URL

    Specifies a search by the web address of the document.

    • Contains -- Limits the search result to names that contain the words that you typed in the text field.

    • Not contains -- Limits the search result by omitting names that contain the words that you typed in the text field.


    Note - The slash (/) at the end of a URL is significant. For example, searching for http://www.sun.com/soft/ searches all documents at that URL and all of its subdirectories. If you omit the slash and specify only http://www.sun.com/soft, you search the documents at that URL and all sites that start with soft, for example www.sun.com/software, www.sun.com/softest, and so on.


    Rated at least as

    Specifies the discussion document rating. Allows you to limit your search to documents rated at the level specified or higher. Default is Irrelevant.

    Posted within the

    Specifies the time period when the document was modified. Allows you to limit the search to within a certain time period.

    Show results as

    Specifies the amount of information that is included with your search results.

  4. Click Search.

    Discussion comments based on your search parameters are displayed.