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:
Retrieve discussion messages and sort them by creation time and top discussions.
Search for discussions and comments.
Add a new discussion or add comments to an existing discussion.
View each main item with subtree displayed below the main item.
Rate discussions and comments.
The Discussions portlet allows you to do the following:
From Discussions, click the title link of the discussion to view.
Scroll down to see the list of comments for the discussion.
There are many viewing options available for discussions. See To Edit Viewing Options.
To return to the parent message of the current comment, click the To Parent link.
To return to the top level message for the current comment, click the To Discussions link.
To return to the Discussions page that lists all of the discussions, click the All Discussions link.
Click the Edit Options link on the Discussions portlet.
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:
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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.
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View | Defines how the discussion is displayed.
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Click Finished to save your settings and return to the Discussions page. Click Cancel to return to the Discussions page without changing the settings.
Click New Discussions from the Discussions home page.
A message window appears with a Title field and a browser-based HTML editor.
Specify a title for the discussion in the Title field.
Type your message in the Message field.
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.
Click Post.
Other community members can view and post replies to your discussion.
Click the title of the discussion to which you want to post a reply.
Click Post Reply.
A Post Reply page appears with a pre-filled Title and a browser-based HTML editor.
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.
Specify a rating for the discussion from the Rating drop-down menu.
Click Post.
Your comment is added to the 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.
Click the title of the discussion or comment thread to which you want to subscribe.
Click Subscribe.
The Subscriptions setup page appears.
Specify a name for the subscription in the Name text field.
A sample name for the subscription would be JavaTalk.
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.
Select the amount of time you wish to be subscribed to the specified category from the Since drop-down menu.
Select the rating from the Rating drop-down menu.
Click Finished.
The discussion is displayed in the Subscription channel.
Click the title of the discussions comment thread you want to search.
Type a keyword or keywords in the Find text field.
Click Search.
Discussion comments based on the keyword search are displayed.
Click the title of the discussion or discussion comment thread you want to search.
Click Advanced Search from the Search portlet.
The Advanced Search page is displayed.
Type keywords in the text fields and select operator choices.
The following options are available:
Find | Performs a keyword search for available discussions.
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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.
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Author | Specifies a search for the name of the person who originally created the document.
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URL | Specifies a search by the web address of the document.
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. |
Click Search.
Discussion comments based on your search parameters are displayed.