Getting Started

Guide

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 Copyright notice
<<tbd>>

<<To Do>>
 Mention that when you copy a space, you copy its content plus what else?
 Create space based on existing space copies subspaces, content, and smart space
info.
 Manage space users.
 Show the shared drive method.
 Show the URL to the appropriate space (__AlfrescoClient).
 Add stuff on collaboration searching, categories.

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Table of Contents
<<To Do>> ..................................................................................................................2
<<To Do>> ..................................................................................................................2
Introduction...................................................................................................................5
Introduction...................................................................................................................5
1 Setting up Alfresco.........................................................................................................6
Logging in to Alfresco as user “admin”........................................................................6
Logging in to Alfresco as user “admin”........................................................................6
Logging in................................................................................................................6
Logging in................................................................................................................6
Adding new users..........................................................................................................6
Adding new users..........................................................................................................6
Creating a space to hold users..................................................................................7
Creating a space to hold users..................................................................................7
Adding users to a space.................................................................................................8
Adding users to a space.................................................................................................8
2 Using Alfresco..............................................................................................................11
Logging in to Alfresco as a normal user.....................................................................11
Logging in to Alfresco as a normal user.....................................................................11
Looking around the Home page..................................................................................12
Looking around the Home page..................................................................................12
Toolbar...................................................................................................................12
Toolbar...................................................................................................................12
Shelf.......................................................................................................................13
Shelf.......................................................................................................................13
Clipboard...........................................................................................................13
Clipboard...........................................................................................................13
Recent Spaces....................................................................................................13
Recent Spaces....................................................................................................13
Shortcuts............................................................................................................13
Shortcuts............................................................................................................13
Working area..........................................................................................................13
Working area..........................................................................................................13
Changing the space appearance.............................................................................13
Changing the space appearance.............................................................................13
The next steps.............................................................................................................14
The next steps.............................................................................................................14
Creating a new space..................................................................................................15
Creating a new space..................................................................................................15
Navigating around Alfresco........................................................................................17
Navigating around Alfresco........................................................................................17
About breadcrumbs................................................................................................17
About breadcrumbs................................................................................................17
Creating shortcuts...................................................................................................17
Creating shortcuts...................................................................................................17
Adding content to the space........................................................................................18
Adding content to the space........................................................................................18
Launching a content file..............................................................................................21
Launching a content file..............................................................................................21

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Using the clipboard.....................................................................................................21
Using the clipboard.....................................................................................................21
Uploading content from your hard drive....................................................................22
Uploading content from your hard drive....................................................................22
Editing a document inline...........................................................................................23
Editing a document inline...........................................................................................23
Downloading a file for editing....................................................................................24
Downloading a file for editing....................................................................................24
Editing content offline................................................................................................25
Editing content offline................................................................................................25
Updating the file in Alfresco.......................................................................................25
Updating the file in Alfresco.......................................................................................25
Adding versioning to a file manually..........................................................................26
Adding versioning to a file manually..........................................................................26
About checking out and checking in files...................................................................27
About checking out and checking in files...................................................................27
Checking out content..................................................................................................27
Checking out content..................................................................................................27
About document properties after check out................................................................28
About document properties after check out................................................................28
Checking in content....................................................................................................29
Checking in content....................................................................................................29
About workflow..........................................................................................................30
About workflow..........................................................................................................30
About content rules.....................................................................................................31
About content rules.....................................................................................................31
Creating a content rule................................................................................................31
Creating a content rule................................................................................................31
Using the Details pane of the New Rule Wizard....................................................31
Using the Details pane of the New Rule Wizard....................................................31
Using the Conditions pane of the New Rule Wizard.............................................32
Using the Conditions pane of the New Rule Wizard.............................................32
Using the Actions pane of the New Rule Wizard...................................................32
Using the Actions pane of the New Rule Wizard...................................................32
Using the Summary pane of the New Rule Wizard...............................................33
Using the Summary pane of the New Rule Wizard...............................................33
Moving content for approval......................................................................................33
Moving content for approval......................................................................................33
Creating spaces using templates.................................................................................34
Creating spaces using templates.................................................................................34
Collaboration with your colleagues............................................................................36
Collaboration with your colleagues............................................................................36
Mapping a network drive to an Alfresco space...........................................................36
Mapping a network drive to an Alfresco space...........................................................36
<<To Do>> ................................................................................................................36
<<To Do>> ................................................................................................................36

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Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is:
 To show you how to install Alfresco.
 To set up Alfresco for other users.
 To walk you through a typical sequence of workflow operations in Alfresco.
 To introduce you to some other features such as searching, and collaboration with
your colleagues.

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 1 Setting up Alfresco

Logging in to Alfresco as user “admin”

If you are not the Alfresco administrator, continue to ““ on page 11.
During the Alfresco install process, a user account is created for the user admin, So the
first person to log in to a new, “empty” version of Alfresco must be the admin user, who
can then create accounts for other users.
You need to know the name of the server where Alfresco is installed. If Alfresco is
installed on your own machine, then the server name will be localhost.

Logging in
➢ To log in to Alfresco
1. In your browser, enter the following URL:
http://server_name:8080/alfresco/faces/jsp/login.jsp
Where server_name is the name of the server where Alfresco is installed. The
login page appears. <<All screen shots to be redone>>
2. Ensure that admin is entered in the User Name text box.
3. In the Password text box, enter admin.
Depending on your installation, you may have a choice of languages in the
Language drop-down menu. This guide assumes that your selected language is
English.
4. Click Login.
The Company Home space appears (next figure).
For a description of the screen contents, see ““ (page 12).

Adding new users

Only the admin user can create accounts for each Alfresco user. Before adding users,
you will need to know the user name and password for each user.
This quick tutorial assumes that you want to create a single space to hold all users. So
you first create the space, then add users to that space.

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Creating a space to hold users
➢ To create a space for users
1. In the header (top right), click Create > Create Space.
The Create Space pane is displayed.

2. In the Name text box, type Users.

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 3. Optionally, in the Description text box, type a description such as Contains all
users.
4. Optionally, select an icon to be used in the space, or allow the default.
5. Click Create Space.
You are returned to the Company Home space with the Users space added (next
figure).

Adding users to a space

You now need to add some users to the Users space. We will add the user Joe Bloggs.
(If you intend to work through this tutorial, you might want to also create a normal
user's space for yourself.)

➢ To add a user to a space

1. In the Company Home space, click on the icon for Users.
6. In the Users home space, click More Actions > Administration Console.
The Administration Console pane appears.
7. Click Manage System Users.
The Manage System Users pane appears.

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8. In the header, click Create User.
The first pane of the New User Wizard appears. This is the Person Properties
pane, as you can see from the list of steps at the right of the pane.

9. In the First Name field, enter Joe.

10. In the Last Name field, enter Bloggs.
11. In the email field, enter a real email address (for example, your own).
Later in this tutorial, we will be sending emails. So you need real addresses. If
you are entering details for real users, you should of course enter their real email
addresses.
12. Optionally, enter Company ID.
13. Click Next.
The second page of the Wizard appears.

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14. In the User Name, Password, and Confirm text boxes, enter joeb.
15. Click Next.
The Summary pane of the wizard appears.
16. Check that all information is correct. If so, click Finish.

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 2 Using Alfresco

Logging in to Alfresco as a normal user

Before you can log in to Alfresco, your system administrator needs to create an account
for you. Ask your administrator for the user name and password.

➢ To log in to Alfresco
1. In your browser, enter the following URL:
http://server_name:8080/alfresco/faces/jsp/login.jsp
The login page appears.

2. In the User Name text box, enter your user name.

3. In the Password text box, enter your password.
Depending on your installation, you may have a choice of languages in the
Language drop-down menu. This tutorial assumes that your selected language is

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Looking around the Home page
The user interface has three sections:
 The toolbar along the top.
 The shelf at the left.
 The working area at the right.
Each of these are described in the following sections. <<Mention that the header for
Company Home does not have an Add Content command for normal users.>>

Toolbar

The toolbar allows you to quickly navigate between your own home space and your
company home space. You can see that, currently, My Home is highlighted.

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To get help at any time, click Help (in the middle of the toolbar).
We will discuss the search tool at the right of the toolbar later.

Shelf
Clipboard
The Alfresco clipboard is similar to the Windows clipboard, but more
useful in the following ways:
 The contents are always visible and ready for use.
 Contains an unlimited <<true?>> number of easily identified
items.
Each time you copy an object, the item is inserted in the clipboard.
You can delete a clipboard item at any time. Otherwise the item
remains in the clipboard until you log out.

Recent Spaces
The Recent Spaces list is a quick way to return to a space that you visited earlier. This
is similar to the Window list that appears in most Windows applications.
The most recent space is at the top of the list; the next most recent space is second in the
list, and so on. This means that the sequence of spaces in the list changes frequently.
The contents of Recent Spaces are lost when you log out.

Shortcuts
A shortcut is simply a quick link to an object that you want to access frequently. These
are similar to the shortcuts that you create on your Windows desktop.

Working area
The working area contains content. Content is any kind of file: documents, PDF files,
emails, rich media, streaming media, images, and so on.
Content is stored in spaces, and spaces are arranged in a hierarchy. The concept of
spaces is similar to the concept of folders in Windows. In Windows Explorer, a folder
can contain sub-folders and files. Similarly, in Alfresco, a space can contain sub-spaces
and content.
You can drill your way down through the space hierarchy in the same way that you can
drill down through folders.
A space can be empty. Or it can contain only spaces, only content, or both.

Changing the space appearance

In the right-hand pane of Windows Explorer, you can choose between displaying files in
a list or as icons. Similarly, in Alfresco you can choose how you want to display the
items.
To experiment with the appearance of your spaces, click Icon View at the top right of
the header. Click each of the other options and watch the appearance of your space

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 changing.
When you click Details View, you can see the similarity to
Windows Explorer, with one line of detail for each item.
Each line contains metadata that describes the item.
(Metadata is sometimes known as attributes.)
Throughout this tutorial, any screen shots of a space will
show the Details View.

The figure shows the following items:

 (1): The header for the aland space.
 (2): The Browse Spaces pane contains four spaces within the aland space. Each
space has its own metatdata: Name, Description, Created, and so on.
 (3): The Content Items pane contains the content within the aland space. There
is one file with its metadata.
If you hover your mouse over the names of space items or content items, you can see
that each name is a link. If you click on a space name, it opens a sub-space. If you click
on the name of a piece of content, and if the browser knows how to open the file (based
on the file extension), it opens the file. Otherwise you are presented with the usual
dialog asking you to choose an application to open the file.
If you click on TestUploadDoc.txt, the file is opened in a new browser window.

The next steps

The next steps in this tutorial will follow the numbered sequence shown in Figure 1,
below. For clarity, some minor activities that we discuss in the tutorial are not shown in
the figure. For example, the use of the clipboard is not shown.
The steps show typical activities that would be followed in any fully-featured content

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 management system. Note that step 2, upload content, appears in two locations.

Creating a new space

This is step 1 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

We will now add a space called Drafts.

➢ To create a space
1. In the space header, click Space > Create Space.
5. The Create Space pane appears

6. In the Name text box, type Drafts.

Name is the only mandatory entry (as you can see from the asterisk at the right
of the text box). However, if you have many spaces, a description can help to
remind you of what the space contains.
7. In the Description text box, type any description, such as Working docs.
You can now select an icon to match the type of content that you intend to put in
the space, or you can accept the default icon.
8. Click Create Space.

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Figure 1: Workflow in this tutorial

You are returned to your Home page, with the new space inserted in <<what
sequence?>>

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 <<screen shot here>>

Navigating around Alfresco

Alfresco has three easy ways to navigate from one space to another:
 The Recent Spaces list, which we saw earlier. This list is updated automatically
by Alfresco.
 The Company Home and My Home links above the header.
 Breadcrumbs.
 Shortcuts
We will now discuss breadcrumbs and shortcuts.

About breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs is the name for a navigational technique that displays the hierarchy of
visited pages leading from the home page to the currently viewed page. The name is
presumably based on dropping breadcrumbs to find your way home in any forest in
which birds don't eat breadcrumbs.
If you click My Home, then click the Drafts icon in that space, then you leave a trail of
breadcrumbs as shown in the figure.

If, instead, you click Company Home, then click the aland icon in that space, then
click the Drafts icon in the aland space, then you leave a trail of breadcrumbs as shown
in the figure.

All the components of the breadcrumbs are links. So clicking any link takes you back
up the hierarchy.

Creating shortcuts
If you have spaces or files that you use frequently, you can create shortcuts to these
objects. It is easy to see that a shortcut would be most useful if it points to an object that
is deep down a hierarchy. Let us create a shortcut to the Drafts space. Creating a
shortcut to a file is done in the same way. To create a shortcut to a space or file, you
need to be in the space that contains that space or file.

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 ➢ Creating a shorcut
1. Ensure that you are in the aland space.
17. For the Drafts space, click (View Details).
The Details pane appears.
18. In the header, click Actions (top right).
19. In the drop-down menu, click Create Shortcut.
You are returned to the Details pane.
20. Click Close (top right).
You are returned to the aland pane. The shortcut is added to Shortcuts, and will
remain there even after you log out, until you delete it.

Adding content to the space

Now that you have a space, you can add some content in the space. There are three
ways to add content:
You can upload content from your hard drive.
 You can copy a file from another space.
 You can create TXT files and HTML files directly in the space.
We will look at the first two of these methods later. First, we will create an HTML file
in the space.

➢ To create an HTML file in a space

1. In the header, click Create > Create Content.
The first pane of the Create Content Wizard appears. In this wizard, and in any
Alfresco wizard, you can track your progress through the wizard from the list of
steps at the left of the pane. The first step is Select Type.

21. Select HTML Content.

Note that you could also select Plain Text Content.

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22. Click Next.
The Enter Content pane of the wizard appears. Note that Enter Content is now
highlighted in the list of steps at the left of the pane.
You can see that there is a comprehensive set of tools to help you to format your
HTML document. Enter some text, using some of the formatting features.

23. To see the HTML tags, click (Edit HTML Source).

The HTML Source Editor is displayed.

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 If you were to edit the text or the tags in this window, and click Update, you
would be returned to the Enter Content pane in the wizard, with the contents
changed.
24. Close the editor window using the X at top right <<should be a Close or OK
button>>
25. In the Enter Content pane, click Next.
The Properties pane of the wizard appears.

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 26. Insert suitable values for the properties, as shown in the figure. Click Finish.
The Summary page of the wizard appears.
27. If you are satisfied with the properties, click Finish.
You are returned to the Drafts space, with your newly created file inserted.

Launching a content file

You can now launch the HtmlFile.html that you have just created.

➢ To launch a content file

1. Ensure that you are in the Drafts space.
28. Hover your mouse over the name of the file HtmlFile.html
You can see that the file name is a link.
29. Click on the link.
The file opens in a new browser window.
This is an HTML file, and all browsers can launch such a file. The browser recognizes
most common file types such as PDF, PPT, XLS, and so on. If the browser does not
know how to open the file, you will be prompted with the normal Windows dialog box
containing a list of applications from which you must choose.

Using the clipboard

The Alfresco clipboard is similar to the Windows clipboard. You use the clipboard for
copy and paste, or cut and paste. We will copy the HtmlFile.html file to your home
space using the clipboard.

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 ➢ To copy an item to the clipboard
1. Ensure that you are in the <<tbd>> space.
30. For the HtmlFile.html, click More Actions , then click the Copy icon
As a result of the copy, the clipboard contents are as shown in the graphic.
31. Select the <<tbd>> space.
We are going to copy the HtmlFile.html in to this
space. But before we do so, let's look at the contents
of the clipboard.
The first thing to notice is that there is a Copy icon
in front of the file name. This icon indicates that the
contents of the clipboard are the results of a copy
operation. If, instead, you had used a Cut operation, then the icon would be . <<Need
to mention that Cut removes the item from the clipboard. Bug or feature?>>
The Remove icon means that you can remove the item from the clipboard at any
time.
Notice the Paste All and Remove All commands. These commands are useful if you
have multiple items in the clipboard.
The contents of the clipboard are lost when you log out.
You can use the clipboard to copy a space to within another space. When you copy a
space, you also copy its content and its “smart” rules. (Rules are discussed later.)

Uploading content from your hard drive

This is step 2 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

We said earlier that there are three ways to add content to a space:
 You can upload content from your hard drive.
 You can copy a file from another space.
 You can create TXT files and HTML files directly in the space.
We have already discussed creating a file inline, and copying a file using the clipboard.
We will now show you how to upload a file that already exists on your hard drive.
Create a file AlfrescoTutorial.doc on your desktop. The file only needs a few words.

➢ To upload a file from your hard drive

1. Ensure that you are in the Drafts space.
If you are not in the Drafts space, the easy way to get there is to click My Home
in the toolbar, then click Drafts in your home space.
32. In the space header, click Add Content.

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 The Add Content Wizard appears, as shown in the next figure. This is a 3-step
wizard, as you can see from the area shown in the red box at the left. Step 1 is
highlighted to show that this is your current step.
33. To specify the file that you want to upload, click Browse.
34. In the File Upload dialog box, browse to the file that you want to upload. Click
Open.
Alfresco inserts the full path name of the selected file in the Location text box.

Click Upload.
A message informs you that your upload was successful. You now need to
populate the second page of the wizard.
35. Click Next.
The second page of the wizard is displayed. Note that 2. Properties is
highlighted in the Steps pane.
Verify the prepopulated information in the text boxes. You should add a title, so
that you can see later what happens to the title. For this tutorial, you can ignore
the other information if you choose.
36. Click Next.
37. The third page of the wizard is displayed. This page allows you to verify what
you have entered.
38. Click Finish.
You are returned to the Training space. The file that you uploaded appears in the
Content Items pane.
Now that we have a file, we can show you some things that you can do with the file.
We will now show you how to edit a document that is editable inline.

Editing a document inline

This is step 3 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

HTML files and plain text files can be created and edited inline. Each file type is edited
in its own WYSIWYG editor.

➢ To edit a document inline

1. Ensure that you are in the Training space.
39. For the TestUploadDoc.txt file, click

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 The file opens in your browser.

40. Make a quick change to the file, that you will recognize later, such as adding $ to
the end of a word.
41. Click Save.
42. You are returned to the Training space. Notice that the Modified column shows
the current date and time. You can verify that the file contains your changes by
any of the following:
 Clicking the name of the file launches the file in read-only mode.
 Clicking opens the file in the editor that you used previously.

Downloading a file for editing

This is step 4 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

You can now download the AlfrescoTutorial.doc file that you uploaded earlier.

➢ To download a file
1. In the Content Items pane, click on the file icon for AlfrescoTutorial.doc.
Your normal browser dialog opens.
43. Select Save to Disk, and browse to the target location.

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Editing content offline
This is step 5 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

Using the editor that is appropriate for the file, for example MS Word, make some
changes to the file. For example, edit a Word document using MS Word.

Updating the file in Alfresco

This is step 6 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

Now that you have edited AlfrescoTutorial.doc, you need to return the edited file to
Alfresco.
You cannot use the Add Content procedure that you used to originally upload the file to
Alfresco (see ““ on page 11), because Alfresco's security features do not allow you to
overwrite an existing file. You must use the Update option associated with the file. (You
could use the Add Content pro

➢ To update an existing file

1. Ensure that you are in the correct space.
In our case, this is the Drafts space.
44. For AlfrescoTutorial.doc, click (More Actions).
45. In the drop-down menu, click Update.
The Update pane appears.

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 46. Browse to the location of the AlfrescoTutorial.doc.
47. Click Upload.
48. Click Update.
49. You are returned to the Drafts space. There are two ways to check that your file
was updated:
 From the date.
 By clicking the icon for the file, and selecting Open With Word.
This is the end of the simple file-management process shown in Figure 1 (page 15),
using the steps 1,2,4,5,and 6. We will now follow a more complex file-management
process shown in the same figure, but following steps 1, 2, 7, 8, 4, 5, 6, and 9. Of these
steps, 7, 8, and 9 have not yet been discussed, so we will discuss these steps now.

Adding versioning to a file manually

This is step 7 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

The use of versioning allows a new version number to be assigned to a document after
each revision.

➢ To add versioning to a file

1. Ensure that you are in the Drafts space.
50. For AlfrescoTutorial.doc, click (View Details).
The Details pane appears.
51. Scroll down to Version History. Click
You are informed that the current file has no version history.
52. Click Allow Versioning.
The history table appears, with the current version at 1.0.
53. Click Close (top right).
You are returned to the Drafts space.

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About checking out and checking in files
If you are a Windows user, you might be familiar with the experience of trying to open a
file on a network shared drive, and seeing the message that the file is currently locked
by another user. You are then invited to make a copy of the file if you wish.
The purpose of locking a file is to prevent simultaneous editing by two or more people.
Each time one person saved the file, it could overwrite changes made by a colleague.
When an authorized user file checks out a file from Alfresco for editing, the file is
automatically locked. While the user is editing the file, other users can view the file, but
they cannot edit the file.
When the user has finished editing the file, the file is checked in. The checked in file
overwrites the previous version of the file, and the lock is removed.
We now show you how to check out the AlfrescoTutorial.doc file that you uploaded
earlier.

Checking out content

This is step 8 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

➢ To check out a file

1. Ensure that you are in the Drafts space.
54. For the AlfrescoTutorial.doc file, click (Check Out).
The Check Out pane is displayed.

55. Select In the current space.

The Check Out ... Complete pane is displayed.

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 Now you have a choice:
 If you click Edit the working copy now, you can download the file
immediately.
 If you click OK, the file is simply copied to the appropriate space. You then
need to download the file later for editing (see ““, on page 24).
Note that you could cancel the checkout by clicking Undo Check Out.
For this tutorial, we have no reason to edit this file. We will simply check it back
in later.
56. Click OK.
You are returned to the Drafts space.

About document properties after check

out.
We can now compare some properties of the original document and the checked-out
version. <<redo all screen shots>>.

From the document properties, you can see the following features:
 The original version of the file has a lock, . This indicates that no-one else can
check out this file until you check it back in.

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  If you click (More Actions) for the locked copy, there is no Update option. You
can only update the working copy.
 The original version of the file has no icon (Edit), or icon (Check Out).
 The checked out file has Working Copy inserted in the file name.
 The working copy has an icon (Check In).
The desired effect of all these features is that you cannot edit a checked-out file –
deliberately or accidentally.

Checking in content
This is step 9 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

We will now check in the AlfrescoTutorial.doc file that you checked out earlier. Note
that if we had downloaded and edited this file, we would need to update the file using
the Update action for the working copy of the file.

➢ To check in a file
1. Ensure you are in the Drafts space.
57. For the working copy of the AlfrescoTutorial.doc file, click (Check In).
The Check In pane appears.

If you had made only minor changes to the file, you would check Minor
Change. In this case, the minor version number would be incremented after
checkin. For example, if you checked out version 3.4, then the version number
after checkin would be 3.5. Leaving Minor Change unchecked would cause the

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 major version number to be updated to 4.0.
58. Ensure that Minor Changes is checked.
The option Check in changes and keep file checked out is a useful option if
you intend to keep the file locked for several days. You can continually mirror
your changes from the working copy to the locked copy. This means that if
another user wants to look at the file, they will see a more up-to-date copy than if
they had to wait until you checked in the file.
You now have two options:
 Use copy in current space. You would use this option if you had previously
used Update on the working copy.
 Use copy uploaded from my computer. If you use this option, you do not
need to have previously used the Update option.
There will be situations where or other of these options is preferable. You will
learn from experience.
59. Click Use copy in current space.
60. Click Check In.
You are returned to the Drafts area.
There will no longer be a working copy of AlfrescoTutorial.doc. The date in the
Modified column will be updated. If you click (View Details), and scroll down to
Version History, you will see that the history has been updated.
This is the end of the second content management process shown in Figure 1 (page 15),
using steps 1, 2, 7, 8, 4, 5, 6, and 9.
The only remaining steps in the figure are step 10, create rules, and step 11, move
content for approval. Both of these steps involve the concept of workflow.

About workflow
A typical content workflow is shown in the figure. The content can be a document, a
graphics file, a Web page, streaming media, and so on.

We have already discussed creating and editing content. We will now discuss the steps
needed to move content to the approval stage, which is shown by second box in the
figure.
The next topic shows you how to add workflow and versioning to a space. All files
within that space will follow the same rules for versioning and workflow.

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 Earlier in the tutorial, we showed you how to apply versioning manually to a specific
file. By creating a rule that includes versioning, we can apply versioning to every file in
the space.

About content rules

The workflow shown in the previous figure could be accomplished manually. You
would create spaces, Drafts, Approval, Publish, and Archive. Then each responsible
person would need to manually copy and paste documents from one space to another,
check out documents, send emails to the next person in the process, and so on. There is
ample opportunity for errors, forgetfulness, and general inefficiency.
By using Alfresco's content rules, you can automate the entire flow process, including
the sending of emails. The easiest way to see this in action is to work through the next
topic.
When an Alfresco space is controlled by user-created rules, the space is referred to as a
smart space.

Creating a content rule

This is step 10 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

Workflow is an example of a rule. It is the application of rules that allow spaces to act
as “smart” spaces.

➢ To create a content rule

1. Ensure you are in the aland space.
61. In the space header, click More Actions > Manage Content Rules.
The Content Rules pane appears.
62. In the header click Create Rule.
The first pane of the New Rule Wizard appears. You can check your progress
through the wizard from the Steps pane at the left. <<Show this on the first use
of a wizard in this tutorial>>

Using the Details pane of the New Rule Wizard

1. In the Type drop-down menu, click Inbound.
This means that the rule will apply to all content that enters the space. The other
drop-down menu option, Outbound, applies to all content leaving the space.
63. In the Name text box, type Alans test rule.
64. In the Description text box, type <<tbd>>.
65. Check Apply rule to subspaces.
This is a logical selection. It means that you can create a hierarchy of spaces
under, for example, the Drafts space.

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 66. For this tutorial, leave Run rule in background unchecked.
This means that the rule will be applied immediately a piece of content arrives in
the space. <<what is our recommendation here?>.
67. Click Next.
The Conditions pane of the wizard appears.

Using the Conditions pane of the New Rule Wizard

Have a look at the options in the Select Condition drop-down menu Terms such
as type, aspect, category, and mime type will be discussed later. However, even if
you don't presently know what these terms mean, you can see how useful to
apply different rules to different classifications of content.

1. In the Select Condition drop-down menu, click All Items. <<show this
highlighted in drop-down>>
68. Click Add to List. <<Check if “to” should be “To” for consistency with other
options elsewhere.>>
The condition is added under Summary. Because we have selected All Items, it
makes no sense to add any other conditions. However, if we had selected a more
restrictive condition such as Items of a specified type or its sub-types, then we
could now add another condition such as Items with the specified category
value.
69. Click Next.
The third pane of the wizard is displayed.

Using the Actions pane of the New Rule Wizard

In the Select Action drop-down menu, have a look at the possible actions (next figure).
These are the actions that can be implemented as soon as content arrives in the space.
We will explain these actions later, but some actions are obvious. You would select
Check out content if you knew that any content arriving in the space must be edited by
you. This means that you would not need to manually check out the content. The action
Send an email to specified users would allow you to email yourself (or others) when
the content arrived.
For this tutorial, we are going to specify Add aspect to item. This is because we want
any item that arrives in this space to be versionable. In normal content management
terminology, versionable is an aspect.

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 1. In the Select Action drop-down menu, select Add aspect to item.
70. Click Set Values and Add.
71. In the next pane, in the Select
required feature drop-down menu,
select Versionable.
72. Click OK.
You are returned to the third pane of
the wizard. The Versionable aspect
has been added under Summary. At
this point, there are several options
available to you before you press
Next:
 You can click to delete the
aspect that you have just added.
 You can click to replace the aspect that you have just added.
 You can select another action from the Select Action drop-down menu, and
repeat the process in the same way as for the aspect Versionable.
We will add the action Add simple workflow to item.
73. In the Select Action drop-down menu, select Add simple workflow to item.
74. Click Set Values and Add.
The Set action values pane appears.
75. Click Next.
The Summary pane of the wizard appears.

Using the Summary pane of the New Rule Wizard

1. Verify the values that you have entered. Click OK.
You are returned to the Content Rules pane. Your new rule will be added to the
list. You can click to modify the rule that you have just created.
76. Click Close.
You are returned to the aland space.

Moving content for approval

This is step 11 as shown in Figure 1 (page 15).

We will now use our newly created workflow rule to move a file for approval.

➢ To move a file to approval

1. Ensure that you are in the Drafts space. <<we need to resolve the fact that only
files added after the creation of a rule are affected by the rule.>>

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 77. For TestUploadDoc.txt, click More Actions .
In the drop-down menu (see below), you can see Move to Approval. This action
is part of the rule that you created in the previous topic.
78. Click Move to Approval.
TestUploadDoc.txt is removed from the Drafts space.
79. Navigate to the Awaiting Approval space.
TestUploadDoc.txt is now in this space.

Creating spaces using templates

Earlier, when you created spaces “manually”, you had to specify each option. <<How
many options were there?>>
There are two other ways to create spaces.
You can base the new space on an existing space – either one of your own spaces,
An easier way to create spaces would be to base the new space on an already existing
space. For each space, including the spaces that you created manually, Alfresco
automatically creates an underlying template.
So when you want to create a new space, all you need to do is to specify the required
underlying template, and Alfresco does all the work.
In this next step, we are going to create a new space based on <<tbd>>. For the
purposes of this tutorial, we are going to create the new space in your home space, but
the space can be created in any space.

➢ To create a new space based on an existing template

80. Ensure that you are in your home space.
81. In the space header, click Create > Advanced Space Wizard.
82. The New Space Wizard pane appears.

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83. In the drop-down menu, select Software Engineering Project.
84. Click Next.
85. In the Name text box, type Based on Template.
In fact, you can type any name you want. The suggested name helps to identify
the type of space.
86. In the final pane of the wizard, verify that the properties are correct. Click
Finish.
You are returned to your home space, with the new space inserted.

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Collaboration with your colleagues
If you are developing a piece of content in collaboration with some of your colleagues,
you can discuss specific objects with selected colleagues.

➢ To create a discussion
1. Ensure that you are in the <<tbd>> space.
87. For the TestUploadDoc.txt, click (More Icons), then click Start Discussion.
88. In the Subject text box, type any subject.
89. In the Message text box, type any message.
90. Click Create Topic.
When you move or copy an object that has an associated discussion, the discussion
moves with the object.

Mapping a network drive to an Alfresco

space
You may be familiar with the concept of a shared network drive (often called a network
share). This is a folder on a network computer that you have mapped to a “virtual” drive
on your own computer.
You can work with files on the shared drive (subject to permissions) exactly as if you
were working with files on your own computer.
You can map an Alfresco

<<To Do>>
 Mention that when you copy a space, you copy its content plus what else?
 Create space based on existing space copies subspaces, content, and smart space
info.
 Manage space users.
 Show the shared drive method.
 Show the URL to the appropriate space.

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37