The detailed instructions below do not follow the order presented in the FCU Command Menu. They are listed in the order in which WIND editors would normally use them.
IMPORTANT
Please make sure to first Select an FCU before applying a command. Going with the mouse over the name of a FCU and doing a right click will actually reveal the contextual Command menu related to the currently selected FCU, which will most probably not be the one you want.
Simply said:
- Step 1: Click on the target FCU
- Step 2: right-Click to get the appropriate Command menu
Refresh status
This command will refresh the list of FCU to show the actual status, the user that is possibly already updating it, and the actions that can be performed according to the latest action performed.
When the FCU title appears in red in the FCR list, it means it is locked by some other editor, in the process of updating its content. When it appears in green, it means that you have checked it out.
More details on the FCU Editing Status here.
Open FCU
This is the first step you need to take to see the content of a FCU.
As you would do with a regular document, simply double-click on its title. This action Loads the FCU, and allows you to browse through the whole content of this local copy of the FCU - but not to make any modification.
The next likely action after a FCU has been opened is to make a Checkout - although the order can be reversed. In effect, it is also possible to first Checkout a FCU for your usage - then Open it for editing
Checkout FCU
Checking out a FCU means making its content available for editing in your own local work area. This implies that this FCU becomes locked (unavailable) for others for editing - and the FCU name appears in bold red, along with your Identifier, to other users.
The changes made in your work area are not visible to other users until you decide so, and conclude your editing session (see Checkin function below). All this while, other WIND users are viewing the last saved version of the FCU, before you started editing.
Once a FCU has been checked out and made editable to you, all fields and attributes can be changed - if so allowed by your profile.
Once the FCU has been modified, three options are available, by means of buttons located at the very bottom of the Editing window:
- Apply: the changes you have done are saved in memory, but not yet on the server. In addition, the Apply action just saves locally the work in progress, without closing the editing window, which remains open for further changes.
It is recommended to frequently press the Apply button to store intermediary stages. - OK: does the same as Apply, and closes the active window in addition and exits the FCU.
- Cancel: closes the active window without keeping the changes made. This action brings up a dialog box asking you to confirm the cancellation:
button - all your changes would be irrecoverably lost. In a similar way, do not close your WIND session before you actually Save your data... The possible options here are: Uncheckout (release the FCU for editing by others and loose all your changes) or Save (store your data on the server)
Uncheckout FCU
Uncheckout can be made at any time, resulting in the loss of all the changes made since the last Save. The Uncheckout discharges the changes and makes the FCU available to other editors in the status and content that existed at the previous last Checkin status.
Save FCU
This operation will save in the server all the modifications that you have done to that FCU. The modifications are not yet visible to other users, but you can now safely close the WIND Editor.
Preprocess FCU
This command performs a technical content validation which checks the modified FCU against certain rules associated to the FCU data: are all mandatory attributes present, are the linked material and embedded images actually still available , etc.
If the data is incorrect, an error message tells that the preprocessing has failed, and gives as much indication as possible on the cause of the failure (framed in red in the example below).
This information is meant to help you make the necessary corrections. In this case, the created event misses two elements:
- a label (the error message says: "eventLabel: cannot be empty")
- a description (the error message says: "description: cannot be null")
This example is an easy one to solve by the user. However, some errors may prove less straightforward to identify and to correct and will require external assistance. Should it be the case, please include a screenshot of the error pop-up to - or copy and paste the error message in - your email to NOP Support Team.
You can manually launch this command at any given time, on Saved content.
This validation is also automatically performed by the Checkin command.
Checkin
This action combines a number of commands. First of all, it reminds the user that the last saved version of the FCU is about to be Prepublished. It is therefore of importance to first Save the changes made.
If the Checkin command is confirmed, the data is then Preprocessed, to validate the modifications (see above for details).
When no error are encountered (or when you will have corrected them) the FCU is successfully processed and the following message is returned:
The changes you made are visible by you and by other WIND users, who can now Uncheck the FCU for their own edition.
In order to make additional changes to the same FCU, you will therefore need to Uncheck it again first.
If you refresh your session of the portal with the Refresh command of your internet browser or by the F5 keyboard shortcut) you will be able to see the result of the modifications that you did.
However, the changes will NOT be visible to regular Portal visitors until the FCU is Published.
Publish
The Publish command finally copies the modifications (duly preprocessed as detailed above) into the OPS system, making the content live and accessible to all Portal visitors.