Are u using Web Page Composer? Would like to get ur feedback.

[Former Member]

Dear Fellows,

Is anyone using Web Page Composer for prodution purpose yet? The point is I upgraded to NW04S SP 13 (specifically to install WPC) however its still buggy and not that user friendly.

I was hoping that most of the issues will be knocked out in NW04S SP14 and I applied SP14 on my sandbox environment but those issue still exist.

I intend to use it in my production server soon. May be I am missing something from my side; So is any of you using WPC successfully? If so, what release are you in?

Thanks a lot,

Deepak

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

We have been using it in production since the middle of December. We are still on SPS13.

Overall, we are pretty satisfied. There are several annoyances... an incomplete list would be:

Limited database space for teasers - you can put in a decent amount of text, but not if you want to put in a couple of links (I'm not crazy about the use of Related Links with Teasers).

Inconsistent rendering of font sizes depending on content type and/or Page Layouts used. We eventually decided to force the text to be size 8pt by modifying the CSSs. Even noticed a problem with font color. Sometimes the first paragraph is rendered in blue text. Finally decided - at least until SPS14 - to force it to be black.

Losing Detailed nav panel. If you launch a page NOT in a new window, then the detailed nav disappears. This seems to not happen all the time, but probably 90% of the time.

I am probably leaving out some others, but like I said, I am overall satisfied. I am sure it will only get better.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

>

> Inconsistent rendering of font sizes depending on content type and/or Page Layouts used. We eventually decided to force the text to be size 8pt by modifying the CSSs. Even noticed a problem with font color. Sometimes the first paragraph is rendered in blue text. Finally decided - at least until SPS14 - to force it to be black.

>

I faced the bug with the blue paragraph also. It only happes when you show no TOC in the article type. And it just appears in Firefox.

Are there other situations where it could happen?

>

> Losing Detailed nav panel. If you launch a page NOT in a new window, then the detailed nav disappears. This seems to not happen all the time, but probably 90% of the time.

>

How can you open a page NOT in a new window? When i click an entry on my detailed nav, everythin works fine.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I faced the bug with the blue paragraph also. It only happes when you show no TOC in the article type. And it just appears in Firefox.
Are there other situations where it could happen?

We encounter the blue fonts as well. We are on SP13 and it also occurs in IE, so I guess Firefox is not the problem. Also the blue font affects the whole article, not only the first paragraph. Are there any ways of solving this in a decent way witouth having to apply another SP (again)? I am able to e-mail screenshots when needed.

For the rest I am pretty content with WPC. I am still discovering and learning, but my first impression is pretty ok. I am still looking to enhace the look & feel of my sites and aligning them with my Portal Theme. If anyone has any suggestions on this, please feel free to let me know!

Best regards,

Jan Laros

Edited by: Jan Laros on Apr 2, 2008 2:16 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jan -

As a temporary solution, I "fixed" the blue text in articles by adding the line "color: #000000;" to the "p" tag in the sdn_general.css file. Probably not the best solution, but it works.

Regards

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Bump.

We actually have some inquiries from other customers now as well. We would like to leverage our WPC portfolio, but a lot of customers are having some troubles with the standard look & feel of the pages created with WPC. Does anybody have information on how to build custom CSS, themes, or other UI enhancements for Web Pages? Any help will be appreciated.

Best regards,

Jan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

You can't create WPC themes and choose between them.

You need to change the stylesheets directly. Have a look at note 1157114 for some additional information.

Regards,

Marcus

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Marcus,

this is not completely true.... you can change everything!

If you use the standard SAP web forms like Link List or Article, they are hard coded to use the SAP WPC style sheets. I guess, it is not a good idea to change these style sheets, because these changes will be overwritten at the next service pack upgrade, but you can copy the standard web forms and change them in the way you want to.

E.g. create a Webform, which is similar to Article, but does not include a blue heading, then use the Advanced Pargraph, which uses the general portal style sheets instead of the WPC specific style sheets. Or you can create your own web forms from scratch, which can be rendered however you want to....

Best Regards,

Josef

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

>

> If you use the standard SAP web forms like Link List or Article, they are hard coded to use the SAP WPC style sheets. I guess, it is not a good idea to change these style sheets, because these changes will be overwritten at the next service pack upgrade, but you can copy the standard web forms and change them in the way you want to. 
> 
> E.g. create a Webform, which is similar to Article, but does not include a blue heading, then use the Advanced Pargraph, which uses the general portal style sheets instead of the WPC specific style sheets. Or you can create your own web forms from scratch, which can be rendered however you want to....
> 
> Best Regards,
> Josef

But this means also you won't get the improvements that could be added in the future. You would have to do some development again.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Good point!

So, if you do not want the WPC as it is, and do not want to do custom development which takes you away from the standards - what can you do?

Wait until the main problems with WPC are fixed?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I guess, i will try to add/implement the Tiny MCE in Web Page Composer.

I will use the normal article type as standard and and the Tiny functionality only if needed.

And i think i can live with the fact that i have to reapply all my custom stylesheets after patching the portal.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Great, have fun! smile

Could you please post the complete solution here, if you manage to integrate the TinyMCE with the SAP portal?

I know there is a sample available which describes some basics, but as far as I know e.g. the image upload etc. have not been implemented in this sample yet.

Best Regards,

Josef

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Josef, check this blog:

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/f04b5c5d-3fd2-2a10-8ab0-8fa90e3a...

I am having some troubles implementing SP 15 on our DEV system, but I am definitely going to try the TinyMCE solution. Keep you all posted!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

have already seen this pdf and when I installed the sample some month ago, the KM got unavailable.

in the mean time Boris Magocsi changed some details and so this problem should be solved now.

looking forward to your posts about this approach!

Regards,

Josef

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

So, I tried the TinyMCE sample, but the editor does not work. I can't type any text and I can't click any buttons in the editor for paragraph's.

Did I miss something here?

Also: Can we embed the TinyMCE editor in articles and teasers as well?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Can someone help me with this issue? Or should I start a new thread?

[sureshmandalapu6 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I am using WPC in my NW7.0 SP13, But ! there are many issues for WPC. I am unable to use many IViews in in. I tried to use the URL IView , even that also opening in the container size. means, it is not in full page IView. If i put big images in html file and add that html file to page and later if end user are using the 800x600 resullution monitor, it shows in order content.

thanks

suresh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I really need this TinyMCE to work. Can someone help me out?

[frank_albrecht · Accepted solution]

Hi Jan,

1. what are your current problems with tinyMCE? Did you use the par file of Boris?

2. Concerning your second questions, yes, you can use the tinyMCE in the other Web Content Types tool. The tinyMCE provides a new element, which you can refer to in the XML of the Web Content Types.

ciao Frank

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for your time and reply!

Yes, I have deployed the PAR file provided by Boris. I can see the new editor in the content types (I have changed some files in/etc/wpceditor/types), but I can not type any text in the field and I can not use the editor at all. So I cant click any buttons of the editor. It seems like it is just not activated.

I had already found out about the usage in other Web Content Types. Thanks!

Best regards,

Jan Laros

[sureshmandalapu6 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

ISSUE 1:

There are other issues as well. I composed my WPC page with putting html pages inside where the html pages are having different images. I developed this in resullution of 1280X960 screen. Later when i change the resullution to 800X600, then the page became too messy.

ISSUE 2:

Other than that , when we click on links in linklist , it is opening the page without the left side navigational panel. and it seems like not the portal page.

thanks

Suresh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Eric,

I needed to remove the underlining under a hyperlink which is created in WPC articles, paragraphs etc.

So I edited the sdn_general.css file.

I added to the .wpca class -> text-decoration: none;

And restarted the portal.

But the changes dont seem to take effect. I still see a line under the hyperlinks. Could you please help out on this ?

Prem

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Forget my previous post. I chose not to directly edit the CSS

But go in for Tiny MCE.

Jan and the other guys who implemented TinyMCE, I just need a little advice from you:

I know we can set up Time MCE in any of the Forms (e.g. Paragraph, Article etc), but whats the best way to go abou this ? Should I make a copy of these Forms and then set up Tiny MCE in the copied version ?

How stable is TinyMCE?

I feel I drawback in this new fetaure is that you dont have a button to create a hyperlink to a KM document etc. You'll have to create a hyperlink, get the access URL and paste it there. A bit of a learning curve for end users. What do u say ?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Prem,

I am still facing problems with the implementation of the sample that Boris provided for integration of TinyMCE. I have opened a topic on SDN, but no help there. I hope someone can guide me in getting this new editor to work. So unfortunately I can not answer all your questions (yet). I think you can just edit the standard web forms btw. It is very easy to alter the XML, however I don't know what influence an upgrade will have on your work.

Regards,

Jan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey it worked for me Jan. Just let me know where you're facing an issue in that, perhaps I could be of some help.

Anyways I'm planning to go about with the "copy the standard editor and then implement TinyMCE in ther copied one" approach

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Prem,

That would be great! Perhaps you van have a look at my question thread:

https://forums.sdn.sap.com/thread.jspa?threadID=976849&tstart=100

Thanks a lot!

Jan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Prem -

Hmmm...

Well, when that happens to me, I usually try clearing my browser cache. That usually seems to work.

But, I have to say that since I moved from SP13 to SP15 (SP13 just had an "a" in the CSS file, not a "wpca" - not sure if that means much), I I have been having a lot of problems with the CSS files. Things just don;t seem to work for me. For example, specifying color="#000" for the wpcp tag, sizing of fonts, etc. I am now back to getting the blue text in articles, etc even though I am trying to force "black/000"....

lots of problems.

I also have this REALLY weird problem in teasers where if you hit the enter key in the text area, then all font goes to size 10. SAP can't figure it out....

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Eric,

Well I think Tint MCE is really going to help me. because all I need is to use a paragraph all the time with a very advanced editor like tiny mce. I dont have to worry much now about for example, removing the annoying "article title" and "back to top" link which otherwise I would might have to create a new webform.

[former_member189326 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jan,

I have seen this error before. Unfortunately, I currently don't have a solution for it. I'm trying to make some time so that I can work on this and will post a blog and an update to the code once I have time to figure out what's going on. I'm thinking it's some sort of cross-site-scripting protection that's preventing this from working in certain scenarios.

Boris

[former_member189326 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jan - have you tried with the new version of TinyMCE. This problem went away for me with that new version. Let me know if I can help with that.

[Former Member]

Hello all

I have noticed that quite a few people has commented on this thread, and will thus most likely receive an email because of my post now

I would like to know if any of you have used the Web Page Composer in a scenario with anonymous access (and as light a setup as possible).

If any of you have done that, I would like to hear some of your experiences.

Best regards,

Martin Søgaard

[Former Member]

Hello Martin,

To keep you posted with my strugglings : I am trying to implement a Web Page Composer with anonymous access scenario, but without success.

Logged on users can see the content, but page for anonymous users remains unrelentingly empty...

I have followed all instructions given in the PDF, though.

Any help, feedback is welcome !

Many thanks

Nicolas

[Former Member]

Hi Nicolas

Have you checked the authentication scheme setting for your page layouts? If you created your own page layouts, did you check them as well?

Best regards,

Martin Søgaard

[Former Member]

Hi Martin,

Problem is now solved! Authentication scheme was "anonymous", but I had forgotten to assign "read" permissions to the "Anonymous Users" group for the PCD objects in "Web Page Composer" folder.

Many thanks for pointing me to the good direction!

Best Regards,

Nicolas

[Former Member]

Have any of you tried reducing the width of the DIV section for pageheaderlinks in the layout jsp's

I tried overriding with an inline css but i cnat reduce it

[Former Member]

Hi Deepak

I am involved in a project where we are using the WPC for content management on an external facing portal (soon to go-live), and I can share a bit of our experiences with the product.

In my opinion the product still has quite a few places for improvement:

- The procedure for creating new page layouts is (too) complicated and time-consuming.

- We have encountered a problem with the wpc connector when using the light framework page (seems to work fine with standard framework page as I recall from our tests).

- Errors from time to time when you edit a web page like others mention.

- Navigation does not work for anonymous users after restart of portal until an administrator has navigated through the content.

- You cannot set properties on the web page when editing the page, you only set properties for the content snippets (web forms), not the entire page. And because you search for the page, the attributes defines in the xml-file cannot be used in the search or elsewhere in the Flex UI. Actually you cannot use the properties you set on content snippet level to anything - else than giving some meta-information when editing the page.

- Plus more, but I have not been involved in it all.

We have had to make a lot of custom development because of lacking functionality, but some of that development is for sure because we use the External Facing Portal in our scenario.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Martin Søgaard

[Former Member]

Hello Deepak,

i am currently on NW04S SPS14 and i am using the Web Page Composer.

We will use it in production soon. What issues do you mean.

There are still 2 problems, but that will be fixed in SPS15.

With SPS15 i will be satisfied, i guess.

Regards,Marcus

[Former Member]

Hi Markus,

One main issue I am concerned about is the "Run Time Error" message while editing the content. Do you still have this issue? I thought this was being fixed in SP14.

Other main concern is the ease of use; I would be interested to know the feedback from your end users.

Regards,

Deepak

[Former Member]

>

> Hi Markus,

>

> One main issue I am concerned about is the "Run Time Error" message while editing the content. Do you still have this issue? I thought this was being fixed in SP14.

>

> Other main concern is the ease of use; I would be interested to know the feedback from your end users.

>

> Regards,

> Deepak

What Runtime Error do you get exactly? I haven't seen one in a while.

But one thing, i really don't link on WPC. Sometimes it does some strange errors, i.e.: The editor can have errors when you do Copy-Pasting.

Or a new bug, i have faced for one of my pages:

When i want to edit it, i don't see the Functions, that are normally on the top of the page. (Publish,Finish etc....)

At least this is only for one page and in one language.

So i can fix this if i want to. That are some of these errors, that are really annoying. But at least you are able to fix them.

Regards

Marcus