1. Introduction

Introduced in Tiki10, the workspace UI provides site administrators a streamlined way to create simple workspaces, allowing a group of collaborators to work in their own "protected" area.

Using the Workspace UI, site admins can:

• Define templates for creating workspaces of different types.
• Instantiate workspaces using a given template.

2. Creating and Using Workspaces

2.1. Tutorial: Creating a workspace

Let's say you are managing a project called OurFabulousProject and want to create a Tiki workspace where all project members can share information. This tutorial will guide you through the process.

2.1.1. Activate the Workspace UI

If the Workspace UI feature is not already activated, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Control Panels
2. Check the Advanced and Experimental boxes (Workspace UI involves some advanced and experimental components)
3. Navigate to Workspaces to configure Workspace feature and check the following checkboxes: Workspaces UI, Namespace, Perspectives, Category and Wiki.
4. Click Apply

Activating WorkspaceUI feature | Click to expand

2.1.2. Create a Template for the Workspace

To create a workspace template:

1. Go to Settings > Control Panels
2. Click the Workspace Templates button
3. Click Create Workspace template (a new popup window will appear)
4. In Name field, enter the Workspace Template's name (let's call it Project)
5. Click Create

Creating Workspace template | Click to expand

Now that you a template, you can set permissions to control what workspace members can do:

1. Click the Permissions button next to the Edit button, on the Project workspace template line.
2. Select the permissions you want to apply to the workspace. The only permission available allows users from different categories to create workspaces using this template. In this tutorial, we won't set that—only the admin will create workspaces.

2.1.3. Create a new Workspace using the Template

Now that we have a template for creating workspaces for projects, let's use it to create one.

1. Navigate to Workspaces
2. Click the Workspace Templates button
3. Click Create workspace
4. Select the Project template we just created
5. In the Name field, enter OurFabulousProject
6. Click Create

Creating a workspace | Click to expand

2.1.4. Go to the workspace's home page

Your new workspace OurFabulousProject is now created. You can access it at: tiki-index.php?page=Project:_:OurFabulousProject.
The workspace's home page will be empty. Since it’s a wiki-like page, you can add a description to guide workspace members.

Workspace's home page | Click to expand

2.1.5. Assign users to the Workspace

The final step is to give project members access to the Workspace.

All you have to do is to assign those users to the group. For example, if you want user kishiko to have access to the workspace, you:

1. Go to Settings > Users
2. Select the user
3. Click Assign user to Groups button
   
   

   User interface | Click to expand
4. Click the Assign button on the Project:_:OurFabulousProject line. You will be asked to confirm this action.

Assiging a user to the workspace | Click to expand

As a result, kishiko is our first member of the workspace. He is able now to see the workspace's home page in the list of wiki pages.

Repeat for all users who should be members of the workspace.

2.1.6. Final tip

Besides setting permissions to a workspace template, you can also set permissions to the workspace itself. The process is similar to setting permissions for wiki pages.

2.2. Internals of a workspace

Basic building blocks

As you may have surmised from the above tutorial, a workspace consists of several lower-level building blocks that are combined to provide a "workspace user experience".

The building blocks are:

• A category in which all content of the workspace will be put
• A group to which all collaborators of the workspace will belong
• A perspective to improve the experience when working inside a workspace

In the tutorial, we only used a wiki in the workspace. However, a workspace template can include many additional features, such as blogs or forums. More features are being added in the interface. However, if a feature is not supported, you can use the advanced mode to create a Data Channel.

Features Supported via the Interface:

• Groups:
  • Allows creation of additional groups within the workspace, modify the default group and manage the default permissions.
  • Allows specifying which groups are automatically joined by the workspace creator
  • Allows specifying which group is the managing group. Members of this group can manage the members of other groups
  • Default permissions applied on the category for the groups within the workspace can be selected
• Wiki Pages:
  • Allows to define pages created within the workspace and define their initial content.
  • Original content can be defined directly from the interface or be taken from an existing page as a template
  • All the pages are created within the default namespace

Workspace organization

All workspaces are categorized under a root category called Workspaces, which is created the first time a workspace is created. Below this, the template is used as a category, followed by the workspace name. If the workspace name contains namespace separators, a hierarchy of categories will be created.

For example, if the template is called Project, and the selected workspace name is Infrastructure::Improvements 2012, the category tree would be the following:

• Workspaces
  • Project
    • Infrastructure
      • Improvements 2012

2.3. Edit a Workspace Template in advanced mode (yaml)

Once a workspace template is created, you can edit it in either the simple interface, or the Advanced Mode. To edit a workspace template in Advanced Mode (yaml), you need to:

1. Open the workspace template.
2. Click Advanced Mode in the alert info section.

Advanced mode for a workspace template | Click to expand

In Simple Mode (image above), you can easily add new default groups or wiki pages in the workspace template, so that they are created as objects (groups and pages) when a new workspace of this type is created.

Then you have the workspace template in advanced mode. In which you can edit in yaml code:

Viewing the advanced mode for a workspace template | Click to expand

When you switch the interface to Advanced mode (image above), you have full control on the content of the workspace template, and you are eventually able to define new objects (of other types: blogs, file galleries, forums, etc, as far as a profile handler is created for them) to be linked with that workspace template.

For more information on this advanced feature, ask in the Developers list

2.4. Other information

Demo profile (work in progress)
http://profiles.tiki.org/Workspace_UI

2.5. Related

Related features:

• Workspaces & Namespaces, which are re-used by the Workspaces UI
• Roles and Templated Groups which are being developed in Tiki 21, and might get merged with the Workspaces UI in the future (but not yet, as of August 2019).

Alias names for this page:
WorkspacesUI | Workspaces UI | WorkspacesGUI | Workspaces GUI Workspaces-UI