Understanding Items

Content Server enhances knowledge management by providing you with many different types of work items. The information you can store in Content Server comes in many forms, and the different item types support different kinds of information. Most item types, such as Documents and News, represent a particular kind of information. Examples of other items include Containers, Reference items, and Item Templates.

The item types available to you throughout Content Server may differ depending on your permissions, privileges, optional modules, and any customizations made by your administrator.

The following sections describe the most commonly used item types and their purpose.

Table 3-1: Container Items

Icon	Name	Description
	Appearance	A special container that stores Documents and special Text Documents containing HTML code, which are used to apply customizations to the Content Server user interface.
	Folder	A container that stores other items. Folders can contain almost all types of items. A Folder inside another Folder is known as a subfolder.
	Compound Document	A container that stores multiple Documents, such as chapters of a book, in sequential order. Compound Documents can contain only Documents, Shortcuts, Generations, and other Compound Documents.
	Channel	A container for storing and publishing News items.
	Project	A work environment for teams who are collaborating on a common goal.
	Discussion	A container that holds collections of Topics and Replies by which users exchange information about a common subject.
	Task List	A container that stores and organizes Tasks.
	Task Group	A container within a Task List used to organize large groups of related Tasks.
	Category	A container for storing and organizing attributes.
	Custom View	A special container for storing HTML code that enables you to customize the appearance and behavior of Content Server.

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Table 3-2: Reference Items

Icon	Name	Description
	Shortcut	A pointer to an item elsewhere in Content Server.
	URL	An address of an external Web page. Although you can use a URL to link to another Content Server item, it is preferable to use a Shortcut.
	Generation	A pointer to a particular Version of an item, usually a previous Version.
	Release	A special kind of Version for a Compound Document. A Release is a read-only snapshot of a Compound Document, and all its contents, at a particular point in time.
	Revision	A special kind of Version for a Compound Document. A Revision is a read-only snapshot of a Compound Document, and all its contents, at a particular point in time. A Revision is similar to a Release, but is suitable when you want to preserve only minor modifications to a Compound Document and do not need to create a new Release.

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Table 3-3: General Items

Icon	Name	Description
	Document	A Document of undetermined type. By default, Content Server recognizes many file types, including Microsoft Word document files, , Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files, , and HTML document files, .
	Text Document	A document file in plain text format.
	News	A News item added to a Channel that can be broadcast in a News Player. News is made up of a headline and a story.
	Topic	The beginning of a thread in a Discussion.
	Reply	The continuation of a thread in a Discussion.
	Task	A work assignment issued to a user or group.
	Milestone	A marker used to associate a Task with a particular stage of a Project or date.
	Workflow Map	A graphical depiction of a structured work process.
	Poll	An item that enables users to vote on specific issues.
	LiveReport	A direct query run against the Content Server database that reports statistics and other information about the database and the items in it.
	Query	A stored set of search criteria that can be re-executed.
	Snapshot	A stored set of Search Results. Displaying the Snapshot does not re-execute the Search that produced it.
	Version	A previous version of a Document, Workflow Map, or other versionable item type that is maintained by Content Server.

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Table 3-4: Template Items

Icon	Name	Description
	Search Template	A configuration of the Content Server Search page that you create and save. It allows you to reuse a particular configuration of the Search page without having to create it each time.
	Project Template	An item that contains a preconfigured object hierarchy and content that you can use as the basis for a new Project that you create.
	Search Results Template	A configuration of the Search page that you create and save. It allows you to reuse a particular configuration of the Search page without having to create it each time.