Publish&Subscribe

What is the purpose of publish&subscribe?

Publish&subscribe enables you to easily exchange data between users and different applications. The users are

  • internal Open-Xchange Server users,

  • external users without Open-Xchange account.

Applications are

  • the Open-Xchange Server,

  • various social networks like XING or LinkedIn.

Goals and features of publish&subscribe:

  • Data from different social networks can be re-used.

  • The Open-Xchange Server combines the data from the social networks.

  • The data format is based on HTML and can be displayed by standard browsers without any further tools. The data format is called OXMF.

Hint: The OXMF data format can vary depending on the Open-Xchange Server version. Thus it is possible that not all data are exchanged between the different versions.

Particular contact data from XING can be exchanged with external partners in the following way:

  • By using the Subscribe function your XING contacts can be imported to a contact folder.

  • If needed, use the Open-Xchange Server functions to edit or restructure the contacts.

  • Create a folder that contains the contacts that should be made available to external partners.

  • By using the Publish function the contacts in this folder are made available. The Publish function provides a URL that can be sent to external partners by E-Mail.

Which data is supported ?

You can import the following data in a contact folder by using the Subscribe function:

  • XING! contacts

  • LinkedIn contacts

  • Facebook contacts

  • Google Mail contacts

  • Web.de contacts

  • Yahoo.com contacts

  • GMX contacts

With the Subscribe function you can import the following data in a calendar folder:

  • Appointments from your Google calendars. Note: Exceptions to serial appointments are currently not supported.

You can publish the following folders:

  • Contact folders

  • InfoStore folders

Subscribing to data

How to subscribe to data:

  1. Right-click a folder and select Properties from the context menu. The folder properties are displayed in the overview window.

  2. Switch to the Subscriptions tab.

  3. In the panel section Subscriptions click Add.

  4. Select the subscription source from the Source drop-down list.

  5. Enter the access data for the subscription source i.e., access data, URL.

  6. If you want to subscribe to data from additional sources for the selected folder, repeat steps 3-5.

  7. In the panel click Save.

To retrieve the data click Refresh in the panel.

Tip: You can also subscribe to data by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Subscribe from the Extended submenu.

Tip: You can also subscribe to data by using the setup wizard. Information can be found in : Using the Setup Wizard.

Privacy

The data and any references contained in this webpage are shared with you under the assumption that the owner of the data was entitled to make them available to you. Neither Open-Xchange, nor any of its subsidiaries or affiliates shall be liable for its publication or re-publication.

Any unauthorized use or dissemination of this data is prohibited. If you intend to store, process, or pass on this data, please make sure that you have the right to do so.

If you are one of the people listed or responsible for a resource listed on this page and you don't agree with the publication, please send an email containing the URL (the link) to this webpage to the publisher of the data:

Data published by < > on < >

Tip: You can also publish data by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Publish from the Extended submenu.

Tip: You can also publish data by using the setup wizard. Information can be found in : Using the Setup Wizard.

How to delete a subscription:

  1. Right-click on a folder and select Properties. The folder properties are displayed in the overview window.

  2. Switch to the Subscriptions tab.

  3. Select a subscription under Name in the overview window.

  4. In the Subscriptions panel section click Remove.

  5. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog.

Publishing data

Privacy

When using this publish feature, you as the current owner of the data are responsible for being careful with privacy rules and for complying with legal obligations (Copyright, Privacy Laws).

Especially when publishing personal data you are the responsible party according to the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG, Germany) or other Privacy Acts of your country.

According to European and other national regulations you as the responsible party are in charge of data economy, and must not publish or forward personal data without the person's consent.

Beyond legal obligations, Open-Xchange would like to encourage extreme care when dealing with personal data. Please carefully consider where you store and to whom you forward personal data. Please ensure appropriate access protection, e.g.: by proper password protection.

How to publish data from a folder:

  1. In the context menu of a folder click on Properties. The folder properties are displayed in the overview window.

  2. Switch to the Publications tab.

  3. In the Publications panel section click Add.

  4. Choose the necessary target from the Select a target drop-down field:

    • When publishing a contact folder select OXMF Contacts.

    • When publishing an InfoStore folder select OXMF InfoStore.

  5. Enter a name for the publication (e.g.: your name) in the Site input field.

  6. To change the layout of the published data, enter a name in the Template (optional) input field. Further information can be found in : Customizing the template.

  7. To prevent the URL from being guessed by others, activate the Add cipher code checkbox. By doing so a random character string is added to the URL, i.e.: the URL cannot be guessed.

  8. Click on the panel entry Save.

Result: The folder is published. It will be marked with the published folder icon in the folder tree. Next to URL, a URL for accessing the published folder is displayed.

Tip: You can also publish data by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Publish in the Extended submenu.

How to remove a publication:

  1. Right-click on a folder and select Properties. The folder properties are displayed in the overview window.

  2. Switch to the Publications tab.

  3. Select a publication under Name in the overview window.

  4. In the Publications panel section click Remove.

  5. Click on Yes in the confirmation dialog.

Customizing the template

The layout of the web page containing your published data is set by a template. You can customize the web page layout by modifying the template. If you do not modify the template the default template is used.

In order to customize a template the following actions are required:

  • Entering a template file name when publishing

  • Downloading the template from the personal InfoStore folder

  • Customizing the templates with a text editor

  • Uploading the customized template to the InfoStore

Note: Customizing a template requires knowledge in web design, especially in HTML and CSS. If a faulty template is used, your published data might no longer be displayed.

How to customize a template:

  1. Right-click on a folder and select Properties. The folder properties are displayed in the overview window.

  2. Switch to the Publications tab.

  3. Enter a file name for the template in the Template (optional) input field.

  4. Click on the panel entry Save. Result: Your personal InfoStore folder contains the template in the OXMF Templates folder. The template has the name entered by you in step 2. Note: Prior to being able to see the template you have to retrieve the objects from the server by clicking the Refresh button in the title bar.

  5. Download the template from the InfoStore. Edit the template with a text editor. Information on the content of the template can be found later in this section.

  6. Upload the modified template as a new, current document version to the InfoStore.

Result: The page with the published data is displayed with the modifications.

Note: In order to view the changes, the page has to be reloaded.

Tip: You can also directly modify the template by using WebDAV.

Information on the template structure: A template is written in HTML. It consists of the following sections:

  • Macros

  • Page layout in XHTML format

    • Layout defined with CSS

    • HTML contents