Access points

User interface

The user interface is rendered from FreeMarker, Soy, or JavaServer Pages that are essentially templates to display user and content data. Nearly every major element of the user interface is based on a template, which allows developers to cleanly separate presentation from business logic. Here's a description of the pieces:

Cascading style sheets (CSS)

CSS styles are used in Soy, FreeMarker, and JavaServer Pages files to describes how HTML elements should be displayed, for example, provide colors, text styles, and positioning of UI elements.

JavaScript

JavaScript is used to enable certain effects, such as displaying popups and dragging widgets.

Soy templates

These templates (also known as Closure Templates) are used for the main user interface. For more information, see Closure Template Concepts at Google Developers portal (https://developers.google.com/closure/templates/docs/concepts).

FreeMarker template (FTL) files

FreeMarker has historically been used for the main user interface. However, many components have been migrated to use Soy templates starting with v5.0. For more information, see Apache FreeMarker portal (https://freemarker.apache.org/).

JavaServer Pages (JSP) files

JSP is used to render the Admin Console user interface. For more information, see JavaServer Pages Technology at Oracle Technical Resources portal (https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index-jsp-138231.html).

Supported browsers

For the latest information on supported browsers, see Supported Browsers.

Customizing

People using the application can customize or personalize the UI by using tiles and widgets. Developers can customize the user interface through either themes or plugins.

• Tiles and widgets are views on content that people can use to create customized versions of community pages, although using tiles is preferable. For example, a tile or a widget can display recently changed content or the results of an RSS subscription. Using tiles is preferable. For more information, see Understanding pages in places.
• In a theme, you use custom versions of FreeMarker files and CSS style rules to replace those included. You group customized files into a theme, then map the theme to a part of the application, such as a space or UI reached via a particular URL. You can also merely replace certain words in the user interface, such as "article" for "document." You can't include your own Java code in a theme. For more information on developing themes, see Developing custom themes.
• In a plugin, you can customize the UI by including new commands in existing user interface pages. For example, with an action plugin you can add a new link to the Actions list or a new command to the user menu bar. You can also develop new widgets in a plugin. 

Feeds

Feeds are a data format through which people can keep up without needing to view the application itself. People subscribing to feeds can view the feed information as a list of content in feed readers or web browsers.

Email

A community can send or receive email. It sends email when people choose to receive notifications on particular content, such as when a document has been edited or a discussion has received a new reply.

People can send email to the application by replying to notification messages. For example, if someone receives a notification that a discussion has gotten a new reply, they can reply to the notification message, type their own response, then send the email to have their typed response posted as a new reply to the discussion.

The application can also send email for common reasons, such as to follow up on a request to change a password.

Web services

Other applications can access functionality by using web services. Most of the application's features are available this way, although all new development has used the REST style, and it is recommended for customizations.

The application supports web services in REST and SOAP styles. Support for these is provided through Apache CXF, an open source framework. For more information, see Apache CXF: An Open-Source Services Framework at http://cxf.apache.org/.