Oracle UPK (User Productivity Kit) – Chapter 6. Using web pages in a UPK topic with the developer.

Greetings all,

Index of my blog series.

1. Chapter 1. UPK Overview
2. Chapter 2. Information and training with UPK for End Users.
3. Chapter 3. Installing the UPK and creating the Outline.
4. Chapter 4. Recording a UPK topic and previewing.
5. Chapter 5. Editing a UPK topic with the developer.

In the previous chapter, I showed you how to use the UPK Developer to edit a topic by using the frame properties and the configuration items.

This chapter will focus on the usage of web pages within the UPK Developer after the outline has been created.

It is not necessarily to have recorded your UPK topics before you start working with the web pages.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

-          How does a web page look in the UPK player

-          How to add a web page to a topic

-          How to use the web page configuration icons

-          How to create the web page

Webpage within a UPK Topic

On the UPK overview screen you have three main parts which are interesting when you want to use web pages.

1. Your outline. (As described how to set-up in chapter 3.)
2. The webpage preview screen
3. The configuration buttons for the webpage.

Webpage in UPK

A web page within the UPK is a file that will be displayed after opening a UPK topic, within your web browser, but before opening a player mode.

An example of a web page is shown below.

As you can see, the web page displays with information before the end user has made a player mode decision. (See It!, Know It!, etc.)

A webpage, can contain images or text. They are limited to actions.

You can use them for simple font formatting, providing lists and inserting images, but that’s about all the functionality they provide. You cannot use HTML tags or insert database tables as your used to with real web pages.

Still, a UPK web page is very easy to use, flexible and can be used in a number of ways.

Outline

In your outline you have set-up your modules, lessons and topics as you want them to be seen by the end-user.

You can add a webpage to each topic in your outline.

By clicking on a topic within your outline, the webpage preview screen (part 2 of the first image) will reload and show the corresponding webpage for that topic.

If you wish to add a webpage to a topic you can click in your outline on a topic and then press the button “Create Link” or “Create new web page” on the configuration buttons of the web pages. (part 3 of first image).

Configuration buttons for the webpage

Create link

The “Create link” icon, is used when a web page already exists (pre-made or imported) and only needs to be linked to the correct UPK topic.

In the “insert hyperlink” screen you can select the location of the webpage. As a default, the web page library opens. Here you can select the web page to link it to the topic.

Create new web page

The “Create new web page” icon, is used when a new web page has to be created before being linked to a UPK topic.

In the “save as” screen you can enter a name and location for the new web page.

After saving, the new empty web page will open for editing.

Edit web page

The “Edit web page” icon, is used when a existing webpage which is already linked to an UPK topic has to be edited. Clicking this icon will open the linked webpage in editor mode.

Delete link

The “Delete link” icon, is used when a existing webpage which is already linked to an UPK topic and has to be removed from the UPK topic. Clicking this icon will not delete the webpage but just unlink it from the selected UPK topic.

Preview Document

The “Preview Document” icon, is used when a web page has been updated in the editor and you want to preview the changes to your document.

Creating the web page

When your going to create a new web page and the editor opens, the editor shows a “Web page editor toolbar” on top of your screen. (1)

You can use this toolbar to choose your own font, letter style, text layout, bullet points, text color or background colors and use them within the web page editor screen. (2)

An example of a simple created webpage would be this:

The above web page is just a plain page with text, with a colored title and bulletin and a gray background.

To add a image to your web page you can use the “insert -> Image” link from the menu bar.

You can than choose to upload a picture from your UPK library, from your PC or from an URL.

An example of a web page with the use of a image would be the following:

However, as you can see, the picture does not match with the background.

This is one of the flaws of the UPK web page editor, as I said before, it’s very limited.

You can fix this by using a Photoshop program to fix the image or remove the background color, but for me, this isn’t the most optimal solution. As shown on the next picture, my web pages look a little more professional.

This is why I prefer another option:

-          Not using the web page editor

In my opinion you can better create an image with Photoshop as the picture above.

Then create an empty web page in the UPK tool and when the editor opens, using the “insert -> Image” link to link the web page with your own created image.

If you decide to choose this option, you will need to keep in mind that you will need to know the specs of the computers of your end users.

For example: If you end users are going to use a default resolution chosen by their business, create an image that matches their image and this resolution.

For my own UPK project,  the end result when implemented in the UPK tool, would look like this:

As you can see, the web page image matches the browser and resolution perfectly.

Your UPK project will look a lot more professional and will give the end user a better feeling during training, because it will not be seen as a boring “standard” training, but as an interactive “happy” training.

Please keep in mind: Not every UPK project needs the use of complex web pages, if your creating a simple UPK project, a simple web page will do just fine.

Thank you for your attention.

In the following chapter, I will explain the usage of packages in the UPK tool.

Why would you need them and how can you use them?

Stay Tuned!

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Posted by: Michael Van Adrichem (6 post(s)).

Peoplesoft HR functional implementation consultant. Oracle UPK (User Productivity Kit) Specialist. Working at Logica. Aug 2011 to present Rotterdam, Netherlands