Upgrading Social Office

Liferay Social Office, Liferay’s social collaboration product for the enterprise, was an add-on product for Liferay Portal versions prior to Liferay DXP 7.0. Social Office is no longer available because Liferay DXP 7.0 contains its features. When upgrading from a previous version of Liferay Portal that contains Social Office, the standard upgrade procedure handles most things for you. You must, however, perform a few additional steps to ensure that Social Office’s features work as intended in Liferay DXP 7.0. This article takes you through these steps.

Note: Before upgrading your Social Office installation, you must first upgrade your Liferay Portal installation to Liferay DXP 7.0. The steps for this are the same as those for upgrading any Liferay Portal installation to Liferay DXP 7.0; click here to see them. Once you’ve upgraded to Liferay DXP 7.0, return here to upgrade your Social Office installation.

First, you’ll learn how Social Office’s unique components map to Liferay DXP 7.0 features.

Social Office Components

Social Office contained the following components:

• A unique theme and site template
• Customized Liferay Portal applications
• Applications unique to Social Office
• User experience (UX) enhancements

The following sections describe the components and how they work in Liferay DXP 7.0.

Themes and Templates

Social Office’s unique look and feel was defined by its theme and site template. These don’t exist in Liferay DXP 7.0. In Liferay DXP 7.0, however, you can build themes and templates to fit your requirements. The ability to customize the look, feel, and page layout of Liferay DXP 7.0 is one of its most powerful capabilities.

This table shows how Social Office’s theme and template components map to Liferay DXP 7.0.

Component	Social Office 3.x	Liferay DXP 7.0
Social Office Theme	Uses Social Office theme	Uses default Liferay DXP 7.0 theme, or a custom theme
Site Template	Uses Social Office site template	The Social Office site template is upgraded to Liferay DXP 7.0. A custom site template can also be used.
Page Templates	Doesn’t use page templates	Page templates can be used

Liferay Apps

Social Office improved many out-of-the-box apps in previous versions of Liferay Portal. Many of those improvements are now in Liferay DXP 7.0.

This table shows how the apps modified by Social Office in previous versions of Liferay Portal map to Liferay DXP 7.0.

App	Social Office 3.x	Liferay DXP 7.0
Announcements	UI enhancements	Although the Announcements app is included in Liferay DXP 7.0, the UI enhancements from Social Office 3.x aren’t. See the Announcements app’s documentation for instructions on using the app in Liferay DXP 7.0.
Document Library File Version Comments	Versioning Improvements	Provided as an add-on module. The Module Installation section below contains a link to this module.
Notifications	Various enhancements	Included
Chat	Various enhancements	This app is available for Liferay DXP and Liferay Portal CE.
Bookmarks	Various enhancements	Included
Activities	Various enhancements	Included

Social Office Apps

Several apps were unique to Social Office. With the exception of the Tasks portlet, these apps are now in Liferay DXP 7.0.

This table shows how apps unique to Social Office map to Liferay DXP 7.0.

App	Liferay DXP 7.0
Microblogs	Included
Contacts Center	Included
Private Messaging	Provided as an add-on module. The Module Installation section below contains more information.
Social Office User Profile	Included
Events List	Provided as an add-on module. Click here to get it for Liferay Portal CE or here for Liferay DXP.
WYSIWYG	Provided as an add-on module. Click here to get it for Liferay Portal CE or here for Liferay DXP.

UX Enhancements

The UX in Liferay DXP 7.0 is different than previous versions. It’s the first version to use Lexicon, a web implementation of Liferay’s new Lexicon Experience Language. Social Office components in Liferay DXP 7.0 use Lexicon for a consistent UX. This also means that certain Social Office components may not be where you expect them in Liferay DXP 7.0.

This table shows where to access Social Office components in Liferay DXP 7.0.

Component	Liferay DXP 7.0
Dashboard	Control Panel
Profile	Control Panel
User Bar	Control Panel
Site Navigation	My Sites app

Here’s a list of other Social Office functionality that has changed or is missing in Liferay DXP 7.0:

• Tasks application: not available for Liferay DXP 7.0. If you need it, you must upgrade its source code.

• Site Creation Wizard: not available for Liferay DXP 7.0. Use site and page templates instead. An administrator should create the most commonly used site templates and let site administrators use them as an initial layout for their sites.

• Site Navigation: available, but modified in Liferay DXP 7.0. Social Office’s customized My Sites app let Social Office users manage their favorite sites and site memberships. You can configure Liferay DXP 7.0’s My Sites app to let users manage site memberships, but not favorites.

Great! Now you know what Social Office functionality is and isn’t in Liferay DXP 7.0. Next, you’ll install a few modules in preparation for the Social Office upgrade steps.

Module Installation

To enable Social Office functionality in your Liferay DXP 7.0 installation, you should first install a few extra modules. Deploy these modules as you would any other Liferay DXP 7.0 module:

• Social Office Upgrade module: Provides a set of actions that you can run to upgrade your Social Office installation. The next section shows you how to run these actions. Click here to get this module. This module is the same for Liferay Portal CE and Liferay DXP.

• Social Office Upgrade Association module (optional): When the Social Office User role was granted to a user in previous versions of Liferay Portal, Social Office automatically used a site template to create public and private pages for that user. The Social Office Upgrade Association module retains this behavior (the upgrade retains the Social Office User role). Click here to get this module. This module is the same for Liferay Portal CE and Liferay DXP.

• Document Library File Version Comments module: By default, Liferay DXP 7.0 users can only comment on documents in a Documents and Media repository. In Social Office, however, users could also comment on document versions. This module retains the Social Office behavior. Click here to get this module. This module is the same for Liferay Portal CE and Liferay DXP.

• Chat: Enables Social Office chat. This app is available for Liferay DXP and Liferay Portal CE.

• Private Messaging: Enables Social Office Private Messaging in Liferay DXP 7.0. Although the first three GA releases (GA1, GA2, GA3) of Liferay Portal 7.0 CE contain this app, it will be removed in GA4 and instead released on Liferay Marketplace. To get this app for Liferay DXP, which doesn’t contain it, click here.

• Events List: Enables Social Office Events Display in Liferay DXP 7.0. Click here to get this app for Liferay Portal CE or here for Liferay DXP.

• WYSIWYG: Enables the Social Office WYSIWYG app. Click here to get this app for Liferay Portal CE or here for Liferay DXP.

Once you’ve installed these modules, you’re ready to proceed with the upgrade. Onward!

Upgrade

Now that you’re running Liferay DXP 7.0 and the preceding modules, you’re ready to upgrade your Social Office installation. As mentioned earlier, you’ll do this by running a set of actions that the Social Office Upgrade modules provide.

Warning: Some of the Social Office upgrade actions may delete or alter existing data in your database. It’s essential that you backup your system properly before running any of them.

You’ll run these actions from the Apache Felix Gogo shell built into Liferay DXP 7.0. With Liferay DXP 7.0 running, enter the Gogo shell by running the following command in a terminal:

telnet localhost 11311

The resulting g! is the Gogo shell command prompt.

Figure 1: The Gogo shell lets you execute commands, including the Social Office upgrade commands, in the OSGi runtime that runs Liferay DXP 7.0. This screenshot shows the `telnet` command that enters the shell, and the resulting Gogo shell command prompt.

Warning: The Gogo shell is only available from the machine running Liferay DXP 7.0, unless you explicitly open port 11311. For security reasons, do not expose the Gogo console to the outside world.

Now you’re ready to execute the Social Office upgrade actions. To run an action, execute it on the Gogo shell prompt. Before doing so, however, be sure to carefully read the action’s description. Each action is listed here, along with its description:

• socialOffice:executeAll: runs all upgrade actions. Before running this action, be sure to read the descriptions for all actions.

• socialOffice:removeTasksPortlet: removes the Tasks portlet from all pages. Unless you manually upgrade the Tasks portlet’s source code, this portlet is unavailable in Liferay DXP 7.0. You should therefore remove it from all pages in your Liferay DXP 7.0 installation. Note that doing so removes all references to it from all site pages; after executing this action, there’s no way to restore it.

• socialOffice:hideTasksLayout: hides all pages that contained the Tasks portlet.

• socialOffice:updateTheme: restores the default theme for all pages. Unless you customized the Social Office theme, you should use the default Liferay DXP 7.0 theme.

Next, you’ll attend to some administrative tasks in your Liferay DXP 7.0 instance.

Administration

After running the upgrade actions, there are a few administrative tasks you should complete in your Liferay DXP 7.0 instance. These tasks help to retain Social Office functionality in Liferay DXP 7.0.

• Social Office User Role (optional): The upgrade to Liferay DXP 7.0 carries over the Social Office User role. If the optional Social Office Upgrade Association module is deployed, you can assign users to this role. Doing so gives users personal sites that function similarly to Social Office.

• Managing Social Sites in Liferay DXP 7.0: The upgrade to Liferay DXP 7.0 carries over all Social Office sites and site templates. To create a new social site for collaboration in Liferay DXP 7.0, create a new site using the default Social Office site template. For more information on building sites from templates, click here.

• My Sites: The Site Navigation app was Social Office’s custom version of the My Sites app. It was integrated into Social Office’s theme. Since the Site Navigation app isn’t available for Liferay DXP 7.0, you should use My Sites instead. As mentioned earlier, however, My Sites doesn’t let users manage their site memberships by default. To enable this functionality, add My Sites to a custom theme or site template that enables it. For navigating sites, users can use the new Liferay DXP 7.0 site navigator in the Product Menu.