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Open Atrium user guide

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to help a first-time user use the BikePed website. It will address some functions for regular users, but its focus is to help site administrators. Open Atrium, on which the site is based, is a rich system with many features. This document will focus on the features most relevant to BikePed administrators, while also providing basic concepts and vocabulary that will enable to explore further on your own.

Introduction to Open Atrium

Open Atrium, based on the Drupal open source content management system, is described as an intranet-in-a-box. It makes it easy to form groups for online collaboration, and to customize the features of those groups.

Note that the BikePed site currently only makes use of a single group. Users will not perceive the site as a group-based platform, but site administrators will see evidence of this in the "under-the-hood" admin menus.

Open Atrium gives site managers fine-grained control, and there are many ways to interact with the site. This section highlights the most important entry points for interaction with the site.

Top Navigation

The horizontal area at the very top of the page contains the following:

1. User menu (left side)
- a personalised menu for the user, displaying their name and profile picture
- provides easy access to their user profile, personal settings, and group membership information
- provides the only place where a user can click to logout

2. Breadcrumbs (center)
- these provide a visual cue of your 'location' within the website
- the house icon represents the website homepage
- example: Homepage > Groups > Your Group
- each breadcrumb is a clickable link to that location
- NB: breadcrumbs are hidden on the BikePed site, so as not to call attention to anything but the BikePed plan

3. Logo (right)
- by default, an open atrium logo will be displayed
- you can change this logo, and also designate a different logo for each group

4. Admin menu (extreme top left)
- if you are a site administrator, you will see a wrench icon in the top left corner of the page
- click the wrench to cause the admin menu to be displayed on the left side of the page
- this menu contains menu features, some of which are described below
- do not make changes in the admin menu without consulting advanced Open Atrium or Drupal resources, or contacting an expert

Center Navigation

The horizontal area running through the center of the screen contains the navigation for the day-to-day use of the site, and is usually specific to the group that you are currently viewing

1. Features (left)
- the large icons on the left each lead to one of the features that has been enabled in the current group, e.g. group blog, group notebook, etc.
- these icons may be different in each group depending on the settings for that group
- each feature icon, once clicked, will usually have a set of additional navigation options that appear below it

2. Create content (right)
- provides a drop-down menu for creating content in your group
- available content types (e.g. blog entry, book page) will depend on the features enabled in your group

3. Settings (right)
- provides a drop-down menu for accessing group-specific admin menus
- these menus allow you to make changes to the group (adding/removing features, changing name or color, etc.) but do not give you access to admin controls for the full site

4. Search (right)
- allows users to search site content using keywords
- the search results page will also provide more options for filtering the search

Creating a user

User accounts: Signing up for a user account can be done by

1. Clicking the 'Login' button at the top left, then clicking 'Create new account'
2. Clicking the 'register' link in the right sidebar
3. Going directly to http://www.yoursite.com/user/register(external link), which is the user registration page

The new user will then be sent a confirmation email, with instructions that they must follow to activate their account. You do not need to approve their account manually.

If a user loses their password, it can be reset through this same user page by entering and saving the new password and emailing it to them. If a Web Account user with an external email address loses their password, they can simply click on the “Request new password” tab on the login page.

Logging in

To login in to the site to make changes, begin by opening a web browser and going to:

www.yoursite.com/user(external link)

NB: This system can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection.

If you forget your password:

On the login page there is a tab called “request a new password”. You must enter your user name or your email address, and the system will send you a new password by email. If you enter your user name, it will send your password to the email address that the system has on file for you.

Logging out

Once you have finished all of your site updates and work, log out of the system. You will find the “Log out” link in the User menu in the top navigation. Click on your own username and then the “Logout” link, and the system will log you out immediately. If you have any trouble logging out, you can also type http://www.yoursite.com/logout(external link) into the address bar.

Content

Overview

As a content management system, Open Atrium allows you to

- store and organize content online
- create different types of content ('content types') and set rules for how those types are handled by the system
- determine which users have access to which content

Nodes

In the language of Open Atrium, each piece of content is called a node. Each node has properties such as:

- Number (a unique number identifying the node)
- Title
- Content (the actual information - text, images, etc)
- Type (blog post, forum post, page)

Content types

The BikePed employs the following content types:

- Book
- Book page
- Library resource

Note that comments are not themselves a content type, but are a feature that can be added to a particular content type.

Vocabularies

A vocabulary in Open Atrium is a set of labels or tags used categorize content. You can have many different vocabularies on your site. There are also two kinds of vocabulary:

- Keywords: commonly also called 'tags', these are user-defined labels. Users add keywords of their choice to content using the Keyword box that appears on the edit page.
- Taxonomy: this is an administrator defined vocbulary, which users cannot change. Users must select from a predetermined list of labels when using a taxonomy.

The BikePed site uses a user-defined Keywords vocabulary, for the tagging of all content. It also uses a Taxonomy to categorize submissions to the Media Library as Document, Image or Link. This Taxonomy can be managed by going to the admin menu: Administer > Content Management > Taxonomy

Managing content

All content types from across the site can be accessed and managed from: /admin/content/node

This provides site administrators with a single location to view and manipulate content from across the site.

Users with Admin or Manager roles (see below for information about User Roles) can search for all posted content through filtering it by status, type, category or language.

- _Status:_ published, not published, promoted, not promoted, sticky, not sticky
- ['promoted' and 'sticky' are not relevant in the context of this site and should be ignored

- _Type:_ e.g. blog post, forum post, page

- _Category:_ Filter by taxonomy or keyword

Administrators can then choose to edit, delete or unpublish posts if they are inappropriate. To manage posts:

1. Click 'Content' in the Content management menu. A list of posts published on the site will appear in the main screen.
2. Place a check in the box next to the post you want to manage.
3. Select either unpublish or delete from the update options drop down list and click Update.

To edit posts:

1. Click 'Content' in the Content management menu. A list of posts published on the site will appear in the main screen.
2. Click the edit hyperlink that appears to the right of the post you want to manage.
3. Make the required changes to the post text and click Submit.

_Note: Other options are available to administrators in the content interface._

Locked Content

Because multiple users can edit pages, the SCAG website includes a feature which prevents simultaneous editing and the 'edit conflicts' that arise from this.

Whenever a user is editing a page, that page will be locked for any other user. Users will be notified that the page is locked by a message at the top of the screen.

The lock will be lifted once the editing user saves the page, navigates to another page, or closes their browser window.

In the case where a lock has been in place too long, and admin can override the lock via the admin panel:

http://yoursite.com/admin/content/node/content_lock(external link)

That page displays a list of all currently locked pages, with the option to unlock any of them.

Managing Library resources

When users submit resources to the Media Library, they will not immediately be published. They will appear in the Administer> Content menu. Use the filer to show only content type 'Library resource'.

New submissions will appear as 'Unpublished'. If you want to include them in the public library, simply change their status to 'Published'. You can also click the 'edit' link next to the item to make changes to description or Keywords before publishing.

Managing comments

Administrators can choose to edit, delete or unpublish comments if they are inappropriate.

To manage comments:

1. Click 'Comments' in the Content management menu. A list of comments published on the site will appear in the main screen.
2. Place a check in the box next to the comment you want to manage.
3. Select either unpublish or delete from the update options drop down list and click Update.

To edit comments:

1. Click comments in the navigation menu. A list of comments published on the site will appear in the main screen.
2. Click the edit hyperlink that appears to the right of the comment you want to manage.
3. Make the required changes to the comment text and click Publish comment.

Users

Open Atrium gives site administrators fine-grained control over users, their accounts and profiles, and their ability access and manipulate content.

The Manager role also has control over users, but cannot access the full user list in the way admin does. The Manager must make changes by going to this URL:

http://yoursite.com/members(external link)

Then

1. Click on the member in question to view the profile
2. Click on 'Edit' to change settings for that member (including blocking them)

User Roles

Every user in the system has a 'User Role' which determines their what they can see (access control) and what they can do (permissions) on the site. The roles on [website] are:

1. Admin

- controls everything about the site, including which access control and permissions are associated with each of the user roles
- is usually limited to one expert user, as this role has great power to ruin the site

2. Manager

- has more power than an a typical user, but not as much power as the admin
- typically, managers are given some power to publish/unpublish/moderate content and add/block users, but are prevented from making permanent changes such as deleting content or users or making changes to underlying site architecture.

3. Authenticated User

- 'authenticated' means a user who has an account has logged into that account
- typically, these users have the ability to contribute content or edit wiki pages
- this is because their contributions can be attached to their account, ensuring a degree of accountability for their actions

4. Anonymous User

- any user that is viewing the site on the Internet, but has not logged in
- typically, anonymous users can view content, but are not permitted to make changes

Adding users

Users may have the ability to register themselves for your site, depending on the settings. User accounts can also be created manually by the admin using the procedure outlined here.

1. Open the admin menu and go to Administer > User management > Users.
2. A list of all the registered users will appear in the main window.
3. Click on the add user tab in the Center Navigation.
4. Complete the fields as required. Use a password that will be easy to remember, such as 'welcome'.
5. Click on the checkbox to "Notify user of new account" to ensure that theywill receive an email.
6. Subscribe the user to any groups as appropriate
7. Click on Create new account. The user will receive an email welcoming them to the site and providing the password.
8. Strongly encourage users to change the password to something they will never forget at the first opportunity.

Removing users

You can either block the user, which will stop them from posting but not erase their previous posts; or delete them, which will erase their account (stopping them from making posts in future). When an account is deleted all existing posts for that user are assigned to an anonymous account. (ie. Blog posts for a deleted user are attributed to 's blog).

1. Open the admin menu and go to Administer > User management > Users.
2. A list of all the registered users will appear in the main window.
3. Find the username of the person you wish to remove and click on edit alongside their username (in the Operations column).
3. You can either block the user, which will stop them from posting but not erase their previous posts; or delete them, which will erase their previous posts as well as stopping them from posting more:
4. Use the Update options menu to decide which action (Unblock/Block/Delete) to perform on selected users, click the checkbox next to each user on whom you would like to perform the action, and then click 'Update'

Resetting passwords

Users can reset their own passwords.

As an administrator you can also reset a user's password yourself:

1. Open the admin menu and go to Administer > User management > Users.
2. A list of all the registered users will appear in the main window.
3. Find the username of the person whose password you wish to reset and click on edit alongside their username (in the Operations column).
4. Type the new password into the two Password fields.
5. Click on Submit at the bottom of the window.

Open Atrium references

Introduction to Open Atrium
- http://openatrium.com/features(external link)

Free, community-based support for Open Atrium
- https://community.openatrium.com/(external link)

Drupal references

Open Atrium is based on the Drupal framework, and most of the underlying mechanics are the same. These references will help you become a Drupal expert.

Drupal online resources and manuals

The Drupal Handbooks page: http://drupal.org/handbook(external link)

Getting started

Understanding Drupal:Learn about Drupal concepts, technology stack, terminology, and resources.

- http://drupal.org/getting-started/before(external link)

Installation Guide: Install Drupal and its contributed modules and themes. Run multiple sites from one installation. Migrate from other content management systems and address platform issues.

- http://drupal.org/getting-started/install(external link)

Administration Guide: Manage users and content, perform backups and upgrades, secure your site, tweak performance, etc.

- Audience: System and site administrators
- http://drupal.org/node/627152(external link)

Creating a site

Structure Guide: Work with content types, blocks, menus, views, panels, taxonomy, multilingual content, user profiles, and navigation.

- Audience: information architects
- http://drupal.org/node/627082(external link)

Site Building Guide: Add functionality and features such as ecommerce, forums, media, search, geographic data, dates, workflow, messaging, forms, social networking etc.

- Audience: site builders, developers and business architects
- http://drupal.org/node/257(external link)

Theming Guide: Customize the interface using templates, CSS etc. Override the output from core or contributed modules.

- Audience: designers, usability and accessibility professionals, interface experts.
- http://drupal.org/theme-guide(external link)

Writing your own code

Developing for Drupal: Work with the API, JavaScript, and databases. Learn the Drupal coding standards etc.

- Audience: developers.
- http://drupal.org/contributors-guide(external link)

API Reference: Search the complete Drupal API including forms, menus, node access, theme system etc.

- http://api.drupal.org/(external link)

Examples for Developers: Examine a standard repository of sample modules that can be used to learn module development or referenced on handbook pages.

- http://drupal.org/project/examples(external link)

Reference

Code snippets: Reuse chunks of Drupal code that people have shared with the community.

- http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/snippets(external link)

Troubleshooting: Identify and solve problems with servers, page display, permissions, logins etc.

- http://drupal.org/Troubleshooting-FAQ(external link)

FAQs: Learn about documentation, licensing, the Drupal Association, community, etc.

- http://drupal.org/node/323096(external link)

Tutorials

Drupal Cookbook: Follow a walkthrough of a typical Drupal Setup.

- http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook(external link)

Tutorials: Follow step-by-step instructions for a number of common Drupal tasks

- http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials(external link)

Videos and slides: View slide and video presentations covering a wide range of subjects from installation through to developing your own modules

- http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/videocasts(external link)

Community

About Drupal: General information about the Drupal project

- http://drupal.org/about(external link)

Getting involved: Contribute to the Drupal project.

- http://drupal.org/getting-involved(external link)

Documentation team: Help us improve the documentation.

- http://drupal.org/contribute/documentation(external link)

Drupal community forums

Drupal has a very active community of users and contributors. We encourage all users of Drupal sites to be active members of the community and contribute feedback and queries to help the system grow:

- http://drupal.org/forum(external link)

HTML references

A clear and thorough resource for html tags and formatting:

- http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp(external link)


Page last modified on Thursday 12 of August, 2010 02:26:40 UCT

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