How does this site work?
The
site works by provision of message boards, and a facility for people to
create personal web pages and folders. The site also provides
facilities for individual group leaders within the church to set up
group pages specific to their groups which can then be accessed by
members of their group as well as other users of the site. More
information on the specific facilities below.
How do message boards work?
1. All message boards (as
well as chat rooms, calendars, links lists etc) belong to corresponding
'groups'. Group is a page created by user, it posses plenty of
properties like NAME, DESCRIPTION, and many more. Also groups can be
moderated and public. Moderated means that its up to group owner
whether some other person (registered on our 'Community site') can join
his group and get access to message board, chat room of this group and
other group resources. Public stands for group which anyone
(registered!) can join freely. Of course any person can join and run as
many groups as he/she likes. Also there is one special group called
'Founders Forum'. If person starts his own group he automatically
becomes a member of 'Founders Forum', where he can share experience
with other group owners or something. Ok, let us create a new group.
2. After signing in on the
main site page ('Home') click on 'Start a new group' link (it is on the
right bar in current layout). Pick up an unique name for your group -
it should contain only numbers, letters white spaces and undersigns
('_'), type any description you like, choose whether it should be
moderated or public and press 'Next>>' button. Here you should
choose a category for your group. We have created a small database of
categories only for testing purposes, and some tools to add new. User
groups should be placed on level 2 or lower so you should go down few
levels until 'Put it here' button appears. Press it. That is all, new
group is created, you can access it by clicking on its name now, also
it will appear in 'My Groups' section on the main page after signing
in. Let us go to your new born group page.
3. The first thing you
will see (I'm not talking about that annoying 'Community site header
here') will be something like 'Welcome to GroupName, you are a founder'
(other options are 'member' and 'guest'). Below there is a list of
activities, by default it is set to 'Message board'. Message board
contains no messages now, that is why in the middle of the screen you
see 'Message board: None'. Let us post some messages.
4. Click on 'Post a
message' link in the 'Activities' list, type a message subject and
optionally body of your message, then press 'Post' button. You will be
forwarded back to 'Message Board' activity and now should see your
message subject, your ID and date when the message was posted. Clicking
on the subject will let you read the message body and reply to this
message. Replying to message is just like posting a new message, it
will just appear on board in different way. Just try to reply your
first message and see what will happen.
5. The last thing about
message boards is that when any message is posted an email with its
subject and body is sent to all group members. Also admin can send
emails from 'Admin' page to all members of any group or to any user
directly.
ADDING/EDITING SITE CONTENT
For Group Leaders and People with Web Pages Creation Permissions
To add/edit pages on the site, please visit http://stphilipshurch.org.uk
Please click the LOGIN box.
You get to a page saying Please use the form on the left to login.
Input the login access details provided to you. This will log you in to the admin section. Please email contact@stphilips.g-br.org if you need access details provided
On logging in to the admin section, you will see the following link on the left:
Edit Sections
Click on that link
You will then see the following:
You can manage following sections (syn. categories):
- root
Click on Root. You will
then see a list of categories branching down into subcategories. You
can then edit the groups and add text as detailed below.
Wherever a box is ticked
beside a category, that category is not visible from the public part of
the site which is what would be normally seen by anyone accessing the
site.
ADD TOPIC, this
function allows you to add topics so that when you are adding the text,
you can assign a title to the text you want to input
EDIT TEXT: Here you
have a text box where you can enter text. The interface is just like
the Microsoft word and acts similarly, thereby allowing you to design
the page as you like without prior programming knowledge
The site is at present for
test purposes only so please feel free to enter whatever you wish to
help test the site (as long as its not illegal or immoral. J) Please
make entries under your own name as detailed below initially so you can
easily keep tabs on what youve done. You can make subcategories under
the main heading of your own name as you wish.
Lets begin the test entries
Starting with a topic
- (Your name)
In the text box next to "Topic name" under the ADD TOPIC section, please type "Your Name"
- click on add topic ok to complete the process
- In-order to associate a posting under your name, you will need to click on the topic name Your Name
The resulting page after
you click on Your Name will have the first option box at the top
showing Your Name Once you see this, you know you are on the right
page. And any content you add in this section will be associated to the
link Your Name which is visible on the main page of the site.
You can go further and add
another topic in this section and click on it and ad an article on that
page. The resulting link will be visible on the site will be two levels
deep.
Your Name> new topic
To make a test posting,
please scroll down the page to where you have the big text box with the
following functional buttons below
The icons above have the same functions as those seen in Microsoft word
Adding text To add
text, you can just type it in directly or copy and paste it from an
already existing document. You can add an image by clicking on the
insert Image file icon.
EDITING/DELETING TEXT
1: Change value: Allows you to edit the text in that section
2: Delete: Use the mouse to check the radio button next to the title you want to delete and press the delete button/go button
3: Disable: Similarly Use the mouse to check the radio button next to the title you want to disable and press the disable button.
4: Enable: Use the mouse to check the radio button next to the title you want to enable and press the enable button.
5: EDIT TEXT:
In order to edit content of an entry, just click on the title to open
the page with the content visible and edit what you need to.
Click on the EDIT TEXT button when done.
Hope all the above makes sense. Please send an email to contact@stphilips.g-br.org if you need further information.