Managing groups

By creating multiple groups and selecting various permissions on modules and assigning users to various groups you can control access to your content on your site. By default, LogiCreate installations are populated with three groups, Public, Registered Users, and Administrators. These three groups are required for the system to work and are noted with an (*) besides each group denoting they cannot be deleted from the system. Before you start organizing your groups, some time should be spent thinking of how your site will be used. The following is a guideline for the various ways your LogiCreate site can be used.

Intranet: Intranet based web sites are web sites which are accessed solely by a company's internal employees. How is your company organized internally? Think about the different departments or workgroups you may have. This will help you organize your groups and content so the correct associates see the appropriate content on your web site.

Extranet: Extranet based web sites give access to internal business processes over the internet. People accessing this can be employees, distributors, clients, resellers, etc. Think about the different groups of users which need access to your web site and which applications and data they need to access. This will help you organize your groups and content.

Public Site: Referred to as your company "Home Page", your public site is the main site which any user can access. With LogiCreate, a user visiting your site who is not logged in is referred to as an "anonymous" user and is only allowed to view content or applications for which the "Public/Anonymous" group has access to. The public site can be used to give people company information for example. Your site may act as a portal to various applications applications (such as a discussion forum, for example) but you may want to require registration before granting access.

Integrated Site: An integrated site consist of combining the Intranet, Extranet and Public into one site. The primary benefit of using an Integrated Site approach is centralization - all of your users access data controlled through one system. Since LogiCreate can manage all three aspects of your site simultaneously for each user, there is no need to have multiple sites for each set of users or applications.

Creating a New Group

To create a new group, click "Groups" listed in the "Site Menu". On the right side of the main interface for groups there are two fields, "Group Description" and "Group ID". In the "Group Description" field, enter your new group description so you can easily remember what purposes it serves. Descriptions can be up to 32 characters. Next, in the "Group ID" field enter the name or code for your group. This name can be any numbers or letters up to eight characters and is an internal ID only used by our system. Think of the ID as a group code - you may have an "employee" group and a "management" group, but internally they may be referenced as "EMP" and "MNGMT", for example. The "EMP" would be the "group id" field, and the "Employees" would be the "group description" field.

Controlling Group Permissions

Permissions for each group are controlled by highlighting the desired group and pressing the "set permissions" button. Basic "allow/deny access" to each module for the selected group can be modified by either checking or unchecking the appropriate action for each installed application. "Actions" for modules can be thought of a user actions, features or specific functions of a module. By default all modules have the "Access" action. This controls whether or not a user can access the application. Other actions which you may see in this area include "read", "write", "delete", "approve", "folder manager", and son on, and are dependant on the particular application and your system administrator. If you require additional actions to be placed on different modules consult your LogiCreate developer.

Deleting a Group

Select the desired group and press "delete" at the top. You will be asked to confirm this delete. As stated previously, special system groups noted with an (*) cannot be deleted. Users are not deleted when their group is deleted.

Managing users

Using the built-in group and user system in LogiCreate you can offer a personalized experience for each of your web site visitors. The concept is comparable to that of system administration which can be found in UNIX and Windows NT environments. Just as in these environments, groups have pre-defined permissions set and users can be assigned to one or multiple groups. Upon a user logging into the site, LogiCreate checks the permissions the user belongs to dynamically builds the menus the user can see. Once a user is authenticated on the site more content can be seen. For example, although the FAQ module may have 200 entries, anonymous users may only have access to 50, while a registered user might see all 200.

Continuing this example, imagine a registered user logs into the site and copies the URL of one of these FAQs and e-mails it to a friend. When their friend visits the site they will be denied access to this piece of content on the site. The only way to gain access to the content is for the user to authenticate himself by logging into the site.

Note: Authentication for the HCC is controlled by your site administrator and is separate from managing users in the control center.

Creating or Modifying Users

To gain access to modify or create new users click the "Users" link in the site menu as pictured to the right.

Create a new user

To create a new user, click on the "Create a new user" button displayed on the lower right side of the user interface.

The fields on the left of the proceeding page are required fields. These fields are the minimal amount of information needed to create a new user. The fields to the right are considered to be optional fields and are referred to as a users "profile". The profile information is created or modified by your LogiCreate developer and cannot be modified from the HCC.

Modifying existing users

Existing users will appear in the list when you first enter the user admin area. The first 30 users in the system are shown sorted alphabetically. To edit the profile, password, or e-mail address of an existing user select the user from the list by clicking on their username or on their name if their name has been entered into the profile. Once a user is selected, make any necessary changes and press "update user" so the changes are saved.

Note: User names cannot be modified or changed once created.

Deleting Users

Users can be deleted or removed from your LogiCreate powered web site. To delete a user, select the user by clicking on their username. In the lower right hand corner of screen next to the "update user" button press the trash can icon. You will be asked to confirm the deletion of the account.

Users which are deleted do not have their information removed from each of the modules, only their initial account. For example, a deleted user account may still have entries in a discussion forum associated with their username.

Logging in as a User

The "login as <userid>" feature located at the bottom of the user admin page allows site administrators to assume the identity of a particular user to:

• check permissions of existing users easily
• check permissions of new users which are added to the system
• help pinpoint user-specific problems when offering support

By clicking "login as userid" you will be logged in as that user for 15 minutes. Normally, LogiCreate does not allow the same user account to login twice from separate browsers - this is a security measure. However, if you login as a user from HCC this feature is ignored so both you and the user can be logged in simultaneously.

Finding a User

As your site grows so will the number of registered users. We have included several different ways to search for users in the system. The User Search features are listed on the right hand side of the opening users screen.

Show names starting with

This feature will display all usernames that start with a particular letter.

Show users in groups

If you need to double check which users are associated with a certain group use this feature. Users will be shown which belong to the selected group.

Searching by a user's profile

The section labeled as "Show users where" allows you to search by the users profile information. If you are looking for the first name of "Roy" then enter "Roy" in the field,select "firstname" in the drop down and press "go". All users with first name "Roy" will be displayed.

Suspending a user account

Should the need arise where a user's account needs to be suspended because their credit card was declined, they have submitted inappropriate material to your forums or whatever the reason there are several ways to suspend a users's account.

Remove all groups

The first way to suspend a user's account is to edit the user's information and remove them from all groups by unselecting the groups the user is in. If you are on a Windows PC, pressing the "ctrl" key while you click on the groups allows you to select or unselect a group one at a time.

Create a new group

Another method of suspending user accounts is to create a group called "Suspended" in the groups section. By setting the permissions on the "Suspended" group you can coordinate this effort with your LogiCreate developer to have the developer notify the user their account has been suspended when the user logs into your site.

Modifying a group of users at the same time

There are times when you may need to modify a pre-determined set of users. For example, this comes in handy when you have created new groups in the system and you need to change the group permissions on a large amount of users.

At the bottom of the user admin page is a button which says "collect checked users". From the list of users above, place a check next to each username you wish to modify. After your selections have been made press the "collect checked users". If you need to add more users, press the back button on the browser and use the built in search features to locate other users in the system you wish to modify and repeat this process until you have collected all of the users you wish to modify.

After you press "collect checked users" you have the following tab options which can be performed on this list of users:

• Alter Groups - this alters the collected group of users by adding or deleting the selected group from the collected users
• Reset Groups - this will reset the collected users's groups to the newly selected groups
• Delete Users - this will delete all users which have been collected

These options cannot be un-done once performed so use this feature carefully. It is recommended you test your procedures before doing large-scale updates.

Managing categories

LogiCreate has a lot of added features that developers and site administrators can take advantage of out-of-the-box. One of the features is the category manager built into LogiCreate. The built-in category system serves multiple purposes for your LogiCreate powered site. The category system is used to run the following applications:

• Photo Gallery
• News
• File Manager

These are the out-of-the box applications which take advantage of the built-in category system. Let's look at how these systems use the category system and why it was built.

What are Categories?

Before we proceed, let's take a minute to clear up the concept of "categories". When we think of how we organize data for example, we like to group different pieces of data with other pieces of data. One way we accomplish this is by grouping our items in categories. You might be thinking that this is similar to how we create folders in our operating system and you would be correct. If we create a folder on our desktop for example called "Press Releases" and then open this folder, we can continue creating folders in this folder. This idea of "nesting" a folder in other folders is the same concept used in building the category system. The LogiCreate category system supports nested levels of categories, meaning you can create as many categories as you like and move them underneath other categories. This idea of nesting categories makes it really easy to organize your data. For example, let's look at an example on paper as to how you might use the category manger to assist you in organizing your news articles which are posted to your site.

	Example News Categories:

	News
	-->2001
		-->Press Releases
		-->Employee News
		-->
	-->2000
		-->Press Releases
		-->Employee News
	
	Articles
	-->How Tos
		-->Computer
			-->Operating Systems
				-->Windows
					-->Windows 3.1
					-->Windows XP
				-->Linux
					-->Installation
				-->MAC
	

As you see, this is an easy way to organize your information as well as navigate to the information you want to view. Each of the applications use the category system in different ways. The category system is usually accessible directly from the application itself. One particular case where this does not apply is the file manager application as users create their own folders but the same principles apply. As a rule of thumb NEVER edit the categories for "Files". If you wish to make any "drastic" changes to categories for "Files" do so from the web site and not within the HCC.

Creating New Categories Systems

Category systems are created by developers only. If you click on the "Manage Categories" link in the site menu for example you may see "Articles", "Photos", and "Files". Each of these category system tie into the modules which come with your LogiCreate system. If you need new categories systems to manage, consult your LogiCreate developer as this would need to be tied directly into an application.

Creating Categories

Select the categories for the system you wish to manage by clicking on the "Manage Categories" link in the site menu, selecting the system you wish to modify and press "Edit Categories->". There are 4 fields which you can modify on the preceding page.

• Name - Enter the name of the category you wish to create for this system.
• Sort Order - This is a numerical field which represents the sort order of the category. For example, if you enter "5" this will be placed in the menu relative to the 5th position.
• Notes/Description - Enter a description for the category. If you are editing the Photo Gallery categories for example, this description will be listed in the template by default for this category.
• Top Level Category - This is the select box to the right. After you fill in the previous information, select where you would like this category created. By default "Top Level Category" is selected which will make this new category a top level category. If you wish to place the new category underneath a previously created category then select that category.

Editing or Deleting Categories

Categories can be edited or deleted at anytime in the system. Be careful when deleting categories as this may affect previously created content and keep it from being displayed. Before you delete a category, update all content associated with this category so it is placed in another category. This can be done easily by a LogiCreate developer or by using the appropriate module.

To edit or delete a category, browse to the system you wish to modify and click on the "edit" link to the right of the category. Editing allows you to change the name, order, and placement in the menu. The category can also be deleted from the system. There are two ways to delete a category. One is to delete just the category so all sub-categories will be moved up or two, delete the category and all sub-categories underneath. Deletion changes are permanent and cannot be undone.

Once all changes have been completed you wish to edit, click the "Save" button so your changes will take affect.

MODULE MANAGEMENT

The LogiCreate system is comprised of several standard modules, and provides the ability for developers to add new custom modules. Both standard and custom modules are controlled through the HCC, and this section will outline the basics of the standard modules.

Welcome Module

The welcome module is typically set up as the default module visitors are shown when entering your site. The idea of having a specific module as a welcome module is to allow for flexibility on your opening page. If your site has been configured to use the welcome module by default be sure permissions are set correctly so visitors to your site can access your home page.

We have made an enhancement to the welcome module as an example which integrates the HTML module and the News module for example. If you point your browser to the following URL you can see this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/index.php/welcome/news (where yourdomain is the name of your site)

You should see some welcome text and two columns beneath this which are labeled "News" and "Articles". By combining the welcome.html file from the HTML module, the article and news categories from the news module we have created a custom home page which can be updated by simply adding new news articles to the appropriate category or editing the welcome.html file in the HTML module. Consult your LogiCreate developer if you have any specific needs for your opening home page.

By default there is nothing to administrate for the welcome module and there are no configuration options for this module.

Login Module

In order for your users to be authenticated to access different portions of your site you need to be sure the permissions for the login module are set. The login module also provides users a way to register on your site as well as request a lost password be emailed to them or change their current password. If you wish to customize the registration process for your site, please consult your LogiCreate developer so the registration information is stored in the users profile. By default there is nothing to administrate for the login module and there are no configuration options for this module.

Menu Module

A menu is a collection of links which allow your visitors to find what they're looking for quickly and easily. By default, the LogiCreate system will allow you to manage your links in a columnar, left-hand navigation style common among many popular web sites.

Besides having links associated with it, a menu also has other properties. Menus have "names" which will be displayed to the visitor, and “visibility” settings. “Visibility” settings affect who is presented the menu (and its contents) and who isn't. For instance, you may have a set of links which you only want registered users to see – with the LogiCreate system, this is an easy thing to do.

Adding a new menu

First, select the 'menu' module from the modules area on the left hand side. Once selected, click the 'admin' button. You will be presented with a screen in the right hand area showing the currently defined menus and their contents:

The next step is to click the 'Create a new Menu' link. You will then be asked for information about the menu – the name and visibility information. By default two menus are already created for you, "Main Menu" and "Applications". You can modify these to suite your needs or start from scratch. For purposes of learning let's create a new menu called "Members" which will will only want to show to registered users on the system. In order to do this fill in the Title of the menu as "Members" and in the include groups area click on "Registered Users". Click the 'save' button and you'll be back at the main menu screen again, but you'll now have a blank menu called 'Members'.

Adding HTML menu items

Now that you have a menu created, you'll want to add links inside that menu to various parts of your web site. Let's create a link to the "specials.html" page you made earlier. Select "HTML page" from the pulldown next to "Create a link to" and press "go". You'll be presented with a screen asking you information about the HTML page you'd like to link to. The following fields are presented, let's take a look at what each one does.

• Link Text - Is the text that will actually be displayed in the menu. In our case we would want to enter Specials.
• Use image instead of text - The 'Use image instead of text' checkbox can be checked if you want to use a graphic image instead of text for the link (note: you'll need to put the full path to an image such as http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/image.png, for example).
• Ranking - This field excepts a number from 0 and up. It is used to sort the links in the menu since they are sorted numerically. If you know by default you want this the underneath the link labeled with the sort order of 3 then put the number 4 to the new link will appear under this link.
• Linked Page - This box has a list of all the HTML pages you've created within LogiCreate. Select the 'About us' page you created (this is the title of the page from the LogiCreate HTML editor system).
• Parent Menu - Finally, we need to select a menu for this link to be associated with. We previously created the "Members" menu so we should see this as an option. Select this as the parent menu and press save. You'll now see your 'about us' link in the "Members" menu.

Saving your menu

There's one last step you need to do: save the menu. It may not be apparent just yet, but although you've added a link to that menu, your changes aren't available to the visitors until you "save" the menu.

Imagine if you added a link, but realized that you have made a typo after saving the initial link. If your changes went live immediately, your visitors would see a misspelled link in your menu. Rather than all changes being made live immediately, you need to save the menu once you're done adding or editing links. This allows LogiCreate to cache the entire menu structure once it's saved, resulting in increased page rendering times for your visitors. (Note: once you click 'Save Menu' you'll be presented the same screen again – the menu has been saved)

Viewing the results

If you click the "View Site" link at the bottom of the site menu, you'll be presented with your current LogiCreate site, complete with your new menu. If you click the link, you'll be taken to the HTML page you created. Remember we said to only show it to registered users so if it says permissions denied to view this document then it worked (unless you are logged into the site).

Nested links

Putting together one menu with a few links is fine, but as your site grows you may want to have extra links that aren't always visible. LogiCreate provides a way to have multiple levels of menu links below "top" level menu links, and the levels under the top link are only visible in the menu when the top link is selected.

For example, you may have "Company History", "Contact Info", and "Investor Relations" pages, but you don't want to make them the primary focus of the links in the menu. It probably makes more sense to relate those pages to the "about us" menu item.

Once you've added the "Company History" page as a link in the menu, you can then click the "move" link on the "Company History" menu entry. You'll be asked to give the link a new "parent" (top level owner might be another way of thinking about this). Select the "About Us" link as the "parent" and click "save".

The "Company History" page will now be shown as an indented child item of the "About Us" page. Don't forget to save the menu again!

Menu Strategies

HTML Module

The HTML module allows you to add, edit or remove pages to and from your site. The HTML module is one of the most useful features of the system, making it easy for novice users to easily access and edit page content. The HTML module's basic function is to allow for editing and creation of simple HTML files.

Acessing the HTML Interface

There are two ways to access the HTML module, one is the quick link labeled "Managed Content" and the other is to use the module menu which allows you to access and control all modules.

• Manage Content - Due to the frequent use of the HTML module, we have placed a quick link in the site menu for your convenience. Looking at the site pane within the control panel, you will see the option of "Manage Content" as seen to the right. Clicking this link will take you to the main HTML module interface.
• Using the Module Menu - Another way to access to the HTML main interface is to go to the modules menu above the site menu and select "HTML Viewer". Select this option by clicking on it which will highlight it to blue. After it is highlighted, press the "admin" button. Upon pressing the admin button you will be taken to the HTML main interface.

Adding a new HTML Page

In the main HTML interface click the "Add a new page" link. You can start with a template or with a blank page. The templates are good for basic news and articles. There are four things which you have to complete on the following form in order to add a new page to the site. The form is a multipage form controlled by tabs. Click the tabs on top to access different parts of the from. The required fields are as follows:

• Filename - In this field, enter the name of the file you wish to create along with the extension (normally .html). An example of an entry would be specials.html.
  (Note: it is customary to give HTML files a .html extension, you will have an easier time working with this or other tools if you stick to using the .html extension)
• Title - Entering a descriptive title for your document is very important. search engines as this is the title that will The title is used as a reference by many programs such as web browsers, editors, search engines, and the like. Be specific and concise when creating a title for your page. This field is limited to 85 characters.
• Include Groups - The HTML module uses the existing groups to determine whether or not a user is allowed to view HTML pages. Highlight all the groups that you would want to access to this page. Highlighting "Public/Anonymous" would allow everyone, even visitors who are not registered or logged in, to see this page. If you select no include groups, then anyone who tries to view this page will be presented with an error message. To select more than one group, click and drag or hold "ctrl" on your keyboard while selecting the groups.
• Exclude Groups - Exclude groups are the complete opposite of include groups, you can specifically eliminate a group of user from seeing a document. It is entirely the same as highlighting all but one include group, except when you have users in multiple groups. See the following example for a scenario in which exclude groups can be used effectively.

  Example: You want to post a page that will display special announcements to users who have registered on your site, but you do not want newly registered people to see it. Only users who have been registered for 2 weeks, and their accounts have been verified by an admin can see this special page. So the page should be visible by all registered users except new users. Since a user can be a member of both groups, this is a good candidate for exclude groups. Highlight "Registered Users" in the include groups field and "New Users" in the exclude groups field.

• File Contents - The file content area is a large text area that accepts HTML. Any HTML formated content placed in this text area will appear in the content area of your site. Only content portions of HTML should be placed in this area, not entire documents.

The news/article management system is a multi-purpose article management system. The purpose of the system is provide a means to submit any type of information to your web site to keep your readers informed. Different sites use this feature in different ways. Some use this to module to keep their customers informed of up and coming events. Other examples may be press releases, employee news, howto articles, white papers, etc. Anything that is in article or news format can be submitted or managed with this module.

Navigating the Interface

To get to the main interface from the HCC select "Article Management" or "News" in the module menu and then press "admin". The screen you are taken to is the main interface for the news/article module. Let's review the links you see on this page and explain what each one allows you to do.

Overview

The SEARCH module integrates with other modules to provide your LogiCreate powered web site a site wide search. This allows visitors or users of your site to search all content which use the search manager. By taking the information created using other modules such as HTML, FAQ and NEWS modules and centralizing it, the search module allows a fast and efficent way to search the site.

The search module is a stand alone application and must be run after each piece of content changes if you wish the site to reflect the new chanages in search engine. Just as popular search engines such as Google search or re-index your site every month or so, you need to re-index your site as your content changes. Some users choose to update their search engine once a day or once a week. How often you want to update your search engine is up to you.

• Re-Index - When clicking the "Re-Index" button you are compiling all of the information within the selected module into the search engine.
• Drop old indices - Checking this option tells the SEARCH module that you wish to clean that particular modules indexed information from the search engine and re-index all of the information.

After re-indexing your search engine you will be given information on how many items were indexed into the search engine.

When should you re-index?

As stated above, when you re-index the information in a module is up to you, however, you should always re-index when you change the permissions associated with a particular piece of content. Since the search module also adheres to the group/user permissions if you happen to change the group on a piece of content then the search engine will allow users in the old group to find this information. Even though the permission system will override their actions it is recommended you update the search so users in that group can no longer find that information in the search engine. If you are using LogiCreate as an Integrated Site this is of the utmost importance as individuals using the search engine could find private information.

Updating the Site's Search Engine

Select the search module in the module menu and press admin. The next interface you are presented with is an overview of the different modules which have been tied to the search engine. Moving from left to right you will see: the module name, number of indexed records, number of items currently indexed, and the re-index button. To re-index your content, select the appropiate module and press "re-index". This will re-index all content for this module so the search engine is up-to-date.

Indexing Custom Modules

If you have had a custom application written for your LogiCreate site and wish this information to be searched by visitors, contact your LogiCreate developer to have them add a search tool for this module.

For developers: Files stored in /pathtologicreate/services/search/admin/ which have the extension .lcs are called "Search Plugins". For example, the file FAQ.lcs is the search plugin for the FAQ module. To build a search plugin for a custom module use these pre-done search plugins as a guideline.

When would I not use the option of 'drop old indicies'?

If you have alot of documents the process of re-indexing all of the items within a module can be slow depending on the number of items. If you are maintaining 100+ documents within your HTML module and decide to add one more document, you may want to uncheck the 'drop old indicies' to save time and stress on your server. By unchecking this option, you are telling the search engine tho look for any new information that it hasn't already indexed within a particular module and merge the new information into the old. However, if you change information on existing documents then you will need to re-index the entire module and drop the indices.

FAQ Module

The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) module was designed to let you create questions and answers for your customers / clients that are or will be commonly asked about your website or business. The FAQ module is integrated with the exisiting group and user system in that it checks each FAQ to make sure the user is able to view the FAQ. This idea of having private and public FAQs allows you to separate FAQs easily based on a user's group. The FAQ module organizes its FAQs using its built in top-level category system.

Navigating the Interface

To administrate your FAQs select the FAQ module in the modules menu and press "admin". The main FAQ interface provides information in real-time about the FAQs entered. On each line you'll see the FAQ's question followed by the category you've placed it in as well as the number of times each FAQ has been viewed.

Adding a new FAQ

To add a FAQ to the system, click the link labeled "Add a new FAQ" on the left upper portion of the interface. You'll get a new interface for adding a question and answer:

The dicussion forum module allows you to setup public and private threaded discussions based on the group/user permissions built into LogiCreate. By integrating the forum module into the group/user permissions you have the ability create public, private or moderated discussions.

Main interface

To access the main interface for the forum, select the forum or "Discussion Forum" link in the module menu and press "admin". If you have any forums created, you will see these forums including some statistical information about each one. Before continuing any further, let's take a closer look at each of the pieces of information displayed and go into detail about what each piece means. The main interface gives you the option of adding a new forum via links on the top left and bottom left of the interface. We will go into detail on adding a forum later though.

For each forum that was created you will see the following information:

• Forum ID - A unique identifier used to label your forum. Think of this as a "code" or an identifier. The Forum ID can be up to 15 characters long and made up numbers and letters.
• Forum Info - General information about your forum.
  • Discussion Name - The name of the forum.
  • Discussion Description - The description given to your forum.
  • Default - A status indicator whether the forum is set to accept the post or if it's to be moderated.
  • Upload Count - [temporarily disabled] - Allows users to upload files with their posts.
• Posts - Basic statistical information
  • Visible - # of posts that are visible. If the forum is moderated, only posts that have been reviewed and accepted by the moderator are counted.
  • Pending - # of posts that are awaiting approval by a moderator. Only used if forum is set to be moderated.
  • Threads - # of top level threads within the forum.
• Most Recent Post - Date of last post.

Adding a Discussion Forum

To add a forum select the forum module from the modules menu and press the "admin" button. Next, click the link that is labeled "Add a new forum". You are now looking at the "new forum" interface, lets review the options that are given to you below and discuss each one.

• Forum ID - The forum id field is the "unique" name for the forum. The forum id can be made up of 15 characters with numbers and letters. This field is not optional. DO NOT USE SPACES IN THE FORUM ID. The Forum ID field serves no purpose visually for the user, it is simply the key to access the forum and must be unique from the other forum ids. For example, if you are creating an employee forum, the Forum ID could be "employee". If you create a second employee forum, its name could be "employee2", etc.
• Forum Name - This is obviously the name of your forum. This name is what visitors to your site will see when they visit the forums.
• Forum Description - An accurate description as to what the discussion topic is. Your users will take this into consideration upon writing messages to stay on topic of the forum. To use our employee example again, the description might be "Private discussion forum for employees of Acme, Inc.".
• Email Notification - By filling in a valid email address(s) separated by commans, upon every post to this forum, the message will be emailed to this email(s). Usually this is combined with the next item labeled "Required moderator approval of posts" to ease the moderator process of having to login and view every post individually.
• Require Moderator? - You can setup your forum to be an open discussion (not moderated) or every post must be approved before being veiwed by the general audience.
• PERMISSIONS (PER GROUP)
  • view - Allow this group to be able to view this forum.
  • post - Allow this group to post messages.
  • moderate - This group can moderate this forum. This allows them to "suspend" or "delete" items posted to the forum.

Fill in the information that is needed to create your type of forum and click "Submit";

What are these permissions for?

The purpose for the permissions is to allow or disallow groups of users to be able to view each forum. If you wanted to setup an 'Employee discussion' forum, you wouldn't give access to the anonymous/public group because that would mean anyone could see and post information into the the forum. Having permission at the forum level also allow you to have one forum system which can be used for Intranet/Extranet/Internet purposes without the need to run multiple install of LogiCreate. See below for examples of how to setup different types of forums.

Deleting a discussion forum

Viewing the main interface for the discussion forum there is a link labeled "del". Click this to remove the forum from the site.

Reconfiguring a discussion forum

Viewing the main interface for the dsicussion forum click on the forum name. Make any changes you wish and click "submit".

My boss wants me to setup an employee only forum, how do I do that?

First off, let's assume you have created your employee user accounts and placed them into a group of their own. To start click "Add new forum" on the main forum discussion interface. For the 'forum id' lets enter "employee", then for a name, put in "Employee Discussion Group" and enter a description describing that this forum is for the employees to discuss matters of work.

After this is enter you have to make a choice. Do you want to moderate your employees forum, or let them post freely? If you want them to speak freely, leave the "forum notification" blank. Since we've already chosen not to moderate the employee forum, we're going to select "No moderation" in the field "Require moderation".

Next we set the permissions for the forum. Under 'public/anonymous' group, make sure nothing is checked, after all this is for employees only. Find the group that belongs to your employees. Make sure view and post are checked. Now select Administratiors with everything, giving any administrator the power to remove any posts at their discretion. Click submit, and now we have a forum that is only viewable by employees and administrators. Only administrators have the power to remove old or offensive messages but all messages appear instantly without needing reviewed.

How do I create an anonymous, but moderated forum?

Follow the steps in adding a new forum above to navigate to interface which allows you to add a new forum.

• Select a unique forum id for the forum, lets call it 'myforum' then we'll enter 'Anonymous Forum' into the Forum name.
• Fill in the description with whatever you wish.
• We've decided that we want this forum to be moderated, we do not want any posts to be shown unless reviewed and accepted by a moderator. The question now is, do we want any new posts to be emailed to us (the moderator) or do we want to check the forums for new posts? Lets have it email us for review. Enter your email address and anyone elses email address seperated by a comma.
• In the next option "Require Moderator", select "Post must be approved first" option. This is where we define the ability to allow anyone to view/post messages.
• Under the groups 'public/anonymous' and 'register users', place a check in the following options: view and post.
• For the group Administrators place a check in the following options: view, post, moderate. Review the information before submitting, make sure it's what you want.
• Select 'submit' and now you have an anonymous forum that is moderated

Note:: A great advantage to using LogiCreate is coming up with ways to use groups to your advantage. For example, using the user and group system in LogiCreate you can create a moderator group and instead of giving administrators moderator privileges, add the people you want to moderate your forums to this group. This will allow you to setup multiple people as moderators without giving them access to other applications.

Photo gallery Module

The photo gallery module is used to post pictures or albums to your web site. This module works similar to other applications so we will not cover it in detail however we will explain the different configuration options and how you create different Albums.

Configuration

There are several configuration options which need to be configured before using the Photo Gallery module. Let's cover each of these. To configure the Photo Gallery module select the module in the module menu and press "conf". The following are the fields you will see:

• THUMB_MAX_Y - Sets the maximum number of pixels for the Y coordinate (the height) for thumbnails. (Example: 150)
• THUMB_MAX_X - Sets the maximum number of pixels for the X coordinate (the width) for thumbnails. (Example: 100)
• THUMB_DIR - By default all images uploaded through the photo gallery are stored in the default images directory. This fields sets the directory where the thumbnails are stored on the server by default. The default values entered are usually acceptable. (Example: photos/thumb/ )
• PHOTO_DIR - The name of the directory where the photos you upload will be stored relative to the images directory. (Example: photos/ )
• PHOTOS_ROW - The number of rows you want to specify for your photo albums. (only enter numbers)
• PHOTOS_COL - The number of columns you want to specify for your photo albums. (only enter numbers)

Managing your Albums