IT - Frequently Asked Questions

Below are a list of common question. Please check them before making an IT request

Administrators

How do I change a group owner?

Find the "group id" of the group, this can be best found in the "join groups" page. Then go to http://www.ewb-uk.org/node//edit. Change the author of the node to the username of the new group owner

A user wishes to have their group membership changed/become an administrator/leave a group?

This is really the responsibility of the group owners as they know excatly if this request is appropriate or not, so try to contact them using the user contact forms.

As a last resort you will need to go to the groups members page at /trunk/og/users/

How do I add/change a mailing list?

This is a two step process. You will need access to the Plesk environment. Firstly in ewb-uk/mail/mailing lists, add a list, setting details appropriately

Go to http://www.ewb-uk.org/admin, Click mailman manager and add the details. You must add the name of the list and the "request email address" which will be supplied from mailman.

This should now appear on the main mailing list page at /mailing_lists/all

How to create a new branch?

1. Change any maps and mentions of branches in public site to include the new branch as well. 2. Create the group. MAKE SURE YOU SET SECURITY TO APPROVAL REQUIRED. 3. Create a "group homepage" type with skeleton details and note the relative url. Make sure you set this to "public" and in the groups audience assign it to the new group, otherwise members will not be able to edit it 4. Go back to edit the group at node//edit and add the "group homepage"

How to create a group?

Groups creation process is identical to branches but only requires step 2 above

Groups

What are groups?

The groups system allows you to post an item and have only a small number of site members see that item. For example, the placements team have a group where they review applications which are not visible to other users.

A group has an owner and any number of administrators. They can publish and edit information in their group, and add extra members.

A group also has members who can only view information and post in the group forum

How do I use groups?

By creating a group you can work in a team on a project or as a branch. You can make pages for resources, discuss in the group discussion forums and post news items and events to the rest of the site when appropriate.

The "group homepage" is the main resource which shows the progress of a group. If you are a group member you can access it from the dashboard

I'm in a group but I want everyone to hear about the great event/news story that happened to us?

All news items and events are public. Hence they will appear on the members dashboard to see when you post them. If you wish, you can also set "Front page" within "publish settings", the news will now appear on the external site

I would like our news item to be one of the features on the front page?

The front page is controlled by the web team. The first post of call is to send an email to Andrew Lamb through his contact forms.

How do I change the group owner??

Request this to the IT tracker with the name of the group and username of the new owner

What happened to picture x, forum y or page z from the old site?

Due to changes in setup, some information has been archived, removed or moved. Fear not, this information still exists. Try searching for the item in the search box. If you cannot find it then post the details to the IT tracker and we will see what we can do

Our group is full of random stuff?

There are many differences in the way the old EWB site and the new one works. This means that there are likely a lot of things that are no longer needed. In particular, a lot of the old site content was rewritten but older versions may still exist. Feel free to do some spring cleaning and unpublish items that seem useless (see item below)

How do I delete an out of date item.?

The simplest thing to do is to go to the item click edit and then in the "publish settings" unclick the "publish" box. The page still exists but will not be viewable.

What are subgroups?

If you have a project in a group, then you can make a subgroup with a subset of members. This allows private discussions between the subset of members, say a commitee in a branch. At this time this facility is quite experimental, so we would be interested in hearing feedback on its use. There is a thread here on the IT tracker add your comments to it

In my group I see "no group feature set"?

I wish to change the group features?

If you have no feature set, then simply chose the item you want to be published, edit it and in "publishing options" set to "group feature"

The group feature shows the most recent item with "group feature" ticked. To display older items you will have to untick newer items

Rules for writing articles?

We encourage you to use the rich text editor to write articles.
--If you use images please compress first. This is simply a matter of going into a paint package and saving as a jpeg, resizing and reducing quality. This allows your pages to load quicker
--To insert an image hit the image icon and then hit the button by the side. It is recommended you use a thumbnail and link to a large version. You can have you image flow on the left or right hand side.
--Links are done by hitting the link icon. Local pages can be set relatively, so for http://www.ewb-uk.org/about/policy can be referred to as /about/policy

Using plain text editor?

If you hate the rich text editor then use html mode

Branch public page?

We have set up the facility for a single page that a branch can update themselves. This page is for you to do as you choose, you can update it once a year or every day.

Users

I cannot see page x.?

First make sure you have logged in.

The website operates using a "groups" system. An item is posted within a group. If you are not a member of that group you may not be able to access it. If it obvious what context the post was made in, then apply for membership to the respective group or ask the person who posted it

I cannot edit page x?

In the groups system, a page is posted within a group. If you are a member of the group you will be able to view the page only.

In the top right corner of the page you wish to edit, you should see a link to the posted group. Are you a member or an administrator? To become an adminstrator you need to request that you be promoted to a group administrator. Find an admin in the group you know, and request to be promoted through the contact forms.

I requested to join group x but I am not a member yet.?

Most groups require approval from an administrator. Be patient, they will have been informed by email. If you receive no response after a few days then contact IT and we will try to resolve it for you

I want to contact someone in EWB-UK. Do you have their address?

On the member dashboard, click 'find users'. Search for the name. Click the link and then you will see a link to contact this person. (Note: If you don't see this for a user, they do not wish to be contacted)

I've forgotton my password?

In the members area, you can request a new password. If you have also changed you email address then add you problem to the IT tracker and we will resolve for you

Where can I add photo galleries?

Galleries should be easy to setup. Go to http://www.ewb-uk.org/gallery and add a gallery in the appropriate section

I want to join a mailing list?

This page has a list of our running mailing lists.

General

I am interested in website writing/administrations/setup/programming/open source. How do I get involved?

The IT has an ambitious set of goals for this site and we would like you to be involved. That could helping us keep the website in good shape by making people follow good practices, writing guidelines, helping with problems or coding and fixing bugs.

These roles are open to anyone, either technical or non technical. This is an opportunity to experience working in an environment. If you are interested contact Andrew Lamb

I think I found a bug in the site?

Please post to the IT tracker

Some of the information on the public site is wrong?

Please post to the IT tracker

There is some feature we really need for the site?

The site has been designed after discussion with IT professionals, information designers and members throughout the organisation. Hence ,be prepared to have you idea scrutinised. If we think the idea is sound we may add it to out road map. In the first place, post to the IT tracker

Research Team

How do we post reports.?

Firstly ask an IT administrator to give you the "Create research reports" permission

This will allow you to create a report of some of EWB-UK's research. The link is on the members dashboard. Please ensure that you have agreed the content with the research team before you proceed.

Once you have posted the report, it will be linked from the "Knowledge" section of the website under the appropriate sub-header that you selected

Funding Team

How do we track donors?

Firstly ask an IT administrator to give you "Access CRM" permissions

This will allow you to access the EWB-UK CRM (Customer Relation Management System). We have tried to make this system as simple as possible to use but it is essential that you are trained and understand how to use it before proceeding.

Please contact Andrew Hunt or one of the funding team for assistance

Web Team

How do we publish information to the front page?

You have control over the top "primary item" and the two "sub items". The news, events and forums are generated by the website users.

Firstly ask an IT administrator to give you "Web Editor" permissions. It is vital that you are trained before attempting to post to the front page, and that the item has approval to be posted

You will need an image to accompany your article. This can be a photo of the item, also the web team has access to a number of stock photos that you can use.

You now need to crop the image. If you are making the top item you need to crop to 598 pixels wide. You can choose the height depending on the size of wording although we suggest that between 100 and 150 pixels is a good guide.

For the smaller features the size needs to be 100px x 100px

Make sure your image is of high enough quality in the first place, try colour-leveling if it seems a little dark