SECTION SEVEN
7. The Administration Menu (installed Modules)
The area of the Guide will explain how to administrate your site by adjusting the settings in your Administration Menu. The areas are grouped by importance and priority.
In this area you can configure the basics of your website including your sitename, slogan, start date, administrator email, default theme, if users can override the default theme, the time zone offset (from server-time), the start page (news is recommended), number of stories to appear on the homepage, the contents of the footer, your security options, and HTML tags that are allowed in news posts.
7.2 The Modules and Blocks 'menu'
This menu allows you to install, activate, deactivate, and remove modules from the Postnuke system. In order to view all installed or deactivated modules, click the "list" link. To view all available modules, click the "Regenerate" link. Be very careful changing anything here. You could easily completely disable your entire site!
This menu allows you to view all the blocks that are active on your site and move them around. Click the "view blocks" link to see all the installed and active or inactive blocks on the site. You may activate/deactivate, edit, or delete blocks from this list. Each block has unique parameters to edit. You can also add a new block by clicking the new block link. There are many types of blocks to add. You can experiment and delete blocks you do not want.
As an administrator, you can add and delete users, modify their information and change the groups they are in.
Edit/Delete User: Simply type in the users name, select Edit or Delete and click OK.
Add a user: Fill in the required fields and click the "add user" button. Be sure to email the user their information!
To make a user an admin: (WARNING: this will allow them to do anything you can!)
1) Click the "Groups" link in the Administration Menu
2) Click the "Admins" group name
3) Click "Add a User to Group" link
4) Select the username from the drop-down list and click the "confirm" button.
You can place users into other groups in a similar manner, but you would have to create the groups first.
News management is one of the prime functions of a Postnuke website. Both Admins and Users can submit news stories. Stories submitted by Users will be held (not published) until they have been approved by an Admin.
After a User submits a story, when an admin visits the site, in the upper left there will be a waiting content link. Click there and then click "preview story" and GO. Then read over the story and if you deem it worthy then select "post story" (at the bottom) and then click the 'submit' button and the story will appear on the front page. You can also choose to delete the story.
Topics are used to categorize your news into areas. Each topic can have a related icon that represents that area. Some Topics are preinstalled on your site. You can add more if you like by clicking the "Topics" link in the administration menu. If you want a graphic for that topic, you need to upload your graphic to the images/topics/ directory on your server. Then fill in the appropriate values and click the add topic button.
This menu item is for Admins to submit a story. Stories submitted in this method will not be reviewed by another admin, but be directly posted to the site. To submit a story, do the following:
1) Click the "Add Story" link in the Administration Menu
2) Enter a title, choose a topic, fill in the story text, the extended text and the note and select "post story" and click the "OK" button. The story is posted immediately.
You can also choose other options in the Add Story module such as programming the story to appear later. Experiment with the options to see what is possible.
The Submit News link in the Administration menu only configures what happens when a user submits news. So - don't be confused!
The Submit News link that is available on the main mage of the site (either in the Main Menu or elsewhere) is what a user should click on to submit their own news. The interface is very much the same as the Add Story link in section 7.4.2, so it won't be further discussed. The difference between them is that stories that are submitted using the "Submit News" link must be approved by an admin before appearing on the site.
Admin messages are announcements that appear at the top of the main page but do not appear on other pages. The block that contains the message appears in the center column above the news stories. You can have as many separate admin messages as you like. You can also configure messages to only appear to certain groups (anonymous, registered users, admins). To create an Admin message:
1) Click on Administration, Admin Messages
2) (optional) Type the text of your title.
3) Type the text of your content.
4) Click the "active" radio-button.
5) Select which groups can view the admin message.
6) Click the "add message" button.
You can also delete or edit existing messages in the table at the top of the page.
Web Links is a module that allows users to share links (URLs) to web sites they feel are valuable. Any user can submit a web link.
To submit a link:
1) Click the "Web Links" link in the main menu.
2) Click the "add link" link at the top of the page.
3) Enter the required information (be sure to select a category).
4) Click the "add this URL" button.
To administrate Web Links:
1) Click the Administration link in the main menu.
2) Click the "Web Links" link in the Administration menu.
3) From this page, there are many options. Most are self explanatory.
a. In order to get the link ID in order to modify it:
i. Click "Web Links" link in the main menu
ii. Select the category that contains the link you are looking for.
iii. Hold your mouse pointer over the link and view your browsers status bar
iv. The link will include something like
http://www.server.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Web_Links&file=index&req=visit&lid=1
v. The end part: "lid=1" is the link id (1). Note the id and go back to the admin page to modify.
On your site, users have the ability to send each other private messages. If you have the pnPHPbb2 modules installed there is actually two mechanisms to perform this task. A private message is similar to an email except that the user must login to your site to retrieve the message. To send a private message do the following:
1) Click on the tag next to the online user in the "Who's Online" block or click on the PM icon in the member list.
2) Type a subject and message and click the "submit" button.
To check your own Private messages, click the "(2 | 5)" next to your own name in the "Who's Online" block.
If your do have the pnPHPbb2 module installed, you should read their documentation about private messages for more information on their implementation.
7.8 The Modules you probably don't need care about
This module allows you to censor objectionable words in text that is posted on the website. If you are the only person (or if you trust the other people posting to your site) then you don't need to worry about this.
The Comments module allows users to post their own thoughts on your site. You can use this area to administrate that ability.
FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions is a module that allows you to post Answers to questions that users frequently ask. In order to use it, you need to set up categories. Once you do, you can add content.
Permissions is what makes parts of your site unavailable to certain groups. The system is very touchy and it is recommended that you do not change the settings unless you know what you are doing.
In order to use the Polls module, you need to install the Poll block (in the Blocks menu) first. Then you can use this item to configure your own poll.
7.9 Third Party Modules You *may* have installed
http://www.xexpress.org/
Tutorial: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xexpress/ContentExpressGuide.pdf?download
Content Express is an excellent way to add content to your site in a way that is more permanent than normal news stories or Admin Messages. It can be excellent for meeting minutes, text documents, even documents with embedded photos. It even has a WYSIWYG editor that functions much like Microsoft Word. Because the tutorial linked above explains how to use the module pretty well, this guide will not explain any more. When you read the tutorial, you can assume that you already have a working installation, so you can skip that part. The site also maintains a support forum where you can get additional questions asked.
http://www.pnphpbb.com/
Guide: http://www.pnphpbb.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=main&file=index&req=users
PNphpBB2 is a Forum (discussion board) module that allows your users to have discussions on your website. The guide that is linked above is very thorough and should answer most of your questions. The site also maintains a support forum where you can get additional questions answered.
http://onlinebible.sourceforge.net/
phpBible is a module that provides access to multiple versions of the Holy Bible. The developer's documentation is provided in Appendix 1 of this document. If this module is installed on your site, it is configured with at least one working translation.
http://www.pnaddons.com/
pnBloodhound is a module that tracks users. The module uses a block on the front page to display who is on your site and their location within your site's pages. There is very little to configure with this module, but you can see the options from the administration menu.
http://noc.postnuke.com/projects/postcalendar/
[old site: http://www.postcalendar.tv/]
PostCalendar is a module that provides you and your users a calendar of events that can be viewed and searched. The old documentation is available here: http://postcalendar.tv/wiki/. I expect that it will be moved to the new site at a later date. For more information, please check both sites.
http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/jens.goebbert/index.html
The UpDownload module is a replacement for the standard Postnuke Download module. As the name implies, this module allows you to upload files to allow others to download them. In order for it to be useful, you must first add categories in the Administration menu. Then you can upload files using the web page interface. Once they have been uploaded, they are available to others on your site.
http://www.smiatek.com/
pnEmployee is used on many of our sites as a directory of officers and committee chairs or a contact us page. It is relatively self-explanatory to configure and use. One major feature that is not explained well is that in order to add a user's photo, you must FTP their photo to the modules/pnEmployee/img/ directory. That photo will then be available in the drop-down select menu. More information is included in Appendix Two of this document.
http://canvas.anubix.net/
http://canvas.anubix.net/codebrowserpntm.php?foldertohighlight=pnTresMailer/docs&filetohighlight=install.txt
pnTresMailer is a module to allow you to send email-based newsletters to users who have elected to sign up for it. More information is available from the link above.