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Help
Purpose
Back-End is a Content Management System (CMS) which allows
an administrator to change almost all of the visible text on the site through
a web browser (Netscape/Internet Explorer). With the exception of the header,
footer & sidebar most of the other elements of the site are dynamically
generated to allow for ease of maintenance.
Contents
Definitions
Admin
Article Section (organize
articles by theme)
Build Article Page (create specific
page to load an article)
Link Sections (organize link by theme)
Banner Admin (Control Banner Ads - if used)
Poll Admin (Manage Polls - if used)
Users (To manage user access)
Guestbook (To manage a guestbook - if used)
Template Upload (To upload changes to the template
- if used)
Navigation Bar (To Modify the left navigation
bar)
Content
Articles (Add/modify articles)
Bianary Upload (Upload pictures gif/jpg)
Links (Add/modify links)
Facts(Add/modify facts/quotes - if used)
Help (This document)
Logout (Logging out from the admin area)
Homepage (Open up the home page in a new window)
Definitions
Super-Administrator - The person who sets Back-End
up on the server and adjusts the PHP/MySQL
Administrator - The person(s) who have the greatest control
over the dynamic aspects of the site. This is somewhat restricted because
this person can significantly change the shape of the site.
User - A user can add articles, links & facts to the
site, but has a more limited scope. If you want a co-worker to help add
content to the site, but you want to limit what they can do, this is likely
the best access to give them.
Banner User - Banner users can just vew the banner stats
that an administrator has been given access to. Generally this would be
an advertiser. Your site may not require this type of access if you are
not using banners. Admins can set up access in the Banner Admin Section.
Visiter - The people who browse the site.
Admin
The Admin section allows users to create sections
for both Articles & Links. This is just a way of organizing different
files so that it is logical for both you and your visitors. This section
also allows you to manage a number of other key areas of the site.
1) Article Sections
Article sections are an organizing tool to help catigorize information.
You can create sections for any number of specific topics and group related
articles in each section., creating two or more levels of categories. For
example, you could create a section called "WTO." A list of general articles
about the WTO would appear when you click this link, as well as a list of
sub-categories, if you want/need them. If you created a sub-category called
"GATS" then this would appear as a link. By default, when visitors are using
their site they will see a list of all of the articles included in that section.
Articles are displayed with the first 50 characters of the body of the message.
If there are also subcategories, these will also appear as links at the bottom
of the Article Section. This can however be modified by the Super-Administrator.
To create an article section:
Click Article Sections from the Administrators Menu;
Click Create new record near the top of the screen;
Fill in the following information:
a) Under Section - If this is a subsection, list the section that
it is within (If you have a section on farm animals, you may want a sub-section
on sheep). If it is a primary section leave it on "Select".
b) Name - This is the name you choose for your Article Section (For
example WTO), and will be the link to apear on your finished web site. Also,
this name will become part of the URL (i.e.
http://halifaxinitiative.org/hi.php/wto/) Should be short, unique &
URL friendly (Spaces will get converted to +, most symbols should be avoided).
c) Template - You have to choose a formatting template here. In most
cases your Super Administrator will set up a couple of templates for you
to use (ie. main.tpl and print.tpl). You are not limited to these templates
though and itthe administrator can modify and upload new template files
as required (These are located in /includes/templates). The standard naming
convention is *.tpl, but if you create new templates you can name them what
you like.
d) Content - If you wish you can write a full description of the section
for your visitors. There are the same restrictions for this content box
as there are in the Articles editor. However, if you want any formatting
to appear on the page the visitor sees, you must include HTML tags.
e) Alt Name, Alt Content & Alt Template are an optional set of
parallel fields that allow for a second language to be easily integrated
into the site. If this is not required these fields can be left blank
f) Before the information is saved into the database you will need to click
on the "Create this Article Section" button at the bottom of the page.
The new section or subsection will now be created in this database.
g) Articles (see below) and Subsections
(see above) can now be added to this section.
2) Build Article Page
If you want to associate an article with a specific file, you can build the
article page using this tool. This form asks for the article number, the
template you want to use and the file name you want to create. It can be
used to link an specific article (ie. articleID 334) to a specific php file
(i.e. http://airdiv.cupe.ca/about.php
)
3) Link Sections
Like article sections, link sections allow you to organize your information
into related groupings. Links do not yet support sub-categories. Creating
a new record will allow you to organize links within that topic (i.e. You
may want to organize all of your Linux links).
4) Banner Basic Banner Administration
(optional)
Modify clients purchased AdViews & AdClicks and view statistics for your
banners.
5) Poll Change the poll's question or options.
(optional)
Create new poll for your visitors to use. Sympoll has been integrated to
allow a multi-poll tool to be added to the site.
6) Users
Creating a new User There are 3 types of User
- Administrator: who has the ability to do everything, including
adding New users
- User: who has the ability to add Articles, they can only
see the articles that they have created
- Banner User: who has the ability to add articles but also
see their banner statistics
Adding a new user is very straight-forward, all you need to do is think
about what this user will be doing on your site
If they are to have total access, make them an administrator.
If they are to only have ability to add articles, make them a user.
If you want to a) add banners to your site for this users and 2) allow this
user to view the statistics of thier banners, make tham a banner user.
(in this case extra database tables are populated when the user is created
and you can now go to "Banner Admin" and add banners for this user)
- So all this being read and understood, simply click
Users from the admin menu
- Click Create new Record
- Fill in all the details for your new user, making sure
that the password is not obvious =)
- Select what type of user this is to be, making sure you
have read the notes above
- Click Submit these new details
Your new user has been added to the database and can immediatley login and
add content to your website
7) Guestbook (optional)
Allows you to delete items added to the guestbook.
8) Template Upload
(optional - advanced)
You can upload new templates into the templates directory using the Admin
Interface.
Back-End 4.x has incorporated a template structure for increased flexibility
and user control. Templates are just standard html files, except that the
dynamic content (the stuff that is stored in the database that you can control)
is inserted into the templates using {TAGS}.
Back-End is presently using the following:
- {title}
- {banner}
- {news}
- {counter}
- {navbar}
- {content}
When developing templates use absolute adresses (either begin with http://openconcept.ca/
or if you are starting from the root directory /) for the images used in
the templates.
9) Navigation Bar
The navigation bar is dynamically generated and allows individuals to add
or remove links from the main sidebar.
Name - This is the title of the link. Shorter
names will be easier for your visitors to recognize and click on.
Link - The desired URL (i.e. http://halifaxinitiative.org/).
When you create a new article section Back-End will generate a URL for that
section. You can see these URL's by going to the Article Sections page and
clicking on [Edit]. The URL will appear at the bottom of the page. URL's
for articles appear the same way.
Priority - determines the order the links will appear
on the page (beginning at 0). For future insertions it is advisable to leave
spaces between the links by choosing numbers like 10, 20 & 30 rather
than 1, 2 & 3. You do not need to fill this in, as 2 or more links can
share the same number, but this is the only way to assign which order you
want them to appear.
Content
1) Articles
To add a new article to your site:
a) Click Article from the Content Menu.
b) Click Create new record near the top of the screen.
c) Fill in the following information:
- Section - You must choose one of these.
- Submitted By - You must choose one of these.
- Title - Enterthe title for your article.
- Content - You can write your content here. You
can enter it in as text by typing it in directly or even cutting and pasting
the information from an email. You can also use HTML codes which you can
cut and paste from Netscape's Communicator or any other WYSIWYG editor
- New Article Options - Depending on how you write
your content, you may want to select Plain Text, Full HTML, or Extended Translation.
Plain Text is useful for uploading email articles quickly to the site.
Extended Translation will strip out many unwanted html codes. Full HTML
will take all but <TEXTBOX> or php tags
Press Submit these new details, the new article has now been created
in the database.
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