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Avalon Sailing Club

Website Operations Guide

Prepared by : Steve Read, Kingsley Forbes-Smith

Version : 1.2

Date : 12 Oct 12

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Contents Document Overview ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Website Overview ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Background ................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Accessing the website ................................................................................................................................................... 4

Folder Structure ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

Content Publication and Presentation - Conventions, Tips & Tricks ................................................................................ 5

Generating Content ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

How to Create an Article ................................................................................................................................................... 7

Preparation: .................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Process: ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

How to send a Mass E-mail ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Preparation: ................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Notes: .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Process: ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11

How to update user details ............................................................................................................................................. 13

Preparation ................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Notes ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Process: ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13

How to create a Calendar Event ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Preparation ................................................................................................................................................................. 15

Process: ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Notes ........................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Appendix A – Community Builder Field Comments (Oct 2012) ...................................................................................... 17

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Document Overview

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide complimentary notes to a hands-on web information session run for the

benefit of Avalon members. In it intended to act as an aide-memoire for common tasks rather than an exhaustive

and comprehensive guide to all functionality available on the website. The website is a dynamic environment and

screens, methods and approaches are likely to change over time. This document, in conjunction with the hand-on

training, will help Avalon members contribute with the generation, updating and use of information on the Avalon

website.

Website Overview

Background

The website has been created, and is maintained, to provide an immediate and primary communication mechanism

for the benefit of club members. It also fulfils a secondary role of informing and promoting the Avalon Sailing Club

(ASC) to the general public. This dual role of the website should always be kept in mind when creating and managing

content on the website: is this content targeted and/or suitable for public consumption or members-only? This will

define how the content is set up to be viewed and accessed.

The website is built on the Joomla! Open-source, Content Management platform. It is hosted by a commercial

hosting provider, Hostaway, in Perth. A mySQL database is used store most of the information used on the website.

Various modules have been deployed on the Joomla platform to meet the ASC website needs. Key module

functionality is outlined below:

• Community Builder (CB): This is a user management system that provides enhanced capabilities over the

default joomla user management system. It has been heavily customised to meet the needs of ASC and is the

core product used to manage ASC member information.

• Akeeba: This is used to provide automated backup and restore functionality for the website and is typically

only used and managed by the Super users (Website Administrators)

• JEvents: This provides the on-line calendar functionality

• RSVP Pro: This provides the event registration and on-line payments functionality

• Art-Data: This is used to extract and format content in database lists e.g. ‘Centreboard Sailors’

• MainTopDropMenu: the main navigation menu bar under the Avalon photo.

Architecturally the website can be considered to consist of five main layers:

• The folder structure

• The database which hold both configuration and website content

• The Joomla ‘Back end’ which holds the administration and content presentation information. This can be

considered as the ‘engine room’ of the website

• The Joomla ‘Front end’ which is the formatted and displayed website that users access.

• The User Template is the underlying definition that controls display layout, fonts, colour schemes etc.

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The layer inter-relationship is broadly as follows: The folder structure sits on a server provided by the hosting

company (more on this later). Joomla is located in one of those folders and the database is located in a Joomla sub-

folder. When a user requests a page from the website (by clicking on a link) the request goes from the front-end to

the back-end. The backend interprets the request and gathers the required information by extracting select

information from the database. The backend then assembles this information, based on formatting and

configuration rules using the User Template, and then passes this completed information onto the front-end that

then interprets the display information when providing the page to the user.

Accessing the website

The website database is one of the two main member-information repositories for the club (the other is the financial

system, MYOB). The website database has the widest and most comprehensive view of member details. As such it is

imperative that we maintain the privacy and security of this information, while keeping in mind the twin goals of the

website outlined at the start of this document.

To achieve this protection of content, a layered access system has been enabled on the site. Information that is

openly available to the public is classed as ‘public’ and does not require logging onto the website to be viewed.

Member-only content can either be designated as ‘registered’ or ‘member-only’ and will require the user to be an

authenticated user and logged onto the website in order to view the content. A third layer is ‘special’ where only

Administrators and above can view content. The menu system is consistent with this and only provides menu

options based on the viewer’s access level. A user must have Administrator rights or higher to be able to log into the

backend of the website. When articles are created, the author can select the appropriate viewing level for the

content and careful consideration should always be given to this. Consideration can be along the lines of degree of

personal information contained, member-only applicable content etc. Remember that your view of information

suitability for viewing publication might not necessarily be that of others members, so always err on the side of

caution. Members should be encouraged to always log on when visiting the website, so as to be sure to always see

all possible information available to them.

Folder Structure

To ease administration of the website, conventions are used when storing or uploading content.

• Where possible try to include a relevant year in the article title or alias. This assists us when cleaning up

old/obsolete content.

• The folder structure is self-explanatory: try to upload to an appropriate folder, not the same one all the time.

• We try to avoid storing large files within the Joomla folder structure to minimise backup times. In this

context assume anything over 200KB file size is too big. The Joomla file structure is the one you see while

working within an article, when preparing to upload a file. Large files are preferably stored outside of this

structure and backed up by an alternative method. Storing files outside of the Joomla folder structure (via

FTP) is beyond the scope of this document. Therefore, if you have a file over 200KB in file size, store it in the

‘Documents_for_filing’ directory. Periodically, the Web Admins will come through and re-locate these large

documents to a folder outside of the Joomla structure, re-pointing the articles to the new location. If you

have a set of photos, or a picture album, then you will need to store these outside of the website using a

cloud photo service (Google’s Picasa service is popular and free), and then link to this external location in the

associated article.

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Content Publication and Presentation - Conventions, Tips & Tricks

Generating Content

• At the backend, search for existing articles that can be re-purposed to save time e.g. last year’s Deck Party

Invite.

• If a person in a picture is identified by accompanying text in an article, their permission should be sought

before publishing.

• If a person’s contact details are in an article, then their permission should be sought before publishing unless

it is strongly implied e.g. they sent you an email asking you to generate an article with the content they have

provided that also includes their contact details.

• Generally, avoid identifying children by their names or at least full names in photos where practicable.

• Be aware that any content that is not of ‘registered’ level or above is open to being indexed by Google and

other search engines e.g. it will appear in Google searches – potentially for a long time, whether the

originating page continues to exist or not.

• Membership details e.g. member phone numbers in lists should not be publicly accessible as a rule. Speak to

a Web Admin if you suspect that this is the case, or believe that you have a justification for doing so.

• Pictures can be resized so they look the same, but take up less space, using common programs. With

increasing cameras resolutions, it is important that you review the size of every picture you intend to upload

and resize to ensure it will typically fit under 200KB in size. (There may be special occasions where a larger

file size is required - Speak to a Web Admin).

• The ‘News Snippets’ category is the most common categorisation for club notices and updates.

• Depending on the nature of your content it might make sense to create two articles. One is the main article

containing all the information, imagery etc. and the second is a small re-worded article targeted for the front

page drawing attention to, and being linked to, the main article. Use of the ‘Read More’ function is an easy

and effective way of keeping the front-page article small, while encouraging users to click for more info.

• In order to maintain consistency across the web site a decision has been taken that only the Web Admins

will manage the maintenance and allocation of articles to the menu display. If you would like to discuss

creation of a menu item please contact a Web Admin and they will review and assist.

• For a consistent and useable website, it is important to recognise that there are many competing priorities

for use of the website. You may have been tasked to promote an event occurring in two months’ time, but

that does not imply that you can ‘take over’ the website for the next two months, promoting and re-

promoting at every available opportunity. The Web Admins are there to assist you with the promotion of

your event if required, but will also have views on the promotion of the event in the context of other

promotions, events and important information notices that are also potentially competing for attention.

• Do not attempt to edit any page that contains lists e.g. ‘Centreboard sailors’, ‘Permanent Moorings’, ‘Sign-on

Sheets’ etc. Entering the edit mode on these pages is highly likely to corrupt the lists. Contact a Web Admin

if you think a page needs to be edited/updated.

• Event Registration and Payments On-line: This is not intended to be available as a self-serve capability for

set-up. Please contact a Web Admin if you need to organise one of these.

• Article formatting:

o The first line in an article’s content should always be the article title and formatted in ‘Heading 1’

style. The body of the message should be in ‘paragraph ‘style.

o Always use ‘Paste Special – Unformatted text’ (see article information below) to remove any

formatting in the copied content that can mess up the article formatting. Re-format if required using

the icons.

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o Avoid using font styles and sizes where possible. Allow the auto formatting to take place, to

maintain a consistent look and feel across the website. Typically you should only need to add Bold,

Underline and Bullets to the article.

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How to Create an Article

Preparation:

• Location: Front-end (website)

• Registered user of the website and logged in

• Content is sourced or prepared – particularly for longer articles

• Understanding about where you want to locate the article

Process:

1. Navigate to User -> Create a new article <select>

2. Complete the Title field. This will be the displayed title for the article. Do not try to apply any formatting.

3. Leave the Alias field blank unless you feel you need a secondary title for explanation. This is auto-created at

the time of saving your new article.

4. Select the appropriate Category for your article type. If it is a general, short-term update such as training

announcement, events etc. these are most often categorised as ‘News Snippets’.

5. Ignore Author Alias: it is auto-completed on save.

6. Leave status as Published. Unpublished means it is created but will not be available on the website.

7. Make your Selection for Featured. Yes means it will be displayed on the home (front) page of the website in

the central column, as well as elsewhere on the website. No means it will not appear on the front page.

Note, if selecting Yes, ensure that you use the Read More button described below to ensure your story

appears as only a snippet on the home page.

8. Leave Start Publishing blank if you want the article to be available immediately, or enter a date if you want it

to automatically appear at some date in the future.

9. Leave Finish Publishing blank if you want the article to be available continuously, or enter a date if you want

it to automatically remove itself at some date in the future.

10. Access. Select the appropriate group for visibility. Think about the sensitivity of the information you are

providing: is it suitable for anyone wandering around the internet or ASC members only? Do you have

private information included (members emails addresses/phone numbers etc.)?

o Public: No website registration required to see. Anyone, malicious or otherwise, can access this page

and its information. This is useful to communicate with members without them bothering to log-in.

As a simple guideline: if anyone is specifically identified in a picture, of names and/or phone

numbers are given for members, seek and gain their approval first.

o Registered: The viewer must be logged in to view this content. The downside of this is that if this is

informational, members will not see it unless they log in, since many do not bother you risk them

not seeing it.

o Special: This is only visible to Authors, Administrators and above.

11. Ignore the Language and MetaData boxes below this – onto adding the content:

12. The white box under the icons is where you add your content. The most efficient way is to type your content

without bothering about formatting – come back and do this later. Convention is that you first line is a

header/title (can be a repeat of the article title). This is formatted as the Heading 1 style, by selecting

(highlighting it) and applying Heading 1 from the drop down box:

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13. Type away at the content of the article. Try to avoid line spaces since these come out looking double-spaced

on the website. When you are finished you can start applying formatting using the icons:

Avoid using different font types and styles: let the webpage automatically applies a consistent look to the

content.

14. If you have created content elsewhere: use the copy command and STOP. Do not paste – this is the most

common cause of frustration when creating articles. Select the ‘Paste’ icon and then ‘Paste as plain text’

option:

Follow the instructions in the pop-up window to use the CTL and V keys to paste into the pop-up window.

This allows the automated formatting to take over. If you need to re-apply bold, bullets etc., you can do this

now using the icons above the text window.

15. If your article is to appear on the homepage, perhaps as a news update, in order to conserve space we only

want a teaser set of words and then encourage users to click through to the whole article. You do this using

the ‘Read More’ button. Select where you want this to be by placing the cursor at the end of the teaser

words. This is an effective way of teasing users into clicking onto the article to gain further information

without having to list all the information every time.

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16. If you wish to insert a link to another article or another webpage, you can use the insert link icon to achieve

this. Highlight the text that you would like to contain the link, then click on the icon:

A pop window appears:

o URL : This is where you paste the address of an external link. Click on the file icon to browse to an

existing article. The envelope icon allows you to enter an email address so that the viewer clicking on

this link will initiate an e-mail to this address.

o Text : This is the text that you want to use to display for the link e.g. “Click Here” “Click to view

picture” etc.

o Search : This box allows you to look for an existing article e.g. ‘Roster’ is will show the results of the

search and clicking on the appropriate article will load its address into the URL.

o Target : When this link is clicked do you want the viewer to go through to the link ‘not set’, or

launch the link in a new window ‘Open in new Window’

Ignore the rest and select Insert.

17. If you wish to insert a picture in the article, you can use the insert picture icon to achieve this.

A pop window appears:

o Navigate to the correct folder location in the centre column. Typically this will be for the current

sailing season.

o Click on the upload icon

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o Locate the file you want to upload on your local computer using your file browser and drag it onto

the grey area. Please keep file sizes small. If it is over 200KB, you probably need to re-size it before

uploading it to the website <- THIS IS IMPORTANT. Click the Upload button. The file will be

transferred up to the website and should appear in the list of files showing in the central column.

o Select the uploaded file in the central column by clicking on it. You should see it’s details appear at

the top of the pop-up box

o Select Update. Your picture should now be appearing in the article.

18. If you wish to insert a table in the article, you can use the insert table icon to achieve this.

o ‘Tab’s’ commonly used in word processing, do not work well on web pages. Tables are used to

provide a ordered layout for content

o The ‘Crew Wanted’ page on the website is an example of using a table to organise information.

o Click on the icon below:

A pop window appears:

o Use the drop down arrow to select the number of rows and columns: you can always add more later.

o The table can be manipulated using the additional icons:

19. With your article ready to be published, select Save. If it was a News Snippet, (and featured) check to make

sure it is displaying correctly on the front page.

20. Things didn’t go to plan?

o Can’t find your article after creation? This is typically because:

� You are expecting it on the front page, but did not select Featured? = ‘Yes’

� It was not categorised, or not categorised correctly, most likely is that it needed to be

categorised as a ‘News Snippet’.

� You can either go into Article Manager via the backend or if not comfortable with that,

contact an Admin and we will recover your article for you.

o Article does not look right or need changing?

� After logging into the front-end, you can either edit or delete (un-publish), using the icon at

the top of the page, without needing to get into the back-end.

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How to send a Mass E-mail

Preparation:

• Location: Back-end (Admin Entry)

• Registered user of the website at Admin level and logged in

• Preference is to use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer (as IE does not always display the links properly)

• Content is sourced or prepared – particularly for longer emails

• Understanding about how you want to target your email

Notes:

• While these are mass mail instructions, they can be used to send mail for smaller numbers down to a single

user if required.

• You should always send a test email to yourself to check formatting etc. before sending out to entire club.

• The first part of the Email ‘Subject’ will always automatically say "Avalon Sailing Club -" ... so the bit that you

type in will come after that.

• Email are shown as having been sent by "ASC Web"

• When a user hits "reply" it comes back to "ASC Web" and not you: see below for recommendations.

Process:

1. Log-on to the backend or Administrator Entry

2. Mouse over the Menu items: Components > Community Builder then select 'User Management'

3. Scroll to the bottom and select "Display# " ... set to 2000 (this displays all members on a single page)

4. Scroll to the top and click "Advanced Search" link

5. About 16 lines down Select 'Membership Status' IS NOT "Dormant" (so we do not try to e-mail past members

with email addresses that no longer work etc.)

6. About 16 lines down Select 'Updated for Season Ending Year' IS "2013" (so only current financial members

are included in the search.) If you wish to include current and past members, then ignore this search

critieria.

7. About 30 lines down ... select the drop down for "Groups of Interest" ... select "INCLUDE ANY OF" ... tick

"Club Everyone" or whatever..

8. Scroll to the top and click "Search". This list includes everyone based on the search criteria ... this year and

last and for both primary and secondary email addresses. Users with a "-SE-" after their name are users set

up specifically to allow emailing to a secondary address.

9. Tick the box in the header line to select everyone (270 people in August 2012)

10. Click the button "Mass Mail" in top right corner of screen

11. Type in the email subject

12. Paste in the message preferably (or write it). You may want to consider adding the following, to ensure any

replies you are looking for, come directly to you:

PLEASE DO NOT HIT "REPLY" TO THIS EMAIL. Refer to the contact details within this email.

13. Change the settings to 20 (or less) emails per batch (reduces chance of going automatically to spam bucket)

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14. click "Send Emails" button ... top right corner

15. Monitor progress.

16. NOTE: If you wish to send from your personal email address, follow the steps above through to, and

including, step 10 above. All the selected email addresses will now be showing at the top of the page.

17. Click on the email addresses and highlight them all. Then use CTL+C to copy and CTL+V to paste them into

the BCC address line on your personal email system.

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How to update user details

Preparation

• Location: Back-end (Admin Entry) Note: this is preferable, but it can be done front the front-end.

• Registered user of the website at Admin level and logged in

Notes

• The singular most important point in updating user information is that you DO NOT do the obvious! That is

do not edit/update the User System that appears on the ‘front page’ after you have logged in or appears on

the top menu as ‘users’. Explanation: The joomla website comes with a default user management system

and this is what is seen on the front page and menus. The Avalon website uses an enhanced User

Management system called ‘Community Builder’ which is an extension, and builds on top of, the default

system. If you enter users/update information in the default system then this will not be reflected correctly

in the enhanced system and lead to strange results, or the need to re-enter users correctly.

• You cannot edit users of the same level e.g. Admins cannot edit other Admins. If you need admin details

changing you need to have this done by the ‘Superusers’ – currently the Website Admin team.

• The correct method to access/update user information is to navigate to the following location:

o From the top Menu bar, select ‘Components’ then,

o ‘Community Builder’ -> ‘User Management’. You should see a display like this:

Process:

After you reach this screen you should see a list of all users on the database. Where you navigate next, and what you

do next depends on what you are looking to achieve. Therefore the following are general guidelines rather than a

defined process:

- You can find a user by entering part of the information into the Search field: this is a powerful search that can find

the record with part of surnames, user names, emails etc. press Tab or Enter to search.

You can select a record by clicking on the blue ‘Name’, or send them an email by clicking on the email address.

When selecting a user by clicking on the name, a tabbed display of the user information will appear:

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Clicking through the tabs will show the grouped information for this user.

Important fields to take note of are as follows:

Tab Field Comment

Passwords These are blank to obscure the password. If you type in

them, you will reset the password and users may not be

able to log in.

Contact Info Published Phone 1/2 These are the fields that appear in public list and numbers

may not appear in them if members choose not to publicise

those numbers.

Membership Status/ Year This is a key field that the system uses to determine if a

member is financial. This should NOT be altered unless it is

part of a Treasurer-involved reconciliation

Groups of Interest These are used for targeted emails currently and planned

users lists in the future. Multiple boxes can be selected.

Adults Info Adult x sailing in This defines the lists that the Adults appear in e.g. Cruising/

Racing. For those that have a boat, but have not paid a fee

e.g. cruising, leave blank so they do not appear in the list as

a financial cruising member. The same for racing.

Yacht payment 1 This indicates who is responsible for paying the yacht fees

.e.g the racing fee. This is particularly relevant for shared

ownership/syndicates. Note that the club only support 1

nominated owner for payment; we do not support split

fees. The splitting of fee payments is managed outside of

the club, between the owners.

Children Child x in Group y This drives how the child(ren) shows up in the centreboard

lists

Storage Storage x request. Please refer to the Rack/Storage Manager to confirm

availability and allocation; this will then be updated by the

Admin team when payment and allocation is finalised.

Note that this field is also used for moorings and drives the

permanent moorings allocation list on the web.

Club Payment complete till This should not be updated without being part of a

Treasurer-involved reconciliation.

When your viewing/editing activity is complete either hits Cancel to leave without making changes, or Save.

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How to create a Calendar Event

Preparation

• Location: Front end.

• Logged in

• Have prepared any content that you want to include in the calendar entry

• Been in contact/discussion with the web admin team if you wish to have registration/payment enabled for

the calendar event.

Process:

1. Log-on to the front-end of the website (normal website view)

2. From the top menu select which calendar you want to insert the calendar event into. (Combo being the

usual since visibility is controlled by the access setting (see below)

o Public for events that can be seen/accessed by anyone without logging in

o Private for events that require logging into the website for viewing. Typically club-only events such

as the Xmas Party.

o Combo combines both calendars and you can determine at time of event creation which calendar

you want to display the event in by selecting the appropriate access level.

3. For the purposes of this explanation we will create a club only (Private) event. Select the ‘Combo’ calendar.

4. Navigate to the month then day of the event you want to create. Hover the mouse over the day until a ‘+’

sign appears in the top-right corner. Click on the ‘+’ sign. You should see the following display:

5. On the ‘Common’ tab, enter the following information:

o Subject: the name of the event (this will be its title)

o Select Calendar: Choose ‘ASC-cal’

o Select Category: select the most appropriate category – this will colour-code the event and have it

appear in category searches.

o Set the Access Level – this will define which calendar your event appears in (Public/Private/Combo):

� Public: anyone can see it without logging in (Calendar: Public & Combo)

� Registered: you need to log-in to see it. Typically club training events, races/cruises since

these are not open to the public (needs Cat 7, payment of fees etc.) and non-public parties.

(Calendar: Private & Combo)

� Special: Administrators can view only – typically for test events (you need to be an Admin to

see…). Select Registered. (Calendar: Private & Combo)

o Activity: Provide the description/information on the event

o Location/Contact/Extra Info: self-explanatory

6. Move to the Calendar Tab and set/confirm the timing of the event.

7. Select ‘Save’ from the top right icons.

8. Double-check the event in the calendar to ensure it displays correctly.

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Notes

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Appendix A – Community Builder Field Comments (Oct 2012)

Nothing to see here!

Images are optional and hardly used.

Essential:

Family name,

Email address, if none use ‘familyname’@avalonsailingclub.com.au etc.

Published phones: available to other club members, must be 1

Registered is automatic:

Updated for season: *** trigger*** for everything financial, lists etc

Mailing name: used for all club mailouts, must be current

Insurance used for boat owners only

Groups Interest: used for sorting bulk email lists, multiple is fine

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Ignore the “techo stuff”

Group: is where “super admins” upgrade your web membership

Adult info:

Last name ** only if different to family name (otherwise it repeats, repeats)

Membership type: *** trigger invoice*** Family or Adult etc

Boat type, As a (crew, helm), In Group: ** trigger into various lists

(sailors, boats, storage etc)

Sail number: used to match on sailing list

Same for this adult: sailing a second boat,

Payment triggers another invoice amount (for a 2nd

boat)

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Children general information

Membership Type: ** trigger invoice**

Date of birth, weight optional used to help match helm / crew

Boat type, as a: trigger for lists,

Sail number: used as match for lists

Child sailing second boat

Storage type: *** invoice trigger

Boat type, Request: used in lists

Storage for 4 separate boats per family

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Check list complete: not used at moment.

Payment complete, Levy, Paid: *** treasurer ONLY to change

Admin Invoice comments: Treasurer and super admins only. (shows on

invoice check list)

Risk Notice, Declarations: may be used

Cat 7: used by cat 7 inspector: shows in yachts lists

General admin comment field, used to share information between

admins, may be seen by members, do not use negative comments.

Key, committee info: being updated