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Research Group and Committee Administration Instructions-James VanEe / created Nov 14, 2001 / revised Apr 30, 2002
When you log into the site and go to 'member tools', you will see a link allowing you to administer any group(s) for which you are set as an administrator. When you click the link, you will see a mostly white page with three links at the top:
I will go through each, sequentially, describing the features as we go. It might be helpful to have two browser windows open, one pointing to the administration, and the other to your group's web page. First, a couple of general notes:
General Information:
NAME: Self-explanatory. Generally it won't be necessary for you to change this field. INTRO/MISSION:
You can enter a mission statement or other introduction. Remember, you can use html tags to help format the text. STATUS:
Can be 'Active', 'Former', or 'Disabled'. You generally do not have to be concerned with this field. OTHER TEXT/NEWS:
An excellent place to draw attention to an open research group study or a new publication or event. You have a choice of where to position the text on your page. This should be fairly self explanatory. Remember to click 'Save Record' when you are finished making your changes and then proofread and examine the changes on the public group page. Membership:
This is a slightly more complex interface. I will try to explain it in terms of common tasks ADDING A NEW MEMBER:
On the right hand side of the page, you will see the 'Add Member - Search' section. This will search the ABRF directory by last name for a member to add. If J. Smith has just joined the group, you can type 'smith', 'smi*' or 's*' (* is a wildcard as described on the page). When you click search, you will be presented with a list of members whose last names match your query. Click the 'radio button' (circle) next to the appropriate person's name and note that information appears in the 'Group Member Information Editor'. The 'Active Date' will be by default today's date. You may set a date in the past or future if appropriate. You can set an inactive date if one is known or appropriate. This date can be in the future or past (see 'MANAGING GROUP HISTORY' below). The 'Type' field specifies the role that member has in the group. The 'Type Other/Notes' Field would be appropriate for an EB Liason along with 'Type'='other'. If a member, chair or ad hoc, this field can be used to communicate additional information about the person's role. Check the admin box if you want that person to have access to this interface via their 'Member Tools' . Now you must click the cryptically named 'Select a Member' button to add the person to your membership. This is the equivalent of 'Save Record' (This wording is a mistake and will be corrected to be intuitive). NOTE: A group may have only one chair at a time, but you can use the 'Other' field to designate a co-chair REMOVING A MEMBER
Generally you will not want to remove a member entirely, because we have a mechanism for maintaining a group history. If you did want to remove a member, highlight the appropriate name in the list to the left and click the 'Remove Member' button. You will have to read and say 'Ok' to a warning box. MANAGING GROUP HISTORY and ROLES
Let's say that one of your current members is retiring from the group on March 1. Select their name in the list to the left and click the 'Edit Member Info' button. Their information will appear in the 'Group Member Information Editor' at the bottom of the screen. Enter the inactive date (3/1/year) and click the 'Select a Member' button. On March 1, that member will automatically be moved from 'active' to 'inactive/historic'. A new chair has been selected and the old chair is reverting to a regular member. First, you can take the current chair and set an inactive date. Then add that same person again but make sure the active date corresponds to the inactive date for their record as chair. If the chair-elect is currently a member, you should basically repeat the procedure: set an inactive date for the person (as a member) and add them as a chair with an active date corresponding to the start of the term. This system can handle members who are members for a while, leave the group and return later. The flexibility of this interface allows you to manage membership history and roles in different ways than what I have described. There has already been some suggestion of improvements to the way group histories are managed and presented. The web committee is considering changes and improvements. Your suggestions are welcome. Resources
When you enter this section you will see on the left a drop down menu labeled 'Select an existing resource...' plus a 'view' button and on the left you will see an 'Add New Resource' link. I encourage you to compare your existing pages with the information that shows up in the 'Select an Existing resource...' menu. This may help you to orient to the types of resources available and how they are presented on the web site. ADD NEW RESOURCE
Clicking this link will open a blank form
SELECT AN EXISTING RESOURCE
Wll open the record of the resource you choose for editing.. NAME/TITLE:
Depending on the type of resource and whether or not there will be detailed text associated with this, you should enter a name or title that is meaningful for administration purposes (this is what shows up on the 'Select an existing resource...' link. If you will be adding 'Details text' (covered below), the title will not show up on the public page. TYPE:
Please explore the groups to see how we (the web committee) organized your content as we migrated from the old site. ORDINAL RANK:
By default, resources are listed in order of entry. The ordinal rank field allows you to re-arrange the order of presentation on the public page. You can put in any interger (positive or negative) and the resources will be presented in the order of those integers.For those with the same rank, order of entry will be used. While adjusting these you may want to use 'gaps' to facilitate re-ordering. (i.e. use -10,0,10 instead of -1,0,1) DETAILS TEXT:
This is an optional field. If you enter text here it will show up on the public page instead of the Name/Title. This is the space to abstract a poster, enter bibliographic info for a publication, or describe a study. Remember you can use html code in this area to assist in formatting the record. STATUS: Generally you will want to leave this enabled. If you want to remove a record from public view without losing information, select disabled. DELETE RECORD
Only available when editing a record. Use only when necessary. Often 'Status: Disabled' is all you need. EXPIRY DATE: A record will become disabled after this date. useful for open studies or other time sensitive information. FILES AND LINKS:
This is an optional but very powerful element. It can be used for generating a link to online journal as part of a publications's bibliographic reference, an off-site study form, or other link.
Well that's about it. If you have any feedback on these instructions or suggestions for improvements, please let us know at webmaster@abrf.org.
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