Getting Started

Before using your site, complete the following basic configuration steps.

User account

Once logged in, visit the my account link in the navigation menu in the sidebar, and select the "edit" tab. Be sure to change the

• Username
• E-mail address
• Password
• Enable the "Personal contact form." Students will then be able to email you directly from the site from the contact tab on your user account page.
• Select the "Personal Information" link at the top of the page and fill in any of the personal profile fields (optional).

Note: You can always edit and change these settings later on.

Site Settings

Enter some basic information for the site on the administer >> site configuration page. Click on "Site infromation" to make these changes:

• Name. The official designation for your class (e.g., "ENGL 106, First-Year Composition").
• E-mail address. The official email address for the site (e.g., your email address).
• Slogan (optional). A subtitle for your class (e.g., "Writing about the University") that will appear in the header of the page underneath the title.
• Mission (optional). A description of your class. This text in this field will display permanently at the top of your course home page.
• Footer (optional). A default copyright message has been added. You may want to change the date of the copyright.
• Save your changes

Return to the administer >> site configuration page. Click on "Date and time." Select your "Default time zone." Pick the one that matches your current time.

Note: Be careful about arbitrarily making changes to other settings. For instance, it is recommended that you do not enable "Cache support" unless you run a very, very busy Internet site and your server is having trouble supporting it.

Now you can begin customizing your site and posting content.

Providing Course Materials

At some point, you'll want to begin posting course materials into the sample pages (e.g., course description and calendar) and creating your own pages. Read more about how to work with these pages and add additional ones in Adding and Managing Course Materials.

Public vs. Private Site

By default, this site is configured to be a public space where anyone may view posted content (except attachments and private profile information) but only logged in site members may post content. To change the site so that posts are private on the Internet, see Configuring a Private Website.

Adding and Managing Course Materials

The course materials and this configuration guide have been created using book pages. The following pages have been created for your use. You will need to fill in these pages with the approved course descriptions for your courses, day-to-day activities, and course projects.

• Course Guide
• Course Description
• Course Calendar
• Projects

You can edit these and add your own. As each new page is added to a book, it is inserted into a menu structure much like a table of contents. Book pages have navigation elements for moving through the text, such as the previous, up, and next elements visible at the bottom of each book page. Drupal automatically generates the book navigation block which appears with this text.

Creating book pages

• Visit the create content page and choose to create a book page.
• Enter a Title for your book page.
• Select the Parent page to place the book page into the appropriate place in your book structure. If creating a new book for which there are no pages yet, choose <top-level>. Note: you can always edit an existing page and use the Parent setting to reposition a book page within the text.
• As with any other page, enter the text to display within the Body.
• By default, book pages with the same parent or ordered alphabetically by title and given the default weight of 0. Use the weight to override the defaults. Lighter numbers (negative numbers) will rise to the top of the order; heavier numbers (positive numbers) will fall to the bottom of the order.

• Use the printer-friendly version link visible at the bottom of any book page to generate a plain text, printer friendly display of that page and all of its child (sub) pages. This feature is useful for making a backup of all of your documents loaded into the course book.
• Use the outline tab when viewing any content type--blog, story, poll, forum, etc.--to add it into a book.
• Go to the books administration section (administer >> content management >> books) and select your book title from the sidebar navigation menu. There you can easily view a list of all pages in a book and change the order of them.

Configuring Site Navigation

The blocks in the sidebar(s) on the left and/or right can be managed through the blocks administration interface (administer >> site building >> blocks). You can

• turn blocks on or off.
• configure individual blocks so that users may choose whether to turn them on or off
• change their location to left or right, or move them up or down.
• configure individual blocks to show on specific pages or areas of the site.
• create custom blocks (see the "sample block").

The menu administration interface (adminster >> site building >> menus) will allow you to customize the main navigation menu (the one with your username as a title). You can create new menu items, rearrange existing ones, or even create whole new menus.

Navigation links in the header also can be modified in the menu administration interface. The links in the header are called "Primary links." Some themes use a different theme generation method, so you may need to configure these links by configuring the theme itself through the theme administration interface. Other themes may not provide navigation links in the header at all.

Configuring a Private Website

By default, this installation has been configured so that only those registered on the site may post content, but any Internet site visitors may read posts. To change this configuration to a private website where only those logged in may see content,

1. Go to administer >> site building >> modules.
2. Enable the Front Page module.
3. Save your changes at the bottom of the page.
4. Go to Advanced front page settings.
5. Change the Default front page from node to front_page.
6. Save your changes at the bottom of the page.
7. Go to administer >> user management >> access control.
8. Uncheck the box in the "anonymous users" column in the comment module section for "access comments."
9. Uncheck the box in the "anonymous users" column in the node module section for "access content."
10. Uncheck any other boxes in the "anonymous users" column which you might have enabled.
11. Save your changes at the bottom of the page.

Now logout. Now that you've made your site private, you will be able to see the front page, anonymous visitors won't be able to see or post content without logging in first.

Managing Content and Comments

The recent posts page will list the most recently updated pages, including those with new comments. Students and teachers may access this page. Logged in users will find a red asterick * beside all new or updated content, as well as a message denoting the number of new comments since the page was last read. A similar view for each individual user is available via the "track" tab on each user's account page.

The content administration interface (administer >> content management >> content) allows you to review and update the status of all main content (stories, blogs, forums, polls, etc.). Go to the content types administration interface to

• specify default workflow settings for individual content types.
• enable/disable comments.
• provide customized submission guidelines that will appear at the top of the input page for each content type.

A similar comment administration interface (administer >> content management >> comments) provides access to all comments on the site. Further configuration options are available through the "Settings" tab on that page.

You can also control who can create comments and create and edit various content types at administer >> user management >> access control.

Users: Site Access, Registration, and Posting

Drupal has a permission system which places users into roles/groups of users. A visitor who is not logged in is an anonymous user and a newly registered user is an authenticated user. An additional role has been added to this installation, an administrator which is given full access on the site. In the original account setup, the root super user account which was created first (the teacher's user account) is not affected by the Drupal permission system.

Some configuration tips:

• Registration. The user settings page will allow you to change whether users can register on their own, require administrator approval, or not at all. The email sent to users can also be changed here, as well as the registration page information guidelines that users see when registering.
• Posting comments. In the comment module section of the user configuration, the access control page controls whether or not anonymous users or authenticated users can post comments at all or only with moderater approval.
• Upgrading permission status. Many sites will need to have more than one site administrator. Visit the users page and select the user you wish to upgrade, then click on the "edit" tab. Look for Roles and check the appropriate box, then save your changes.

Populating the Course: Registration

To avoid spamming, you must make certain that the user settings are set so that "Visitors can create accounts but administrator approval is required." This will prevent spamming while allowing students to join the course during the add/drop period and to register with your approval.

Recommended: if your site is public on the Internet, for privacy reasons, encourage students to use a screen name instead of their full names. This little bit of anonymity still puts the writing/writer at risk since the writing is public, but not the student.

Using File Attachments

Students and teachers can attach files to all content types, including comments.

By default in this site (this setting can be changed), the link to the file attachment is only visible to logged in site users. This way, teachers may post materials "for one-time educational use only," and students may share drafts of texts which should not be public on the Internet. However, the files are public; only the links at the bottom of the page are hidden. If the link to a file is posted in a comment or other post, the file will be available to anyone.

You can

• enable/disable file attachments for individual content types at administer >> content management >> content types.
• configure file size, number of files, and acceptable file types administer >> site configuration >> file uploads.
• control who can upload and view attached files at administer >> user management >> access control.

Adding Categories Tags to Posts

A vocabulary (set of categories) can be supplied for users to tag their posts with (see Kairosnews posts for an example).

You can

• Try a sample vocabulary which has already been created.
  • Go to the taxonomy module in administer >> content management >> categories.
  • Select "edit vocabulary" to the right of "Category Tags" in the list of categories.
  • If you don't like "Category Tags" you can give the vocabulary a new name
  • Check the boxes beside the Types of content you want the vocabulary to be available for.
  • Note that the Required checkbox controls whether or not users have to pick a category term when posting.
  • Submit your changes.
  Now whenever a site user creates a post of one of the selected types, this set of terms (category items) will be available for them to tag their posts.

You can also

• Add terms (category items) to an existing vocabularly or edit existing terms at adminster >> content management >> categories.
• Create a new vocabulary via adminster >> content management >> categories.

By default, category tags are indexed on the Category Tags page. This page provides a live update of tags used on the site and the number of entries associated with each tag.

Posting Images

There are two solutions for posting images to the site:

• Using file attachments. Students (and teachers) can use file attachments to load an image into their blog, story, book page, etc. Once the image is attached, they can use HTML to display the image in that page. See Using File Attachments.
• Image module. The image module creates a new content type specifically for managing images. Each image post contains a title, image, and text (some kind of description). Image pages can be included in image galleries. To configure:
  • Enable the image module at administer >> site building >> modules.
  • Edit the existing image gallery or create a new one in administer >> content management >> image galleries. If you do not want an image gallery, you can delete the existing one.
  • Add subsections to existing galleries using the add term option at administer >> content management >> categories

Changing the Default Weblog Configuration

This site has been configured for using blogs in the classroom. In its default configuration, it assumes that

• users will be posting to their personal blogs.
• all blogs can be viewed together through the blogs listing page.
• the front page will be reserved for teacher announcements, assignments, etc.
• the teacher can promote selected student posts to the front page (to promote any post to the front page, click on its "edit" tab and select the "promoted to front page" checkbox under "publishing options").

Teachers who would prefer to have all student blog posts appear on the front page automatically can change the default setting for blog posts.

Teachers who might want to make the front page a community weblog where all students can post and eliminate the individual blogs should

1. Go to administer >> site building >> modules.
2. Disable the blog module.
3. Save your changes at the bottom of the page.
4. Go to administer >> user management >> access control.
5. Check the "create story content" and "edit own story content" boxes in the authenticated users column. (Note: be careful not to check the same boxes for anonymous users or anyone will be able to post to the site).
6. Save your changes at the bottom of the page.

Creating a Wiki

This site can provide very basic wiki functionality. It will allow anyone on the site to edit a special kind of page regardless of who is the original author. Wiki pages may be created by clicking "Wiki" on the create content page. By default, students may edit wiki pages, but they cannot create them. Only administrators can create wiki pages. Students may be allowed to create wiki pages by checking the "create wiki content" box under the "authenticated user" column on access control page.

Enable/disable comments and set other defaults for wikipages at administer >> content management >> content types >> wikipage.

Using Forums instead of Weblogs

Some teachers may prefer to have students use forums for posting content instead of blogs. Just as with blog posts, teachers can choose to promote selected student posts to the home page (to promote any post to the home page, edit it and select the "promoted to front page" checkbox under "publishing options").

To enable forums:

• Turn on the forums module in adminster >> site building >> modules.
• Create a forum through the administer forum interface.
• You may adjust forum settings by clicking on the "settings" tab in the administer forum interface.
• Visit the main forums page to see if the forums are available. You may activate a link to this page in the main navigation menu through administer >> site building >> meuns.

To disable blogs

• Turn off the module in adminster >> site building >> modules.

To make the main forums page the site front page:

• Go to administer >> site configuration >> site information.
• Change the "Default front page" to "forum."
• Save your changes as the bottom of the page.

Note: If you have made your site private by enabling the Front Page module, you will need to make the change for the home page in administer >> site configuration >> Front Page instead.

Live Chat

Live in-site chat may be enabled through adminster >> site building >> modules. Once this module is enabled, you may control what user roles may create and access chat rooms through administer >> user access >> access control. As an administrator, you may create multiple chat pages that may each contain multiple chat rooms. Chats are archived automatically.

Private Messages and Grade Information

By default, private messaging is enabled on your site. Think of private messages like email, except that private messages only circulate on your site. This can be useful, because course communication may be aggregated in one place instead of spread across multiple applications. More importantly, Private messages are secure and may only be seen by the intended recipient. For this reason, Private messages should be used to transmit grade information instead of email.

You may send and receive private messages by clicking on the My inbox link. You may send a message to a user by clicking on the "Compose" tab. The "To:" blank should contain the recipient's username (this blank will auto-complete, so you only need to type the first few letters). Then enter your subject and message, preview it, and click "Send private message." The "Sent messages" drop-down box in your inbox saves the private messages that you have sent.

Site users may also send you private messages using the same procedure. Your messages will appear in your inbox. When you have new messages, a number indicating the number of new messages will appear in parentheses next to the My inbox link. You will also see a notification at the top of every page on the site indicating that you have new messages until you read them.

Additional Modules and Features

This guide has only touched on only a few of the modules and configuration options which are available with this site. As you become more familiar with administering the site software, you might want to explore some of the many other modules which are listed on administer >> site building >> modules but may be currently disabled. Other Drupal modules are available on the Drupal Modules page. Contact J. Tirrell to have some of these modules installed. (Some beta modules are not allowed because they may cause conflicts with the current Drupal installation.)

Licensing

The text of this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Some parts of this text are derived from the Drupal handbooks available on drupal.org.