Discussions
The Discussions manager allows you to provide visitors the opportunity to build stronger relationships with your organization through personal interaction. Discussions are also a great tool for coordinating and archiving inter-office communications.
Who has access:
You must have one of the checked permissions to use this manager.
Guest
Member
Contributor
Editor
Administrator
Discussions Coordinator
- TITLE: Enter a title for your Discussions section. This title will appear on your main menu should you choose to display the link.
- ADD LINK TO SITE MENU: Select "Yes" from the drop down menu to display the link on your menu. Select "No" from the drop down menu to not display the link on your menu.
- SEARCH SUMMARY: Enter descriptive information to be used for Search Engine data and Site Search data.
- SHORTCUT: This allows you to make a shortcut to your Discussions manager page. It will be a one word entry (i.e. discussions). It can be accessed on the Web by typing in www.yourdomainname/shortcutname. (For example: www.yourdomain.com/discussions).
- DESIGN OPTIONS: Click the design option that is currently shown. A window will appear with the other designs you made available in the Additional Designs section of your Designs manager. Select the design you want to apply to this page.
- Click the Save
icon in the upper right corner of your screen to save your Discussions manager settings.
- Add/Edit page contents using the Page Editor. For help with the functionality of the Page Editor, see Using the Editor for more information.
- Click the Save icon in the upper right corner of your screen to save your Discussions manager page settings.
This feature is only applicable to those who have the People manager.- Select an appropriate person from the drop down menu. The list of names that appear is populated from your People manager. The person must have an email address entered in your People manager in order to appear.
- Click the Save icon within the dialog box.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each Coordinator you want to add.
- To delete a Coordinator, click the Delete
icon to the left of the person's name.
Add/Delete Panels
- Click the Panels tab.
- Using the first drop down menu, select the panel you wish to display.
- The panel you select will appear in the preview window at the bottom of the Panels dialog box.
- Using the second drop down menu, select the display position for the area you want the panel to appear on your site.
- Click the Save icon within the dialog box. Repeat this process for each panel you wish to add.
- To delete a panel placement, click the Delete icon to the left of the panel title.
Update Panel Position and Order
- Click the Panel Name
- Using the first drop down menu, select the display position for the area you want the panel to appear on your site.
- Using the second drop down menu, select the order in which you want the panel to display. By selecting "1", the panel will appear first within its assigned position. By selecting "2", the panel will appear second within its assigned position.
- Click the Save icon within the dialog box. Repeat this process for each panel you wish to update.
Search Community Content
- TITLE: This is the title of your Discussion.
- PROMOTE ON HOME PAGE: Select "Yes" to automatically add a link to the current Discussion to the feature (Just For You) section of your home page.
- CONTENT ACCESS: This allows you to set the minimum security level required to view your Discussion. For more information on setting access, see the People manager.
- Guest: This allows anyone who visits your site to view your Discussion.
- Member: This allows only those who have Site Member access or greater to view your Discussion.
- Site Contributor: This allows only those who have Site Contributor access or greater to view your Discussion.
- Site Editor: This allows only those who have Site Editor access or greater to view your Discussion.
- Site Administrator: This allows only those who have Site Administrator access to view your Discussion.
- POSTING: This allows you to set the minimum security level required to post to your Discussion. For more information on setting access, see the People manager.
- Guest: This allows anyone who is a registered user of your site to post a message to your Discussion. The user must be logged in to post to the Discussion.
- Member: This allows only those who have Site Member access or greater to post a message to your Discussion.
- Site Contributor: This allows only those who have Site Contributor access or greater to post a message to your Discussion.
- Site Editor: This allows only those who have Site Editor access or greater to post a message to your Discussion.
- Site Administrator: This allows only those who have Site Administrator access to post a message to your Discussion.
- EDITING: This allows you to set the minimum security level required before a user can edit his/her previous post. For more information on setting access, see the People manager.
- Guest: This allows anyone who is a registered user to edit their previous post to your Discussion. The user must be logged in to edit his/her previous post.
- Member: This allows only those who have Site Member access to or greater edit their previous post to your Discussion.
- Site Contributor: This allows only those who have Site Contributor access or greater to edit their previous post to your Discussion.
- Site Editor: This allows only those who have Site Editor access or greater to edit their previous post to your Discussion.
- Site Administrator: This allows only those who have Site Administrator access to edit their previous post to your Discussion.
- AUTO-POSTING: This allows you to set the minimum security level required before a user can automatically post to your Discussion. For more information on setting access, see the People manager.
- Guest: This allows anyone who is a registered user of your site to automatically post to your Discussion. The user must be logged in to post to your Discussion.
- Member: This allows only those who have Site Member access or greater to automatically post to your Discussion.
- Site Contributor: This allows only those who have Site Contributor access or greater to automatically post to your Discussion
- Site Editor: This allows only those who have Site Editor access or greater to automatically post to your Discussion.
- Site Administrator: This allows only those who have Site Administrator access to automatically post to your Discussion.
- PUBLISH DATE: Click the calendar icon to the right of the Publish Date field to bring up the interactive calendar and choose the date that your Discussion will be available to users. Leave the Publish Date field blank to make your Discussion available immediately. Alternatively, you may click inside the Publish Date field to bring up the interactive calendar.
- EXPIRATION DATE: Click the calendar icon to the right of the Expiration Date field to bring up the interactive calendar and choose the date that your Discussion will expire. The Discussion will appear through the end of the date you select. The end time is determined by your Time Zone selection within the Home Page Settings area. Leave the Expiration Date field blank to make your Discussion available immediately. Alternatively, you may click inside the Expiration Date field to bring up the interactive calendar.
- SEARCH SUMMARY: Enter descriptive information to be used for Search Engine data and Site Search data.
- SHORTCUT: This allows you to make a shortcut to a specific Discussion. It will be a one word entry (i.e. mydiscussion). It can be accessed on the Web by typing in www.yourdomainname/discussiontitle/shortcutname. (For example: www.yourdomain.com/discussions/mydiscussion). Note: You must create a shortcut in the Manager Settings section of the Discussions manager in order for the shortcut to the specific Discussion to work!
- Add/Edit Discussion contents using the Page Editor. For help with the functionality of the Page Editor, see Using the Editor for more information.
- Click the Save icon in the upper right corner of your screen to save your Discussion contents.
This allows you to make a Discussion viewable only by users in the selected group or groups. The user must be granted Member access or greater within the group to see the Discussion. For more information on setting access, see the
People manager.
- You must first setup your target groups in the Groups manager.
- Users must be assigned to the group to be included in the target groups. This can be done by the individual through setting his/her preferences at log in or by changing those preferences from your Web site's home page. You can also do this manually through the People manager.
- Choose the group you wish to grant access and click the Save icon in the upper right corner of the dialog box.
- To delete a group, click the Delete icon to the left of the group name.
This allows you to limit promotion of this Discussion's content on your Home page to specific groups.
Note: You must set Promote on Home Page to "Yes" to promote the page. This tab only appears if you have the People and Groups managers.
- You must first setup your target groups in the Groups manager.
- Users must be assigned to the group to be included in the target groups. This can be done by the individual through setting his/her preferences at log in or by changing those preferences from your Web site's home page. You can also do this manually through the People manager.
- Choose the group you wish to grant access and click the Save icon in the upper right corner of the dialog box.
- To delete a group, click the Delete
icon to the left of the group name.
Subscriptions allow a user to receive new posts to a Discussion by email. Users may subscribe themselves to the Discussion by clicking on the envelope icon next to the Discussion's title on the site. To manually add a person to the subscription list:
- Select the user from the drop down menu. Note: A user must have their email address registered to appear in the drop down menu.
- Choosing anonymous subscriber from the drop down menu allows you to enter an email address that is not tied to a registered user.
- Click the Save icon in the upper right corner of the dialog box.
- To delete a subscriber, click the Delete icon to the left of the subscriber name.
- Scroll to the bottom of your Discussion.
- To add a new thread, click the Add New Thread
icon.
- TITLE: Enter the title of your new thread.
- POSTED: This is only visible to the Administrator of the Discussion. He/she will have the ability to publish (Yes) or not to Publish (No) the thread to the Discussion. (Users with Auto-Posting rights will not require approval).
- POST DATE: This is the date the thread was created.
- You can use the Page Editor to type your New Thread.
- To view an existing thread, click the Discussion Thread ID number.
- Delete a Discussion or Discussions by selecting the check box to the left of the Discussion ID number.
- Click the Delete Selected
icon. Once a Discussion is deleted, there is not a way to retrieve the Discussion.
- Alternatively, you may click the Delete icon within the Discussion itself.
