Documentation 3.03
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Site Prefs
dadaIMC has two-levels of password-protected access. Administrators are usually the tech geeks, and have access to modify Site Prefs (IMC Name, URL, etc), and to add/edit Stylesheets for changing the "look" of the site, as well as the ability to add and configure modules and module preferences. Editors have access to review and modify articles and perform normal editorial duties. New Editors can only be created by an Administrator.
Administrative access is available at http://[your_domain]/admin/.
You will be prompted for the Admin username and password you configured in the installer.
Most of the information you provided during the installation process is found in the Site Prefs section. A brief discussion of some of the options and defaults follows.
Administrative Prefs
- Organization Name
- The official name of your organization. This is used to identify your organization in various places, and also acts as the lookup key for the site prefs in the database.
- Page Title
- The base page title for your site. It is usually appended with more information, e.g. the module name, objectid, or title of the current content object.
- Site Path and URL
- These are used throughout the site to build URLs or to refer to the filesystem.
- Log Directory
- Full path to where the dadaphp.log is stored. Usually in the /logs/ directory of your site root.
- Admin Email
- The email address used for emailing log messages, or used as the return address for mail sent by dadaIMC.
- Editors Email
- Used only for notifying editors, in cases like rating/voting systems or new Feature submission notification.
- Site Keywords and Description
- Creates meta tags on every page with the included content
- Site Stylesheet
- This menu allows you to select from existing Stylesheets, which are configured elsewhere, and determine the basic color and layout scheme of your site.
- Debugging
- When debugging is on, extra information is displayed in the source code of pages on your site. This allows easy viewing of SQL queries being executed on your pages.
- Log/Email Errors
- With the dadaIMC ErrorObject framework, errors can easily be logged to a text file (/var/log/httpd/dadaphp.log by default), or emailed to the admin_email address.
ErrorObjects follow roughly the same "level" system as syslog errors, so you can configure dadaIMC to log or send email based on severity level. - Image Upload
- This file upload form allows you to upload arbitrary files (usually images) to the /images/ directory, for use in CSS or Arbitrary Sidebars.
Locale Prefs
- Display Time Zone/GMT Offset
- Allows you to configure the timezone in which your server appears to reside. Good for servers co-located in a different timezone from their audience.
- Date Format
- Allows you to toggle between US (12/31/05) and non-US (31/12/05) date formats
- Supported Languages
- Multiple selection box indicating which languages are available to users
Distribution Prefs
- Distributed Content Server
- A new feature introduced in version .94, this allows dadaIMC to support the use of a remote content server (like Paranode) used to distribute your media files, saving bandwidth on your server. To enable this feature, you must have a remote server with FTP and HTTP available, and a username/password to access the server. Enter the host name of the remote server along with your username and password. Then enter the full path to the folder into which you will upload static files, such as GIFs or JPEGs. A full path will begin with "
/", such as/home/imc/public_html/files/. Finally, enter the base URL used to access those files, e.g.http://www.remoteserver.com/files/.
Rating Prefs
- Feature Rating
- The Features section of dadaIMC is designed for content worthy of prominent center-column status. It is generally used within a collective that votes on whether or not to "approve" the Feature for display. Many content objects may be "Featured", or Features may be created directly by Editors, but if Feature Rating is turned on, the features will not appear on the site until receiving enough approval votes, which number is set in "Approval Threshold". The email options will send email to the Editors email address for notification if turned on.
- Article Rating
- The rating system for newswire articles can be turned off, open to anyone, or open only to registered Users or Editors. If enabled, ratings are displayed for all newswire articles, and may determine whether or not they appear in the newswire column. The "display threshold" is a rating number; any article with that number rating or higher will display in the newswire column. If it drops below that level, it remains available on the "hidden articles" page. The "Feature Threshold" number specifies the rating at which a newswire article is automatically submitted for Feature consideration. This allows extremely popular articles to be automatically submitted without Editor intervention (but they still need to be voted on if Feature Rating is enabled).
Miscellaneous Prefs
- Image Resizing Tool
- dadaIMC can use either the built-in GD library (compiled into PHP), or the external ImageMagick library (if installed) to create thumbnails and resize photos.
- Thumbnail Width
- The width to which thumbnails will automatically be scaled, preserving the image's aspect ratio.
- Default Image Width
- The width to which large images will automatically be scaled for display on the page. The largest version of an image is preserved, and made available by clicking on the default image in context.
- Statistics URL
- If you have a log analysis program for your site, enter the URL here and it will display in the Admin and Editor Administration menus.
- Misc. Module preferences
- Modules are allowed to create their own arbitrary preferences to allow Admins to configure aspects of their functionality. They are presented here, with explanatory text.
Further information on options available in the Admin Administration page are available in the "Docs" section of the Admin pages if the Documentation module is installed.
Report Bugs
dadaIMC uses the Mantis bug-tracking system for bug reporting. Please use it! And check for existing reports of your bug before submitting a new one.
CVS
The current CVS version of dadaIMC is now browseable online. Be forewarned, though, that it is not always in a useable state as-is!
