Forum Activity for @researchcooperative

Forum Mising

Using Jamroom

In videos, and here again, I see that to play with menus we need to use a gear icon in the menu, but I have no such menu or gear icon. What I have when logged into my site are

ACP Admin Dashboard Search (upper right on same line as the site logo), then

Profile title (Chief Admin) at left, and then at far right, a gear icon (update profile), + (delete profile), and trash can.

That's it. Nothing related to the site builder modules I installed. The Site Builder Construction Kit and Menu modules are both set as "Module Active", and are both in the quota for the Admin profile.

What else needs to be done to get access to the Site builder functions?

Use a different skin? In one of the videos showing how to add menus, the initial steps are missing, and the menu gear icon is already up and running. The video does mention that the Slate skin was used. So I looked for a Slate skin, but cannot find that in the Marketplace.

eek! (expression indicating a sense of naked stupidity)

Branding at top left in a Jamroom skin

Design and Skin Customization

To do mine, I measured the JR logo on the screen with a ruler, found that it has a 1:3 ratio, and used the Skitch app in my computer to compile my own logo with the same ratio and pixels.

For upload I went here (as you suggested):

Yoursite/core/skin_admin/images/skin=jrElastic

When I uploaded that and made it the active image, the hotlink function still worked, even though my logo file name was new.

Thanks

Advice for new users (members) about access to multiple profiles

Using Jamroom

Thanks again. Further thoughts follow, which may not require a response, but there is one concrete question in the last paragraph.

Now I am beginning to see that the idea of "following" is a central structural feature of the Jamroom system. What people follow does not necessarily have to be another person, but it does have to be something that has a profile.

When they join a network, new members will likely have a default "standard" membership in a profile category (or type) with a basic quota of modules allocated to it.

With this they can create a certain number of things themselves, but otherwise they have to "follow" other members (i.e. profiles) to have access to other stuff created in the network.

In my case, I do not want members willy-nilly forming their own groups and trying to gather followers to those groups. My aim is to keep the focus of the network very clear. So no groups module for the standard member profile category.

In our network, standard members will need to follow a network corporate member (the Publish Science Network, PSN) where a consistently managed set of groups will be established.

It seems that they only way that people can join groups they have not created themselves is by following other people (or the corporate member, PSN) who do have access to the Groups module.

Perhaps, when I have learned how to control the menu system, I can create a navigation system that guides members to groups directly, so that they do not have to consicously decide to "follow" the PSN.

Somehow, I have to minimise the number of decisions people must make in order to use key content of the network. I want navigation around the network to be as frictionless as possible. I think this can be done by concentrating most of the core functions into just one or two corporate profiles (The PSN profile, and the Chief Administrator profile),

Now I am wondering why there is no topic category system for discussions inside Groups, similar to the topic category system that is provided for forums. Is that something that might be possible in the future?
updated by @researchcooperative: 03/14/15 08:58:01PM

"Jamroom Lists" -- and access to the JR Glossary

Suggestions

Each individual member's profile has access to a quota of modules through the quota allocated to the profile category. We can see this in the set of functions shown at the top of each member's page (in the default Jamroom skin).

I have learned about this by creating a separate "Testuser" with separate login, and with the same access as future regular (standard) members of my network. That way I can see the effect of adding or removing modules from the "Regular Member" profile category.

I think it is important to emphasise that it is a profile category that is allocated a quota of modules, in the first place.

In Jamroom parlance, a "quota" is the allocation made to a category, not to a specific member or member's profile.

I am definitely going to build my own documentation to help the members of my own network.

Is there already an annotated index page for ALL the instructional videos that Jamroom as produced? They are a very useful form of instruction (along the with the responses here in the support forums).

Thanks.
updated by @researchcooperative: 03/14/15 06:28:51AM

Branding at top left in a Jamroom skin

Design and Skin Customization

These may be the required dimensions. How can they vary? I suppose width is flexible, but greater height will overhang the horizontal border.

width: 236px height: 55px

Branding at top left in a Jamroom skin

Design and Skin Customization

Digging further, I found the "Skin Settings" subtab under the ACP when logged in to my site as admin.

There it is very easy to replace the graphic. The trick though is to size your own graphic to the position. There is no obvious-to-me instruction about the A x B pixel or kb/mb limits for this, so it is a matter of trial and error with whatever graphic you are starting with.

Also, it seems that the Jamroom system likes .jpg files but not .gif or .tiff. Not certain about this.

Would like to have a fully-featured FAQ on adding graphics to a Jamroom site as design elements for the site (in contrast to the use of Jamroom by users to upload and showcase graphics etc.). Will keep digging. The ground is deep around here.

Branding at top left in a Jamroom skin

Design and Skin Customization

Quote re site branding:

Simply edit or replace the following files to change the branding of your site.

Main Header Logo (site wide | width: 236px height: 55px) - skins/jrElastic/img/logo.png
Footer Information - skins/jrElastic/footer.tpl

***
Simply how? Where? Change how? I need a code-free option where I can upload my own logo and text into that area, and choose to make the graphic or text or both together a link to the top page of my site.
Thanks.

updated by @researchcooperative: 04/20/15 03:06:59PM

Advice for new users (members) about access to multiple profiles

Using Jamroom

1. How can new members of a network learn that they can have multiple profiles? Is it possible to make a dropdown list that they can choose from?

2. Is it always necessary for the Admin to approve each profile type wanted by a new member?

3. Will members have to log in with a different login password for each profile?

Can answers to these questions be bundled together in a FAQ or video aimed at new members of a network?

Perhaps this has alrady been done, so I will keep looking around Jamroom.net for answers, and experimenting on my own site. Thanks.
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/26/15 08:57:32PM

"Jamroom Lists" -- and access to the JR Glossary

Suggestions


That's good, and I recommend the video to all new administrators. We also need a similar video for new users who just want to use a site or join a network. Maybe that already exists?

Further questions arise, but I should start a new thread. Thanks, Peter

Log out best practice?

Using Jamroom

Hi Douglas,

Thanks. I am using a new version of Firefox, 36.0.1. Maybe this is different from the version at work. But oddly, no problem signing in to Jamroom.net. I switched to Compass browser and could login to my site there, no problem. Now am back in Firefox, the login freeze is still there, but I can work at Jamroom.net.

For the moment I am OK, but why my Firefox is on strike tonight is still a mystery. It worked fine last night. Maybe the best thing is to let the problem sleep itself off. I'll try Compass for a change.