Welcome to your new CivicSpace-powered website. CivicSpace is a distribution of Drupal, a content management system that can be used to create a large variety of different websites. Thus, CivicSpace is a highly configurable platform that is useful for promoting civic action and better facilitiates community interaction and collaboration than is possible with other web publishing systems.
This CivicSpace Site Configuration Guide will help you to finish configuring your CivicSpace site and can serve as a reference as you administer your site over time. It is not possible within the scope of this text to explain all CivicSpace configurations, modules, and features. Instead, the CivicSpace Site Configuration Guide is intended as a large FAQ that will guide you through some basic issues and answer some specific configuration questions which should get you started. As you become more comfortable with CivicSpace, it is certainly worthwhile to learn more -- so that you can take advantage of the flexibility and wide range of configuration options and additional features.
We suggest you spend five minutes looking around the administration section to orient yourself to the administration menu before working through this guide. Be sure to read the help material available at the top of many of the administration pages as you make your configuration changes. Once you have completed the guide, for much more detailed information on CivicSpace configuration and usage, consult the administration help section of this site and the extensive Drupal Handbook at drupal.org.
To ask questions, show off your site, and be part of an ongoing dialogue with the CivicSpace development community, visit the CivicSpace forums. If you happen to find a bug or have a feature suggestion for one of the modules you can create an issue
for it at Drupal.org. We review features and issues for the modules in CivicSpace at Drupal.org.
There are quite a few other modules listed on the module configuration page which have not so far been mentioned. In this section, you'll find descriptions of some of them. Some are currently running; others are turned off. You can also load other contributed modules by downloading them from drupal.org and installing them yourself. Make sure that they are for Drupal 4.6 or they may not work.
Always remember that whenever you enable a module, you should check any permissions the module might have associated with it in order for users to have access to the module. When working with permission settings, it is often useful to create a test user and grant them the role for the permissions you are enabling. Then login as that user and verify that you have indeed granted the permissions.
Also check the administration menu and adjust any configuration settings. Some modules may have their own listing in the top tier of the menu; others may have a listing elsewhere, such as within the settings area of the menu.
| Module name | Description | Help page | Handbook page |
|---|---|---|---|
Share community ideas |
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Publish |
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| Archive | view content by date | (help) | (handbook) |
| Blog | a blog for every user | (help) | (handbook) |
| BlogApi | post from blog tools | (help) | (handbook) |
| Book | collaborative document publishing | (help) | (handbook) |
| Image | galleries of images | (help) | (handbook) |
| Mailhandler | content via mail | (help) | (handbook) |
| Page | post static pages | (help) | (handbook) |
| Story | post static pages | (help) | (handbook) |
| Textile | simple text syntax | (help) | (handbook) |
| TinyMCE | a WYSIWYG editor | (help) | (handbook) |
| URL filter | turn URLs and e-mail addresses into live links | (help) | (handbook) |
Subscribe |
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| Aggregator | syndicating content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Interwiki | wiki syntax for linking | (help) | (handbook) |
| Listhandler | connect mailing lists to forums | (help) | (handbook) |
| Mailalias | alias e-mails to user | (help) | (handbook) |
| Notify | email notification of new site content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Tracker | viewing new and updated content | (help) | (handbook) |
Collaborate |
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| Comment | allow comments on content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Contact | allow other users to contact you | (help) | (handbook) |
| Flexinode | new content types | (help) | (handbook) |
| Forum | create threaded discussions | (help) | (handbook) |
| Node import | get CSV content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Upload | collaborate with files | (help) | (handbook) |
Organize community |
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| CiviCRM | manage community contacts, relationships, and activities | (help) | (handbook) |
| Event | set times for content | (help) | (handbook) |
| EventFinder | access event information | (help) | (handbook) |
| Location | associate geographic location | (help) | (handbook) |
| Massmailer | manage mailing lists | (help) | (handbook) |
| Node privacy by role | node view and edit permissions | (help) | (handbook) |
| PHPList | develop and maintain an audience | (help) | (handbook) |
| Poll | community voting | (help) | (handbook) |
| Privatemsg | an internal messaging system | (help) | (handbook) |
| Profile | extending user account information | (help) | (handbook) |
| Taxonomy | categories and classification schemes | (help) | (handbook) |
| RSVP | invite people | (help) | (handbook) |
| Survey | community questions | (help) | (handbook) |
| Taxonomy menu | navigation for terms | (help) | (handbook) |
| Volunteer | organize people to help | (help) | (handbook) |
Network community |
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| Aggregator | syndicating content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Buddylist | list your social network | (help) | (handbook) |
| Drupal | Drupal sites directory server | (help) | (handbook) |
| FOAF | friends of a friend | (help) | (handbook) |
| Ping | notify services of changes | (help) | (handbook) |
| Trackback | post remotely | (help) | (handbook) |
Community Plumbing |
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Style and Layout |
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| Block | controlling content in the sidebars | (help) | (handbook) |
| Fontsize | make text larger | (help) | (handbook) |
| Forms | forms for modules | (help) | (handbook) |
| Legacy | remapping of old-style URLs | (help) | (handbook) |
| Locale | multi-language support | (help) | (handbook) |
| Menu | customize site navigation | (help) | (handbook) |
| Node | the content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Path | readable URLs | (help) | (handbook) |
| Theme editor | store, configure, create | (help) | (handbook) |
Operations |
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| Filter | input formats for user content | (help) | (handbook) |
| Help | context sensitive information | (help) | (handbook) |
| Search | an internal site search system | (help) | (handbook) |
| Statistics | tracking referrers, page hits, etc. | (help) | (handbook) |
| System | cron and caching | (help) | (handbook) |
| Throttle | congestion control | (help) | (handbook) |
| User | access and management settings | (help) | (handbook) |
| Watchdog | monitor your site | (help) | (handbook) |
If you visit the create content link you'll see multiple content types configured for your use. In CivicSpace terms, each book page in this guide, story or forum is considered a basic content type known as a node. Thus, each of the various content types are particular types of nodes with specific functions and display characteristics:
NOTE: Site administrators wanting to setup a community weblog as their home page can choose to allow all site users to submit and edit stories, or they can enable the blog module and set all blog posts to automatically promote to the front page. The sub pages in this section of the guide provide details on how to configure this.
See also the administration help for nodes, stories, books, forums, blogs and pages.
Because nodes are all basically very similar, much of the input interface is the same for stories, books, or pages chosen through the create content menu. For the purpose of introducing how to post on a CivicSpace site, this discussion will use Submit story as the example and cover many, but not all, of the choices offered through the interface.
There is a WYSIWYG module available for creating content. See TinyMCE.
Administrators can provide additional or change existing information for content posting:
Many content management systems and weblog application provide a means to categorize content. However, CivicSpace's taxonomy system allows the site administrator to create multiple sets of categories which can be applied to any, selective, or all node types.
Using terminology from information science, a category set is called a vocabulary, and an individual category within a vocabulary, a term. CivicSpace forums use categories to create separate forum areas for discussion.
For additional information about CivicSpace's taxonomy system, read more about it in the Drupal handbook.
Creating a vocabulary
In the categories configuration section of CivicSpace administration, select the add vocabulary tab. Then supply a
Creating a term
Once a vocabulary has been created, the administrator can add a nearly unlimited number of categories. Beside the vocabulary listing In the categories configuration section of CivicSpace administration, select the add term link. Note that the description and synonyms fields are optional.
Use the category block
CivicSpace provides a block in the block configuration area which will provide a listing of all categories with links to a display list of all nodes in that category.
The CivicSpace Site Configuration Guide has been created using the CivicSpace collaborative book. The collaborative book feature is well suited for creating multi-page hypertexts such as a site resource guides.
To control the ordering of book pages in the table of contents structure, visit the book configuration section. For example, look at the CivicSpace Site Configuration Guide configuration page. There you can easily view all the pages in this text, as well as order them. Notice the weight menu beside each page listing. CivicSpace normally orders pages on the same "level" within the text alphabetically. You can override that ordering by giving pages which should be higher up lighter weights--negative numbers--or lower down heavier weights--positive numbers.
To create a new book, simply make the Parent "root."
Last, a blog post, forum post, story, or static page can also be added into a book. Choose the administer link for a given post or page, then use the Edit book outline button available at the bottom of the page to add it into an existing book.
CivicSpace page layout is very similar to many other websites: a header, a footer, a main content column down the center, and block columns down the side with links and other information. Blocks, then, are the small boxes of links, etc., you see in the left and/or right hand columns.
As an administrator, you can choose which blocks appear in the left or right and in what order (using weights) in the block administration section. You can create and edit custom blocks such as the Sample Block which uses HTML. There are also some other blocks included with the distribution which have not been enabled. Try them.
For a more in depth explanation of blocks, see blocks in the administration help page.
Note: Do not turn off the Navigation Block or the User Login Block. Without these, you'll have great difficulty logging on the site and administering it.
The CiviCRM module stores information on the universe of people associated with a community and on their interactions such as emails, donations, petitions, events, etc. It can act as a stand alone contact management system or it can be integrated with mass mailer, volunteer management, petition, and event finding. CiviCRM enables organizations to maintain all these activities in a single database, creating efficiencies and new opportunities for communities to better communicate and benefit from relationships with their community members.
The CiviCRM module allows you to create contacts, or import them from other sources. You can record relationships between contacts, such as indicating they live in the same household. There are two types of groups of contacts. You can create static groups which have a set list of contacts. You can also create dynamic (smart) groups based on characteristics that contacts have in common. For example, you could create a group of all contacts who live in California AND who have volunteered for your organization within the past year. The CiviCRM module also allows for tagging for less formal categorization of contacts or groups. You can easily extend CiviCRM to record community member information which is specific to your community or organization using custom fields. For example, you can create a set of fields to track volunteer skills and preferences. CiviCRM profile gives you a way to allow community members ('users') to update their own information, as well as share some of that information with others. Finally, you can configure custom activity types such as volunteering or attending events.
You can:
EventFinder is integrated with CiviCRM in the latest release. The level of integration currently available is:
There is also a lot of experimental functionality developed using CiviCRM betas that extends this a great deal further. When I get the change to port it, you will get the following as well:
CiviCRM is integrated with the location module through location fields in CiviCRM profiles. If any of the following following CiviCRM profile fields are populated in a users account profile fields they will be synchronized with the location modules.
CiviCRM module is integrated with Mass Mailer to allow mailings to be sent to CiviCRM groups. It also allows for contact management through mass mailer.
CiviCRM's Profile functionality allows you to integrate and extend Drupal User screens with your contact management requirements. It also gives you tools for collecting and sharing contact information with community members and visitors.
You can:
More information:
The CiviCRM module is integrated with CiviCRM by having a default group that volunteers are added to when they volunteer. There is also a selectable CiviCRM profile that volunteers must complete when they volunteer for an event. This volunteer profile is configurable to have required, and searchable fields.
This module allows users to post responses to other posts. Through administer you can configure what types of comments are accepted: anonymous, anonymous requiring an email address, or registered users only. You can also configure permissions for types of users (authenticated, administrative, or anonymous) so that comments written by the respective types of users enter an approval queue before they are published or are automatically published. Comments in the approval queue must be manually accepted and published by a site administrator. Comments are also searchable. Comments can be viewed seperate from their posts for easy editing and deleting.
Comments can be configured to control:
CivicSpace provides a few themes with your site and other contributed themes are available for download from Drupal. The themes section also offers various configuration options which affect the display and navigation for the site. For instance, under themes in the administration area, administrators can choose which themes to enable and designate the default theme for the site. If more than one theme is enabled, site users will be able to choose from the configured themes using the edit tab under my account.
Site administrators can choose whether to set various configuration options on an individual theme basis or across all themes. For example, the global settings page contains the following options:
Advanced: HTML and CSS coders can choose to create their own site skin. Consult the Theme developer's guide in the Drupal handbook for more information.
CivicSpace 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 admin user which is given full access on the site. In the original account setup, the root super user account which was created first is not affected by the CivicSpace permission system; this user always has access to everything.
Some configuration tips:
CivicSpace provides a number of ways to find out who has been visiting the site and who has been posting content:
Some CivicSpace modules, such as search, notify and aggregator, have periodic tasks that must be triggered by the script cron.php included with your CivicSpace installation. You can do this manually in your browser by visiting your cron URL page (a blank page will display once the cron tasks have been executed).
However, the better way to do this is to have cron.php executed automatically using the Linux/UNIX crontab function.
0 * * * * wget -O - -q http://www.example.com/cron.php
00 * * * * /home/www/drupal/scripts/cron-lynx.sh
Alternatively, Drupal has a poormanscron module available for download. However, this module is much less efficient in terms of system resources compared to the methods described above. The poormanscron module checks to see if cron needs to run every single time a page is viewed on the site.
More information about cron is available in the adminstration help page and at the Drupal Handbook Cron system and crontab page.