| | 1 | = How does the control panel work? = |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | Welcome to May First/People Member Control Panel. Depending on the type of package you are using, you can create and modify your own services such as email accounts, email lists, server access, and web site settings. |
| | 4 | |
| | 5 | This help file is designed to give you a basic overview of how things work. If you have any trouble, please feel free to contact support via mail (support@mayfirst.org) or phone (718-303-3204 x. 2020). |
| | 6 | |
| | 7 | == Terminology == |
| | 8 | |
| | 9 | If you have taken a peek at the screen right after you logged in, you will notice two drop down menus: Hosting Orders and Services. |
| | 10 | |
| | 11 | The Hosting Orders menu lists the sites that your account has access to. Typically, if your web site address is www.papertiger.org, then "papertiger.org" will be listed as your Hosting Order. For most people, you will only see one hosting order. However, if you have more than one site hosted with us, you may see more than one. If you have more than one, be sure to select the right Hosting Order before adding or modifying and services. |
| | 12 | |
| | 13 | The Services menu lists the different things you can modify. For example, if you signed up for the "Individual" package you will only see email address listed under service, because your account is limited to just email addresses. If you signed up for the Outreach package, you will see email address and email list becuase you also have access to email lists. "Organization" packages have access to even more services. |
| | 14 | |
| | 15 | To change to a new Hosting Order or Service, simply select the Hosting Order or Service that you want, and click the "Change" button. |
| | 16 | |
| | 17 | == Adding, Deleting and Modifying == |
| | 18 | |
| | 19 | Regardless of which Service you choose, you will always have the option to "Add a new item." |
| | 20 | |
| | 21 | In addition, any items that you already have will be listed for you. |
| | 22 | |
| | 23 | Some common features to all services include: |
| | 24 | |
| | 25 | * Item Status - This field is set to one of the following values: |
| | 26 | * active - the item is fully configured and functioning; |
| | 27 | * deleted - the item has been deleted from the server but is still in the database (to complete the deletion, click the "Remove deleted items" link); |
| | 28 | * pending-insert - the item is scheduled to be created - it will typically change to "active" within 1 - 2 minutes; |
| | 29 | * pending-delete - the item is scheduled to be deleted; |
| | 30 | * pending-update - the item is scheduled to be modified - this status is shown after you have submitted a change, but before it has taken effect; Each item that is listed has an "Edit" and "Delete" button. |
| | 31 | * soft-error - after trying to create or modify an event, the system detected an error - you will see the error listed below the item (to fix the error, click to edit the item and re-submit it); |
| | 32 | * pending-restore - aftering fixing a soft error, the item is in pending-restore until the change has taken effect; |
| | 33 | * hard-error - someting seriously wrong has happened - if you see this status, please contact support immediately. |
| | 34 | * last modified - the date and time that the item was last changed; |
| | 35 | * edit - click this link to modify the item; |
| | 36 | * delete - click this link to delete the item. |
| | 37 | |
| | 38 | Because the status of an item can change, there is a "Refresh" link that will always display the most recent status of any item. |
| | 39 | |
| | 40 | == Common Services == |
| | 41 | |
| | 42 | === User Account === |
| | 43 | |
| | 44 | User accounts are the building blocks of many other services. For example, if you want to create an email account, you will first need to create a user account. Then, you can create an email address, selecting the user account you just created from the drop down menu. |
| | 45 | |
| | 46 | === Email Address === |
| | 47 | |
| | 48 | When creating an email address your first task is to fill in the email address by entering the "user" portion (the part that comes before the @ sign) and then choosing from the available list of "domain names" (the part that comes after the @ sign). If you leave the "user" portion blank, then you can create a catchall email address, in other words, any email sent to address that doesn't exist will go to this account. The catchall email address is not recommended, since it will most likely fill out with lots of spam. |
| | 49 | |
| | 50 | Next, enter the recipient. |
| | 51 | |
| | 52 | You can choose a recipient from the drop down list of existing user accounts. This choice is the most common way to set up an email address. Note - only already created User accounts show up in the drop down menu. To create an email address with this option, you must first create the user account and then create the email address. After you have created the email address, the user can login to their email by going to https://secure.mayfirst.org. They can use the login and password that was created when you setup the user account. |
| | 53 | |
| | 54 | On the other hand, you can also specify an external or internal email address or a list of email addresses and user accounts. For example, if you wanted all email sent to the address jose@yourdomain.org to be forwarded to Jose's Gmail account, you would specify "jose@gmail.com in the recipient field. You can also put a combination of email addresses and user accounts. If the user account jose already exists, you can enter jose,jose@gmail.com,anotherperson@gmail.com in the recipient field. |
| | 55 | |
| | 56 | === Server Access === |
| | 57 | |
| | 58 | Server access allows you to indicate which of the users listed in the user accounts section should be able to copy files to your web site. When creating the account, you can specify that the user has full access (via ssh), allowing the to have full command line access, or copy only access (via sftp), allowing them to only copy files. |
| | 59 | |
| | 60 | === Web Configuration === |
| | 61 | |
| | 62 | The web configuration section allows you to change your Apache Web settings. This service is designed for experts. Making the wrong change here can cause your web site to stop working properly. Please proceed with caution. |
| | 63 | |
| | 64 | The information in the form will be placed directly in your VirtualHost container. Only a limited number of Directives are allowed. If you try to add a directive that is not allowed you will receive an error message. |
| | 65 | |
| | 66 | === Email List === |
| | 67 | |
| | 68 | The email list Service allows you to add or delete Mailman (www.list.org) email lists. You only need to provide the name of the list and the initial owner email address. The list password and directions for using the list will be emailed to the owner email address. You can only add on email address. Later, you can configure the email list to be run by multiple people. |
