Adding content

This QPQ web portal is intended to provide a simple but fairly flexible environment in which project members can share information and collaborate. It allows all members to create, view, and edit web pages, news, and calender events. The Shared content can be viewed by non-members.

This page gives a brief summary of how to use these features based on a similar page written by Josh Levy.

In general, the material in the central box on a page (like this text) can be viewed and edited by clicking on the tabs at the top of the frame. Search is possible in the upper right corner. There are boxes on the right that show events, news, and a calendar. Click the logo on top to return to the front page. The add to folder pull down menu at the top right-hand corner of the center frame can be used to add content in the form of Wikis, HTML pages, blogs, message boards, folders, smart folders, news items, events, and links.

General use

You can read much more about wikis elsewhere, but it's mostly sufficient to know that a wiki is just a web site that allows anyone to edit pages easily. Pages have names (this page's name is How to use this site), which makes it easy to reference other pages via links. Other convenient features are file attachments and discussion.

Editing wiki pages

Each page is just an editable text document, with a few special markup conventions (a format known as structured text). Links between pages are made by typing a page name in double square brackets: "[[front page]]" yields [[front page]]?. You can find out about other formatting details -- URL links, emphasis, bulleted and numbered lists, section headers, math (I've added a feature that enables the system to accept LaTeX? formulas), etc. -- by looking at the source of existing pages or looking at the [[text formatting rules]]?.

If you tire of editing text within a browser, look into using an external editor (yes, Emacs is supported!).

To edit an existing wiki page, just click the edit tab.

Adding wiki pages

Adding a page takes a couple steps: First, edit an existing page, and create a link to the not-yet-existent page (i.e., if you are planning to add the page Foo bar, insert some text like "see [[foo bar]]"). View the page you just edited, and look for the new reference. Links to nonexistent pages appear in brackets followed by a question mark (e.g., "see [foo bar]?"). Now click on the question mark to edit the new page. (The advantage of this slightly circuitous method is it makes sure the new page isn't orphaned.)

File attachements

When editing a wiki page that it's possible to attach files, which are then uploaded to the server. When you attach a file via the edit form, a link to the uploaded file will be created automatically at the bottom of the page. (You can then edit or move this link as desired, but be sure to keep the path to the file intact.) You can also upload files using Plone's add item pull-down menu.

Other wiki features

It's usually possible to post comments directly while viewing a page, which is useful for discussion. Such comments can be sent out to you by email if you subscribe to a page.

A full list of all wiki pages is available by clicking the the wiki contents button. Each page can have a "parent" (set by using the form at the bottom of each page), which helps make the contents page display in a more organized fashion.

The wiki

It's also possible to create other types of documents. The most useful ones are news items (which appear in a box on the right side of the screen) and events (which show up on the calendar and in the "upcoming events" box). You can add them via the "add new item" menu on the upper right part of the green frame, or by choosing the appropriate link on the [[front page]]?.

News and events

You can create folders devoted to specific topics that can contain subfolders, wikis, bulletin boards, images, files, and blogs. Smart folders are dynamic folders that are created on the basis of search according to specified criteria.

Folders

The EasyBlog? option on the add to folder menu can be used to set up a blog.

Blogs

The message board option can be used to create a bulletin board.

Message Board

By the way, if you do something you didn't intend, you can click "undo" in the upper right corner, which should enable you to fix things.

Undo