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ECSA Web Editors Basic Information
The current ECSA web site is built using the FirstClass collaboration server. FirstClass does a lot of things well, and one of them is acting as a web server. It is possible to do lots of other things with it as well. For now, we will contain ourselves to it's use as a web server.
In order to edit web pages using this system, you will need a few things:
1) Login credentials. If you don't have these (a USER NAME and a PASSWORD), you might as well hold off the on the rest of the directions below. You won't be able to access any of the editing functions.
2) The FirstClass "client" installed on your computer. The client is available for Windows, Macintosh, and LINUX, and it is free. Install it on as many computers as you want, wherever you want. Installation is very simple, the download is pretty small, and it should be painless. Here are the steps:
Click this Link to access the client download / setup pages
Follow the steps outlined. Basically, you will download an installer specific to you operating system. After downloading, run the installer. The installer will ask a bunch of questions. You can safely ignore them and just keep clicking on "yes," install," "Continue," etc., allowing the installer to use the default settings.
If this is the first time FirstClass has been installed on your computer, go back to the most recent web page you visited (where you clicked on "Step 1", and click on "Step 2." If you have had FirstClass setup on this computer previously, you should not need to do this, and you can call the installation "done" after the installation program is complete.
Once installed, even if you know everything there is know about FC, you will need to open the Web Editors Help conference once by double clicking it. It looks like this:
Opening this conference will, in the background, slightly update the client so editing the pages will work. Technically this will "download resources" to the client, if you are interested in knowing. You probably will not even know it happened, but it will. That's it, FirstClass will be installed and ready to edit at this point.
3) You will need to know a little bit about editing Web Pages in FirstClass. After you have logged in, you will find one or more conferences on your desktop. For now, you can ignore the icons on the left edge and top edge of the FirstClass desktop. The ones in the "middle" of the desktop are the important ones for now. These conferences contain either:
- A "collaborative area" where you can ask questions about the system. Over time the Q & A here will help new editors as the messages will hang around, and they are searchable. Refer to the image above to find this "conference." This conference is open to editors working on the ECSA web site as well as the Pettipaug Yacht Club web site. So if you see some names you don't recognise, or comments about subjects/pages that seem out of place, it may be able the other site. Reguardless, the functionality is the same, so the note may be useful to everyone.
- Somewhere on your desktop, you should also find one or more conference(s) that look like this (with this or a different name under it):
This/These conference(s) contain the content that is the section(s) of the web site that you are responsible for. If you are responsible for more than one section, you will have more than one of these conferences, OR your conference will contain other conferences with the other areas you will manage. This conference might intially be in the top row, or overlapped with another Icon. You can drag it to a more convenient place. You will find that inside each of these are "documents" that you can edit. When you edit these documents, you are editing the web site content. The editor is a little bit basic, but for the most part it is capable enough to make some good and even great looking sites.
If you have questions about using the system, login and double click the "web editors help" conference, then double click on "ask a question" in the top and write up your question. Please be as descriptive as possible, and answer will follow. Turnaround time will vary from seconds to months. Note that others that have gone before you may have already asked the same or a similar questions, so be sure to browse through the messages that are already posted. Good luck!
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