The JGCC website has been designed to minimise your workload and will dynamically update when you add new content. The site has been created using Open Source software called Drupal. Drupal is a content management system (CMS), essentially a database which stores both your content and programs which take the content and display according to the programmed rules. This may be slightly confusing if you are used to thinking of a web page as a document which you edit directly like a file. For instance, the welcome section of the home page automatically displays a link to any agenda which is available for the next meeting and to the most recent minutes which are available – you should never need to edit that section directly.
The types of information which can be added to the site have been grouped into a number of content types (Events, Meetings, Blogs, Useful links, Info Pages and so on). Rather than build a new page, you add new content and the software displays that content in defined ways. For instance, if you add details of an event, you could see the event on its own web page, but you’d also see brief details listed in “Future events”, it might be listed under “community council activities” and reports of the event would be found under “Past events”.
As maintainers of the site, if you understand the ideas behind the website you will be able more quickly to dispense with this help manual.
Looking for a quick start?
You are a very rare individual if you plan to read this entire user manual. Most users dive in and only consult the manual when they are stuck. Feel free to do this, but I would recommend reading sections 1 and 2 and the first paragraph of section 3 before taking the plunge.
What could go wrong? Well, not a lot really - nothing that couldn’t be put right.
If you’d like to practice something you are really unsure of how, then try it on the test website at http://test.junipergreencc.org.uk.
If you create something on the main website, you can choose not to publish it until you are ready (it tells you how to do that in the manual somewhere).
Note on formatting and terms used in this documentation
Selecting from menus: Formatting like this
CONTENT –> LIST CONTENT means choose the “content” option from a menu and the sub option “List content”
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