FAQs

Each document on the site has certain, assigned access rights.  Only owners of a document (or full site administrators) are typically allowed to edit the document.

If you would like edit access on a particular document, you should contact the owner of the document and request that you be granted owner access to the document.

The owner for the document is listed just below the title of the item.

How can I restrict access to my content?

Documents on Plone can have three general access states:

• Private – viewable only by the person who created the item
• Internally Visible – viewable by all logged in users
• Public – viewable without a login (essentially anyone with a browser)

If you would like to make sure that your content is only viewable by you, change the state to Private.  By default, any new documents are created in the Private state.

Firstly, navigate to the content item that you would like to share. You must have some form of permission for a given piece of content to be able to share it with someone else.  If you do not have sufficient permission, you will not see the Sharing tab in the edit bar.

At this point, you can decide to share your document with all logged in users or with a particular person.  Descriptions for how to set up each of these permissions are listed below.

Note

Keep in mind that if you see this message:

then you should take care to decide whether you want permissions to apply to this piece of content (the default view for this folder) or whether you want the permissions to apply to the whole folder.  In almost all cases, you will want to click the 'go here' link and apply permissions to the folder.

Available permissions

These are the default permissions available to assign to people for your content.

• Can Add - if this is a folder, a person can add a document to the folder
• Can Edit - the person can edit any files in this folder
• Can View - the person can read, but not edit the files
• Can Review - the person can approve this document for publishing (typically to the full Internet)

To share with an individual

• Click on the Sharing tab
• Search for an individual by entering a name (or user ID) in the search box and clicking the Search button
• When the appropriate name appears, tick the correct box next to the name for the permission that you would like to add
• Click the Save button to save the changes

To share with all logged in users

Keep in mind that by providing access in this way, all users on your site (which may be all of the University, or external users) will be granted permission to your content.  You should be extremely careful that this is what you want.  Contact your site administrator if you're unsure!

• Click on the Sharing tab
• In the table, next to "Logged-in Users", tick the correct box or boxes corresponding to the permissions to grant.
• Click the Save button to save the changes

Inherited permissions

By default, all permissions are inherited from the parent folder the content resides in.  This means that if a user has access to a folder, then, by default, they will have the same access to all content within that folder.  This behaviour can be overridden at any stage by disabling the 'Inherit permissions from higher levels' option on the Sharing page.

In order to verify the people that have access to your file you will need to check the sharing permissions.

To check permissions:

• Check the state of the item
• In order to share only with a few select people, the state should be private
• Change the state to Private if necessary
• Click the sharing tab for the file or folder
• Check the area under the label "Sharing permissions for <your folder name>"
• You should see a listing of any people who have been granted access to the folder
• If necessary, you can tick the checkbox for someone, and then click the button "Delete selected roles and user(s)/group(s)" to remove their access.

Note

Subfolders inherit permissions from higher level folders.  This may cause the owner of the main folder to appear as an owner on a sub-folder.  For example, if Dianna creates a folder named Pages and adds Julie as an owner of folder, any additional folders inside the Pages folder will have Dianna and Julie as owners.

To stop a folder from inheriting permissions from the parent folder, scroll down to the bottom of the page and under Advanced Settings uncheck the "Inherit roles from higher levels" checkbox.

The easiest way to find any page on the site is to use the LiveSearch box at the side of the screen.

To search for a page:

• Click in the LiveSearch box and enter a search phrase
• To find pages by a particular user, type their name in the search box
• The search engine will automatically start showing links to pages as you type in the box
• If you are having difficulty finding a page, try using unique keywords specific to this document to get better results
• Press your enter or return key to get a page with these links

1. Make sure you're logged into the site first.
2. Click onto the link displaying your name on the user actions toolbar.  This link will be near the 'log out' link.
3. Click onto the 'Change password' link at the middle-right of the page.
4. Follow the instructions and enter your existing password, followed by your new password.
5. When done, click onto the 'Change password' button at the bottom.

Your password has now been changed.  Make sure you use this to log in next time.

Note: This applies to the top-level drop-down navigation menus as well.  If you want to change the ordering in the drop-down menu, reorder the contents of your top-level folder.

1. Log into the portal as a user with sufficient access rights.
2. Click into the folder which has the contents you'd like to reorder.
3. Click onto the Contents tab for the folder.
4. Locate the content item you wish to reorder and move your mouse cursor over its entry in the 'Order' column.  Your mouse should change appearance and become an 'up-down' arrow or cross-bar cursor.
5. Click and drag the content upwards or downwards in the listing.  You'll notice the content will highlight and move with your mouse.
6. Once you have it positioned correctly, release your mouse.  Wait a moment as your request is delivered to the server in the background.
7. Click onto the 'Contents' tab again to review the results.  Your content should now be in its new location. If you're re-ordering your site's top-level tabs, then you'll see this change at the top of your page.
8. Repeat for any other reordering.

Note

Your content may not always end up precisely the right order if you are too quick to drag the content or too quick to reload the page.  If you find things aren't quite right, make sure you take your time to allow the web server to process your request.  This issue typically only affects older version of Plone (version 3).

The reason for there being files available but you're not able to see them is because they were probably uploaded using a WebDAV client.  So, if a user has copied files from their desktop to the site all at once, then depending on the client, some metadata might not have been set right.  Thus, this needs to be set accordingly and can be corrected by doing the following:

1. Go to your contents view on the surrounding folder with the listing of content
2. Check/select the content items that aren't currently appearing the left-hand navigation listing (or that you know were uploaded through WebDAV).
3. Click the 'Rename' button at the bottom and give content item a suitable new 'Title' (short names for these can be left alone unless blank).
4. Once you've done this for each item, click the 'Rename all' button and that should fix the content.

If this worked, you'll see your content immediately appear in the left-side navigation (if this was enabled to happen) and you can now link to the content through the visual editor.  You'll have to repeat the process for each page of problematic content, but content items probably need better titles than the ones you originally had.

Note: these instructions only apply to site administrators (users with the 'Site Administrator' (Plone 4+) or 'Manager' role (Plone 3 or 4+) on a site).  If you're a regular user or a user of eResearch Spaces, then this won't apply to you.

1. Log into your portal with your administrator account.
2. Click onto 'Site Setup' at the top-right corner of the site.  If you're on Plone 4 or above, then click onto your user menu at the top-right first, and look under the drop-down menu.
3. Click onto 'Users and Groups'.
4. Click onto the 'Groups' tab.
5. Search for your group in the search box provided, or select 'Show all' to show all available groups.  This search may take some time if you're using an LDAP-enabled site, such as the JCU portals.
6. Click onto the name of the group you wish to add a user to.
7. Use the search at the bottom of the page to search for your user (for example, "John Smith").
8. Once you've found the user you want, select the checkbox next to their name, and click the 'Add selected groups and users to this group' button.
9. The user will appear in the group members listing at the top of the page, and they are now part of this group.

This user will now have all access privileges that the group has.  For example, if you chose the Administrators group (which typically provides the 'Manager' role to its members), then the users within that group get that role.

1. Follow the instructions for adding a user to a group, and in the process, locate the 'Administrators' group, and add your user to that.

Note: these instructions only apply to site administrators (users with the 'Site administrator' (Plone 4+) or 'Manager' (Plone 3 or 4+) role on a site).  If you're a regular user, then this won't apply to you.

1. Log into your portal with your administrator account.
2. Click onto 'Site Setup' at the top-right corner of the site.  If you're on Plone 4 or above, then click onto your user menu at the top-right first, and look under the drop-down menu.
3. Click onto 'Users and Groups'.
4. Click onto the 'Groups' tab.
5. Search for your group in the search box provided, or select 'Show all' to show all available groups.  This search may take some time if you're using an LDAP-enabled site, such as the JCU portals.
6. Click onto the name of the group you wish to remove a user from.
7. Check the boxes next to the names of the users you wish to remove from this group in the listing at the top.
8. When ready to remove these users, click the 'Remove selected groups / users' button.

If you happen to make a mistake, just follow the instructions for adding a user to a group to add them back in.

Here is a list of the most common URLs for sites. If you're unsure how to set up your client to do this, see our Tutorials.

Your WebDAV application may or may not accept the hostname and path as separate fields.  If you are prompted to enter a complete URL, then combine the server and path strings together, like so: https://egrs.jcu.edu.au/dav/Members/jc1234567/ for the eGRS site.

Site not listed?

If your site is not listed, then you are able to use your site's actual URL, but be aware this is not a dedicated WebDAV port and some functionality may not work as desired.  Contact your site administrator for more information.

A trap for new players is when a folder/container has a page set as the default view. Clicking on Sharing in this case will put you in the page permissions for the default view - any changes you make here only apply to the default view page and NOT the container/folder. You will need to read the "Info" section that appears to click through to the folder permissions. (See image below)

Permissions cascade down from the top, so if you give some one access at the very top level they will have access to everything underneath. You can stop this but you need to go in and deliberately do so by unchecking the "Inherit permissions" box. You can tell if a permission is inherited as you will see a green tick and not a checkbox that you can turn on or off.

For eSpaces users please note:

In the above example, "Logged-in users" have View access - logged-in users are any user in the eSpaces area - NOT just YOUR eSpace. So at the moment, anyone at JCU who has logged into eSpaces can see the VecNet site and all its contents.  I am guessing that if this is to be a private site then this is not appropriate. To change it, you need to go to the home container and uncheck the "Can view" box next to "Logged-in users".

If your collaborator already has a JCU account then skip to Step 4 below. JCU accounts are automatically available for use and you do not need to create a new account.

1. Contact your collaborator and ask them to visit the eResearch Spaces site and click on the 'Register' link (or point them at this URL: https://eresearch.jcu.edu.au/spaces/@@register)
2. Instruct your collaborator to fill out their details and sign up for an account.  When they're done, obtain the user name they selected as you'll need this to grant them access to your Space.
3. Go into your eResearch Space, and determine where you'd like to grant the user access.  Keep in mind access at a top-level folder will typically apply (be inherited) to all sub-folders and content.
4. Browse through to the location you'd like to grant access, and click the 'Sharing' tab.
5. In the search box that appears, search for your collaborator's user name.  Their account will appear in the listing.
6. Grant the user permissions accordingly and click 'Save'.  If you're unsure what each of the permissions are, see this FAQ.

You can add as many or as few collaborators as you'd like.

Note

Keep in mind that when using the Sharing tab you apply your permissions to the right content or folder.

A common issue is if you grant a user permissions on content that is acting as the default view for a folder - if you do this, you'll grant a user access to that page only, and not the folder.  If you see the following message, keep this in mind:

By default, a new eResearch Space contains an example image in the top-level of your space that you can either replace or erase.  It will be named "custom_logo.png" and you have the ability to replace this with one of your own choosing.

Please note the image needs to be a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) formatted image - this format is available as an output of essentially all major graphics applications.

Replacing the logo

If you've not already removed the placeholder logo, you can replace it with ease:

1. Browse to the logo image in the base of your Space.
2. Click the 'Edit' tab.
3. Replace the image accordingly by selecting a new image to upload from your computer.
4. Click Save and view the changes.

Adding a new logo

If you've removed the placeholder logo, you can upload a new logo in its place.  To do this:

1. On your computer desktop, locate the PNG image you'd like to upload.
2. Rename this to be custom_logo.png
3. Browse to the home page of your Space
4. Click the 'Add New' drop-down menu and select Image
5. Upload the image from your computer by selecting it in the Image field.
6. Click Save to see the changes.

Alternatively, if you already have a logo uploaded to your site or don't want to rename your file before upload, you can just rename an image in your Space's top-level to be custom_logo.png

Hiding the logo from navigation

Most people will want to hide the logo from navigation, so that it doesn't appear in the left-hand listing of content. To do this:

1. Browse to the logo image in the base of your Space.
2. Click the 'Edit' tab.
3. Click the 'Settings' tab in the middle of the edit screen.
4. Select the option 'Exclude from navigation'
5. Click save and view the changes.

Removing the logo

If you're removing this logo, our default logos fill the space until you have a custom logo present. To do this:

1. Browse to the logo image in the base of your Space.
2. Locate the 'Actions' drop-down menu and click it.
3. Click 'Delete' and confirm your action.
4. Refresh your browser to see the change.

A trap for new players is when a folder/container has a page set as the default view. Clicking on Sharing in this case will put you in the page permissions for the default view - any changes you make here only apply to the default view page and NOT the container/folder. You will need to read the "Info" section that appears to click through to the folder permissions. (See image below)

Permissions cascade down from the top, so if you give some one access at the very top level they will have access to everything underneath. You can stop this but you need to go in and deliberately do so by unchecking the "Inherit permissions" box. You can tell if a permission is inherited as you will see a green tick and not a checkbox that you can turn on or off.

For eSpaces users please note:

In the above example, "Logged-in users" have View access - logged-in users are any user in the eSpaces area - NOT just YOUR eSpace. So at the moment, anyone at JCU who has logged into eSpaces can see the VecNet site and all its contents.  I am guessing that if this is to be a private site then this is not appropriate. To change it, you need to go to the home container and uncheck the "Can view" box next to "Logged-in users".

1. Log into the CTS portal as a user with relevant permissions.
2. Browse to the special 'Content' folder within News & Publications. The direct link to this folder is https://www.jcu.edu.au/cts/publications/content. 
   
3. Click into the sub-folder representing the relevant type of content you would like to add in the folder listing. The following graphic highlights one of these sub-folders that you could click on - in this case, Technical Reports.
   
   At the time of writing, these types are Technical Reports, Newsletters, Information Bulletins and Technical Alerts.
4. After clicking into the given sub-folder, click the 'Add new' drop down menu and select 'File'. If you only see just a 'Folder' entry in the menu and not a full list as in the image below, then please ensure you are within a specific publication folder.
   
   
   
5. Enter relevant details for Title and Description, and select a file (such as PDF file) from your local computer to upload.
6. Click save.  Your content is now uploaded and will be visible under the relevant section in News & Publications.

Keep in mind that you may need to re-order or add a Publishing Date to the content item you just uploaded -- this will affect where it appears in the listing within News & Publications:

• If your ordering is automatically done by date, then you need to add a Publishing Date under the 'Dates' tab when editing (click the 'Edit' tab on your content if it is already uploaded) or do this when you first upload your report.
• For manual re-ordering, you can achieve this by visiting the 'Contents' tab in the relevant folder (for instance, here for Technical Reports) and using the drag handle in the folder listing to change the ordering of your content.