Settings:First Use

Advice: Keep it simple. Only enable functions that the client specifically asked for in order to avoid unnecessary clutter and confusion.

Site Management

• Enter the site URL “http://www.website.com” and secured site URLs (which may be the same as the site URL until the SSL certificate is received and installed).
• Set the physical root to the web site – this is required for many functions of the admin console to operate including image / file upload.
• Set the root folders for images and files. These will be used by the image and file management libraries as a starting point and top level restriction (users cannot navigate above these folders) for navigation to images and folders. The images folder can exist within the files folder if you wish. Make sure these folders exist on the server with appropriate rights and privileges assigned.
• If you are using multiple domains to access this web site, it is recommended to use the ‘force URLs to this domain option’ which will place all visitors into the same domain regardless of requested domain. This will satisfy cookies/sessions (as they prefer to be only available to their creating domain) and also makes third party web services happy (as many of them control access, and organize data based on domain name). Enter just the domain name without leading protocol ( example: www.mywebsite.com)
• Left menu bar should be checked unless the site isn’t using a left menu (very rare). Unchecking this box hides the left menu bar controls in the menu management area of administration.
• Leave languages empty unless you plan on supporting multiple languages on the website. If this is the case, please contact Whirlwind for requirements of using multiple languages.

Page Management

• “Reload page management on template change” should always be checked. This forces the page to reload when a template is selected, so the form will display the appropriate custom fields for that template. Only uncheck if the site will never use templates with custom fields.
• “Use Landing Pages” should be elected if the web site will use landing pages to govern different home pages based on user preferences.
• “Users that can manage pages” can be used to designate a group that has the rights to manage page content (create user groups in the Groups area of management). Administrators always have this ability (along with every possible privilege in administration). Only use this option is the client has expressed a need to have content managers who can manage page content but not have access to anything else.
• “Users that can edit pages but require approval from managers” sets a group who’s members can edit content that must be approved before going live. Note that page content changes submitted by these users are automatically emailed to users with the rights to manage pages. Only use this option if the client requires to have a junior level of content managers who’s changes and entries require approval before being posted live on the web site.
• Automated page email controls sets the email contents for the page approval process. Only enter data here if junior content editors will be used.
• “Page default template” sets the template that all new pages will be set to when created. You will probably be setting this after you get your templates into the system
• “Printable default template” and “Mobile default template” are used to pre-populate these template selections for new pages.
• “Selectable as an author for a page” dictates a group that will contain users that will be selectable as an author to a page in page management. You may need to create an author group in Groups before making this assignment. Only use this if you will be using page publishing fields (publisher, publish date, author) in page management (settable in the Page Fields tab of Settings).
• “Use page authorization” activates the page restriction functions of the web site. Turning this on will make all pages unavailable unless the user belongs to a group authorized to view the page. If enabled, a group assignment tool will be available in page management under the access tab. The everyone group can be used to make the page available to everyone, including folks not logged in (make sure your home page is set to everyone, if page authorization is elected or the site will be inaccessible). You can set default groups that pages will be assigned to using the “default user groups for new pages” option. Note that when page authorization is activated, all existing pages currently in the system will not belong to any groups and be inaccessible.
• “Style Sheets” sets the default style sheets (separated by commas) that will be used by the WYSIWYG editor in page management. These stylesheets can be overruled on a per template bases by setting the style sheets with the templates. Note that often specific style sheets need to be created for this area in addition to the style sheets actually used by the outputting page seen by visitors, as the WYSIWYG editor will not be subject to parent classes, ids that this content will be subject to when the page is displayed.
• “Search Page ID” sets the page id that will be used to display search results. This will most likely be set after the template and page are created for keyword search results.
• “404 (Not Found) Page ID” lets you set a page to be shown when a 404 error occurs. This requires the web server have 404 error set to go to index.php in the root of this web site.
• “Send2Friend Email Subject and Body” Set the contents of the email that is sent when the “send this page to a friend” function is used. Note the list of variables below the field which can be entered directly into the contents of the body or subject.
• “Summary Listing Details” dictates how admin search results for pages will be displayed. Alter this to use the fields that will be available to content managers.
• “Record Page Views” turns on advanced page activity tracking. With each page, all incoming and state variables (post, get, site, cookie, session) are recorded along with order and user data. Great for debugging, but uses a lot of system resources and can significantly handicap the speed of the web site.
• “Banner Management” makes banner management functions available in administration. A group can be created and assigned to have rights to manage banner ads.
• “Page Caching” makes server side page content caching available. Page caching significantly increases the performance of the site, especially on pages that have heavy processing requirements. Page caching cannot be used if any content on the page is to be session or state specific (perpetual carts, “Welcome Mr Jones”). Note that if enabled site wide (here), page caching can also be micromanaged on a per page basis – allowing heavily traffic’d pages to have session specific data removed and be cached, while other pages are not. Page caching is tightly integrated into the management console so that changes in administration that effect pages will trigger the effected pages to refresh in the cache automatically.
• “Pages as Events” adds event controls to page management. These allow a page to be set as an event, along with controlling start end dates. Event pages will qualify for event search functions that can be used to populate calendar pages.

Page Fields

• “Use Publisher information” makes the publishing fields available in the ‘other’ tab of page management. These include an author (selected from the users belonging to group assigned to author in the Page Management tab of Settings), a publisher and a publish date. These fields then become available in the template for output.
• “Publisher default” sets the default value of the publisher field.
• “Use breadcrumb, page notice, sub title, summary information link text, image caption” turn on / off these fields in page management. If they are not necessary for any of the templates then turning them off will remove unnecessary clutter from the page management form.
• The “Rename” fields allow you to change the name of the fields as they are presented in the page management form. This accommodates clients who are accustomed to specific language governing their content (for example, publishing clients use headline, subhead and deck in place of notice, title and subtitle). Often page name is substituted for notice giving page managers a way to uniquely identify each page in a recognizable manner. The rename fields can also allow for html to be included (for instance if you would like the meta title to copy the title value when a link is pressed, write the HTML for the link and javascript in here).

Web 2.0

Here forums, polling and blogging can be enabled and configured. Note that templates will have to be created to support each, if they are to be used. Only activate if the client requires these functions.

• “forums available” turns on / off forum availability on the site
• “Page forum template” sets the default template when a content manager elects to create a forum via page managemenr.
• “Users that can manage forums” sets the user group that has the rights to view, approve and edit forum posts.
• “Embed forum replies in parent post” actually places the post content of target posts into reply postings. This is usefull if regularly purging the system of old posts (so replies still retain the source post even after the source post is deleted). For ‘commenting’ pages (commenting on products) this is not necessary since they typically do not incorporate ability to reply like typical forums.
• “Submissions are posted live” will circumvent the approval process. If unchecked posts will not be visible to web site visitors until approved via the forums queue. If checked, they will be visible immediately.
• “Require Login for Forum Posts” requires visitors to be logged into user accounts to post. This disallows anonymous posting. While this does make forum users a little less likely to post objectionable /inappropriate content, it will make the posting process more difficult therefore visitors will be less likely to use it.
• “Submissions posted live by these users” allows designation of a user group that circumvents the queue approval process of posts (a.k.a. trusted forum users).
• “Days to keep forum posts before purging” will automatically purge posts after a certain period of time. With excessive post activity, the system could slow down after months, years of posts. Purging old posts will help keep the database a manageable size and improve performance.
• “Polling Available” turns on / off polling availability on the site.
• “Require Login” requires that poll visitors be logged into an account in order to submit a poll vote.
• “Poll Default Template” sets the default template for all “new polls” created in page management.
• “Blogging available” turns on / off blogging availability on the site.
• “Blog default template” sets the default template for all “new blogs” created in page management. Also sets the template to be adopted when users create their own blogs, if this is available on the web site.
• “Users that can have a blog” allows restriction of blog creation and management to users belonging to a specific group
• “Blog entries default template” sets the template to be adopted by each blog entry posted to a blog. Note that the blog itself is a page and each entry is also another page in page management.
• “Blog entries default as forums” will set blog entries to have forum controls available automatically, allowing visitors to comment on the blog. Templates must be designed with forums in mind in order to display them when the blog page is a forum.

Campaigns

• “Email campaign available” turns on / off the availability of campaign management tools
• “Users that can manage email campaigns” allows a group’s user memebers to have the privilege of using campaign management tools.
• “Double Opt In Success URL” dictates the URL the visitor is forwarded to after they have successfully opted into the email campaign via the automated email. Example “/index.php?pageId=123&message=You%20are%20now%20registered!”
• “Double opt in failure URL” dictates the URL the visitor is forwarded to on failed double opt in attempts. These could be the result of hack attempts or malformed URLs in the emails due to client email browsers performing physical wraps mid URL. Example: “/index.php?pageId=234&message=Failed%20registration%20attempt”
• “Double opt out success URL” dictates the URL the visitor is forward to following successfully opting out of the campaign system. Example: “/index.php?pageId=345&message=You%20have%20will%20no%20longer%20receive%20emails”
• “Double opt out failure URL” dictates the URL the visitor will forward to following a failed double opt out attempt. These could be the result of hack attempts or malformed URLs in the emails fur to client email browsers performing physical wraps min URL. Example: “/index.php?page=456&message=Invalid%20opt%20out%20attempt”
• “Registration Email” fields dictate the contents of the automated email that is sent upon registration for the campaign system. “Registration Email PageId” allows for the use of a page in the page management system as the sent email instead of the “Registration Email Body” – enter only the page ID here.
• “Registration Type” dictates if the system is opt in (requiring the registering visitor to verify via an automated email before they qualify) or opt out (meaning the registering visitor is automatically qualified after submitting an email address via the website, but will receive an email with instructions on how to opt out). Opt in, while less convenient for visitors, ensures all registrations are legitimate which will help to avoid being blacklisted by spam systems.

eCommerce

• “eCommerce available” turns on/ off the availability of eCommerce and related tools.
• “Page IDs” (cart, registration, shipping, billing, payment, checkout…) dictate the pages that will be used as these stages in the shopping cart and purchase process. Simply enter the Page IDs into these fields after they are created in the system. The eCommerce URLs will utilize these pages to build their content (CART.view, ORDER.register, ORDER.checkoutShipping, ORDER.checkoutBilling, ORDERcheckoutPayment, ORDER.checkoutConfirmation, ORDER.checkoutComplete)
• “Email Invoice” fields will control the email that is automatically delivered to a customer following an order. The “Emailed Invoice Header” and “Emailed Invoice Footer” will “wrap” around the actual receipt that will be present in the email.
• “Product Configuration Available” turns on/off the product configuration tool in product management. The product configuration tool allows managers to control “personalized” products and their presentation. For example: greeting cards, personalized logod pens, and other products that give visitors a significant amount of control over product presentation.
• “Pricing Matrices Available” turns on / off shared pricing level / matrix tools. These tools allow content managers to set per-quantity price discount ‘groups’ that can be reused from product to product. With this component disabled, content managers may still manage per-quantity pricing matrices on a per product basis, though they will not be able to use ‘shared’ matrices between multiple products.
• “TriggerEmailMarketing” fields turn on / off, and configure the ACORN Trigger Email Marketing functions.
• “Users that can manage products” dictates a user group that has control over product management functions (this includes product management, price matrix, shared product options, tax management, shipping management, discount management)
• “Users that can manage orders” dictates a user group that can lookup and manage orders in the system.

Users

• “Users that can manage users and access” dictates a group that can lookup, edit, add and change access of all users.
• “Failed Access Authorization URL forward” dictates the URL that a visitor will be forwarded to in the event they attempt to access something (a page, document, etc) that they do not have access for. Example: “/index.php?pageId=124&message=Invalid%20access%20attempt”
• “Login successfully URL forward” dictates the default URL that a visitor will be forwarded to following a successful login. This can be overrided by use of the “redirect” form field in the login form. Example: “/index.php?pageId=112&message=You%20have%20successully%20logged%20in”. This is set to “index.php?fa=PAGE.manage” be default so that logging into the initial login form will present the administration console.
• “Failed attempt login URL forward” dictates the default URL that a visitor will be forward to following a failed login attempt. The can be overrided by use of the “redirectOnFailure” form field in the login form. Typically this is set to forward back to the login form itself with a message about the failed login. Example: “/index.php?pageId=135&message=Invalid%20login%20please%20try%20again”
• “Logout URL forward” dictates the default URL that a visitor will be forwarded to following logout. This can be overrided by use of the “redirecte” querystring attribute in the logout URL (example of override in querystring: index.php?fa=USER.logout&redirect=my/redirect.page). Example Logout URL forward value: “/index.php?pageId=432&message=You%20have%20been%20logged%20out”
• “Password expired link” is the URL the visitor will be forwarded to when attempting to log into an account that has an expired password. Typically this is forwarded to the account management form that allows a visitor to set their password. Example: “index.php?pageId=146&message=Password%20expired%20please%20change%20your%20password”
• “Lost password settings” set the contents of the email that is automatically sent when a visitor requests their lost password.
• “Custom User Fields” allows creation of custom fields that will be available for user accounts. These fields will be automatically presented in the user management form located in “users’ of the administration console. Template managers will be required to specially call and integrate these fields into each management form they wish to present them within. For additional information on custom field setup, see “custom fields” below.