PilotsUP - Help - Creating Community Pages | Web & Administrative Systems

Home >>
Web & Administrative Systems >>
Getting Help >>
PilotsUP >>
PilotsUP - Help - Creating Community Pages

Web & Administrative Systems: PilotsUP - Help - Creating Community Pages

If you help organize a community that you do not see represented in PilotsUP and you think using PilotsUP would be an asset, please Request a Community using this online form.

Once we set up the community basics for you, we will notify you. You can get started right away adding collaboration portlets, building content, and adding members. The hardest part is getting members to go there! The rest is easy. If you have additional questions or would like to talk with someone about an online community, please contact WAS.

Common Questions

How Do I Add a Page to my Community?

You can add new pages by clicking the button in the navigation bar for your community. Enter the new page's name, then click Save. You can also add new pages from the Control Panel in the Manage Pages option under community actions.

How Do I Create Community Pages?

Building a community page can be a simple process if you choose to just add a few applications to a page, but don't be fooled by the simplicity of PilotsUP. You can also create a sophisticated website tailored to your specific needs. You can build on and edit any community for which you are an administrator; in this example, we'll use My Community (which all users can edit).

To get started, we'll create a private page (so no one else can see our tinkering). Hover over the Communities button, then over My Communities, then My Community, then click Private Pages, like this:

If you have never built a page before, you should see a page like this:

To add a page, simply click on the "Add Page" icon just below the PilotsUP banner.

Next, you'll enter a page name into the "Save Page" box that looks like this:

That's it! Your page is ready for your content.

Adding Applications

Applications are the best way to add functionality to your page, quickly and easily. Your first page will have the Help1 application visible to help you get started using applications. Follow these steps:

Hover over the Communities button, then click on Add Application.
The Add Application window will appear on the left hand side of the window. Applications are split into groups which broadly cover the type of function they have on a page.
- Collaboration: These social networking tools are best used in workgroups or for publishing information you wish to share with others. Most noteworthy are blogs (web logs like a diary or news tool), calendars, message boards (for hosting discussions between individuals), or wikis (for developing collaborative documents).
- Community: Features which let community members sound off on your page, by adding bookmarks or rating pages, are found here.
- Content Management: Content Management System applications are the basic building blocks of webpages. This category includes applications to add content to your pages, such as text (through Journals), images (using the Image Gallery), or documents (through the Document Library). You may also use these portlets to add standard webpage functionality, such as navigation, sitemaps, and breadcrumbs to your page.
- Finance: Add financial tools to your page like stock trackers, currency converters, and calculators to your pages.
- Google: If you have a Google account, these portlets let you access Google Mail, Documents, and Calendar, as well as add any widgets posted on www.google.com/gadgets in your page.
- News: Get alerts, announcements and weather from news sources you like, or subscribe to news feeds using the RSS portlet.
- Social: The social portlet displays information about social networking sites that you have configured in the Control Panel under Social Network. Visitors to your page can see information about your social networking sites with this portlet and activities from the sites can be linked with the Activities portlet
- Tools: Tools are general purpose applications, like search and dictionaries, which are good for many different tasks. Of note is Web Form, which allows visitors to answer questionnaires you design.
- UPPortlets: UPPortlets are custom applications which let you access University tools through the portal, such as My Announcements, the UP directory, and Outlook mail and calendars.
- Wiki: This is an application which allows users to collaborate on information and to create and edit documents and link them to each other.
- World of LifeRay: Allows community managers to add a portlet that displays recent activity of community members, known as status updates on other social networking sites.

When you find a portlet to add to your page, click Add next to its name, or click and drag it into your page.

Once added to a page, you configure your application by clicking on the "gear" icon in the applications header bar. Click on the applications name in the header bar to edit it.
Once you have added an application to your page, you can easily reorder or move them by clicking and dragging the application by the header bar (purple in the default). The application itself will become slightly translucent, the space you're moving it to turns yellow, and the empty space it formerly occupied turns gray:

When you've moved your application where you'd like it to sit, release the button and the application will appear in the new location, ready to use. Be sure that the destination area is highlighted yellow before you release the application. This indicates that the correct area in the template is selected.

How Do I Change the Layout of My Community?

You can change the layout of your pages or community with the layout template, which allows you to alter the arrangement, colors, and banner in your community. There are many advanced features to community management through the Control Panel that are not described in detail in this help content. For more advice and consulting on using advanced community features, please contact the Help Desk.

You may also change the general framework of your page using the Layout Template. To access the Layout template, hover over the Communities button, then click Layout Template.

Click the radio button next to the layout you want to use, then click Save. The page will be changed to match that template.

How Do I Change the Theme of My Pages?

You may select from a number of custom themes to match your personal taste or theme.

Hover over the Communities button, then click Manage Pages.
In the Manage Pages window, click the Look and Feel tab.
Click the radio button next to the design you would like to apply to your site. The design will immediately be applied.

Using the Manage Pages Menu

Under the Manage Pages option in the Control Panel the community owner can edit the look and feel, add new pages, and change the display order for community pages.

You can change page names or create custom URLs using the Manage Pages menu. To access it, hover over the Communities button, then click Manage Pages. You can also access this through the Control Panel in the communities listing. This may be optimal when configuring multiple communities at once.

First, click on the page you wish to change the name and/or the URL of in the left hand page list.
In the Name field, you can change the name displayed in your community's top-level navigation.
Friendly URL lets you change the address typed into a web browser to visit your page. Enter a name you like here, preceded by a /. A URL will not work if it contains any of the following words: c, group, web, Image, wsrp, page, public, private, rss, tags. The full URL will look like this:
- If a private page https://pilots.up.edu/user/[your login name]/[your page name] (where the brackets contain your University login and the page name you selected).
- If a public page https://pilots.up.edu/web/[your login name]/[your page name] (where the brackets contain your University login and the page name you selected).
Click Save when finished to enact your changes.

Managing Your Communities from the Control PanelCommunities and personal pages can be added and managed from the Control Panel, making it easier for managers of multiple communities and pages to manage many blogs at once. Simply navigate to the Control Panel through the Communities button and click on the Communities link in the Portal area. If you manage more than one community, you must first select the right community from the drop down list at the top of the page indicated with the following logo:

You must first be on a community page you manage before you click on Control Panel in order to see options available for community managers.