Chapter 2. Administration Screens

Configuration of the component is performed in the back end of the site. Full control of the component can be performed in the back end of the site. The addition and editing of articles can also be performed in the front end.

Administration Back end

The back end of the site is where the component options are specified and the Kbase entries are defined. It is also possible to create articles and add or remove article attachments in the back end, although this is more commonly performed in the front end of the site.

The sort order of categories is also performed in the back end screens.

Component Parameters

The component parameters are presented in this section. Most of the settings are self explanatory so we will not go into needless details.

Figure 2.1. Parameters (1a)

Parameters (1a)

There are a few specific settings that control the loading of various CSS or Javascript files in the front end. These are included to cover the situation where the front end template may not include them automatically. Specifically the loading of JQuery is often performed in most Bootstrap based templates. Similarly with Font Awesome fonts.

Problems have been known where multiple versions of JQuery have been loaded upon a site, so it is essential to only include it for this component IF it is not loaded by another component on use upon the site or by the site template.

Multiple versions of CSS files can also produce strange formating effects upon a site so although these are not quite so common it is certainly more efficient to only load one version of the Awesome Fonts.

Figure 2.2. Parameters (1b)

Parameters (1b)

Attachments have their own separate settings since it may not be desirable to have attachments associated with your Kbase articles. This does not impact any embedded images that may be present in the article itself. Instead they are means to be files that may be made available for download by the viewer to 'address' a specific need, or supply a convenient piece of code (or CSS file) that may prove useful to address a specific need,

Figure 2.3. Parameters (2)

Parameters (2)

The standards Joomla ACL component parameters are specified in their own specific tab as is the norm for Joomla components. The component uses these settings to control access particularly in the front end of the site.

Note that there are additional ACL controls settings for the individual category, article and acronym item accessible from each item entry.

Figure 2.4. Parameters (3)

Parameters (3)

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the main landing place in the back end of the component, It is here that one can see the Changelog, and credits for the component. It is also a place where one may make a donation to encourage further development of the component.

Figure 2.5. Dashboard

Dashboard

At the time of release there are no alternative translations available. This is expected to change as time passes and our volunteer translators decide if they would like to contribute. If you yourself would like to contribute a translation please refer to the pages on our web site detailing how you may participate.

Categories

The categories page presents the category information in the familiar Joomla category style. These are Nested categories with multiple levels of sub categories. It is also making use of the 'Search Tools' filtering, to control which items are displayed.

Figure 2.6. Categories

Categories

Editing (or creation) of a category follows standard practise and one is presented with a screen similar to that displayed below. One can add specific 'tags', add or remove descriptive text about the category etc. Note that one can specify an image to associate with the category and/or alternatively also specify a Awesome Font Icon'. It is not suggested that both are specified, as one or the other is usually sufficient, to avoid a 'messy' front end display.

Figure 2.7. Category Edit

Category Edit

Articles

The articles display as shown below lists the articles stored within the Kbase system. We endeavour to follow the standard Joomla methodology.

Figure 2.8. Articles

Articles

If the site is multilingual, i.e. mutliple languages are installed there will be an additional column displayed which will display the associations made for the items.

Editing (or creating) an article provides the following set of screens.

Figure 2.9. Article Edit (1)

Article Edit (1)

When an article is first created and prior to it being stored in the database, the 'Attachments' tab is not displayed. This is because until the article itself actually exists we would not have anything to attach the file(s) to! So the best practise is to create the basic article and then once saved, the 'attachment' tab will be visible and one can proceed to add as many attachments as configured.

Figure 2.10. Article Edit (2)

Article Edit (2)

The Audit Details display the details of when the article was created and last modified and in addition provides the ability to modify the user who performed these actions. We found that when created (or modified) in the back end it is often the 'Super User' that is creating the article and it may be desired to present a 'real name' (rather than 'Super User') to the front end viewer in the Article Meta data.

Figure 2.11. Article Edit (3)

Article Edit (3)

An additional 'Associations' tab will be presented if multiple languages are installed upon a site. This follows the standard Joomla mechanism for association items in different languages together so that only the appropriate language item is displayed to the viewer in the site front end.

The permissions tab enables one to control the ACL rules for the article being edited/created. As mentioned above these ACL controls are used in the front end to control user access. As a support tool it is expected that a specific ACL group would be created and given the appropriate permissions to control the edit and article creation.

Figure 2.12. Article Edit (4)

Article Edit (4)

Article Attachments

As implied above attachments are stored in a completely separate table, which itself links to the articles to which the attachments are linked.

Figure 2.13. Attachments

Attachments

Editing or creating an attachment are very easy with the initial screen providing the basic details and the means to upload or select an item to attach. Some of the fields are not available to the user to fill in, instead they are populated by information extracted from the attached file itself, such as file size, file type etc.

Figure 2.14. Attachment Edit (1)

Attachment Edit (1)

One saved the details of the attachment are provided in a septate tab, showing things such as the file type, size, name as stored in the operating system etc.

Figure 2.15. Attachment Edit (2)

Attachment Edit (2)

The audit detail record when and by whom the attachment record was made and updated.

Figure 2.16. Attachment Edit (3)

Attachment Edit (3)

Attachments are automatically removed from the system when an article is deleted. They can also be removed in isolation, leaving the article itself alone from within the back end.

Acronyms

The acronyms (or glossary) items display as shown below controls the items stored within the system. Acronyms (glossary items) are by their very nature comprised of short descriptive terms which may be Abbreviations, Acronyms or Initialism. We created a specific article upon our web site describing the specific differences in these terms so will not repeat it in this document.

Figure 2.17. Acronyms

Acronyms

Editing (or creating) an acronym provides the following set of screens.

Figure 2.18. Acronym Edit (1)

Acronym Edit (1)

Figure 2.19. Acronym Edit (2)

Acronym Edit (2)

The Audit Details display the details of when the acronym was created and last modified and in addition provides the ability to modify the user who performed these actions. We found that when created (or modified) in the back end it is often the 'Super User' that is creating the article and it may be desired to present a 'real name' (rather than 'Super User') to the front end viewer in the Article Meta data.

Figure 2.20. Acronym Edit (3)

Acronym Edit (3)

The association tab will only be displayed IF there are multiple languages installed upon the site. It permits one to link (associate) the various 'equivalent' items written in the different languages together, so that the appropriate item is displayed in the front end.

There is an additional permissions tab displayed (that is not shown here since it mimics the tab shown in the articles section above) which enables one to control the ACL rules for the acronym being edited/created. As mentioned above these ACL controls are used in the front end to control user access. As a support tool it is expected that a specific ACL group would be created and given the appropriate permissions to control the edit and acronym creation.

In practise we do not anticipate that ACL would be used very often with the acronyms, but the feature is implemented just in case.

Support

The support tab provides details of how to obtain support for problems,. Details of reported problems with the component etc.

Figure 2.21. Support

Support

The Help icon in the top right hand side of the page will also display a small popup window with a few useful links to more information about the component and support.

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