Content
1. Introduction
2. How to install modules
3. How to connect the functionality of a module to a page
3.1 About 'hooks' in module- and page names
3.2 Modules
4. How to edit module names to fit your language
5. How to use the module manager.
Modules are programs that can perform special functions in the Site@School content management system.
For example, send emails, a calendar, a forum, a guestbook, a news page, creating forms, adding agenda's, etc..
The module manager is the 'door' to the installed modules.
The functions of the modules are discussed in their respective module chapters.
The only thing you can do in the module manager is changing the language of the module names and the corresponding program names.
Before you can use a module, you must make sure it is installed on the system.
Sometimes you first have to download a module and install it, before you can use it.
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NOTICE: Site@School Version 2.4 has all available modules installed! Only install a module when you are upgrading or when you find a module which is not installed. Look for new modules on our Sourceforge download site.
When you have downloaded the module, unzip the file in your web server's root directory, or a subdirectory when you have installed Site@School in a subdirectory. Read the INSTALL_MODULENAME.txt file. Follow the instructions.
When you are upgrading, go to http://exampleschool.org/starnet/install/ (fictional example, replace it with your URL), and read the INSTALL_MODULENAME.txt.
Follow the instructions.
The module is now installed on your system. Do not forget to delete the files in the ../install directory.
To use the just installed module, it must be connected to a page. See below for further explanation.
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We now give the general way to connect a module to a page. Exceptions will be discussed later. We take the 'News' module as example.
You can add the functions of the 'News' module to a page on your school site and the Module management by doing the following:
You are back at the Page Manager and you can see the 'Page name' added. However, the icon located before the page name is a module icon instead of a page icon.
NOTICE: You may have to repeat the process to add the 'Archive' program and the other programs to pages on the site.
You have now added programs of the News module to pages as examples. We will now discuss attaching other modules to pages.
One of the greatest features in Site@School is that many modules can be used on as many pages as you like.
Take, for example, the Calendar module. Each class can have it's own calendar, each teacher can have one,
each department can have one or more, etc. This feature can only be obtained by using the page name as a 'hook' for a specific calendar.
In the calendar module, you can add calendars, which you must give names. These names must be identical to the page names created with the Page Manager.
So, when you have a page name 'Staff' (omit quotes), the name of the calendar in the calendar module must be 'Staff' (omit quotes).
Most modules only have only one program option and are easier to install than the news module.
The Agenda, Advertisments, Calendar, Chat, E-mail, Forms, Forum, Guestbook, Links, Newsletter, Search and the Sitemap modules only have one option, so there is nothing to choose.
NOTICE: One option does not mean that a module can only be connected to one page!
The Allbum module has three options.
- Multiple albums on a page.
- The second option is to have an album per page. This enables, for example, each group to have their own album.
- Allbum slideshow
The Class pages module (formerPupil's pages) has five options.
- A login page for teachers and pupils. Of course you can have multiple login pages.
- One page for all groups.
- One page for each group (class) of pupils.
- A page for projects.
- A page for the pages of the teachers
The Up/Download module has three options.
- A download page where you can have categories for different downloads.
- Each category on a separate page.
- A page for uploading files.
The Message module has two options.
- A page where messages can be added.
- A page where messages can be viewed.
The News module has four options; see the example above.
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When you click on the module manager icon
, you will see:
![[ ]](pics/modman_module_manager.png)
modman_module_manager.png
Explanation:
- Installed modules: Here you find the names of the installed modules.
- Module icon: The icon indicating a module.
NOTICE: 'Installed' does not mean functional on a page on the site. You have to add the functions of a module to a page on the site.
Only then the functions of a module are available and there is something to manage. See the previous section.
- [Edit]: Here you can edit the name of the module. This is useful when you want to adapt a module name to your language.
- Module name: By clicking on the name you enter the module and you can manage the module. See the individual module chapters for further explanation.
When you click on [Edit], you will see:
modman_module_manager_edit.png
Explanation:
- Module name: Here you can give the proper name for the module in your language. The module name corresponds with the names of the module on the left side of the module browser.
- Program name: Here you can give the program name in your language. The program name(s) correspond with the right side of the module browser.
- Cancel: To undo your work and return to the module manager.
- Save: To save your work and return to the module manager.
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When you click on one of the module names in the module browser, you enter the corresponding module. We will not discuss the various modules here.
See the individual chapters for detailed instructions on how use them.
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Author: Dirk Schouten <schoutdi (at) knoware (dot) nl>
Last updated: 2006-04-01