www.pbha.org
Overview
PBHA’s main site is a blog powered by WordPress. In order to update it, you need to be familiar with WordPress features. For more information about this, visit [[Wordpress Basics]].
How do I log in?
The link to the WordPress admin can be found in the toolbar at the far right. In case this button is deleted or removed for some reason, you can access the login page by going to the following link: http://pbha.org/wp-admin/.
Available at www.pbha.org/wp-admin
Once you login, you’ll be taken to the dashboard. All of the tools that you will need to administer the site will be found on the left-hand side.
How do I just do a simple update? What if I want to edit a page or add a new one?
Once you login, you can add or edit posts or pages. On the left hand side, you can either click on “posts” or “pages”. This will take you to the pages / posts editor. WordPress was installed to make the updating of content more straightforward but a lot of other fancy bells and whistles have also been added. To learn more about the basics of page/post editing, visit this website: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages. For more advanced features, specifically chosen/designed for www.pbha.org visit [[Advanced post editing]].
What’s the difference between a post and a page?
Pages contain relatively permanent information about the organization. As of July 6, 2009, the pages on the www.pbha.org website include: About, Annual Reports and Newsletters, Calendar, Directions, History, How to Get Involded, PBHA Fact Sheet, Contact Us, Officers, Staff, Board of Trustees, Donate, SUP Appeal, Monthly Giver Club, Our Programs, Resources, Fileserver, Funding for Student Groups, Photo Gallery, Relational Database, SUpport Transpo & Supplies, and Vehicles and Space. Pages are useful because they can be hierarchically arranged and automatically pop up in the top navigation tool bar.
Posts, on the other hand, represent events, announcements, random articles. They show up on the post feed at the bottom of the page. For more documentation on this, visit http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages
How is the website’s layout organized? How is the home page organized?
Since we’re using WordPress, all of the layout stuff is controlled by what is called a theme. Basically, it’s a template that uses dynamic coding to generate pages. That means you don’t have to change the website’s contents if you just want to change the look – just change the theme. PBHA’s website uses a modified version of the CognoBlue theme.
Map of www.pbha.org's layout (click to enlarge)
Themes are customizable and can have several different sections, features, and looks depending on how they are programmed. For more general information on themes, visit WordPress’s documentation on themes. Read up more on the finer features of the PBHA theme at [[Layout and Design]].
How do I upload files, pictures, and documents to the www.pbha.org server?
First, ask yourself why you are doing this… Most likely, you want to insert a link to a pdf or a doc file or post a picture onto a page/post. WordPress is a content management system, which means it can manage a lot of different types of files and share it with different users over the internet. When you are in the page edit or post edit screen, you can click on the “Add Media” button to directly upload files, documents, pictures. If you upload a picture, the picture or its thumbnail will appear in the post. If you upload a file, a link to download the file will appear.
Use these buttons to control file uploads.
The upload isn’t working – what do I do?
Somtimes the flash uploader is a little buggy (for reasons unknown). Try uploading the file again with the browser uploader instead.
I uploaded the file, but it doesn’t show up on the page/post. What should I do?
After uploading the file and editing the meta data (title, caption, description, etc.), don’t forget to click on “Insert into Post”
How can I access all the files that are uploaded through WordPress?
You can access all of these files by going to the Media menu on the admin panel.
No, I want to upload some html, php, some other script – not a document or picture – how do I do that?
I assume if you’re asking this question, you know a little more computer science and programming. You can use SecureFx, which can be downloaded from the Harvard Downloads site, and just upload them to www.pbha.org using SFTP protocol. Ask Louise for the password.
You can also use an online FTP plugin which is installed on our site called “myFTP.” It’s a nifty online FTP that can be found under the Tools menu on the admin site of WordPress. PLEASE USE WITH CAUTION – THERE IS NO UNDO WHEN FTPING. For documentation of the myFTP plugin, visit http://themes-plugins.com/myftp-wordpress-plugin/
How do I create “pretty” URLs?
When you create a page or post, WordPress automatically generates a “permalink” (http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks) based on the title you give it. However, you can edit this by clickin on the “Edit” right underneath the title. Hence, the permalink can be completely different from the title if you choose. Permalinks have to be configured for WordPress (www.pbha.org) but NOT WordPress MU (www.programs.pbha.org). This has already been done, but read the documentation (the previous link) for more information on how to change the configuration.
For links to external sites (such as evite or facebook), use the Redirection plugin under the Tools menu on the admin panel. WordPress interferes with the traditional redirection from www.pbha.org/cpanel so you must use this plugin (visit http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/ for documentation).
How do I access the PBHA Google Calendar?
This is just a normal Google Calendar that needs to be shared with new officers / staff with every leadership transition. A special plugin (already configured) links the PBHA website with the Google account to create a live feed.