Admin Help

This Page is for use by the SUCC WebMonkey

To do list

• FIXED: Sort out problem with having to re-login all the time (botched by increasing max session size to 6k)
• Sort out user group permissions
• FIXED: replace "index.php" with "wiki". (Done via .htaccess)
• FIXED: Get someone to design a banner (thanks beth)
• FIXED: Make the left pane look half pretty
• Label more buttons somehow
• FIXED: Change the shite color scheme
• FIXED: Make sure it works in i.e (typos, mistakes in css.)
• Try and get the site to pass xhtml and css tests
• Update front page
• Make a to do for the website for club members
• FIXED: Write a help page for users
• Update socails, trips, etc
• Get a photo upload script working

Stuff about the wiki

The SUCC Web page uses a wiki system to create and manage all the pages. I chose this method so that it can EASILY be kept up to date, and it isn't too hard for people to administer. It's never going to be the prettiest website, but it works. (hopefully). It uses PhpWiki and this needs to be carefully updated when necessary. It is important to keep backups wherever possible! The wiki system is not that big on disk, and the database isn't too bad either.

All page content is stored in a MySQL database called "canoe" on shrek. This can be accessed by going to /myad on the shrek server. This database is very valuable as it contains all the site's content! Make sure you back it up (phpmyadmin has some good backup tools) User login data is also stored here.

The look of the site is calculated each time entirely by the wiki scripts, that read data under themes/succ. The css sheet is quite massive but looks after all the colors, backgrounds, positions etc. The Content such as the sidebar, banner, and footer are all in tmpl files under templates. body.tmpl is where to look for changing the sidebar content.

Stuff about the web server

The 'new' club website is currently hosted on shrek, the susu.org web server. For help/support goto the SUSU tech office (currently upstairs in the stag's head building. Try not to bother them too much as we are guests on their server!

The website is currently hosted at canoe.susu.org and the old site was at www.soton.ac.uk/canoe (good old iss). There's now a proper redirect from the old url to the new one dont by .htaccess in the www root. The old site Uses iss under login canoe (use it to login to iss to access all the files etc, and their web server is currently very very old fashioned.

The mysql database has been moved to merlin.susu.org so as of present the GUI for mysql doesnt work. I used the text based interface so if any future webmonkeys know anything about this then please feel free to amend this!

Stuff about the mailing list

goto www.lists.soton.... and log in as canoe (if you are ecs it prob won't like your login). click modify and type in susu-canoe and the password. Here you can change who is a member on the list very easily. You can also do this via email (send HELP to majordomo@lists.soton....) but its shockingly unsafe treatment of passwords may put you off!

Stuff about the iss space

Log onto iss using ftp of sftp at ftp.soton.ac.uk, and log in as canoe to access the space. Just like standard iss accounts there's user folders, and a www root of the old site. Theres a help file in the root somewhere. Keep an eye on free space, as the canoe email filter seems to fill it up with logs - the system hasn't been touched for a long time!