iSE Getting Started

The Getting Started doc is to help you learn iSE after you have complete an installation

The iSE is a fairly sophisticated CMS that can take some time to gain an in-depth understanding of all functions. The best way to start learning is to jump in and start trying things. Below is a list of the typical tasks you will need to get you started.

Since iSE is an extended distribution of Drupal, all the Drupal core and contributed modules documentation will also apply to iSE. There is an extensive amount of additional help available at drupal.org.

Logging In – In iSE, you have several different types of user roles. If you just installed your site, you will be logged in as the superuser. The superuser can access all functions. For now, you will want to be logged in as the superuser for all the below tasks. If you do not see the admin menu (a black menu at the top of your site’s web page) you need to login as the superuser.

If you are logged in as another user, logout by clicking the logout link. Then use the login form on your site to login with the superuser username and password you created when you installed the site. If you don’t see a login form, you can go to the login page located at yourdomain.com/pathtoiSE/user, e.g. http://www.leveltendesign.com/user

Managing Users – You can manage user accounts via the “Users” admin tab or via the admin menu’s “User management”.

Managing Roles & Permissions – Drupal uses a flexible role based permission system. This system has three steps, create a role, assign permissions to a role and assign users to roles. A standard Drupal installation contains three roles; superuser, anonymous user and authenticated user. The iSE distribution adds at least three more to help you manage your knowledge workers.

Roles:

1. Superuser – this is a special role that only user 1 has. It does not show up in the permissions table because it automatically has all permissions.
2. Anonomous user – these are site visitors who are not logged in, e.g. the unauthenticated browsing public.
3. Authenticated user – Anybody who is logged is automatically assigned this role.
4. Author – This role is for staff members who will be contributing content to your site.
5. Editor – This roles expands the Author role to enable the user to edit other’s content.
6. Admin – This role extends the editor role and is intended for web site admins. It provides a broad range of permissions needed by someone needing to manage a site. Certain permissions, particularly for functions that could harm the site, have been restricted. The superuser role should be used for functions the admin is restricted from.

If you need to modify existing roles or create new ones, go to the User management > Roles. It is recommended to try to work with the installed roles to become familiar with how permissions work before creating your own.

If you are logged in as the superuser or an admin, you can modify permissions by going to User Management > Permissions. This page can be a little overwhelming at first. Most permission descriptions make sense although some might take some experimenting to understand what they do. In the iSE installation we have preconfigured a fairly standard configuration.

Creating Content ([[nodes]]) – iSE contains many different types of content. The permissions for most content types restricted for users who are not logged in, called anonymous users. So the first step will be to login. Use the via the admin side, click the Create Content admin tab or use the admin menu to go to Content management > Create content. You will presented with a list of different types of content you can create.

Editing Content (nodes) – There are two primary ways to edit content, via the admin or via the front end. You can view all content nodes via the admin by going to Content management > content. This provides a filterable list of all nodes in the system. To edit a node, just click edit on the node listing.

If you are on the front end of your site and you are logged in with appropriate permissions for editing the content page you are on, there will be a set of tabs at the top of the content. Just select the “Edit” tab to edit the node.

Note: not all pages in Drupal are nodes. Pages can be views, panels or created programmatically via modules. The above instructions are for editing nodes. Follow these links to learn about editing views or learn about editing panels.