(Note: This section is primarily for site administrators but may be useful to users of the web community as well.)
How to properly upload documents is an often-confused process for IAAP sitebuilders. This guide will provide step-by-step instructions on how to upload a document to a webpage, a resource library and the proper procedure for locking a document to only members of your chapter or division. If uploading confidential information to your site, it is important that these steps are followed exactly as shown here.
Before we get started, let's point out one area of the CMS where you should NEVER upload a document. For each content item that you create, you have the option to select the type of content, including HTML, Uploaded File, Hyperlink, etc. It is often tempting to use the "Uploaded File" option to upload a document. While documents can be uploaded in that fashion, we do not recommend using it. This tutorial will demonstrate better methods for uploading and managing documents.
Another thing you should not do: Do not upload any image file or document file that has spaces or special characters in the filename. Replace the spaces with underscores or simply delete them. For example, if you have a PDF you have named "2010 November Newsletter.pdf" you want to change it to 2010_November_Newsletter.pdf" or "2010NovemberNewsletter.pdf." At some point, this will probably save you some headaches. Most modern web browsers can convert spaces into the correct HTML format but older browsers, like IE6, will often break the link if the filename has spaces or uncommon characters in it.
Uploading a document within a web page
If you have a document, like a newsletter, that you'd like to make available to any visitor that comes to your site, you can upload the document using the WYSIWYG editor's Document Manager.
For this example, let's say you would like to make a list to archive your chapter's newsletters. Below we can see three newsletters listed but none have yet been linked to a document.
What we want to do is link each month's newsletter to a PDF file (or whatever format your newsletter is in). To get started, we need to highlight the text we want to link to the document and click on the Document Manager icon inside the editing ribbon.
Clicking the Document Manager will bring up a window where we can upload our file. Click the "Upload" button to upload your file.
The next window is where you will choose the file to upload. Note the max file size is 10MB, the allowed file extensions and that you can add more than one file at a time if you want. When you have all the files you'd like uploaded, click the "Upload" button.
After uploading the file, you will be taken back to the Document Manager window, and you should see your uploaded document or documents listed. Clicking a document will highlight the document in green and will bring up some options to the right. It is not necessary to change any of those settings but one you might use is the Target dropdown to make the document open in a new window. When you're ready, click Insert and the document will be linked to the text we highlighted earlier.
You can see now that the January 2010 Newsletter is now a hyperlink to the document we uploaded.
To link February and March in this example, we would follow the same steps. However, the easiest method would be to have uploaded all three newsletter files at once. They would then all be listed in your Document Manager. To insert each one, you would then simply highlight the text for the newsletter, open the Document Manager, highlight the corresponding file for that newsletter and click Insert.
Also, once a document is uploaded to the Document Manager it can be linked to on other pages as well. So, for example, if you want to link to a newsletter from your home page and an inside page, you can do so without having to upload the document more than once. You still have to create the link to the document on each page, but you do NOT have to upload the document twice.
When you click on each link, the document should open in your web browser. You can then see a direct link to your document in the URL bar at the top of your browser, which you may need for an email or some other purpose. For example, you could also use this URL if you wanted to link to the document on another page of your site, instead of using the Document Manager.
Important!
Many sitebuilders assume that if they link to a document on a page that is set to "Members Only" that the content on that page, including the document, is only accessible by their chapter members. This is NOT the case. By selecting "Members Only" you are only restricting the content on the page to members of IAAP. In order to lock a document to members of your chapter, you will need to follow the directions below. You CANNOT lock a webpage to only members of your chapter. You can, however, lock a page on your site to only site administrators, IAAP members or you can make it available to the general public.
Locking a Document to Only Members of Your Chapter or Division
The only way to restrict access to a document to only members of your chapter or division is by uploading the document through the Resource Library. Again, you cannot restrict an entire page on your site to just your chapter's members, but you can restrict a document. This is an often-misunderstood concept on the Web Community, so please take the time to understand the difference.
To add a document, you will need to select the "Add Document" link from the dropdown menu located in the "Resources" or "Professional Resources" section of your site.
The first step is to give your document a name, a description and to select the correct library. It is very important that you name your document in a way that it can be easily found through search. In the example below, notice we have named the chapter's roster "Big City Chapter Roster" rather than simply "Chapter Roster." If you were to search the entire document library for "chapter roster" you would likely come up with hundreds of results. But if someone were to search for "Big City Chapter Roster" they would most likely only find this document.
Once you have entered the title and description, select the library for your chapter or division. By placing the document in your chapter or division library, you are ensuring that only members of your chapter or division have access to it. [Note: It is possible to "open up" a chapter library so that it is completely public, but by default it is private. In order for it to be changed, you need to request to make your library public through HQ. It is also possible to setup separate public and private libraries for your chapter. To do this, you need to request a public library be created through IAAP's Internet Communications Coordinator.]
After selecting the library, it is important that you click "Save" before moving on to Step 2.
Next, choose the file you want to add to the library and click Upload.
You can also upload more than one file within a single document. For example, if you uploaded a PowerPoint presentation that also had an audio recording that goes with it, you could upload both files to the same document so that they remain together.
After uploading the file or files, the next step is to select any tags or keywords that relate to the document. Check any keywords or phrases you see that relate to your document. This is not a required step but it does make searching your library easier.
Once you have selected your tags, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Continue.
You will then be taken to the "View Document" page, which summarize the document and lists all the files contained within it. There are a number of options here but the most important is the "Permalink" option. Clicking there will bring up a window that gives you a direct URL to your document.
You might notice that the URL provided in the Permalink box is EXACTLY the same as the URL displayed in your browser for that View Document page. They are the same, so you can use either one. Whatever method you choose, copy and paste this URL to something like Notepad so you can easily access it again.
This View Document (or Permalink) URL is only accessible by members of your chapter and only when those members are logged in to the web community. This is the link you need to use if you want to restrict a document to only members of your chapter. If you are unsure about the link you are using, check to see if you see a "DocumentKey" parameter in the URL as we can see above. If there is no DocumentKey there's a good chance your document is not secure.
So what do we do with this link?
Let's go back to the list of newsletters we used in the previous example. Remember previously that we created a link for the January newsletter to a document that was available to anybody. This example will show how we could link the March Newsletter to only members of our chapter. Just as we did before, we want to highlight the text we want linked to the document; however, instead of using the Document Manager icon we need to select the Link Manager icon, which looks like a small globe with a chain link at the bottom. There are actually two in the ribbon but if you mouse over them, you can see the Link Manager is on the left. The icon to the right removes a link.
Clicking the icon will bring up the Link Manager window. Delete the "http://" that shows in the URL field by default. Paste the long View Document (or Permalink) we copied earlier into this field. You can also use the Target dropdown to open the document in a new window but the rest of the option you can ignore and click OK.
Our page now has two links to documents on it. Remember the first link we made available to the public. The March link is only available to members with access to the library the document was uploaded to.
Visit this page and try clicking each link yourself. Whether you are logged in or not, you should be able to access the file uploaded for the January newsletter. However, if you click the March link you will either be prompted to login to the web community or (if you're already logged on) you will receive a message that you do not have access to this document.
So even though the
page we've referenced in this tutorial is open to the public, the actual document that contains the information we want to keep private is not. Therefore, you can have a "Members Only" section on your site, and while all IAAP members will technically be able to get to the page and see what's listed and linked to there, only your chapter members will be able to click through to the document to access the restricted information.