[Mary]

Hello OpenLab team,

I want to make sure I’m not missing something simple here. I’ve been encouraging more people to create OpenLab accounts and suggesting (for student researchers, for example) that they could create a public project with a hidden associated site that they could perhaps make public at a later date. I’m trying to create a screencast to show how they could navigate to their associated site to customize it and add new content. To do this, I’ve created a test user with faculty privileges to see how this looks for non-admins. When logged in as this new faculty user, I’m not seeing a simple way to navigate to the hidden associated site I created as that user. This makes sense, of course. Because the site is hidden (and this is indicated on the project page), there is no easy link to the content. The associated site did not generate an email to the user’s e-mail account (though I got one as the OpenLab admin). The only way to access it that I’ve found is to follow the pattern I’ve observed that the associated site will always have this URL: “openlabhomepageURL/newsitename.” This navigates to the site, which also provides a link to see the administrative dashboard. Once I’m at that dashboard, the top bar of the website switches from white to black and I know I’m looking at the administrative side. Is this the best way to advise users to find their hidden associated sites?

Thank you!

Mary

[Mary]

Okay, answering my own question here. I’ve just found that if I’m at the project page and click on settings, I’ll see an option to look at the settings for the associated site there. And that page, of course, includes a link to the page! I’ll direct users to look there.

[Sally Everson]

Thanks for sharing! I haven’t tested out the Project and associated site features – that is good to know! I have been similar exercises on my site and sometimes I can’t find things either that are not so intuitive.

 

 

[Bree]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for your post!

You should be able to see the link for an associated site on the project profile if you are the site admin, even if the site is hidden.  See, for example, the attached screenshot of a project home, as viewed by the site admin, with the following site privacy settings: “I would like my site to be visible only to those members with an administrator role on the associated site.”

With these settings however, members will not be able to see a link for the site, or to view the site if they go to the URL.  The site and site link will only be visible by a site admin.

If this doesn’t match what you see, could you post a screenshot and I can try to figure out what’s happening?

Regarding the email issue, you should have received an email notification when you created a new site.  I’ll put in a ticket for this and let you know when I have more information.

Thanks!

Bree

 

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[Bree]

Hi Mary and Sally,

There are a few more things I wanted to mention.

I know this thread is about public projects with a hidden site, but just in case it isn’t clear, if you had a hidden project, since it wouldn’t appear in the project directory, you can always find it by going to My Profile, listed under My Projects.

Also, we’d love to hear more specifics about anything that you’re finding confusing.  We’d like to be able to help in any way we can, whether through the forum, in documentation, or in future enhancements to the software.

Finally, I wanted to mention that since the documentation on commonsinabox.org is written for admins who are setting up their CBOX OpenLab communities, it might be helpful to look at the community-facing documentation for the City Tech OpenLab in getting to know how the software works from a member’s perspective.  Some parts of the interface and some of the terminology is a little different from CBOX OpenLab, but for the most part both platforms are similar enough that I think it might be helpful, in learning the platform, and adapting for your own community-facing documentation.  You can find it here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/blog/help/openlab-help/

I hope this helps, but please do let us know if you have more questions or want to point to specific things you’re finding confusing.

Thanks!

Bree

[Sally Everson]

Thanks, Bree — I will check out that documentation as well.

 

[Bree]

Hi Sally,

I just wanted to follow up quickly about one detail that you noted regarding email notifications:

The associated site did not generate an email to the user’s e-mail account (though I got one as the OpenLab admin).

This is the correct functionality — an email notification will only be generated for the OpenLab admin, but not for individual users when an associated site is created.

Best,

Bree

[Mary]

Hi Bree,

Thanks for following up about e-mail notifications for associated sites and the excellent suggestion to look at City Tech’s documentation for ideas on how to set ours up. I’m going to do exactly that! I really appreciate all of the support. This new initiative wouldn’t be possible without it.

-Mary

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