Howto - mypage

Site personalisation (Mypage) HOWTO

Chapter Index

Introduction to Mypages
Activity tab
Hello page tab
Work on your Hello page
Clipboard tab
Watch tab
Change system password

An introduction to Mypages

The topics contained in this HOWTO relate to the Mypage section of the site. The Mypage section of the site is a personalised interface to the eLanguages system. Mypages gathers together functions that relate directly to an individual user and links to their content allowing easy access to parts of the site that they are working on. The Mypage link will only appear for users who are currently logged-in.

The Mypages section is subdivided into a number of tabbed pages covering different aspects of site as it relates to the individual

Activity: The activity tab contains details of different parts of the site which the user is contributing to.
Hello page: The public face of the user. This tab allows the user to change some of the details associated with their account, to modify their personal details and to restrict which aspects of their profile are displayed to other users. Users may also use this page to add simple text or, as with any other project page, users can add a variety of resources to introduce themselves, their class, their school or their town.
Clipboard: A listing of resources owned by the user that are not currently allocated to a page
Watch: A listing of pages that the user wishes to be informed about when changes are made to the contents of the page.
Administration: Personal and systems administration functions to which the user has access

Activity tab

The purpose of the activity tab is to act as a personal site navigation tool for the user. It gathers together links in one place links to different areas of the site on which the user is working to make it easier for the user to navigate the site. Three categories of information are listed:

Projects: A listing of all the projects in which the user is a member with a link to the homepage of each project.
Discussion Forums: Links to all the forums the user has contributed. This section also list the number of unread messages within each forum.
Last 5 updated resources: A listing of the last 5 system resources the user updated.

Hello page

Your Hello page is your window to the world. Promote your class(es), your school, your town on your Hello page to ensure other teachers pick you as their preferred partner. Visitors can access your Hello page through your project pages or through the find partnership function.

We recommend that you keep your Hello page up-to-date, particularly your availability for partnership, your motivation text, the list with preferred partnership countries and the languages you speak.

You can use simple text to build your Hello page but, as with any other project page, you can also add a variety of resources. Why not include sound recordings of your students introducing themselves, or presentations about your school made by your students, or pictures of your town or a link to its website?

Every registered member of eLanguages has a personal Hello page. If you are logged-in you can modify your Hello page through the Hello page tab on your Mypage:

Personal details: The eLanguages team and the system send important information about your project or partnership opportunities to you on a regular basis. Make sure your personal details and in particular your personal email address are up-to-date.
Public profile: eLanguages will not display your personal details unless you decide to display these in your profile. For example to display your email address, tick the box in front of email address and click save.
Partnership preferences: Inform other users when you are available for a partnership. When you select yes your name will be included in the partnership lists. To make sure you find the right partnership tell other users which languages you speak and select the countries you would like to partner with.; Subscription to the newsletter will keep you up to date with developments on the eLanguages system and alert you when partnership opportunities arise which match your stated preferences.

Work on your Hello page

Edit mode and preview

Your Hello page will always display in edit mode. To preview the page and to check how the page will be presented to other users select the "Normal view" icon.

Insertion points

Insertion points appear above and below existing content on the Hello page. The insertion points are defined by two icons, the add a resource icon and the paste from clipboard icon. Both icons allow you to add new content to the Hello page either by creating new content or by copying existing content from your clipboard.

Add new resources to your Hello page

This icon indicates that a resource can be added at that location on the page.

Add resources to the Hello page

You can choose from a variety of resources to add to your Hello page (text, documents, files, movies, audio files, images, galleries, polls, forums, news, sub pages etc.). You can also add additional project stages. If you would like to integrate a resource that is not available on the list please contact the eLanguages team. It is our objective to provide you with a complete tool set and we are welcoming any suggestions for additional resource types.

Paste resources from your clipboard

Both the icon and the name of each resource acts as link for selecting the resource and pasting it into the selected location.

Modify an existing resource

Each resource on a page will have a resource tool set in its bottom right corner. The resource tool set allows you to edit, cut / copy to clipboard, , delete or set permissions on the resource. Your permission settings to a particular resource determine which of the following icons you will be able to use.

Edit a resource

When this icon displays you can at any time edit the resource. For example you can edit text in a text resource, modify a link, replace an image with another image, re-scale an image etc. etc.

Cut resources to your clipboard

With this function you can cut a resource from the page to your clipboard. This allows you to move a resource to another location on this page or any other page in the system (where you have editing rights). To retrieve the resource, go to destination placeholder, click on the paste from clipboard icon and the resource will be pasted at that placeholder.

Copy resources to your clipboard

With this function you can copy a resource from a page to your clipboard. This allows you to duplicate the resource at another location on this or any other page in the system (where you have editing rights). To paste a copy of the resource at destination placeholder, click on the paste from clipboard icon at destination placeholder.

Delete a resource

To delete a resource from a page. Note this function will permanently delete the resource. You cannot retrieve it after this operation. The system will ask for confirmation after clicking on the icon to prevent accidental deletion of resources.

Sharing of resources

Just like you can set permissions to a page you can set permissions to any resource on a page. For example you might want to prevent the Public to see a particular file. Click on permissions icon for that file and change the permissions.

Mypage clipboard

Items in you personal clipboard. These are resources that are not currently allocated to a page.

select an item to edit its properties

Mypage watch

This tab is used to administer resource "watches", periodic notifications of changes to page which you have requested.

Click the resource icon or resource name to edit the frequency or remove a page watch from the list.

Follow the history link to view the change history for this page.

Change system password

The password changing mechanism is designed to ensure that only the user themselves or an administrator can change a user's password.

There are three fields on the change password form:

old password: This field is intended to ensure that only the account holder can change their password and this operation can't be performed by a third-party who shares the same computer.
new password: The user should enter a new password value that conforms to any rules about password length and construction.
confirm new: The system does not display passwords in plain-text as they are enter. Instead it represents the characters pressed as a series of asterisks. The confirmation field is required to ensure that the user did not inadvertently miss-key their attempt in the previous field.

You must enter values in all three fields to change the password. On screen prompts will advise on any errors in the input. A confirmation message will appear when the password has been successfully changed.

Rules for password Construction

The system imposes minimum and maximum password lengths. The minimum length for a password is 6 characters, the maximum is 16. Any combination of keys is permitted, you are not restricted to just the alphanumeric keys but may also include punctuation and other symbols from the keyboard.