Administration and Setup |
From the menu bar, click on Administration to see the Administration and Setup screen. If you have configured the system with a password, you will first need to enter it in the box provided, and press the Submit button. Then complete this form with the required information, as follows.
1 Contact Information
ViewsFlash uses E-mail to communicate with the Administrator about potential
and actual problems it detects, so it requires complete e-mail information.
Provide the Administrator's name, his or her E-mail address, and
a from-address, such as ViewsFlash@yourcompany.com, to identify the messages.
(No mail is ever sent to this address.) Provide also the name of an SMTP
mail server accessible from the ViewsFlash machine. When the software is
installed, an e-mail will be sent to this address to verify successful installation.
2 The Public URL of the ViewsFlash application, should be set already. If it isn't, you must provide it here. It is usually best to leave this field unchanged.
3 Directory for writing static HTML. When used without a database, ViewsFlash writes HTML fragments to this directory. It is usually best to leave this field unchanged.
4 Other options and permissions.
Backup files on file system, when not running on a database, creates extra copies of all state files used by ViewsFlash; although this takes a certain amount of server resources, it's worth the extra security and is recommended. Leave unchecked when running on a database.
Allow saving data, when not running on a database, allows data from polls and surveys to be saved permanently
Allow sending e-mail allows sending the data from each submitted survey by e-mail, and allows sending e-mail invites.
Notify administrator of error conditions by E-mail sends the Administrator copies of entries in the Administrator Log that indicate potential trouble, such as unanticipated software exceptions, low-memory warnings, etc. This is highly recommended, especially during the first weeks of operation, or when running under increased volume.
Allow non-administrators to edit Styles, when not using User Security, allows users other than the Administrator to edit Styles.
Allow non-administrators to edit Invite Lists, when not using User Security, allows users other than the Administrator to edit Invite Lists.
Cookie domain is needed only if the ViewsFlash server URL is in a different subdomain than other systems it is exchanging cookies with. This field indicates the domain to use in the cookies exchanged for this purpose. For example, If ViewsFlash runs as polls.yourcompany.com, and your main domain is www.yourcompany.com, this parameter should be ".yourcompany.com", so that cookies tossed by ViewsFlash are visible to all parts of yourcompany.com. Please note the crucial leading "dot". If the ViewsFlash server URL is the same as your main domain, leave this field blank.
When you are done completing these entries, press Submit. ViewsFlash will check all parameters; if any errors are detected, a message will be displayed at the top of the screen.
At this point, the software is completely installed and is ready to be turned over to the design, production, and editorial people. The next step for them is to create a Test place and test questionnaires. Once the appropriate settings have been figured out, it is recommended to change the settings in the Default place and the Default Poll; their settings will be used by default when creating additional places and questionnaires.
As the Administrator, you may access all portions of the ViewsFlash application. If using User Security, you must assign users appropriate access rights, and users simply see only those places they have rights to. If not using User Security, users should be given the URL to their place and told to enter a password in the Settings page.
View Log
This option allows you to view the ViewsFlash application log, in which status messages are recorded.
Download Log
This option downloads the ViewsFlash application log to your browser as a zip file.
Trim Log
The Trim Log link, when the ViewsFlash log is saved on a database, lets you purge old entries from the log. When the log is not saved on a database, this link starts a new viewsflash.log file.
Suppressing repetitive log entries
Sometimes, an environment change such as the database becoming unavailable,
or a user setup error, can cause a flood of identical messages to be written
to the ViewsFlash log, to a poll's log, and to the Administrator's e-mail
in-box. Beginning with release 3.5, duplicated error messages are automatically
suppressed. The first message will be written to the log normally. The second
message will add:
*** suppressing further repetitive messages
A message is suppressed when it is identical to a previous message for the same poll, and it is posted within a short interval. This interval, by default, is set to 10 seconds. It can be modified using the errorinterval servlet parameter.