PREFACE:
Welcome to Group Office. The latest version is 1.12, if you are currently using a previous version you should either upgrade or ask your administrator to upgrade for you.
OVERVIEW:
Group Office is a group-ware suite written in PHP, by Merijn Schering. It is meant to be an on-line collaboration engine for large and small businesses. It boasts an easy to use interface with a powerful and extensive list of features. These feature include E-mail, Project Management, Scheduling, Address Book, Web Site Management, and on-line personal file manager. Group Office can be installed on a SSL secured server, for added security. It integrates with local mail servers using IMAP and POP3 as well as remote servers. Overall, this is the ultimate group-ware suite for any business.
Administrators guide: Getting Started
-Installation
-Adding Users
-Adding Modules
-Using Groups
-Removing Users
-Editing user information
1. Preferences
2. Using Groups
3. Managing your information
4. Privacy
5. Security
1. Getting Started
2. Logging in
3. Start Page
4 . Setting up E-mail Accounts
5 . Address and Contacts
6 . File Management
7 . Using Menus
8 . Using the Search Feature
9 . Using the Scheduler
10. Project Management
11. Website Management
12. Summary
1. Bookmarks
2. Help
3. Logout
Administrators Guide
This section is intended for administrators of Group Office, Apache, and MySql. It is not intended for the end user.
-Installation
To install Group Office, you will need to meet a couple of requirements.
These are:
Linux Operating System
Apache Web Server - 1.3x or 2.0x
MySql database Server
PHP 4.3.x
Most linux distributions come with Apache and MySql installed by default. If the do not, you can build them by visiting their web sites.
Apache : http://www.apache.org
MySql : http://www.MySql.com
PHP : http://www.php.net
Steps to installing Group Office:
Pre-installation TASKS
1. Extracting the files and moving them so they are viewable from your
web server.
Extract groupoffice-1.1x.tar.gz and move it into you site root.
tar -xvzf groupoffice-1.1x.tar.gz
mv groupoffice-1.1x/ /var/www/htdocs (or whatever your site root is)
2. Editing PHP.INI
Locate your php.ini file and do the following:
Set register_globals to ON
Set magic_quotes_gpc to ON ( Reason: try to put quotation marks around an item and you'll generate a SQL error)
Make sure that sendmail or postfix is set up properly for your platform.
NOTE: The Group Office Installer now handles the SQL dumps, you need only to create a database and user. The instructions below are intended for pre-1.1 users.
3. Setting up the database
You must first set up a database, before you can proceed with installation.
command line = mysqladmin -uyourusername -p create groupoffice
It is also recommend that you set up a groupoffice user for MySql.
Call the user "groupoffice"
OK, now assuming that you have set up your database, created a user with the
proper permissions, and verified that mysql is running ( ps -e and look for
mysqld ) ( if you couldn't complete any of the steps above, it might have been
due to the fact that you don't having SQL running, or you have a non-standard
configuration.
Now you need to dump a couple of files into your database.
Browse to the groupoffice-1.0x/lib/sql directory and dump groupoffice.sql and
optionally filetypes.sql into the groupoffice database. ( mysql -username -p
< groupoffice.sql groupoffice and mysql -uyourname -p < filetypes.sql
groupoffice )
OK! Now your database is ready to go.
Final Steps
You need to modify the files in the group office directory for the initial install
as follows:
(These instructions are from the developer, I recommend following them EXACTLY)
Create a folder that the web server can write to and is not open
to the public (eg. '/home/groupoffice'). This folder should be owned
by the web server user. Keep in mind there the disk space you need for the users.
ONLY WHEN USING SYSTEM ACCOUNTS
Make sure Sudo is installed (http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/)
copy 'lib/sudoers' to '/etc/sudoers' and chmod 0440 and chown root:root
(or modify this file manually when already using sudo).
Keep in mind that the web server can now:
- add/remove users
- change passwords
- reboot and halt the machine
ONLY WHEN USING SAMBA ACCOUNTS
Make sure Expect is installed (http://expect.nist.gov/)
copy 'lib/auto_smbadduser.exp' and lib/auto_smbpasswd.exp' to folder '/usr/sbin'.
chmod 0440 and chown root:root both of these files.
Configure '/etc/php.ini' for file uploads and set register_globals=on and
magic_quotes_gpc=on!
Usually this is already the case.
The install script must be able to write to the folder where 'Group-Office.tpl'
is located (Only for installation, chmod 777 [Group-Office directory]).
Start a browser, open the page: 'install.php' And follow instructions.
Set the permissions to all Group-Office files to '755'
(chmod -R 755 [Group-Office directory])
Set the owner of the folder as a different user than the webserver owner/group
(chown -R casey:users [Group-Office directory])
You will then proceed to login as administrator and begin to setup your work environment.
Update! The new installer has become very self explanatory, the install documentation is targeted for pre-1.1 users. The new installer has instructions and steps built in to it. If you have any questions about the new installer, you may e-mail me, and I will include your question in the FAQ which will be compiled shortly.
Adding Users to Group Office, click on users in the administrator menu.
To add users, a good practice is to write down or print out a list of employees
who are using Group Office, and assign user names and passwords to each person.
They can always change their password after the account is set up. To save myself
some time, I usually exclude filling out anything else except user name, password,
and email address. In Group Office 1.12, authorization is automated, it is no
longer an entry to be made. Previous versions should be upgraded for ease of
use and less confusion with authorization.
Adding Modules, Menus, and Pre-installed Bookmarks
To add modules, click on the configuration tab under the administrator menu,
select modules, and click OK. For users, you can select modules for the users
at the time of initial user setup. To remove or add modules after a user is
setup, you can click on users, click the user of whom you want to add/remove
modules from, and check or un check the modules to be added/removed.
To add bookmarks, click on the configuration tab under the administrator menu, and select bookmarks. You will notice that two bookmarks have been set, and you may add or remove bookmarks in which each user will have in this area. Menus are configured in the same manner as modules. Simply check the menus that you wish to appear for your users, and they will appear in your first login as a user.
Date formats are another feature that can be configured. Data formats are set using the PHP functions. You should browse to http://php.net for a list of these functions.
Groups are a good way to classify people in a large company. As the administrator,
it is a good idea to create groups using the user groups menu under the configuration
menu. This way, the groups that a person is added to is set by an administrator
for extra security. Groups in Group Office work differently than groups in a
*nix operating system. If a user creates a group, only he/she has permissions
to add or remove users to and from that group. In this sense, the owner of the
group acts as an administrator in some form. To resolve conflicts with users,
it might be a good idea as the administrator (as in login=administrator) to
create groups for users that cannot be changed. This will protect your users
if the happen to drop someone out of their group or add some one that does not
belong. The only way that an administrator can delete edit a group created by
a user is to login as that user, and then proceed to make necessary changes
to the group. File ownerships acts in the same manner in which a user, rather
than the administrator, has to authorize viewing/modifying of files. ( Thanks
to Mark for the last two paragraphs! )
To remove users, click on the users menu in the administrator menu. Click on the X next to the user you want to delete.
Editing user information is very helpful especially when you need to reset a
forgotten password!
( As a system administrator, you know that this happens very frequently! ) Group
Office makes this easy to do! Simply click on the users menu under the administrator
menu, and click on the user who needs a password reset.
Configuration
This section covers basic preferences of Group Office. Highlight the configuration
menu with your cursor and click on preferences. Here you can set up your choice
of languages, colors, separators and date/time display format. To switch to
another theme, click on the drop down menu next to Theme: and select a theme
that suits your needs. Remember, themes will only stay the same on your computer,
when you go to a different computer, you will have the default theme selected
again. Themes are on a per browser basis. If you are using Group Office for
e-mail, don't de-select the part about using the Group Office mail client unless
your administrator has told you otherwise.
Groups are a great way of handling a large amount of contacts that can be broken
down into sections. Working with groups is easy to do, efficient, and a time
saver. To add a group you will go to User Groups under the Configuration menu.
To add a group you will click on add and this will bring you to another section.
In this section you will type in the name of the group, and check off the selected
members of this group. To remove a group, you can simply click on the X next
to the name of the group that you want to delete. To edit the group, click on
the group name, and add/remove any member that you want from the group. As the
owner of the group, no other member can modify your group.
To manage your personal information, highlight configuration and click on Your
Account. This will allow you to edit any details about yourself. You will notice
for options to choose from above the information tab. These options are Security
/ Privacy / Statistics. We will discuss the security and privacy tabs in the
next sections. Statistics however is a way to view when your account was created,
the last time you logged in, and how many times you logged in. This is a good
way to see if anyone has been in your account without your knowledge. If your
computer was being repaired on Tuesday, and you remember logging in once, but
the statistics show that you have logged in 10 times, than it might be time
to talk to your administrator(s) and change your password.
Let's face it, there's always that guy in the office that you don't want to
have anything to do with. He's always listening in on your conversations and
stealing your ideas. Personally, you don't want him knowing about your schedule,
files, projects, contacts, etc. because he will steal them. So what do you do?
Make yourself invisible! To do this, simply make sure that you are in more than
one group, other than his, and un check his name from the list of people that
are "allowed" to know that you exist in Group Office. You want to
be very specific with this feature, because it is easy to make yourself invisible
to everyone. To be completely safe, you can create your own group called "Everyone
else but that guy" and add everyone to the group except him. Than you would
simply make yourself visible to everyone but him, and since you own the group,
he cannot add himself to it. If the creepy guy at work is your systems administrator,
you will have a bigger problem altogether! The privacy tab in Group Office 1.12
and higher now contains a place for your authorization of other users. You may
select the users in which authorization is granted to, and also select groups
to authorize. This has been implemented for ease of use and security purposes.
In this section, you can do the following :
Change your password
Change you secret question/answer
It is a good idea to change these every so often. Remember weak passwords are easily figured out. Although it may be easier to remember a password such as your birthday, it is not a good idea to have this as a password. Your secret answer/question should be something that only you, and well maybe your wife/husband if you trust them, should know.
Using other menus
The following sections cover the core applications and basics on how to get
started using Group Office. This next section covers the rest of the menus,
which can help you navigate quicker, find information about the program, request
support, and logging out.
Bookmarks are a great way of getting around the web. If you use Internet Explorer,
they are called Favorites. In Group Office you can have your own set of bookmarks/favorites
within the application, and also to external sites. To add a bookmark, highlight
the bookmarks section and click on "Add Bookmark". This will invoke
a menu which will allow you to type in a name for the bookmark, and the URL
(web page) of the bookmark. You can also select "Use the current page"
for the convenience of adding the page you are on, for example, if you are on
the create a new appointment page, and you frequently use this page, you will
navigate to that page, click on "use the current page" and click OK.
There is a check box at the bottom which will allow you to open it in a new
window. This is recommended for all sites outside of Group Office. I prefer
to open all of my Group Office links (new events, adding contacts, etc.) in
the same window, so I un check the box.
To modify your bookmarks, you can click on the "Modify Bookmarks"
menu and this will direct you to another screen which lists all of your bookmarks.
From here you can either delete the bookmarks by clicking on the X next to the
bookmark you want to delete, or modify the bookmark by clicking on the bookmark
name, followed by entering the modified data.
In the help section, you will be able to:
Email technical support for help
Read the license agreement and developers of Group Office
To get technical support click on the "Support" button, and send an email regarding your question with specifics on the topic that you need help on. To read about Group Office, click on "About". This will tell you about Group Office and the GPL license.
Logging out is imperative! I cannot stress enough how important it is to log out when you are done with your session. To logout of Group Office, simply click the logout button. Logging out is the best way to prevent someone from viewing you information and changing your settings. I would advise logging out even if you will only be away from the computer for 10 minutes.
Welcome to Group Office. Let's start from the beginning. If you have an administrator,
you will have to ask him to make an account for you and any other members that
will be using Group Office. If a new employee is added to your company and will
be using Group Office, please ask your administrator to create the account and
let him/her know what modules to enable for the new user. Remember, it is important
to assess the integrity of your employees, if a person is new to the company,
you may want to limit their permissions to certain schedulers and projects.
When you get to your Group Office URL, (web page) you will be asked for your
login and password. Enter the appropriate values and proceed to the welcome
page. If you are getting an error message upon login, please write down what
the error message says and contact your administrator. If it says wrong user
name or password, you probably made a typo. Remember to make sure that CAPS
LOCK is off and if you are using the numerical keypad, that NUM LOCK is set
to on. These are common errors that can cause an incorrect login.
After you have logged in, you will get to the Start Page. This is the start
of your Group-Office session. You will see icons on the screen with a text description
underneath of them. Click on the appropriate icon of the feature that you want
to use. To get to these applications, you can also use the menus on the top
bar. The APPLICATIONS section contains all features available for use.
To set up an e-mail account in Group-Office, click on the e-mail icon on the
start page, or select it from the applications menu. Unless an account has been
set up for you, you will see that there is no account yet. You will then proceed
to go to the ACCOUNTS page by clicking on the ACCOUNTS icon. When you click
this, you will be directed to a page with a number of options that read as follows:
Accounts.../..Add
You don't have any E-mail accounts configured.
To add your account(s), click on the add page. By default, the client will
display the name and
e-mail address you specified upon sign up. If your e-mail has changed, or you
are setting up a different account, change the e-mail to your address that you
want to use. The next tab asks what kind of server you will use. For most ISP's
in the US, POP3 is the default. You will then need to enter your host name ie.
mail.comcast.net/notls ( /notls is used in situations where the mail server
lacks a valid Security Certificate) / incoming.verizon.net and your username
and password. Your username is usually just the name/e-mail address, ie cruark@comcast.net
my username would be "casey". If you are having trouble with any of
these settings, you can always contact your administrator.
The address book is what you will use from your e-mail account to quickly mail
to people. If you already have an address book in another program, for example
Outlook Express, Outlook, or Balsa, you may export your address book to CSV
(comma separated values). As of yet, this is the only supported format for importing
messages. Most mail clients support this type of export. After you have exported
the file(s), (remember when you are exporting files, put it somewhere that you
will remember, so it's easy to find) go into Group Office Email and click on
the IMPORT button. This will bring you to a dialog that will ask you to browse
for the file. Click on the browse button and select the file you want to import.
After the file is selected, click on OK and wait until the process has completed.
IMPORTANT!!! Do not do anything else until the import is complete, this will
cancel the import. Large address books can take a while to import.
-Adding Contacts:
To add contacts, click on the add button and fill in all of the proper information
followed by clicking on the OK button.
-Selecting members to e-mail to:
Click on the members tab and select the members to add to your address book.
After you have made your selection, click on "Add selected users to contacts"
or if you have groups already set up, you may use the drop down menu to add
these members to an already created group.
-Working with Groups
To add a group, click on the groups button and add a group of your choice. Using
groups is helpful when you want to send a message to a large number of people.
Working with groups is very efficient for newsletters and announcements. Once
you have created a group, you can add members to your group by clicking on the
CONTACTS button and move contacts to and from groups. To remove a group, go
to the groups section and click the X next to the group you want to delete and
confirm removal.
-Viewing your contacts
To view all of your contacts, click on the contacts button. This will show you
all of the contacts that you have, and the groups they are in. To expand a group,
you must click the plus tab.
-Exporting your contacts
To export your Group-Office address book, click on the export icon and select
your method of CSV. In most cases, the default is just fine unless a specific
client needs CSV to be in a particular format. Click on OK and you will be prompted
to save the file. You can then import this list in to your local mail client.
The file manager is useful for on-line storage of documents and other important
files. The file manager feature is much like using your local file manager ie.
Windows Explorer, Nautilus, & Konquerer.
-Uploading files
To put files on the server, click the upload button. In this section, you will
be asked to browse for local files. Select the files that you want to put on
the server and click on the OK button. Remember, there is a file size limit
on files to be uploaded, if the file(s) selected exceed the limit on uploads,
the file(s) will not be put on the server.
-Creating new folders
To create a new folder, click on the new folder tab, and name your new folder.
-Switching between folders
To switch between folders, you must click on the folder in which you want to
browse. When you are in this folder, when you click the upload tab, files will
be placed into that folder.
-Deleting files and folders
To delete a file, click on the box next to the file, and click on the delete
icon. You can also select multiple files by checking the boxes next to them,
and click on delete. You can also remove folders this way by doing the procedure
described above. Folders do not need to be empty to remove them, so be careful
when you erase an entire folder.
-Folder Properties
Folder properties show information about a folder. To view the properties of
a folder, check the box next to the folder and then proceed to click the properties
icon. The properties of a folder will tell you detailed information about the
folder selected. You will notice a tab on the bottom of the properties page
that says "activate sharing". If you click this tab followed by clicking
on the OK tab, two new tabs will appear at the top of the properties dialog
box. They are labeled "Read Permissions" and "Write Permissions".
This is an introduction to the next section on File Sharing.
-File Sharing
OK, you now have the properties dialog opened with your two new tabs. When you
go to the Read Permissions tab, you will see a number of users and groups. Select
the users and groups that you want to be able to allow other members to view.
The selected people will have permission only to read the files, but not to
delete or modify the files on the server.
To give users write permissions, you will follow the same format that you followed
for Read permissions. You can allow people to read and not write, or you can
allow people to do both. WARNING! People who have write permissions will be
able to modify or delete all or any file(s) in your shared folder.
NOTE: When you share a folder, you are sharing all files and
folders within your shared folder, unless you manually specify this. For example
the Folder "Casey" is shared and it contains 18 files and two folders
containing 22 files a piece. All of these will be available to other users.
When you make a shared folder, it is good practice to consider who will be viewing
it and what you want to share and not share. Personal Documents and letters
should not be placed in a Shared Folder or sub-folder of a shared folder.
To manage your shares, click on the sharing icon. From here you can remove any
existing shares. This will not remove any of the files in them, it will only
remove the rights of any other member to view your shared folder(s).
- Using the search feature
Let's say you have a lot of files uploaded, and you cannot locate one. The file
search feature is a great way to track down files. To invoke a search, simply
click on the search icon, and proceed to the search dialog. There you can type
in a keyword to search through your files if you remember the name of it. If
you remember the time when you uploaded the files, you can search by date. Simply
click on the box(es) next to modified after and/or modified before.
- Using refresh
If you have uploaded files, and the do not yet appear in your folder(s), you
can click the refresh button. If it takes a while, you may just be using a slow
connection, and/or the web server on the other end is experiencing a lot of
traffic.
You will notice, below the header of each page, a menu tool bar. These include
Application, preferences logout, etc.. The menus are there to navigate to the
desired page of your choice. To use the menus, place your mouse over the desired
section to invoke a drop down menu. Then, move your mouse down to the desired
application and single click on it. For example, if I am in the scheduler section
and have completed scheduling, and now I want to add a contact to my address
book, I simply mouse over the applications section and click on Address Book,
it's that simple.
If you want to do a quick web search while you are in the Group Office application,
you can mouse over applications and click on search. Type in a word of your
choice, and click on "search". This will open up a new window to search
google.com. This is very useful for finding an answer to a question without
having to navigation
The scheduler is a powerful way to do your online scheduling. It is a very practical
and logical way of planning for an event. To get to the scheduler you can click
on the scheduler icon on the start page, or select it from the applications
menu.
- Adding new schedulers
By default, you only have one scheduler. You can add another scheduler by clicking the schedulers icon. This will bring you to a section which shows what schedulers you have and the option to add another scheduler. Click on "add", and type the name of the new scheduler in followed by click on the OK button.
- Sharing and Modifying Schedulers
Now that you have added a scheduler, you may want other users to be able to read your scheduler and/or add/remove from your scheduler.
Example: You have created a schedule named "project1" and you want some members to write to this, and others only;, to have read permissions. From start to finish:
1. Click on schedulers.
2. Click on the pencil icon next to the scheduler name that you want to share.
3. This will bring up a new dialog which will allow you to modify values of your scheduler(s)
4. Click on permissions .
5. This will invoke a new window to pop up.
6. The first one will allow read permissions to the scheduler.
7. For instance, if we want Judy and Matt to read the scheduler, we click on their names, and click apply.
8. Now we want Matt to be able to write to the schedule, but not Judy.
9. Click on "Write Permissions" and select Matt, but not Judy.
10. If you have a large number of people that you want to view the schedulers,
please read the section on Using Groups.
-Subscribing to shared schedulers.
To subscribe to a scheduler that has been shared, what you will do is click on the schedulers icon, ( the same thing you did to add a scheduler ) and check off the boxes of the schedulers that you are currently not subscribed to. You will then click on OK. Below is a real life example.
Your Co-worker, Danielle, has decided she wants you to share her schedule entitled "Pet Care Meetings", so she has given you read and write permissions. This does not mean that you are subscribed to the scheduler. You need to add it to your list of schedulers. When you click on the schedulers icon, you will see that now you have a "Pet Care Meetings" scheduler in your list of schedulers, that is because Danielle has allowed you to add and view her scheduler.
-Creating new appointments.
You can create a new appointment either by clicking on "New Event" or clicking on the day of the appointment at the top of the scheduler, and then clicking on the item that you want the event to start at.
We'll start with the first method, clicking on New Event. Here are step by step
instructions of adding a new event using this method.
1. First, click on New Event.
2. This will bring up a section for adding events.
3. The first box, invitees, will allow you to invite other people to view this event.
4. You may manually type in their names, or click on the book/invitees button to invoke a window which will allow you to point and click on the invitees you wish to include.
5. In the title box, type in a descriptive word about your event, for instance: "Meeting with boss".
6. In the description box, type in a brief description about your event, for
instance: " Meet with boss to discuss financial planning of the Internet
Assessment Corporation".
7. Next, you will click on how frequent you want the event to occur. If this
happens daily, click on the "Daily" button so that "Daily"
is checked off. You can choose any occurrences of this.
8. If you have clicked, "Once", you will proceed to the next to select
the time frame that the event will take place in, using the drop down menus.
The cycle section will be grayed out since this event will only be occurring
once. If you are doing a one time only event ignore lines 10-12.
9. If you have chosen a recurring event, the first menu will be grayed out,
except for the time in which it occurs.
10. Choose the time in which this event occurs, and then the period in which this event will repeat. For example, if this event occurs daily, and we want it to occur for a week, we choose the time frame within the week that the event should occur.
Subsection- RECURRING EVENTS
11. Next you will choose which day the event should start on. Lets say your
event begins on a Thursday and occurs on a weekly basis, it is an event that
occurs on Thursday every week. You will click on the weekly button, and then
you will click on the "TH" box.
The only time when the choice of FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, or FOURTH of a day will
occur is when you have selected monthly by day.
12. If you want an unlimited amount of time, or a never ending date, click on the "No Ending Date" box. This will tell Group Office that the event goes on forever. This is good for meetings or events that are part of your schedule that will never change.
End Subsection
13. Next, type in the location where this event will occur. Feel free to type
anything in this box. It is good practice to type in the address for members
that may not know where the exact location is.
14. Next you will be asked where to inherit permissions from. This pertains to scheduler specific permissions. For example, if you wanted to use your personal read/write permissions, you would select "inherit permissions from (your scheduler name)". If you don't want to inherit any permissions, you can simply select "don't inherit" and the permissions of the current scheduler will be applied.
15. Finally, you are asked where to place the event. You can place it in one
or all of your schedulers by checking the boxes of the schedulers that you want
the event to go in to. Click the "OK" button, and you will be redirected
to a window in which you can view your appointment.
The other method is to click on a date on the calendar, which is on the left
hand side of the screen. This will bring you to a view of events for that day
only. Let's say you want to schedule an event for 9:00 am. You will click on
the time, 9:00, and that will bring you to the screen in which you can add an
event for that specific day and time. It is a shortcut to having to select the
start date/time for your scheduler.
-Using views
Views are a way of viewing your schedules in sections. To view your daily events click on "Day View", weekly events, click on "Week View", and finally, to view all events, click on "List Events". This is a great way to break down your schedule so that you can categorize your scheduled events. The default view is Week View.
-Navigation and changing schedulers
With many schedulers, it can seem quite difficult to sort through them. Group Office was designed for easy scheduler management to avoid the confusion that other group-ware suites offer. You will notice, in the left hand side of your screen, a calendar. Above the calendar, you have Month and Year drop down boxes. Above these boxes is where all of the schedulers are listed. To select a different scheduler, click on the drop down box where the schedulers are listed. This will bring you to the events for the selected scheduler.
Group Office has a great way of navigating the scheduler section. They are all very logical ways of browsing your events. You can select any month/year in the drop down boxes in your scheduler, and then proceed to click on a day/week in the calendar below, and you will be directed to that time frame in your current scheduler. You can also use the tabs at the top when your are in Week View to scroll the weeks forward or backwards. Viewing days is as simple as clicking on them, this will automatically redirect you to the tasks for that day. To view events in weeks, click on the corresponding week, located to the left of the calendar, and this will bring you to a weekly view.
-Deleting or editing scheduled events
We all make mistakes, luckily, Group Office will allow you to correct your mistakes. For instance:
I made an appointment for 9:30 am, but it was supposed to be for 12:00. I was in a hurry when I posted it to my schedule. Looking back, I realized my mistake and needed to correct it. Here's what I did...
To edit this mistake, you will click on the pencil icon, next to the event which
needs to be corrected. This will invoke a dialog with your appointment already
filled in, all you need to do is edit the time on it. Change the time/date/
and/or content to whatever you need to.
As a habit, I like to go through and delete any canceled appointments/plans. This is very easily done in Group Office. Simply find the event that you don't want, and click on the X next to it. Group Office will give you a number of choices on whether you want to delete it from the current scheduler, entirely ( meaning from ALL schedulers! ), and cancel ( if you clicked the X by mistake ). This function provides a quick, yet safe way to remove appointments.
-Scheduling Holidays
Adding holidays to your scheduler(s) is a new feature implemented in Group-Office. Holidays can be added to any scheduler in which a user has write permissions. Holidays cannot be added, removed or modified by any member who does not have specific write permissions for a particular scheduler.
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10. Project Management
Project management is a great way to manage your time and services. It has matured
greatly since the early releases of Group Office. It now allows you to keep
track of many different services, including billing. To start, you must ask
yourself the following questions: "What am I offering? What are my rates?
How do I begin?" I always like to start with fees, but others may feel
that setting up the project should come first. I will cover all topics of project
management; since this is a newer feature, I may not cover it as thoroughly
as would be desired, so all suggestions are welcome and will be included. In
order for a user to be able to use project management, the administrator must
grant write permissions to that user.
- Note to Administrators
To activate write permissions on project management, go to the administration tab. Now select the module projects and proceed to select the "write permissions" tab. Select the users which desire write permissions. These users will now be able to add fees, as well as the ability to book hours and load hours from other users. This is a necessity if users desire to take part in project management.
-Setting up fees
To begin setting up fees, first select Projects from the menu, and then select the fees tab on the top right hand corner. You will see the text New Fee at the top, and will click on it. Fees are set up using minutes, usually I bill by the hour, so 60 minutes is what I set my time at. Others may bill by the half hour, so you would then select 30 minutes. Give your fee a descriptive name, and then proceed to set your rate. You will be able to apply this rate to various projects, and can also create secondary rates if desired. For example, if consulting costs $50.00 per hour, and programming costs $100.00 per hour, you would want to set up another rate for it.
-Setting up clients
This is not done directly in Project Management, your clients will be available through your contacts list or address book. They are added this way to better integrate the way that projects and services are handled. It would be wise to set up the customers you intend to consult before creating your project.
-Starting the Project
To begin, you will click on Projects while on the Project Management application. You will click on new project. This will take you to a screen in which you can name your project, select your client, and comment on the details of your project. This will be the ground upon which you will build your new projects. With many projects, descriptive names and comments can help a great deal.
-Entering the data
We have our fees, and our project, so now it is time to build the project.
The way that has been implemented in Group Office is highly structured and organized
for easy time tracking, and accurate billing. No need to grab your calculator,
Group Office will do the math! To begin, click on Enter Data. This will bring
you to a screen in which you can enter your hours, break times, apply rates
and fees, and select which projects to work on. To enter data, select the employee
( usually the creator of the project, which in most cases is yourself! ), select
the client, select which fee you will be using for that specific client, select
your date, enter your times, and add any comments is desired. An example would
be as follows:
Employee: Casey
Client: Dr. Mark
Fee: Computer Consulting $75.00/60 min
Starting Time: 9:30
Ending Time: 14:30
OR
Units Value: 60
Units: 5
Comments: Set up small network using Clark Connect as Router/New File Server
to replace Linksys Router.
Units are the same as minutes. 60 minutes x 2 = 120 minutes or 2 hours.
The calendar located to your left is an easy way to set the date on which you are working on. All you have to do is click on the date on which you desire to enter your hours. After you have entered data, you should see a summary of what was entered. Below that, Group Office will display a summary of your logged hours, and the monetary values for those hours according to the fee that you selected.
-Viewing your data
To view your data, Group Office has implemented a well refined search tool
specifically for project management. Click on Load Data. This will give the
option to display data in various ways, such as by employee, client, and project.
Data can also be searched by day, week, blocks of days, months, and all. To
see all projects from the employee Joe, you will select Joe from the employee
section by click the button to the left, and selecting the appropriate name.
If we wanted to view all work done for client "X", the client button
would be checked, and client X would be selected. To view all of the work done
between the second and fourth weeks of July, you would use the Show >From feature,
and select the appropriate days.
Web site management is a new feature implemented into Group Office as of version
1.1. This documentation is not that of the author's, but that of Merijn, the
developer and project creator. More will be added to this section in the upcoming
months.
Website management for Group-Office - Creating templates
Introduction
The first thing to note is that only users with write permissions for the websites module can create themes. Creating themes requires knowledge of HTML and you need to learn the Group-Office tags that are specified later in this document.
This document is targeted for people who know HTML.
Understanding the tree structure
The documents in the website management module are organized in a tree structure like a filesytem. Every folder stands for a new chapter or button. The way a site behaves on the structure depends on the template. You need to practice on creating templates to get satisfying results.
Creating a HTML document
The best way to create a theme is to create a HTML document using your own favorite HTML editor and make it look like the way you want your site to look.
It is recommended that you use a CSS stylesheet.
Inserting the data in the theme
When you are finished with your web page you can start inserting the data into Group-Office.
After logging in to Group-Office select ‘websites’ from the applications menu.
Select the “themes” tab. If you don’t see the themes tab then you don’t have write permissions for the websites module. After selecting the tab click on “new theme”. Enter a name and paste the stylesheet classes in the style text area and click on ‘save’. Two new tabs named ‘templates’ and ‘files’ will appear.
Go to the ‘files’ tab and upload all files that are required for your theme. Like a logo or icons.
After all files have been added open the ‘templates’ tab. First you create a main template. This template will contain all other templates and user submitted data.
You need to divide the HTML file in templates.
On the next page you see the main template of the Group-Office homepage and the Intermesh site.
| <!--
start main --> |
The <content /> tag will be replace by the files from the tree structure in the main template’s case.
As you can see the main template contains certain tags that are not HTML tags like:
|
<folders class="subfolder" template="files" item_template="subfolder"print_rootfolders="false" /> |
This tag will be replaced by all the folders of the current level. The folders will use the template named “files” and each folder listed will use the template ”subfolder”.
For this to work properly we will need to create the two templates “files” and “subfolder”:
|
<!-- start files --> |
|
<!-- start subfolder header --> |
You will need to practice on creating templates to get a satisfying result but this should get you started. On the next page you will find a table of tags and attributes you can use.
| Tagname |
Description |
Attributes |
May be used in |
| home |
prints a button to the root level of the tree. |
template, active_template, text, class, active_class |
Any template |
| path |
prints current working path |
template, item_template, active_item_template, class |
Any template |
| files |
prints all the files from the current directory |
template, item_template, active_item_template, class, print_single |
Any template |
| folders |
prints all the folders from the current directory |
template, item_template, class print_rootfolders |
Any template |
| rootfolders |
prints all the folders from the root directory |
template, item_template, class
|
Any template |
| icon |
prints the associated filetype icon |
|
Only in templates that are used only in the files tag |
| search |
Places a link to the search page that will display all the predefined search words. |
text, template, class |
Any template |
| login |
Places a the link to the Group-Office login page. |
text, template, class |
Any template |
| back |
Places a link to the higher level in the folder tree. |
template, text, class, print_rootfolders |
Any template |
| content |
This tag will display the content of the item. |
|
Any template |
| Attribute name |
Description |
Input type |
Maybe used in |
| text |
Text to display on site. |
string |
login, search, home |
| class |
The CSS class name to use |
string |
All tags |
| active_class |
The CSS class name to use when an item is active |
|
home, path, files, rootfolders, search, |
| template |
The name of the template to use |
string |
home, path, files, folders, rootfolders, search, login |
| active_template |
The name of the template to use when an item is active. |
string |
path, files, search, rootfolders |
| item_template |
The name of the template to use for items |
string |
path, files, folders, rootfolders |
| active_item_template |
The name of the template to use when an item is active. |
string |
path, files, search |
| print_rootfolders |
print the root folders or link to the root folders |
bool |
folders, back |
| print_single |
print an item even if there is just one file. (The file will be displayed by default so a link might be unnecessary). |
bool |
files |
Tags should be formatted like this: <tagname attribute_name=öattribute_valueö />
To publish a website you need to create a file named æindex.phpÆ in the folder where you want the site to be accessible. The file should contain the following:
<?php
//set the site id
$site_id=1; //replace this with your siteÆs id
//load Group-Office
require('/var/www/html/groupoffice/Group-Office.php');
//get them cms module
if ($cms_module = $GO_MODULES->get_module('cms'))
{
ááááá //require the site viewer
ááááá require($GO_CONFIG->root_path.$cms_module['path'].'view.inc');
}else
{
ááááá die('Failed to get Content Management Module');
}
?>
You need to replace the site_id variable with your siteÆs id. You can find the idea by clicking on the pencil next to the site at the æyour sitesÆ tab. and you should provide the valid path to Group-Office.php to the require() function.
Good luck!
Merijn Schering
Group Office is a great application server for small and large businesses. Any
questions on the usage of Group Office can be found in this manual. If you cannot
find them in this manual, please send an email to cruark@comcast.net
and I will be glad to answer any questions, and also add your suggestions into
the documentation. Group Office is stable, secure, and reliable. We hope that
you will enjoy using this application. Thank you for your support.
Closing
Group Office makes it easy for for the systems administrator to manage and create users. It contains powerful tools for creating a solid and structured application environment. The instructions in this manual should get you started on becoming familiar with the Group Office application administration. A lot can be learned by setting up a couple of demo accounts and using them with a couple of friends. This will give you some time to make mistakes and revelations! I strongly recommend trying a demo office before going through with implementing it in your workplace. Group Office is constantly being developed, many additions have been made since the initial release. Any questions or problems pertaining to administration that is not covered in this manual will be answered by e-mailing cruark@comcast.net. Suggestions on improving the manual are always welcome. Please read the documentation before sending e-mail.