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Home > Support > Modules > Admin
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This page provides support and answers about the Willco Admin Module.
To read about the full list of features, click here.
Sub-Domains
As you know, a major benefit of using the Willco Modules system is that you can invite members of your community to log in to the system and change their own details.
For instance, they might like to change their stored member details (such as their first name, last name, country, etc.) or their list subscriptions to your email newsletters.
The default address for your community within Willco is a sub-domain of willco.com. For example, FreePint's default address is:
freepint.willco.com
However, it looks more professional if you can point a sub-domain to the Willco server. In FreePint's case it uses the sub-domain 'web' and points that at the Willco server:
web.freepint.com
Therefore, if members of the FreePint community want to change their member details or list subscriptions then they visit the above address. 'Headers' and 'Footers' have been loaded into the Willco system so that it even looks like the FreePint Web site.
These two domains are, essentially, identical -- they point to the same place. However, the second one looks much more professional since there is no mention of 'Willco' in the domain name.
To make use of this feature, follow these two simple steps:
1. Ask your Web site hosting company to set up a new sub-domain and point it to the Willco server. You will need to tell the hosting company the 'IP address' of the correct Willco server -- contact us for this information.
2. Tell us what the new sub-domain is so that we can load it into our system.
There should be no (or very small) charge from your hosting company, and there is no charge from Willco.
This is therefore a very simple and cost effective way of looking more professional -- it lets members of your community think you have set up your own secure system.
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Administrators
If you wish to add administrators to your account (e.g. to manage members, forums and send out mailings) then please send your requirements to Willco Support as this is not something you can manage yourself.
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Backups
Remember that you can request a backup of your member database at any time.
The backup is sent to you in CSV (comma separated) format attached to an email. You can open the attachment in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel.
Click on:
Admin > Member Module > Send backup by email
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Uploading Files
As you know, you can change the 'Community Settings' to load the text for a 'Header' and 'Footer'. This makes the Willco Modules system look like your own site when your members login to your community to change their details or access a forum.
However, you may not know that you actually have separate access to a 'Library'. This is where you can upload files (such as logos or CSS stylesheets, for instance) which are used by your header/footer. These can then be 'called' by the header/footer from the Willco server, rather than referring back to your own site.
To reference an uploaded file you will use either an 'absolute' URL, such as ...
http://communityname.willco.com/library/filename.xxx
... (where 'communityname' is your community), or a 'relative' URL, such as ...
/library/filename.xxx
If you have a sub-domain set up to point to our server then you can also use that.
As an example, the FreePint logo is loaded into FreePint's 'Library' in Willco Modules, and so can be refenced as either of the following ...
http://web.freepint.com/library/fp_logo_new_182.gif
http://freepint.willco.com/library/fp_logo_new_182.gif
... or from within the header/footer as ...
/library/fp_logo_new_182.gif
The 'Library' is a free service and to access it you will need to contact support@willco.com
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Support-Only Settings
We thought it might be worth clarifying various settings which can only be changed by Willco Support for your community.
If you would like to change any of the following settings (or confirm their current setting) then please contact us.
- Member delete
You can choose whether members of your community can delete their own account. The default setting is that they can. If you want to disallow this, then let us know the email address a member of your community should contact to request deletion, and this will be displayed instead.
- Auto login
When a member logs in to your community, a cookie is set for 4 hours or until they close their browser (whichever comes first). However, to make it easier/quicker for members to login you might like to change this setting so that the login cookie doesn't expire, and they are instantly re-logged in when visiting you community. The default setting is '4 hours/browser close', and we would recommend you leave it as such.
- Allow signup
You can change this setting if you do not want to allow people to sign-up to your community and can only be added by you. The default is that people can sign-up.
- Member details fields
As you know, you can store as many 'member details fields' as you wish (e.g. first_name, last_name, country, etc.). If you wish to add/edit/remove fields then this can only be done by Willco Support.
- Administrators
You can have as many administrators as you like for your community. Contact us with their details.
- Sub-Domains
If you wish to add 'sub-domains' to your account only Willco Support can do that for you so please contact us.
- Hiding lists
Should you wish to hide certain lists from your members, so that they can't see them on the 'list subscriptions' page, then let us know which ones. This is different to starting a list name with an underscore character '_', which does the same thing.
- Viewing homepage
Choose whether a user can see community's homepage, even if not logged in or remembered. If disabled then they will asked to be logged in. If enabled then they will be able to see a list of Modules.
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Hide Modules on Homepage
We have added the ability to choose which Modules you display to visitors on your community homepage.
The default is that all modules are shown on your homepage.
To hide modules, click on:
- 'Administration'
- 'Module Labels'
- choose 'No' under 'Display on homepage?'.
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Online backup
If you've ever lost data through a hard disk crash or other computer problem, then consider taking a look at an online backup solution.
We use Depositit at Willco, and I've just made a posting to the FreePint Bar about it in response to a query about backups.
The posting can be found at:
http://www.freepint.com/go/b31024
As I mention in the above posting, we rarely resell services from other companies. However, the Depositit service has proven to be excellent so far.
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Cached pages in the old system
If you're using our old list hosting system (and a number of customers still are) and are having problems with pages being 'cached' (or remembered) by your browser, then try the following (in Internet Explorer on a PC):
Hold down the CTRL key and click the Refresh button.
This will generally clear the cached/remembered page and reload it. We have added a date and time stamp to the top of the 'Manage' page in the old system to make it clear if you're seeing an old copy of the page.
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