The SJTAG website is divided into a number of distinct sections, each being partitioned into a dedicated sub-domain:
- The main website - www.sjtag.org
- Discussion forums - forums.sjtag.org
- Wiki - wiki.sjtag.org
- File Sharing Manager - files.sjtag.org
There are a couple of additional sub-domains that are used administratively and need not concern most users.
Most SJTAG material is publically available without needing to create accounts or sign in. In general, accounts are only required in order to edit or add new content to the site.
Note: The following guides were correct at the time of writing, but may be subject to change due to application of software updates, etc.
Main website
The main website use the Joomla Content Management System (CMS). It is not currently possible for users to self-register accounts to edit content here, but group members may simply request the administrators to create an account for them.
Registered users, once signed in, will be able to see articles that are marked as "Unpublished" and not publically visible. Typically these are articles that are incomplete or in draft form, e.g. unapproved meeting minutes.
Author's guide to basic article creation: Beginner's Guide to Posting an Article.
To ensure that meeting minutes appear in a consistent form and are listed in the index correctly, it is important that the specific guidance given in the following article is adhered to, and in particular the format of the article title is very important: Posting Meeting Minutes.
Forums
The SJTAG forums use the popular phpBB 3 software, and was created to provide a means of continuing discussions outside of the weekly meetings in a way that preserved a persistent record of the discussions that is often easier to follow than an email thread and allows discussions to be categorised, split and merged as necessary.
Users can self-register for an account (use the "Register" link at the upper right of the forum page), but all account requests will be reviewed by a site administrator before approval. During registration, you will be asked to supply a "Keyword" - this is part of our anti-spambot protection and hinders automated account creation. You can find the Keyword on the forums - look in the "Announcements" section (the first section listed on the forums) and look for the "Forum Registration Keyword" post (you should in fact see this post listed if you open any forum section as it is a "global announcement"). The keyword will change if we see evidence that bots have "learned" it.
Once the account is approved, the user can login using the "Login" link. During sign-in, the user can opt to have the site remember you; this will write a small cookie to your PC that will automatically sign you in. This cookie will expire if you do not visit the forums within 30 days. You should not use this feature if you are using a shared or public PC.
Logged in user's are able to access a private section of the forum: This is used mainly for administrative matters where it is desirable to keep details out of the public sight, e.g. if it is necessary to share login credentials, or for discussing material that is not yet ready for publication.
Forum user guide: Forums - Usage Guide - Note that this guide refers to a previous version of the phpBB software. While the appearance of the screens shown may differ from what you see now, the general principles and methods described are still pertinent.
Wiki
The SJTAG Wiki uses the common MediaWiki software. While this is essentially the same software as used by Wikipedia, the SJTAG version includes only a fraction of the extensions used by Wikipedia (we do not need most of them) although editing content is very similar.
The wiki was originally created to provide a means of collaboratively writing documents on-line (specifically to revise our White Paper) but to a large extent this can now be accomplished rather better in Joomla on the main site. The Glossary is now probably the main use for the wiki.
Editing the wiki requires the user to log in and for the account to been assigned as an "editor" by one the administrators. during account creation, you will need to enter details to create your wiki profile and to supply a registration "Keyword": this is the same keyword as used for the forums (see above). As for the forum, you can opt to have the wiki keep you signed in across sessions, and again this should not be used if the PC you are using is shared by other users.
There is a basic guide to working with the wiki on the wiki itself: http://wiki.sjtag.org/index.php?title=Wiki_Usage_Basics.
More detailed help is available on the MediaWiki website: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
File Manager
The File manager is a semi-custom application that allows files to be uploaded to the website and be publically shared. While other parts of the website will also allow files to be uploaded, the File Manager is generally easier to use and links to download files are more easily shared.
Login credentials are required to use the File Manager's GUI and to upload files to the website. No login is required to download files. The File Manager uses pre-set login credentials - these are available to registered users of the SJTAG forum - from the Board index navigate to Private Forums → Initiative Group Tools → File Manager login.
Generally, anything that we present to the public is stored here (and a link created on the Stored Documents page), but also anything used during a meeting is also stored, with a link included in the relevant meeting minutes.
A more detailed article on using the File Manager is available: Using the File Manager. This describes most of the operations that you will need to know about.
