johnmcqueen's blog

New layout for links on group home pages

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 16:23

The links to group tools have a new home on the group home pages. Previously, these links were contained at the bottom of the group home page under a heading titled "Links". The links are now at the top of the group home page to increase visibility and improve the layout of the page. The text "All Posts" has been added under the horzontal rule or line at the bottom of the welcome message. This is to make clear that the list of content under that line contains all posts by the group regardless of the type of content, wiki pages, forum posts, blogs, or images.

New help item about using Images

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 16:54

I added two new help items today regarding Image handling on PBGworks. There are two distict ways to handle images and at first thought you might think that they can be combined, but they remain separate. The issue is that there is not an easy way to get an image that is in one of the galleries onto a new or existing page on the website.

New help menu item

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Tue, 03/10/2009 - 16:42

I created a new help menu item for adding a new Group wiki page. This is probably one of the most common tasks associated with using PBGworks right now. Hopefully it can clear up what some of the settings mean as you go through the process of making a group wiki page. Please provide some feedback for me on ways to improve the directions.

Slight changes to PBG works today

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Tue, 03/10/2009 - 16:03

Today I made a few minor modifications to PBGworks. The Search bar has been relocated to the right side bar. Since the website is still in its infancy,

New calendar feature added to Tasks

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 16:18

The link under your username "My Tasks" got a new feature today: Task Calendar. You can now view your tasks in a calendar by due date. There are controls to go to the month ahead or behind. Plus you can see your tasks by the year, month, week, or day. Tasks do not have a hour/minute option but this could be added if folks would find it useful. Any suggestions please leave a comment.

Spam for new accounts

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 11:27

We have been getting some spam for new accounts. Until we can install some spam control software (which isn't 100% anyway) I am disabling the "Create New Account" link when not logged in. This will require folks to email me to request permission to open an account. To handle this I am adding contact information to the home page.

Helping group admins understand the membership approval process

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 17:11

As a group administer in PBGworks you get occasional emails about needing to approve someone who has requested membership. This can be a little confusing since the email that notifiies you doens't supply much information and you have to go to PBGworks to learn more about that person.

I created a help tutorial to aid in understanding this process. Please check it out and let me know if it helps.

Extra link field added

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 09:54

You now have a place to add more than one link to your My account page. This change was prompted by member feedback. Now please, link away!

New information about joining this effort

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 12:51

We have decided to change the name of the website from CAPspace to PBGworks to reflect the name of the Community of Practice which is proposed as Plant Breeding and Genomics Community of Practice.

In an effort largely created by David Francis we now have a new information page about how to join PBGworks as a CAP group. There are links to many sources of information about joining with this eXtension effort started by SolCAP. That page is also linked from the Help page and our About page.

Footer message added

Submitted by johnmcqueen on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 16:19

I added a new footer message to CAPspace. It has links to the Contact, About us, and CSREES website. The blog link goes to this blog where I will be blogging about updates to CAPspace. Feel free to leave me comments about my posts.