Frequently Asked Questions

Community Weaver 2.0 (0)

Questions about Community Weaver 2.0

General (2)
  1. How can I start a TimeBank with the Community Weaver software?
  2. Why doesn't this work on my iPad?
Members (3)
  1. How do I view the hidden header information in an email I've received?
  2. Why does an unread message remain on the member profile page even after it was deleted?
  3. What does "An illegal choice has been detected. Please contact the site administrator." mean?
Coordinators (8)
  1. How can I add or change categories for offers and requests?
  2. How can I change the available neighborhoods, affiliations, and counties in the member profile?
  3. Why isn't my time bank in the directory at http://community.timebanks.org?
  4. When I uploaded a new picture or site icon, why didn't it change?
  5. Why doesn't my time bank appear on the map? The address is correct in the Community Directory
  6. Why do events on our home page have incorrect times?
  7. I changed my theme. Now service categories don't show on the record an exchange pages
  8. Why don't RSS Feeds work with Google Reader?
Site Admin (10)

FAQ of advanced topics for site admins

  1. Building custom views
  2. As a site admin what do I need to be most careful of when developing on the Timebanks server?
  3. What does FTP access grant me as a site admin?
  4. How do I change a field to required or optional?
  5. Calendar pop-up won't allow a choice to be selected. How can I fix this?
  6. Expired service ads do not display on members' profile pages. How do I fix this?
  7. How can I disable the ability of coordinators to read members' private messages?
  8. How to make phone-number appear on the "member-roster" and user-profiles
  9. What does "An illegal choice has been detected. Please contact the site administrator." mean? And what can I do about it?
  10. What other files do I need to theme my own Timebank?
Community Weaver 2.0
General
Q: How can I start a TimeBank with the Community Weaver software?
A:

Please go to the membership page of TimeBanks USA.

Q: Why doesn't this work on my iPad?
A:

Community Weaver has not been tested on the iPad, so some things work just fine; other things not so much.  Use at your own risk.

Members
Q: How do I view the hidden header information in an email I've received?
A:

Most mail tools have an option called "Show all headers" or "Show original".  http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22454 explains how to view headers in many popular mail tools.

Q: Why does an unread message remain on the member profile page even after it was deleted?
A:

By default, deleted messages are "flushed" after 30 days.  To flush deleted messages right away...

  1. Log in as primary coordinator
  2. In the URL bar of your browser enter http://<YOURTIMEBANKNAME>.timebanks.org//admin/settings/messages
  3. In the "Flush deleted messages" section, change "Flush messages after they have been deleted for more days than:" to zero.
  4. Click "Save Configuration".
  5. Henceforth, those deleted messages will disappear within an hour (when cron runs).
Q: What does "An illegal choice has been detected. Please contact the site administrator." mean?
A:

It means the web server didn't know how to deal with some of the data submitted.  We've found for CW2.0 this tends to happen when a user has multiple browser tabs or windows open to the site.  Some of the partially submitted data gets sent along when save or submit is clicked in the other tab/window.  In every case we've seen, simply trying again works.

Coordinators
Q: How can I add or change categories for offers and requests?
A:

The primary coordinator can edit categories at http://<timebankname>.timebanks.org/admin/content/taxonomy/1

Q: How can I change the available neighborhoods, affiliations, and counties in the member profile?
A:

A primary coordinator can do this via administration screens.

For counties use http://<timebankname>.timebanks.org/admin/content/taxonomy/5

For neighborhoods use http://<timebankname>.timebanks.org/admin/content/taxonomy/3

For affiliations use http://<timebankname>.timebanks.org/admin/content/taxonomy/2

Q: Why isn't my time bank in the directory at http://community.timebanks.org?
A:

Your time bank's directory record needs to be linked to its primary contact's account in Action Hub.  Here's how to link it:

  1. Register your time bank's primary contact on Action Hub then notify tech support.  Click here for the steps.
  2. Tech support will link the time bank's directory record to the primary contact then notify him/her.
  3. The primary contact can edit the time bank's directory record so it is searchable and listed by state at http://actionhub.timebanks.org.
  4. If the time bank did not appear on the map automatically, click here.
Q: When I uploaded a new picture or site icon, why didn't it change?
A:

It really did change, but your web browser's cache may be retaining the old picture.  Refresh the web browser using Control-R or Command-R and the new image will appear.  
 

Q: Why doesn't my time bank appear on the map? The address is correct in the Community Directory
A:

The time bank's record at http://community.timebanks.org needs to be tweaked.  The time bank's primary contact should do this.

Time bank records that were imported into CW2 used the states from CW1.  This was a two-letter abbbreviation, e.g. "ME" for "Maine" and the map doesn't recognize it.  Just change the state abbreviation to the full state name and click Save. Your time bank will appear on the map.

Q: Why do events on our home page have incorrect times?
A:

If the minutes are the same and the hours are different, it's probably a time zone problem.   You should specify the time zone for your time bank, but members should not specify time zones in their profiles.

The Configure Time Zone & Settings link is in the lower left corner of the control panel.  Set your time bank's time zone there.  Also disable user-configurable time zones unless you really have a need for multiple time zones.

Q: I changed my theme. Now service categories don't show on the record an exchange pages
A:

Community Weaver 2.0 was built using the Acquia Marina theme.  While other themes can be configured, we can't guarantee everything will work properly.  For example, service categories don't show on the Record an Exchange pages with some alternative themes.  

Important:  see also http://actionhub.timebanks.org/faq/what-other-files-do-i-need-theme-my-o...

Q: Why don't RSS Feeds work with Google Reader?
A:

The RSS Feeds for a Community Weaver 2.0 site are considered private.  You have to be logged into the site with the right level of access to see them.  Unfortunately Google Reader does not support this type of RSS Feed.  There are however other free and paid for feed readers which do support private feeds.  Depending on your web broswer, you should also be able to bookmark the RSS Feeds and view them in your browser.  You will need to be logged into the site with that browser to view feeds this way as well.

Site Admin
Q: Building custom views
A:

When building views, build them as new views.  Don't add another display to an existing view. Create new or clone and rename existing views.  If you don't do this and we ever need to fix or change the included views down the road this will wipe out any changes you've made.

Q: As a site admin what do I need to be most careful of when developing on the Timebanks server?
A:

This is a multi-site environment. Writing bad PHP is the main way to cause harm to other sites on the Timebanks server. Please be selective about any PHP added and have EXTRA caution when doing so.

Q: What does FTP access grant me as a site admin?
A:

Access to the CW2 Timebanks server via FTP only permits certain access.  Specifically, as a Site Admin, you will not have access to Drupal core or any of the contributed or custom modules shared across all the timebanks sites.  This is a Drupal multisite environment so each site has it's own directories.  When you login, you will see only three symlinks, to /files, /modules and /themes.  These links take you into directories just for your timebank.   

  • /files - contains files used only by your site.  Mostly this is for user pictures and images uploaded to the site.
  • /modules - starts out empty.  If you want to add any contributed or custom modules only usable by your site, this is where they go.
  • /themes - starts out empty.  if you want to add your own theme(s) and/or css files, this is where they go.
These symlinks should suffice for most Drupal development you'll do on your site.  However if there's a library you want to install that must go into a /library directory, please contact techsupport@timebanks.org and we can accommodate you.
 
Note: Not all site admin access or changes to your Drupal site will require FTP access. If you don't know what you're doing once you login via FTP, consider asking yourself if you really need ftp access.  Another note, some ftp clients cannot navigate symlinks.  If you see nothing in any of the directories when you first login, please try another ftp client.
Q: How do I change a field to required or optional?
A:

Changing a Field to Required or Optional

This is useful if your time bank has specific requirements.  For example, some countries do not have states or provinces.  Its setting is in /admin/user/settings at the bottom of the page below the save button in Collection settings.  Change the Collect drop down box for State/Province to either Do Not Collect or Allow.

Q: Calendar pop-up won't allow a choice to be selected. How can I fix this?
A:

Navigate to admin: /admin/content/node-type/alert/fields/field_expiration_date and change the Years back and forward field

from 0:1

to  -0:+1

Q: Expired service ads do not display on members' profile pages. How do I fix this?
A:

SHORTNAME.timebanks.org/admin/build/panels   Go to the user profile template in the content section and you'll see the expired ads block.
Click on the little gear for that block.  Under visibility rules click settings.  It would probably be more useful to change it from All criteria must pass to Only one criterion must pass.  Thus members can see their own ads and coordinators, can see everyone's ads.

Q: How can I disable the ability of coordinators to read members' private messages?
A:

The site administrator can do the following:  Go to Home » User management » Permissions, walk down the list several pages to the "Privatemsg Module" section. Uncheck the roles for "read all private messages". Save your permission changes.  (Thanks to Jim Tate.)

Q: How to make phone-number appear on the "member-roster" and user-profiles
A:

Here are some tweaks from DaneCounty Timebank:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UVVjVXy7vJZdn_GlWgcBgs5F0F8lXMyOoDM6...

Q: What does "An illegal choice has been detected. Please contact the site administrator." mean? And what can I do about it?
A:

It means the web server didn't know how to deal with some of the data submitted.  We've found for CW2.0 this tends to happen when a user has multiple browser tabs or windows open to the site.  Some of the partially submitted data gets sent along when save or submit is clicked in the other tab/window.  In every case we've seen, simply trying again works.  You can make the message more friendly if you like by following the steps below.

Go to /admin/user/permissions (YOURSITE.timebanks.org/admin/user/permissions) or using the menu bar click User management, then Permissions

Scroll down to Stringoverrides module and click the box for TBUSA site admin for the row administer string overrides.

If you aren't very familiar with Drupal don't check or uncheck any other boxes on this page.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click SAVE PERMISSIONS

Now go to /admin/settings/stringoverrides, or using the admin bar, Site Configuration, then String Overrides.

In an empty field in the left column copy and paste the following text exactly: An illegal choice has been detected. Please contact the site administrator.

In the corresponding box to the right, enter your replacement message.  We suggest: Oops, an error has occurred.  This may have been caused because you have another browser window/tab open.  Try again.

Click SAVE CONFIGURATION.

Q: What other files do I need to theme my own Timebank?
A:

Community Weaver 2.0 uses the Acquia Marina theme.  To override the theme, the site administrator can download his own copy and modify the attached files.  local.css replaces the included one in the theme's css directory.  mc_3rdparty_formspecial.tpl.php (you'll need to edit the filename to match once downloaded) goes in the root directory of the theme. Download links for these files appear for logged in users of sufficient permission. These files were current as of 11-12-11 but going forward will not necessarily match the ones under revision control.