Wordcircle Help

Wordcircle is an online collaborative workspace for teachers and students. This help document should provide enough information to guide you through using, installing and setting up the system. If you need help, please visit the wordcircle development website at http://sourceforge.net/projects/wordcircle/

1.0 Using Wordcircle

1.01 Registration
1.02 Logging In and Out
1.03 User Info
1.04 Adding / Removing Courses
1.05 Course Overview
1.06 News
1.07 Calendar
1.08 Discussions
1.09 Course Materials
1.10 Projects

2.0 Installation and Setup (admins only)

2.01 Installing the Database
2.02 Customizing the Look and Feel

3.0 Planned Features


1.0 Using Wordcircle
The first part of this help guide is for people interested in understanding how to use wordcircle. Alternatively, if you are an administrator looking for information about installing or setting up wordcircle skip to section 2.

1.01 Registration
The first step in using wordcircle is registration. From the wordcircle home page, click the "Register" menu item on the left-hand side. The next screen will show you the registration.

1.02 Logging In and Out
Once you have registered, use your email and password to login by clicking on the "Login" menu item and completing the login form. Click the "remember me on this computer" if you do not want to login everytime you visit the website. If this is a public computer, do not select this option as anyone who uses the computer will be able to login and use your account.

As soon as you login, you are automatically directed to the "My Courses" page where you can add courses to your course list. If you have already added courses, you will see them appear towards the top of the page.

To logout, click the logout menu item on the left hand side.

1.03 User Info
Once logged in, you should see a "User Info" menu item on the left-hand side. Click on this to see a list of all of the users in your courses. The first user in the list will be you. Click on the Edit link to the right of your information to edit your profile. Remember that your email address is also your login name. If you change your email address, do not forget to enter the new address next time you login.

If you own are the System Admin and you click "User Info" you will see all of the users for all of the courses, not just the course you are currently viewing.

1.04 Adding / Removing Courses
As soon as you login, you will be directed to the "My Courses" page. At any point, you can return to this page by clicking the "My Courses " menu item on the left-hand side.

You cannot view or edit the contents of a course until you add it to your list. There are two options for adding courses to your list. (A) You can add someone else's course to your list or (B) you can create a new course of your own - it will be automatically added to your list afterwards.

(A) To add someone else's course to your list must have a course key. If the course is a public course, you can get this key by clicking on the Course List link. If the course is private you must get the key from your teacher or the person that created the course. Without a key, you will not be able to access any courses. Once you get the course key, enter it in the form at the bottom of the page and click the "Add Someone Else's Course " button. Your course will now added to your course list.

(B) To create your own course, think of a unique name such as "Alaska University - Biology 1022 - Mr. Smith" - enter the name in the form at the bottom of the page. You can't change this name so be careful what you choose. Next, choose whether the course will be public or private. Public courses are listed in the Course List and private courses are hidden from the list. After entering your course name and choosing public/private status, click on the "Create My Own Course" button. Your course will now added to your course list. For private courses - make sure to write down the course key and give it to your students - they will not be able to access the course without it. To view or put materials in this course, click on the course name from the list.

To remove a course, click on the "remove" link next to the course information. Removing a course that you created is equivalent to deleting it - and this is a permanent decision. Once a course is removed, all of the thoughts, calendar items, discussions and documents are also deleted. Removing a course that you did not create just takes it off your list. You can always add it back again by entering the course key [see (A)].

1.05 Course Overview
After you choose a course from your course list, you will see a list of News, Calendar items, Discussions and Documents that belong to it. If each one of these things is empty it means the person who created the course has not created any materials for the course yet. If you created the course, you must use the modify links to create these items.

The Course Overview also contains an "Overview" box where the course owner can write a small description of what the course contains, who it is for and any other information that can help students to understand the context of the work they will be doing.

1.06 News
News items are created by the person who created the course only. News can be things like "The campus store is running out of notebooks, be sure to get one!" or "Congrats to Jenny Herman on her gold medal." People like to see new content on websites so try to update these thoughts as often as you can and remove outdated ones. If you created this course , you can create or modify News by clicking on the modify links that appear above the News box.

1.07 Calendar
Calendar items are created by the the person who created the course only. This could be used instead of or in addition to a printed syllabus. If you created this course, you can create or modify Calendar items by using the modify links that appear above the calendar box.

1.08 Discussions
Discussions are created by the person who created the course but the topics and messages in each discussion can be created by anyone. If you created the course, you can create or modify a Discussion by using the modify link that appears above the discussion box. Once a Discussion is created, anyone can click on the name of the discussion to see a list of topics. Topics are sorted in order of recent activity. To create a new topic, open the Discussion page, click on a discussion and use the form at the bottom of the page. To read messages within a certain topic, click on its name. Also, you can have emails sent to you whenever someone posts a message to this topic by clicking the "Subscribe" link. To cancel these messages, click the "Unsubscribe" link.

If you created the course, you are the only one who can remove a discussion. By removing a Discussion, all of the topics and messages are also removed (permanently deleted). Students are able to edit and remove (delete) the topics and messages that they created only.

Discussions can be categorized so that certain discussions appear above others in a logical order. For example, a group of discussions could be placed into the category "First Semester." Then, this category could be shifted to the top of the discussion list during the first semester and moved downwards during second semester. To work with categories, the course owner should click the modify link and click the "modify discussion categories" link. Note that your discussions do not have to have categories but the layout will not be consistent if you assign some discussions and not all of them to a category.

1.09 Course Materials
Documents are uploaded / saved by those who created the course but are available to anyone for download. These documents are usually assignments or course materials assigned by a teacher. The size limitation on documents is set by the system administrator - it is usually 16MB although it can vary depending on how the database and PHP are setup on the server. If you created the course you can upload or remove a Document by using the modify link above the documents box. It is also possible to upload links instead of documents. Read the instructions in the modify page for an explanation.

1.10 Projects
Projects are places where students can upload their own files, write journal entries and share either / both with other students as well as their teacher.

Projects are either mandatory or voluntary. The only difference between these two types of projects is that a mandatory project will show up in everyone's project list automatically while voluntary projects must be manually added in order for it to show up in a person's project list.

Anyone can create a voluntary project, but only the course owner (teacher) can create a mandatory project.

From either the Course Overview or Projects page, you can see all of the projects that are in your list. If no projects appear it is because the course owner has not created any mandatory projects. Either way, there may be voluntary projects available. These can be viewed and added to your list by clicking on the voluntary projects list link. If there are no projects in the voluntary projects list you can create a new project.

Select a project from your projects list to see the details of that project. To see your own work, upload new files or make journal entries, select your name from the list of participants below. If you would like to see someone else's course work, select their name from the participants list.

After selecting your name from the participants list you will be able to upload files and journal entries. Note that this information is kept private from other students in your course unless you choose to make it public. The course owner (teacher) can see your private files and journal entries, and add his/her journal entries along with them.

2.01 Installation and Setup (Admins Only)
To install the wordcircle files - follow these directions:

  1. Unzip the files into a directory where you know PHP is available - name it whatever you want - we'll assume you name it 'wordcircle' for now
  2. From a UNIX command prompt type the following command:
    prompt> chmod -R 777 wordcircle (change this to your directory name)
    Note: There are other ways to change permissions - most FTP programs offer this functionality as well
  3. In a browser, open (run) the file install.php
  4. Follow the instructions
  5. To install wordcircle manually, please refer to the install scripts at the bottom of this page

WARNING: If you are upgrading wordcircle - you should not run the install script as it will overwrite your database. So far, it is not necessary to make database modifications for a new install. All you need to do is copy all of the latest files into your directory except for the settings.php file. Keep this file intact and your database / admin settings will remain the same.

2.02 Customizing the Look and Feel
While wordcircle will always follow the same basic framework, you can change all of the colors, headers, footers and images very easily by using the following references:

Style Sheets are saved in a file "e_style.html" - editing it will change the look and feel of the entire website. Make sure to backup the original. It is heavily commented to give you some clues about what to modify. Note that no font tags or inline styles are used - the entire site is controlled with style sheets.

The header file is saved as "e_header.html" - this is where the image exists that you see at the top of every page.

The footer file is saved as "e_footer.html" - note the use of Javascript for the email to prevent spamming.

The welcome message is contained in the file e_welcome.html. This is the text that appears when people load wordcircle before logging in.

The image of the circles that "blink" across the screen everytime you update database is a .gif named icon_circle.gif - the width is 200 and the height is 40. If you would like to create another blinking color widget - make sure to name it icon_circle.gif and give it the same dimensions.

If you have questions about other

3.0 Planned Features
As of this writing (August 2, 2004) the following things are on the horizon:

  1. Assessments (2004)
  2. Rubrics (2005)

If you have questions or comments, visit the wordcircle project page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/wordcircle/ and post a message or bug.

Install Scripts
If you could not run the install script, there is an alternative way of getting wordcircle up and running. First open the file settings.php and modify this file as follows:

$GLOBALS['configured'] = true;//WARNING IF THIS IS FALSE SOMEONE CAN RUN THE INSTALL

$GLOBALS['dbServer'] = 'your server name';

$GLOBALS['dbName'] = 'your db name';

$GLOBALS['dbUser'] = 'your db user name';

$GLOBALS['dbPass'] = 'your db users password';

$GLOBALS['admin_email'] = 'your@email.address';

Next, copy the following SQL statements and paste them into your mySQL admin console. Make sure to edit the final SQL statement to reflect your information.


CREATE TABLE calendar (
calendar_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
calendar text,
dateOf datetime default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (calendar_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE categories (
category_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
category_name varchar(120) default NULL,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
order_number int(11) default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (category_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE discussions (
discussion_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
discussion_name varchar(100) default NULL,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
last_message date default NULL,
total_messages int(11) default NULL,
category_id int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (discussion_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE documents (
id int(11) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
name varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
group_id int(11) default NULL,
user_id int(11) default NULL,
descr varchar(255) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE filedata (
id mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
masterid mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
filedata blob NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id),
KEY master_idx (masterid)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE group_message (
group_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
group_message text,
PRIMARY KEY (group_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE groups (
group_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
group_name varchar(130) NOT NULL default '',
owner_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
code varchar(130) default NULL,
public int(11) default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (group_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE messages (
message_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
message text NOT NULL,
created_on datetime NOT NULL default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
discussion_id int(11) default '0',
group_id int(11) default NULL,
topic_id int(11) default NULL,
created_by int(11) default NULL,
created_for int(11) default NULL,
privateYN char(2) default NULL,
project_id int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (message_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE project_action (
action_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
project_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
user_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
last_action datetime default NULL,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (action_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE projects (
project_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
project_name varchar(255) default NULL,
project text,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
globalYN char(2) default 'Y',
last_action datetime default NULL,
owner_id int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (project_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE thoughts (
thoughts_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
thoughts text,
created_on date default NULL,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (thoughts_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE topics (
topic_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
topic text,
created_by int(11) default NULL,
discussion_id int(11) default NULL,
last_message date default NULL,
group_id int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (topic_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE user_discussions (
user_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
discussion_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (user_id,discussion_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE user_groups (
user_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
group_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (user_id,group_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE user_levels (
user_level_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
user_level varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (user_level_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE user_projects (
project_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
user_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (project_id,user_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE users (
user_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
first_name varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
last_name varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
email varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
pword varchar(80) NOT NULL default '',
user_level int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
question int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
answer varchar(120) NOT NULL default '',
security_code varchar(50) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

#EDIT THIS INFORMATION BEFORE EXECUTING SQL

INSERT INTO users VALUES
(1,'YOUR FIRST NAME','YOUR LAST NAME','YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS','YOUR PASSWORD',0,0,'','');