.communities Walkthrough
The database is configured to show a default community when first run, this community contains a single page (the
Section List), which displays child sections as they are added in the
Administration pages. In this walkthrough we will outline the initial setup options for your community, create an
Articles section and add a new article and comment.
Step 1: Setting Up the CommunityWhen .communities is first run the following page will be displayed in the browser:

This page is called a
Section List Page , this the simplest module type in .communities and used to display child sections.
To adjust the settings for .communities we will first need to login - clicking on the
Login link and entering the user name
admin with the password
admin (the default settings for the admin user) allows you to access the
Administration Site from the
Admin link:

Once you have entered the Administration Site you will be presented with a number of options. Our first task will be to setup e-mail so that notifications are sent using your SMTP e-mail account. Choose the
Configuration link followed by the
Site Settings link to edit the settings for your community site (you will also need to click the drop-down button to display the SMTP settings):

You will need to setup .communities to access an
SMTP Server - SMTP Servers are used to relay e-mails such as
Notifications to users mailboxes (your ISP will provide this information as part of your hosting account).
Finally, you will need to change the default e-mail address for the admin user so that .communities will send e-mails to your own e-mail account. You can list all registered users by clicking the
Users menu option, the admin user can then be edited by selecting the associated edit button in the list:
Step 2: Adding An Article SectionTo add a new section, select the
Sections link to display a list of all the sections of your community, add a new section by selecting the
Add New Section link:

Name the new section
Articles and remember to change the selection from
Section List to
Article List in the
Section Type box. A section also contains other settings that can be accessed by selecting the appropriate tab.
Once a new section has been added, it will appear in the section list:

At this point, if you would like the home page of your community to contain a list of articles rather than child sections, click on the
Home icon for the Articles section to make this your new home page. You can then delete the original section if it is no longer required.
Step 3: Managing Article ContentThe Articles section can now be accessed by selecting the appropriate link in the section list or by navigating to the page on the community site itself. You can now add a new article by selecting the
Add New Article link:

The section settings from the administration pages can be used alter how the content is displayed. There are options for adding
Ratings and
Comments to section content as well as the ability to associate
Categories to content.
Categories can be listed from the administration site by selecting the
Content menu link, followed by the
Edit Categories link. To add a category select the
Add New Category link:

Once you have added a new category and ensured that the required section settings include the option to enable categories, you can now edit the article that you have added and associate the new category to this content item:

You can now navigate to the new category via the
Category Menu or the category administration page. The category page will now show the edited article in the list of associated content items:

At this point, you may wish to add more articles to the section as well as adding new categories for those articles. If a section is
Syndicated, these articles will also be published as an
RSS Feed. This feed will be available via your browsers
Feeds button and once two or more articles have been added to the page the
RSS Rotator control will appear which also contains a link to your feed:
Step 4: Managing CommentsEach item of content in .communities can have the option of being commented on by other users. The
Advanced tab of the section settings page allows you to enable the comments for each section as well as the ability to assign specific users the ability to add comments with their associated user roles. Comments can also be modified or deleted from their associated content by selecting the appropriate
Edit or
Delete icon on the content page.
Comments can also be nested within other comments, allowing for users to reply to specific comments as well as commenting on the article content itself. Users can select how they would prefer to display comments using the drop-down list and (if enabled in the section settings) can also rate individual comments:
Next StepsThis walkthrough has outlined some of the basic principles to help you get started with .communities. For more information about the features of .communities, visit our website:
http://www.DotCommunities.org