Enter site

Jul-29-2010

Welcome to this "semi-private" collaborative website. Please read on for a description of the functionality offered here at RonFra.ca. Currently, we are not seeking or accepting new members.

First off, this site is fundamentally group-oriented. What one sees when one logs on to the site depends on what group(s) one belongs to. So site content may be as public or as private as required.

For web collaboration, this customizable and privatizable collaborative website includes ten active modules. These are: photo gallery; threaded discussions; shared document repository; news; group calendar; personal calendar; survey; links; group email; messaging. A description of each follows.

  • The Photo Gallery is the most recently added tool. It allows users to maintain an online gallery or album of photos that they have uploaded to this site. Each user's gallery has a unique URL that may be shared as desired. Each gallery may be included in the public list of galleries or hidden from that list.
  • Discussions (Forums) are pretty much as most web discussions. When you open a discussion folder, you can see the topics that have been posted. When you click on a topic, you can see and read any of the messages and you can reply as you wish. You can also choose to create a new topic by posting a new message to the group.
  • The document repository (Shared Folders) allows users to upload documents or post URLs and to provide a description of the object. These files/URLs may then be viewed or downloaded as required by other users. The repository is available to members only.
  • The news module allows rich text posts to be made that are of interest to users and specific groups in this space.
  • The group calendar allows posting of events that are visible to members of a specific group. The group calendar now also supports items created using the WYSIWYG HTML editor. As well, group "popup" reminders can be set for any item.
  • The personal calendar allows any logged in user to quickly create searchable calendar items that are visible only to the user. The personal calendar now supports the creation of items using the WYSIWYG editor so that you can easily copy-paste content from other (web) places if you wish.
  • The survey module can be programmed to get responses to surveys/polls/ballots and can be programmed to be private or public (with its own unique URL).
  • The links module can be programmed to list as many links as the group leader wishes.
  • Group email (or blast email) allows group leaders or their designates to send out email (including newsletters) to their group members or a distribution list. Templated newsletters may be easily created, edited and sent to your target group. A target list of recipients may be uploaded and used for the emailing.
  • Messaging allows users to engage in "chats" without the need for participants being connected at the same time. Messages may be posted to a group or selected individuals within a group.

Each of the above areas may be "privatized" so that content is visible only to the members of a specific group.

Content appearing on this site is as varied as the people who contribute to it.

We use Innovastudio's WebCMS (heavily modified) and WYSIWYG editor on this site. The editor is used in places (news articles, group/blast emails and any pages managed by the CMS) where users may create or edit richly formatted text (HTML). We believe this product is the finest java-based HTML editor available anywhere!