Chrome Users: if you want to use the copy/paste operation in Chrome to edit your commonspot pages, install the cs_paste_extension.
Go to the Google Chrome Store
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/home?hl=en-US&utm_source=chrome-ntp-launcher
Search for paperthin chrome extension
Install cs_paste_extension by Fred Kingsbury
Click the menu button and choose Tools, Manage Extensions. Verify that the cs_paste_extension is Enabled.
A “redirect” is when a visitor is automatically forwarded from one page to another page. Common Spot provides a an easy way to setup a page to page redirect. You can use this feature if you have a page that is being replaced by a new page or may have been moved to another part of your website. Note that this is a page-to-page redirect and only affects this single page. (There are options available to redirect a site to another site, but you will need to fill out a Help Ticket and have the web team handle that for you.)
To do the page to page redirect in Common Spot, you must first make the original page expire. To do this login to that page and click on Properties Menu >> choose Standard Properties >> on the Main tab >> look for Expiration date. Set the Expiration date for the day you want your old page to begin redirecting to the new page.
Below the Expiration date, there’s an Action drop-down where you choose the Redirect Action. A text box will open for you to type in the URL of the new page or use the Choose option to find the new page. Click OK and that’s it. Do not delete the original page or this feature will no work!
Redirects are a very standard way to retire an outdated page but direct any visitors who may have it bookmarked to the updated page.
Most browser companies are moving to prevent programmatic access to the system clipboard. That means that the buttons in the Rich Text Editor (RTE) for Cut, Copy and Paste are prevented from working in Chrome and Firefox. Using Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V still work.
IE 10 still allows programmatic access to the clipboard.
The PaperThin Chrome Extension (free in the Chrome store) uses a feature in Chrome to allow those buttons to work.
PaperThin is testing IE 10 on Windows 7 for any other issues that may have come out of the recent (Feb 27) automatic push of the IE 9 to IE 10 upgrade.
You can use Internet Explorer 10 with CommonSpot if you press F12 and choose IE 10 Compatibility Mode. In straight IE 10 mode, access to the CommonSpot Dashboard is met with an eternal spinning dialog. We are testing a fix for this issue. Stay tuned.
Microsoft released a tool to prevent the automatic push:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36512
Firefox 10 ESR was also automatically upgraded to Firefox 17 ESR last week. So far there seems to be no issues with Firefox 17 except Cut/Copy/Paste operations in the RTE. We are currently testing a work-around for this issue.
Error:
Attempting to get into the Dashboard with IE 10 results in spinning cursor.
Work-around:
Hit F12 and change to Browser Mode: IE 10 Compatibility View
Error:
Cut, Copy and Paste does not work with Firefox 17 ESR
Work-around:
Get the FireFox 10 ESR version
We have added a new custom element, Plus-Share, that will create a sharing element similar to that which is on the university’s second level pages (e.g. About ECU http://www.ecu.edu/ecu/about.php). Using this element, users can email the page’s URL, share it on Facebook or Twitter or add it to their MyLinks bookmark list.
When placed on a page, it will automatically take up 100% of the available width. There are no options to set for the element, so to use it, you just place on on the page where you want it to appear.
Some users, myself included, have noticed that if we allow Firefox 10 esr browser to update, it no longer works well when updating CommonSpot pages. One major symptom is the inability to save updates within a formatted textbox element. A version check usually reveals that Firefox has been updated to 10.0. 8 or 9.
By reverting back to the original Firefox 10.0.1 version, you should again be able to update your website using Firefox.
1. First, Click the appropriate link below and save the file to your computer.
2. Double-click the file to install. This will take just a minute.
Once the installation completes, you can check your version by opening Firefox, clicking “Help” and choosing “About Firefox.”
We have had the Content Slider custom element a couple of years now (see example here: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-training/hallwa/Content-Slider.cfm). Now we have added a new renderhandler that will let you use the element if all you want is the part on the left. You can see an example of it here: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-training/hallwa/content-slider-new-renderhandler.cfm).
To do this, you put the custom element on the page just as normally. Set the Left Width to whatever you want the width of the element to be. Set the Right Width to 0.
For the tabs for each photo, you don’t need to put anything in the Thumbnail Text, since it won’t be used, but you want to fill in the rest as normal. Do this for each image.
When you hit Save, the element will load using the default render handler, which means that there will be elements displaying on the far right that we do not want.
To change this, you want to click on the gear icon and then select more, which will display more options, including the Custom Render Handlers… option. Click on that.
In the Custom Render Handlers popup, select “Thumbnailless” (which is totally a word). Click Next and the element will load without those parts on the right.
So, you are going to update your CommonSpot simple form, but there is no Edit Fields option.
Huh?!?
No worries, this is a new security feature in CommonSpot Winter 2012, and permissions are easily updated by the owner of the form or ITCS.
The default form security now allows only the owner (creator) of the form to administer (edit fields, delete, etc.), the form. Therefore, other groups or users must be given that permission. Here’s how this is done:
1. From the Simple Form options menu, choose Form Security. The Simple Form Security dialog box opens.
2. This dialog box allows changing the form’s owner or adding individual contributors or contributor groups.
3. The permission level will be set to Administer.
4. If the owner of the form no longer edits your site, enter an IT service request ticket, and ITCS will update the permissions for your form.
NOTE: We suggest that a group be added rather than an individual unless there are special circumstances that require an individual be added to the form permissions.
Good afternoon,
It has been about a month since the CommonSpot upgrade. We made it!
This was a huge upgrade for both the backend administration and the contributor interface. There have been many changes for all of us. We know you have experienced quite a learning curve getting up to speed with this new version. We appreciate your efforts.
From the backend of CommonSpot, quite a few items were completed starting with the servers that were upgraded from 32 bit to 64 bit, then the databases were switched to UTF-8, followed by ColdFusion being upgraded from v8 to v9, and finally we could upgrade CommonSpot from v5 to v7. Wow, that was a lot!
For all of you, our contributors, you were presented with an entirely new interface to learn. Plus, there were strict browser requirements to get used to. As you report issues to us, we are finding solutions or contacting the vendor for a solution. We appreciate your patience as we work through these issues. We have fixed many of them, but there are still a few outstanding.
Here are the issues that you have reported that are currently outstanding.
Here are a few solutions, enhancements and best practices we would like to share with you.
If you have suggestions for other solutions or enhancements, please feel free to share them with us by sending us an email, or posting on yammer. Using yammer to share information is helpful. If you are having an issue, be sure to put in a ticket as we do not monitor yammer like we do the ticketing system.
If you are having an issue, please submit a ticket using either the new ticket location mentioned above or via the Help Desk at ithelp.ecu.edu
Again, thank you for your patience and please continue to share your feedback with us so we can continue to improve.
Because of a conflict with the progressive design stylesheet we’re using, which adjusts the size of your web page to the visitor’s screen size, the ability to scale a photo within the CommonSpot image dialog box has been turned off. This means that, while you can add a border or space around an image through CommonSpot image tools, you can no longer resize (scale) from this feature. Images and graphics need to be sized correctly before being placed on your web page.
For those of you who don’t use PhotoShop, Becky has created a great tutorial introducing two FREE online photo editors that are super easy to use–even for beginners!
iPiccy requires no registration and is easy to use for cropping a picture or resizing. fotoflexer doesn’t require you to join or register, either, and has many fun special effects. For a great explanation, see this Simple Image Editing–
For those Mac or Windows users who decide to try either of these editors, please Yam your experiences using either eidtor on the CommonSpot User Yammer Group.
While in the Winter 2012 intro session this morning, I finally figured out the difference between “My Pages” and “Page Finder” in Winder 2012. Remember that “My Pages” is a listing of all the pages you’ve created–pages for which you are the owner–while “Page Finder” generates the entire list of pages, documents, etc., in your web folder.
Both features are found in the “My CommonSpot” site menu at the top of the page (the gray one), but they are each under a different category.
For a list of the pages you created, click the “My Content” menu and choose, “My Pages…”
Generate a list of the pages, templates, uploaded documents and registered URLs in your web folder from the “Reports” menu. This includes any item, no matter the owner. From the report, click an item to open.
