Hi all...
I just installed Community Builder, and I successfully enabled it, along with the Login Module, Moderation Module and Online Module. So far, so good.

My question is this...WHAT DO I DO WITH IT? I see that the Login module is now a CB module instead of the standard Joomla one, and when I login, I see the following CB menu items:

USER MENU - with a Your Details and a Logout item within it
CB LOGIN MENU - with a 'Hi My Name' message under it, and a Log Out Button as well
CB WORKFLOWS MENU - that has the message 'No Pending Actions' within it

But I cannot figure out what to do with this. I have heard it is a great tool with excellent functionality, but all I can seem to do with it is click on my details item and make sure my name and email are correct, and add a picture or image. I dont' see anything else to be done. I was under the impression this tool helped one build an interactive type community on their website. What am I missing?

What is the Workflows menu? What 'Actions' are currently not pending?

Thank you all...I have My Blog and Jom Comment already on my site and they seem to function well. I'm just trying to figure out if Community Builder will help me with the 'community building' efforts I'm working on, or if the Blog/Comment items I'm already using will suffice (as there is a 'my profile' section on My Blog that basically keeps the same info as the 'your details' on CB)

I appreciate any insights. Truly...Jeb

Hi Jeb,

I am not part of the team here or anything, but there is a lot more to CB than that .

You shouldn't be using the My Details link anymore (unpublish that). You should set up a link to 'My Profile' which would be Index.php?Option=com_comprofiler (or somnething like that) and would take the user to their profile which is greatly enhanced over the my details bit (which is just a small part of the overall profile).

You can add more fields to the existing ones (depending on what you want for your site). You should also install some plugins, of which there are literally loads available. I would recomend the'profilebook' and Nant's gallery for starters, this gives each user a 'facebook style wall' and a 'user image gallery' which are great add-ons (and free) to start your profiles off.

You can arrange the profiles in many ways, choosing to have the stuff in any order you wish and displayed either in tabbed format or set up in divisions down the page, but first you need to set up the link straight to the profiles .

EDIT - oh yeah workflows, this is basically a to do list for moderators (I changed the name to to do list), only needed if you are using moderator functions really, whereby moderators (when set properly) will see that images need approving etc.

I hope this helps, I am happy to help more if needed,

Best,

NuMoon

Post edited by: ElsieNuMoon, at: 2008/09/22 12:53

Good Morning...
Thanks for the speedy reply, I really appreciate that. So, then, is all the below done through the back end of my joomla site - components>community builder>configuration?

I see a few tabs there with a lot of options to change (or keep the same), but I'm having a little trouble figuring it all out. Do you know if there is a guide of sorts that explains it all? Sorry, I'm pretty decent at joomla by now (with the common sense side of it, not the 'code' side of it), but CB is new and, therefore, confusing.

Thanks again for the reply, and any additional info you provide will be greatly appreciated.

Truly...Jeb

The document subscription is what you're looking for. It explains these things. Also, once you become a subscriber, you can take advantage of early access to the 1.2 version, which has a lot less bugs and is advised over 1.1.

Hi Jeb,

It is mostly done through the back end to set up the profiles yes. I would recomend having two windows open, one at your profile and one with the administration open, you can play then and see the results by refreshing the profile window.

Most of the back end is just about the look of the thing, if you want everything showing in tabs, or to use 'divs with titles' (I recomend doing the above to check whish you prefer).

Other than that it is mainly about adding the components to the profiles you want (the free options goven earlier are a great start, but there are countless more additions to have). If you want to have a look at a more developed profile, you can check your one here, this has quite a few features enabled (I would give you the link to my site, but we are not supposed to plug our sites here ).

Having the docement subscription would help if you are having trouble, I haven't read any myself as I seemed to find my way around ok, but did want CB.1.2.

If you want to see my site PM me and I will give you the link, I am using a few different options (some of them cost though). I can recomend quite a few plugins if you are prepared to pay for some of them...

Best,

NuMoon

One other thing not in the docs is that you can also download the CB Plugins for MyBlog and JomComment to integrate and use just the one profile in CB. It also synchronizes your users better that way.