eCampaigning Tool Feature Guide
Most tools list their features and benefits without clarifying what those mean in practice. We hate that. So this feature guide will cut through the bullet points to help you understand what the benefits mean in practice. You'll also want to consult the Benefits Guide for what the features mean in practice.
| What: | Links from key options (fields) in the eCampaigning Tool Management Interface to a dedicated page explaining the option and with links to relevant part of the documentation. A special help page is also displayed when an action is make public (e.g. published status). |
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| Why: | Because some of the options require more explaining for first time users than is appropriate to put in the eCampaigning Tool Management Interface itself. |
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| How: | Help entries are Wiki pages: openly editable web pages. A basic one will initially exist for each help option, however as people use it they can add more details as is necessary to improve the documentation. |
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| Technical: | Help links are generated for a field if the field name is included in the ONLINEHELP_AVAILABLEFOR list of config.py. The link url is based on the field name with the content type used as link within the help page. Since some field names are used in multiple places, linking within the wiki page allows placing people in the right context. Sine the wiki pages are written in reStructured Text, the titles within the page automatically generate anchor links based on the sub-title text. |
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| What: | The Action Registry is a repository of online actions that have been launched. It is not exclusive to the eCampaigning Tool but was developed in conjunction with it. |
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| Why: | The biggest challenge faced once an action is launched is promotion: reaching and attracting people to support the action. The Action Registry is a first step in doing that since it will evolve into a hub for finding out about new campaign actions. As a secondary role, it can also be a site for practitioners to find out what other actions have been launched and learn from the best (and the worst). |
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| How: | In the eCampaigning tool, when you make an Action Edition public (e.g. publish status), the information page you see also contains an automatic link to the Action Registry which record the address, title and description of the Action Edition that has been launched. |
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| Technical: | The 'launch' information page contains a 'ping' call to the Action Registry server with the title and description embedded into the ping URL. The Action Edition URL is picked up from the ping referrer. |
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| What: | The Update Check allows users to check if they are using the latest version of the eCampaigning Tool. |
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| Why: | New eCampaigning Tool versions will mean new and improved campaigning capabilities. So it is not just a technical issue but a campaigning issue and if the new features are of benefit to the campaign and will be used, it is worthwhile upgrading. |
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| How: | The 'Check For Updates' tab is only on [Campaign Action]?s. By selecting the tab and then pressing the 'Check for Updates' button, you will see a message informing you if you are using the latest version of the eCampaigning Tool. Unstable versions (those in alpha or beta) aren't checked for as they are not appropriate for a live environment yet. |
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| Technical: | The Update Check simply makes a quick call to the update check server, passing the details of the current version in the process. If the latest version on the update check server is greater than the current version, then it will report a new version is available via the portal_status_message feature of Plone, otherwise it will report that the current version is the latest available. |
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