User manual Version 2.1

Last updated: 24 April 2009

 

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Interfaces
  • 1.2. Conventions
  • 1.3. Page types
    • 1.3.1. Quick page
    • 1.3.2. Contact page
    • 1.3.3. Form maker page
    • 1.3.4. Gallery page
    • 1.3.5. Gallery page (LightBox)
    • 1.3.6. Gallery page (Scroll)
    • 1.3.7. Promotions page
    • 1.3.8. Event
    • 1.3.9. Event (Calendar)
    • 1.3.10. Article
    • 1.3.11. Blog
    • 1.3.12. Product catalogue
    • 1.3.13. Profile
    • 1.3.14. FAQ
    • 1.3.15. Podcast
    • 1.3.16. Careers
    • 1.3.17. Extranet
    • 1.3.18. RSS Feed Aggregator
    • 1.3.19. Page redirect
    • 1.3.20. Page types comparison
• 2. Standard Interface
  • 2.1. General
    • 2.1.1. Logging in
    • 2.1.2. Logging out
    • 2.1.3. Dashboard
    • 2.1.4. Main menu
  • 2.2. Manage My Site
    • 2.2.1. Design
      • 2.2.1.1. Select design
      • 2.2.1.2. Manage styles
      • 2.2.1.3. Flash animation
      • 2.2.1.4. Custom stylesheet
      • 2.2.1.5. Custom style images
    • 2.2.2. Content
      • 2.2.2.1. Polls
      • 2.2.2.2. Control panel
      • 2.2.2.3. Media library
    • 2.2.3. Site tree
      • 2.2.3.1. Structure
      • 2.2.3.2. Content
      • 2.2.3.3. Workspace
      • 2.2.3.4. Options
      • 2.2.3.5. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
      • 2.2.3.6. Analytics
      • 2.2.3.7. Design
      • 2.2.3.8. Form
      • 2.2.3.9. Data
      • 2.2.3.10. Watermarking
      • 2.2.3.11. Extranet
      • 2.2.3.12. RSS Feeds
  • 2.3. Newsletters
    • 2.3.1. Manage copy & send
    • 2.3.2. Manage newsletter list
  • 2.4. Email campaigns
    • 2.4.1. Search recipients
    • 2.4.2. Email events
    • 2.4.3. Recipients
    • 2.4.4. Lists
    • 2.4.5. Email templates
    • 2.4.6. Export details
  • 2.5. Ecommerce
    • 2.5.1. Online shop
      • 2.5.1.1. Orders
      • 2.5.1.2. Shipping options
      • 2.5.1.3. Payment methods
      • 2.5.1.4. Catalogues
      • 2.5.1.5. Manage inventory
    • 2.5.2. Payment configuration
      • 2.5.2.1. PayPal payments
      • 2.5.2.2. Eway credit card payments
  • 2.6. Systems settings
    • 2.6.1. Messages
      • 2.6.1.1. Message Centre
    • 2.6.2. Accounts
      • 2.6.2.1. Accounts
      • 2.6.2.2. Inactive accounts
    • 2.6.3. Statistics
      • 2.6.3.1. Website statistics
      • 2.6.3.2. Bandwidth usage
      • 2.6.3.3. Content activity report
      • 2.6.3.4. User activity report
    • 2.6.4. Settings
      • 2.6.4.1. Manage features
      • 2.6.4.2. Manage users
      • 2.6.4.3. Manage social bookmarks
      • 2.6.4.4. Email forwarding
      • 2.6.4.5. Domain records

Table of Figures

• Figure 1: Page types comparison chart
• Figure 2: Basic structure of the standard interface
• Figure 3: Standard interface login screen
• Figure 4: Logout link
• Figure 5: Example dashboard shortcuts
• Figure 6: Main menu
• Figure 7: Changing website design
• Figure 8: Design preview mode indicator
• Figure 9: Manage styles
• Figure 10: Flash animation options
• Figure 11: Custom stylesheet upload
• Figure 12: Upload new stylesheet image
• Figure 13: Upload stylesheet image replacement
• Figure 14: Adding a new poll
• Figure 15: Managing existing polls
• Figure 16: Adding a new poll option
• Figure 17: Managing existing poll options
• Figure 18: Changing password
• Figure 19: Manage contact email address
• Figure 20: Manage site name
• Figure 21: Manage website copyright notice
• Figure 22: Manage contact us page options
• Figure 23: Adding a new folder to media library
• Figure 24: Adding a new resource to media library
• Figure 25: Media library resources listing
• Figure 26: Media library resource navigation options
• Figure 27: Media library resource fields and usage
• Figure 28: Media library resource editing
• Figure 29: Site tree fragment
• Figure 30: Editing options for page types comparison chart
• Figure 31: Example page editing options
• Figure 32: Manage page details
• Figure 33: Page settings and usage details
• Figure 34: Change page parent
• Figure 35: Swap pages
• Figure 36: Add new sub-page
• Figure 37: Manage sub-pages
• Figure 38: Published content listing
• Figure 39: Add new content to addable page
• Figure 40: Page content listing
• Figure 41: Content item management options (published)
• Figure 42: View screen available management options by content status
• Figure 43: Content editing publication controls for addable page content
• Figure 44: Content components fields and usage
• Figure 45: Switch field illustration
• Figure 46: Selection field illustration
• Figure 47: Plain text field illustration
• Figure 48: Rich text editor field illustration
• Figure 49: Rich text editor options and usage
• Figure 50: Date time field components
• Figure 51: Date field illustration
• Figure 52: Date field calendar control illustration
• Figure 53: Content item management options (in edit)
• Figure 54: Managing addable page categorisation options
• Figure 55: Managing page SEO tags
• Figure 56: Managing page analytics tags
• Figure 57: Managing page conversion tracking tags
• Figure 58: Managing page hero image
• Figure 59: Manage form data
• Figure 60: Manage form maker page field details
• Figure 61: Form maker page field types
• Figure 62: Manage form maker page fields
• Figure 63: Edit form maker page field with options
• Figure 64: Manage contact us page data
• Figure 65: Manage page watermarking details
• Figure 66: Manage extranet users' data
• Figure 67: Add or Edit extranet page user details
• Figure 68: Manage extranet page users
• Figure 69: Add new RSS aggregator page source details
• Figure 70: Manage RSS aggregator page sources
• Figure 71: Newsletter email allowance and usage details
• Figure 72: Manage newsletter copy
• Figure 73: Manage newsletter recipients list
• Figure 74: Email campaign manager allowance and usage details
• Figure 75: Email campaign manager search recipients
• Figure 76: Email campaign manager recipient search results
• Figure 77: Email campaign add email event
• Figure 78: Manage existing email campaign events
• Figure 79: Edit email campaign event fields' usage
• Figure 80: Add email campaign manager recipient
• Figure 81: Manage existing email campaign manager recipients
• Figure 82: Edit email campaign manager recipient details
• Figure 83: Manage email campaign manager recipient's list membership
• Figure 84: Add email campaign list
• Figure 85: Manage existing email campaign lists
• Figure 86: Edit campaign email list details
• Figure 87: Manage email campaign list recipients
• Figure 88: Adding an email campaign template
• Figure 89: Manage email campaign templates
• Figure 90: Email campaign template fields and usage
• Figure 91: eCommerce order search
• Figure 92: eCommerce order status
• Figure 93: Managing eCommerce orders
• Figure 94: Managing order status
• Figure 95: eCommerce shipping options usage
• Figure 96: Manage payment method details
• Figure 97: Manage existing payment methods
• Figure 98: Manage participating ecommerce catalogues
• Figure 99: Manage ecommerce inventory controls
• Figure 100: Inventory controls listing
• Figure 101: PayPal payments configuration options
• Figure 102: eWay credit card configuration options
• Figure 103: Message Centre inbox
• Figure 104: Message details
• Figure 105: Search accounts
• Figure 106: Accounts listing
• Figure 107: Inactive accounts listing
• Figure 108: Website usage statistics
• Figure 109: Bandwidth usage statistics
• Figure 110: Content activity search
• Figure 111: Content activity report
• Figure 112: User activity search
• Figure 113: User activity report fields
• Figure 114: Manage website features
• Figure 115: Add system user
• Figure 116: User roles usage
• Figure 117: System users listing
• Figure 118: Social bookmarks settings
• Figure 119: Email forwarding domain selection
• Figure 120: Add an email forwarding alias
• Figure 121: Email forwarding aliases listing
• Figure 122: Domain records selection
• Figure 123: Manage domain records
• Figure 124: Committing domain records changes
• Figure 125: Adding a domain record
• Figure 126: Domain records listing

1. Introduction

BeaconBee is an advanced web-based platform for the creation and ongoing management of online business activities including content management, email marketing, e-commerce and many other everyday business functions.

As an advanced software system, while many of its features and capabilities can be intuitively understood and used, a more methodical approach to learning its operation will help unlock its potential and allow it to be deployed effectively for your business objectives.

Aside from this manual other useful resources include Frequently Asked Questions as well as the recipes, hints and tips in the How To section of the Help Centre. In the rate event where your query is not readily addressed by one of these resources, please feel free to contact BeaconBee support for further assistance.

The manual includes a number of references to options, limits, system defaults, behaviours and processes which may be changed by BeaconBee at any time without notice. Any such changes will be reflected in the documentation as soon as practicable and you are advised to refer to these updates frequently for an up to date idea of the current options, limits, system defaults, behaviours and processes at any time.

1.1. Interfaces

BeaconBee supports the operation of a number of interfaces. While the general concepts behind the BeaconBee software and its operation are the same, each interface may take a different approach to implementing these concepts and features.

The name of the interface you are currently using should be displayed near the bottom of the logon screen. You may or may not be able to choose your own interface depending on your choice of package, your level of access or the scope of usage set by your particular provider.

The interfaces currently supported are:

• 1. Standard
• 2. Modern

Please refer to the appropriate version of the manual for your interface.

1.2. Conventions

To help make using this manual easier, different typefaces are used for different types of information. This allows you to quickly identify the actions described for example.

Item	Description	Example
Button clicks	Bold mono-spaced font surrounded by square brackets	[Edit]
Link clicks	Italic and underlined mono-spaced font	link
Drop down selection	Mono-spaced font surrounded by curly brackets	{Select}
Checkboxes	Mono-spaced font preceded by two square brackets	[]Option
Literal input	Mono-spaced font	Text

1.3. Page types

All content in the BeaconBee system is contained within pages of different types. These are often called modules in other software. New page types are constantly being added to serve a specific purpose. The first design decision when creating a new website using BeaconBee is to determine the most suitable page type for each of the pages of the new website.

There are two main types of pages, those with pre-defined fixed content items and addable pages which support the addition of new content items by the user.

All addable pages are presented as a categorised (see section 2.2.3.4) listing of available content sorted in reverse chronological order with the latest items appearing at the top and feature content managed introductory rich text block, built in automatic pagination and depending on your package a built in automatic RSS feed for content syndication.

When the user selects an item from the list a detail page for the item selected is displayed including additional information, images, files and others as applicable for each page type.

Use the guide below as a broad indicator of suitability, in some cases the best way to determine the best page type is through experimentation. More detailed coverage of the various options associated with each page is covered in section 2.2.3.

1.3.1. Quick page

These are the most common type of pages on the web. Each page has a single content managed rich text body. The ability to combine formatted text with images, files, audio, video and flash media stored in the media library makes this the most versatile page type when a structured display of recurrent information like news or articles for example is not required.

1.3.2. Contact page

This page features a fixed contact form with automatic validation. When the form is successfully submitted by the user they are taken to a content managed confirmation page and the information entered is sent via email directly to you. Depending on your package the data is also logged into a database for later use which you can export directly into a Microsoft Excel format for use elsewhere (see section 2.2.3.9). The page provides flexibility in setting the options of a single drop down field to assist in determining the type of query it represents.

This page caters for a specific use case, for a more flexible solution to form making check the Form maker page in section 1.3.3.

1.3.3. Form maker page

This page allows you to construct multi-section forms with different question types (see section 2.2.3.8). The data submitted by your users is validated automatically including any fields you identify as mandatory, the user is taken to a content managed confirmation page and the resulting data is sent via email directly to you. Depending on your package the data is also logged into a database for later use which you can export directly into a Microsoft Excel format for use elsewhere

1.3.4. Gallery page

This addable page gives you the ability to upload images to your website. These images can be categorized and even have a textual description attached to each image. The images are listed using an automatically generated thumbnail and when clicked each image open us the full sized image you uploaded on a separate page. Depending on your chosen package you can also have the ability to watermark your images with a unique marker such as your website address to protect your images and turn them into an effective marketing tool. See section 2.2.3.10 for more details.

1.3.5. Gallery page (LightBox)

The main difference between this addable Lightbox gallery page and the standard gallery page is how the full sized image is displayed. In this case when an image thumbnail is clicked the image opens up in a modern semi-transparent layer on top of your website.

1.3.6. Gallery page (Scroll)

With the addable scroll gallery page, the image thumbnails are presented in a scrollable strip which when clicked opens up the image in the same page. Because this gallery does not open new pages or layers, it provides a fast way to display the full sized image.

1.3.7. Promotions page

This versatile addable page incorporates an image intended for the button or banner of the image as well as rich text describing the promotion, conditions or other relevant information. When combined with the random serving feature (more in section 2.2.3.1) you can run several concurrent promotional campaigns and feature them across the entire website.

1.3.8. Event

Events intelligently display the correct information when you provide both from and to dates or just one of them.

1.3.9. Event (Calendar)

In addition to the features of the standard events page, the event calendar page also provides a visual monthly calendar to select only events on any given day. This allows users to see immediately which days have events scheduled.

1.3.10. Article

This is a general purpose page type providing a flexible combination of rich text, publication date, image and downloadable files and is suitable for news pages, press release pages, document pages and other general information pages. Similar to other page types, fields such as publication date, image and files are optional and are not displayed if they were not uploaded by you.

1.3.11. Blog

Use this page type to create a blog on your website including the ability to include release dates and authorship. When combined with the RSS feed capability when included with your package this page type provides an effective means of effectively communicating your blog updates with your users.

1.3.12. Product catalogue

The product catalogue is designed to support physical products and allows you to optionally provide a shipping price, a recommended retail price, downloadable file for specifications for example as well as a number of images for each product. When coupled with the eCommerce options available from BeaconBee this provides all you need to build and operate an online store, check section 2.5 for more information. Depending on your chosen package you can also have the ability to watermark your images with a unique marker such as your website address to protect your images and turn them into an effective marketing tool. See section 2.2.3.10 for more details.

1.3.13. Profile

Using this page you can publish profiles of individuals or organizations relevant to your business such as your board members, your sales team, or your commercial partners for example. For each profile in addition to the rich text content available in all addable page types you can also specify a photo.

1.3.14. FAQ

This page type allows you to answer the most commonly asked questions directly on your website. In addition to the familiar question and answer format this page type also provides a link index at the top of the page to make it easier for users to quickly identify which question best reflect their query.

1.3.15. Podcast

Using this page type you can automatically publish your audio podcasts to the web. It features a built-in audio player and the ability to subscribe to the podcast feed directly into your favourite audio player.

1.3.16. Careers

This page type allows you to publicise any available career opportunities within your business directly on your website providing information such as job requirements, availability and even make available a downloadable file.

1.3.17. Extranet

Extranets provide a secure area of your website where you can control who has access to specific information. All pages within an extranet are protected using a username and password you specify. You can manage the users within an extranet directly by using the built-in import and export facilities. See section 2.2.3.11 for more details.

1.3.18. RSS Feed Aggregator

The RSS feed aggregator allows you to publish content from other RSS feeds providers directly on your website. You can have more than one RSS source as well as specifying how many items to display from each source and the system will automatically take care of keeping your page updated with the latest from each source. See section 2.2.3.12 for more information.

1.3.19. Page redirect

This page type is ideal when you need to have a page to redirect to another for example if a section of the website has no landing page of its own and you want to direct users directly to the first page in that section. Or if you want to direct users to an external site which provides a specific service or if you want to keep track of many people use a landing page from an advertising campaign without duplicating content in more than one location.

1.3.20. Page types comparison

Different page types support different content components. Additionally, there is a range of ways to control the publication of the content across your website. The comparison below is meant to assist in identifying the best page type to suit your specific needs.

The main control settings are:

1. Scheduled publication (active from and active to dates and times)
2. Set as homepage highlighted item
3. Set as featured content item
4. Filtered by category
5. Enable random serving of content
6. Enable RSS feeds

The main content components are:

7. Rich introductory text
8. Rich confirmation text
9. Rich body text
10. Plain summary text
11. Images
12. Files
13. Publication date(s)
14. Location
15. Author
16. Product code
17. Price
18. Recommended Retail Price
19. Shipping cost
20. Position
21. Link

Using the above numbers as keys, the chart below illustrates what settings and components are available in each page type. Where a number is used it indicates how many of the specified components exist within the page type.

Page type	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Quick page
Contact page
Form maker page
Gallery page											1
Gallery page (Light box)											1
Gallery page (Scroll)											1
Promotions											1
Events
Events Calendar
Article											1	1
Blog
Product catalogue											7	1
Profile											1
FAQ
Podcast											1	1
Careers												1
Extranet
RSS feed aggregator
Page redirects

Figure 1 : Page types comparison chart

For more information on how to edit and control these settings refer to section 2.2.2. There are new page types being added all the time, so refer back to this for the latest additions. Also, if you have suggestions for new page types to add to the list, let us know and it may be included in future releases of BeaconBee.

2. Standard Interface

This interface uses frames and is suitable for most browsers and most connection types. Depending on your provider and package not all features below will be available in your instance of the standard interface.

2.1. General

The standard interface has three main areas:

Main menu
Module Navigation	Main management area

Figure 2: Basic structure of the standard interface

• A main menu at the top of the screen
• Module specific navigation to the left of the screen
• The main management area to the right of the module specific navigation

2.1.1. Logging in

Before you can access the BeaconBee CMS you need to log in using the username and password you received by email when your website build was complete. This is different from the customer account username and password you received when your account was setup by your provider.

Figure 3: Standard interface login screen

2.1.2. Logging out

When you are logged in the interface changes to show the three part interface illustrated in Figure 2. Above the main menu you will see a welcome message displaying your username (but blanked out in Figure 4) as well as a sign out link. If you leave your computer un-attended for an extended period of time the interface will automatically log you out.

Figure 4: Logout link

2.1.3. Dashboard

When you first log in to the standard interface a number of shortcuts are displayed in the main management area. The available shorts cuts will vary depending on your specific provider and package but will generally look like the examples provided in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Example dashboard shortcuts

2.1.4. Main menu

The main menu provides links to the main modules of the site. At the very least it will show [HOME], [MANAGE MY SITE] and [HELP]. Other options will appear depending on your provider and package.

Figure 6: Main menu

2.2. Manage My Site

Most of your everyday activities managing your site's structure and content will be performed using this module. The module navigation is divided into multiple sections, not all of which will appear in your interface depending on your provider and package.

The control panel (see section 2.2.2.2) is displayed by default when you select Manage My Site. This provides a quick means of accessing some standard settings for your website.

2.2.1. Design

This section enables you to manage your site's design features. Some of these options would be best utilised by a professional designer, while others should be accessible for a non-designer to modify aspects of their site's design. Which features you find useful will be best identified by experimentation.

If your BeaconBee site is provided by a professional designer or agency it is likely you do not have access to these features as incorrect usage may result in the irretrievable loss of the design service provided by your provider.

Where your site is provided directly you will have access to the constantly growing BeaconBee design library which provide professional designs to get you started. You will then be able to modify your chosen design using these features below to create your own unique look and feel.

If your design changes take an unexpected turn and you decide you do not want to keep the outcome you can effectively cancel these changes by selecting one of the provided designs and clicking [Save]. This will cancel all of your changes and bring the site design back to the initial state it was in before you commenced your changes. Keep in mind that doing this permanently overwrites all your changes.

2.2.1.1. Select design

The range of available designs is displayed in the drop down box. To change your website's design select the desired option from the {Design} drop down and click on [Save].

Figure 7: Changing website design

You can preview how your site will look with the desired design in the design preview window below the selection in Figure 7. You can navigate to different pages within your site in the design preview window. While you are using this feature a yellow bar appears at the top of the screen to indicate that you in design preview mode as in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Design preview mode indicator

You will see this indicator both in the design preview window as well as in a regular browser window while you are in design preview. Other users continue to see your site with its existing design normally. To exit design preview mode and return to viewing the existing design of your website click on the provided link.

2.2.1.2. Manage styles

Using this feature you can change some broad characteristics of your design such as page background as well as link, headers and text appearance.

Figure 9: Manage styles

The options provided in each case are safe to use on the web but how suitable they are to your particular content and design is a matter of taste as well as professional training. If the outcome is not commensurate with your expectations you can always reset your design to one of the available designs as outlined in

Section 2.2.1

.

2.2.1.3. Flash animation

BeaconBee supports the integration of Flash elements within your website's design. By default Flash animations are turned off as in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Flash animation options

BeaconBee also provides a built in simple but effective Flash animation which uses images you upload along with text captions. You can also upload your own flash file created externally for use on your website.

Flash animations when enabled are only available structurally on the website homepage where they replace the main hero image when available in your design. You can also add Flash animations directly from the Media Library into any rich text content across the entire site giving you complete flexibility in how to use these animations.

2.2.1.4. Custom stylesheet

Advanced users and professional designers can also directly manipulate the master stylesheet used across the website. Click on the Download Stylesheet link to retrieve a copy of the current stylesheet. This may correspond to one of the designs available from BeaconBee or if you have modified it previously, the latest version available on the system.

Figure 11: Custom stylesheet upload

You can edit this stylesheet directly externally and when ready you can upload your new stylesheet back into the system as shown in Figure 11. Keep in mind that the new stylesheet takes effect immediately on your website. We recommend you keep adequate backups in case your uploaded stylesheet produces unexpected or undesirable results.

To made additional resources available to your stylesheet see Section 2.2.1.5.

2.2.1.5. Custom style images

You can directly manage the images defined in your stylesheet by uploading them directly to the system as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Upload new stylesheet image

You can also provide replacements for existing stylesheet images by uploading your own as shown in Figure 13, in this case an image of a left pointing triangle.

Figure 13: Upload stylesheet image replacement

The files you upload must be images and are validated by the system to be an image and one of JPG, GIF or PNG. Only files containing images of these types are accepted, any other files will be rejected by the system irrespective of the file extension.

2.2.2. Content

The content section is your first destination to manage the structure and content of your website.

2.2.2.1. Polls

Only one poll can be active on the website at any one time. When you create a new poll the old one is automatically archived. You cannot delete the currently active poll, to disable polls altogether you can turn off the polls feature, see Section 2.6.4.1 for more details.

The polls feature is not intended as a survey tool or to provide accurate or reliable voting type feedback. While BeaconBee attempts to ensure duplicate votes are not recorded, the methods used do not rise to the level of security or scientific reliability necessary for serious voting in most cases. Think of the polls feature as entertaining engagement of users, rather than a methodical way of determining outcomes.

Another way to solicit more expansive user feedback is to use a form maker page (see Section 1.3.3) and your own processes to analyse and interpret the outcome.

Figure 14: Adding a new poll

To add a new poll, enter the poll's name and the poll's question and click on [Save]. Polls work best when you keep the question simple with only a few options.

Figure 15: Managing existing polls

You can edit an existing active poll at any time by clicking on [Edit]. You can also delete past polls by clicking on [Delete]. The total number of counted votes is displayed next to the poll name.

Figure 16: Adding a new poll option

When editing a poll you can change the poll's name and question as well as the poll's options. Each option will be presented as a radio button on the website. The fewer the number of options the more likely users will participate.

Figure 17: Managing existing poll options

2.2.2.2. Control panel

Using the control panel you can set a number of site wide options.

Figure 18: Changing password

To change your password enter your password and confirm it then click on [Save] as illustrated in Figure 18. To change the password successfully the password and the confirmation must match.

Figure 19: Manage contact email address

All emails originating in the website are sent to an email address you set using the form in Figure 19. This includes emails received when users fill in a contact us or form maker forms as well as alerts when new user accounts are created or new orders received when the ecommerce features are available and enabled.

Figure 20: Manage site name

The site name is used to identify the site in the customer extranet as well as being displayed in the title of the browser when viewing your website. This could be your company or trading name or the description of your service or product for example. Because of the importance search engines attach to the text in the browser title, it pays to choose this name carefully and change it when needed to ensure it reflects your business and SEO objectives.

Figure 21: Manage website copyright notice

This text string gets displayed in the footer of your website and is intended to be used for the copyright statement. The copyright symbol © is created by entering © where you want the symbol to appear. This will ensure it is displayed correctly across most browsers and operating systems.

Figure 22: Manage contact us page options

The contact us page type in Section 1.3.2 allows the user to customise a drop down selection box with the values you enter in the dialogue illustrated in Figure 22. Enter one value per line as you would like it to be displayed on the front end of your website. If would like the drop down selection to be omitted simply delete all options.

2.2.2.3. Media library

The media library is the central repository of digital resources including images, video, audio, Flash and downloadable files. These can be organised and stored in the media library and then used in your content across the site using the built-in rich text editor.

Figure 23: Adding a new folder to media library

To help organise your resources you can create folders both at the root of the media library and within other folders.

Figure 24: Adding a new resource to media library

You can add resources to the library by selecting the type of the resource file and providing a title. It is important to select the correct type of resource which corresponds to your file to ensure the automatically generated display template does not product errors when you try to use the file in your content. If in doubt or your resource type is not currently supported select the File which supports any file making it available for download without attempting to parse it and display it correctly.

Figure 25: Media library resources listing

The content of any folder in the media library is presented as a list. Long lists are broken down to pages to make it easier to navigate to your desired resource.

For each resource you are able to move the file to another existing folder within the media library by selecting the destination folder from the {Media Library} drop down selection and clicking [Move].

You can also view the resource by clicking on [View]. The information you see will depend on the resource type selected. For example images are displayed along with any additional information associated with it while files are presented as a downloadable link.

To upload a replacement file for a resource or alter any of the information associated with it, click on [Edit]. To permanently delete the resource click on [Delete] keeping in mind that this operation can not be undone and any instances where you used this resource in content will need to be edited to avoid the content appearing to be broken. For example, if you upload an image to the media library, use it in a rich text page and then delete the image the rich text page will display a broken image where the deleted image was placed. Similarly users trying to download a file from a link you created to a file you subsequently deleted will receive an error message.

Figure 26: Media library resource navigation options

When editing, each resource has specific fields available for editing aside from the resource name, these are listed in Figure 27. In each case if you would like to keep your changes click on [Save], or to discard any changes made since the last save, click on [Back to View].

Resource	Available fields	Usage
Image	Label	This is included in the alt field
	Preview width	Set the maximum width of the created thumbnail
	Preview height	Set the maximum height of the created thumbnail
	Upload file	Upload the image file (JPG, GIF and PNG only)
Video	Label	This is used wherever a caption is required
	Width	Set the embedded player width
	Height	Set the embedded player height
	Upload file	Upload the video file (most video formats)
Audio	Label	This is user wherever a caption is required
	Upload file	Upload the audio file (MP3 only)
Flash	Label	This is user wherever a caption is required
	Width	Set the Flash player width
	Height	Set the Flash player height
	Mode	Set the Flash player mode
	Flashvars	Provide additional parameters to the Flash player
	Upload file	Upload the flash file (SWF only)
Files	Label	This is the default link text and title field text
	Upload file	Upload the file (any format)

Figure 27: Media library resource fields and usage

All the above fields are optional. Where a field was not provided, no default is provided. For example if neither of the preview width or preview height is provided then no thumbnail image will be created.

Figure 28: Media library resource editing

The only common field for all resources is the content name. Figure 28 also shows an example of contextual help, where available click on the question mark icon to see more information about the item.

2.2.3. Site tree

The site tree displays the site's structure as a series of nested items. You can expand and collapse any branch of the tree as you would with other similar interfaces. The tree reflects the two main types of pages: addable pages represented as a stack of items and non-addable pages represented as a single sheet document.

The tree displays the page name for clarity which also serves as the page's URL stub. For example the URL of staff page in Figure 29 would be http://your.domain.com/about/staff. Each page is managed by click on that page in the tree.

Figure 29: Site tree fragment

The range of options available for every page varies with page type, your provider and choice of package.

The available options are:

1. Structure
2. Content
3. Workspace
4. Options
5. SEO
6. Analytics
7. Design
8. Form
9. Data
10. Watermarking
11. Extranet
12. RSS Feeds

The [Workspace] option is only available when the current user has a copy of one or more content items from this page in their workspace being edited.

Page type

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Quick page

Contact page

Form maker page

Gallery page

Gallery page (Light box)

Gallery page (Scroll)

Promotions

Events

Events Calendar

Article

Blog

Product catalogue

Profile

FAQ

Podcast

Careers

Extranet

RSS feed aggregator

Page redirects

Figure 30: Editing options for page types comparison chart

In the main management area all available options are displayed as illustrated in Figure 31.

Figure 31: Example page editing options

Above the page editing options a breadcrumb providers you with a direct link to all the page's parents back to the website homepage. The breadcrumb is displayed using the page's title (not its name as in the site tree).

The example in Figure 31 illustrates the editing options for a product catalogue page type, more details about the specific operation of each option is included in the remainder of this section.

2.2.3.1. Structure

The structure option is concerned mainly with maintaining the site tree through four specific operations.

Figure 32: Manage page details

You can modify the details and the behaviour of the page. Not all fields shown in Figure 32 will appear in your interface depending on your provider; package and the features you enabled for your website (see Section 2.6.4.1).

Setting	Usage
Page type	The page type of an existing page cannot be changed as the content of one page type may not be compatible with another.
Page name (URL)	This is the URL stub of the page and may only contain letters, characters and underscore. Some names are disallowed if they conflict with reserved system words.
Page title	The page title is displayed in title bar of the browser and the heading of the page.
Page active	Select this option to make the page available for users to browse. If the page is not active users will not be able to see it nor will it be included in the main menu or navigation.
In main navigation	Select this option to include the page in the main menu for the site. Generally, for ease of use, you should only include a maximum of 5 or 6 pages in your main menu.
In footer navigation	Select this option to include the page in the secondary navigation which is displayed in the footer of most designs.
In side navigation	Select this option to include the page in the sub-navigation. Keep in mind your page needs to be in one of the three navigation options for users to be able to find it.
Disallow robots	Select this option to instruct search engine and other robots to skip this page when trawling and indexing your website.
Show featured content randomly	Select this option to display content marked as featured randomly across the whole site in addition to being featured on the landing view of that page.
Number of random items to show	When content is selected for featuring randomly this controls the number of items to show.
Enable feedback	Select this option to allow visitors to this page's content to leave feedback and comments.
Moderate feedback	Select this option to review user feedback before publishing it. If this option is not selected, user feedback will be visible on the website as soon as they submit it.
Limit feedback to	Use this setting to control how many items of feedback is allowed for the page. Once the limit is reached users will not be able to leave feedback.
Enable RSS feed	Select this option to make an automatic RSS feed of this page's content available. Generally you want to enable this feature to allow wide dissemination of your content.

Figure 33: Page settings and usage details

Figure 34: Change page parent

Changing the page's parent effectively moves the current page and all its sub-pages to be a sub-page under the new parent selected. To avoid cyclic problems you can not select one of the page's sub-pages or those of its sub-pages and so on as its new parent.

When you save your choice the page and all its sub-pages are relocated and the site tree refreshed to reflect the change.

Figure 35: Swap pages

Swapping a page with another moves just the current page to the location of the one chosen for the swap and bring that page to the location currently occupied by the current page. For example if you were to swap the page named 2009 with the page named olive in Figure 29, their place would be switched with 2009 now a sub-page of about and olive a sub-page of oil.

Figure 36: Add new sub-page

To add a new sub-page to the current page select the type of the desired page and then enter the new page's information in the same manner as in Figure 33. When saved the site tree is refreshed and the page new page is added to the site. If the page was marked as active it will be immediately available on the website as well as any navigation options selected.

Figure 37: Manage sub-pages

You can delete unwanted pages by going to the page's parent and selecting [Delete page]. The page, its sub-pages and all its content is immediately deleted from the website and the site tree is updated to reflect that change.

You can also alter the order the sub-pages appear in within that page which alters the appearance of the side navigation reflecting the same order. The changes take immediate effect and are reflected in the site tree.

2.2.3.2. Content

The content section lists all published content. All pages will have at least one default content item which can not be deleted, some pages have more than one.

Figure 38: Published content listing

Click on [View] to display the content item components. This is a quick effective way to quickly check any aspect of the content item without necessarily going into edit mode and checkout a copy of the content into your workspace.

Figure 39: Add new content to addable page

Pages allowing new content to be added will display the content addition dialogue illustrated in Figure 39. Most pages only support a single type of content to be added which will be displayed. Where the page supports multiple content types a drop down field will be made available to select the desired type of content to be added.

Figure 40: Page content listing

Where the user feedback feature is available, enabled and specified for the current page, some statistics of the comments received for the page and those awaiting approval (if any) are displayed.

Figure 41: Content item management options (published)

When you click on [View] you are taken to that content item's display. While the displayed information is the same as that displayed when the content item is in edit in your workspace (see Section 2.2.3.3), but the management options are different.

The available management options available from the view screen are displayed in Figure 42. As illustrated some options are mutually exclusive and depending on the status of the content item being viewed will not be available until the changes applied to the item are either discarded or published.

	Content status
Available options	Published	Edited	New	Deleted
Back to list
View published
View workspace
Edit
Preview
Delete
Publish
Discard
User feedback

Figure 42: View screen available management options by content status

To edit the content item and display all the available control and content options, click on [Edit].

Figure 43: Content editing publication controls for addable page content

The content name is used in the system to identify the content and depending on your particular design it may also be displayed on your website.

To control the publication schedule of a content item use the active from and active to fields. These fields appear only for content items in addable pages. A content item will be visible on the website only if its active from date is in the past and its active to date is in the future.

To schedule a content item to be published at a future date and time, enter or select the desired date and time in the active from field while ensuring the active to field reflects when you want the content item to be made inactive.

By default all new content items entered are set to be live and viewable if you publish the content item without changing the active from and active to dates.

Component	Available fields	Usage
Plain text	Text	Enter text and avoid using HTML
Rich text	Text	Enter formatted text
String	Text	Enter single line text and avoid using HTML
Link	Label	This is the default link text and title field text
	URL	Enter a URL to redirect to when link is clicked
	Target	Target for link URL
	External	Selecting this indicates a link external to the website
Selection	Select	Make a selection from the provided options
Date	Date	Select a date from the tool or enter a date
Switch	Status	Toggle the selection to set preference
Number	Numeric	Enter a number using digits only
Currency	Numeric	Enter a decimal number
Image	Image	Displays the image content
	Delete	Selecting this field deletes the image content
	Label	This is included in the alt field
	Preview width	Set the maximum width of the created thumbnail
	Preview height	Set the maximum height of the created thumbnail
	URL	Enter a URL to redirect to when image is clicked
	Target	Target for image URL
	Upload	Upload the image file (JPG, GIF and PNG only)
	Watermark text	Enter watermark text
	Watermark font	Select watermark font
	Watermark size	Select watermark size
	Watermark colour	Select watermark colour
	Watermark opacity	Select watermark opacity
	Watermark margin	Select watermark margin from image edges
	Watermark centre	Select alignment for watermark on image
Video	Video	Displays the embedded video player
	Delete	Selecting this field deletes the video content
	Label	This is used wherever a caption is required
	Width	Set the embedded player width
	Height	Set the embedded player height
	Upload file	Upload the video file (most video formats)
Audio	File	Displays the embedded audio player
	Delete	Selecting this field deletes the audio content
	Label	This is user wherever a caption is required
	Upload file	Upload the audio file (MP3 only)
Flash	File	Displays the embedded flash player
	Delete	Selecting this field deletes the flash content
	Label	This is user wherever a caption is required
	Width	Set the Flash player width
	Height	Set the Flash player height
	Mode	Set the Flash player mode
	Flashvars	Provide additional parameters to the Flash player
	Upload file	Upload the flash file (SWF only)
Files	File	Provides a link to the file content
	Delete	Selecting this field deletes the file content
	Label	This is the default link text and title field text
	Upload file	Upload the file (any format)

Figure 44: Content components fields and usage

Examples of selected components and their fields from Figure 44 are illustrated in several other figures in this section.

Figure 45: Switch field illustration

Figure 46: Selection field illustration

Figure 47: Plain text field illustration

Figure 48: Rich text editor field illustration

The rich text editor is a powerful tool, especially when combined with the resources in the media library. It allows for the maximum extent of flexibility in creating and maintaining almost any desired page layout within the website's main template.

Button	Usage
	Cut the selected content
	Copy the selected content
	Paste the content previously copied or cut
	Paste the content previously copied or cut processing it as text only
	Paste the content previously copied or cut processing it as Word copy
	Find in editor window
	Find and replace in editor window
	Undo last change
	Redo last undone change
	Indent selected content to the left
	Indent selected content to the right
	Add a bullet list or format the selected content as a bullet list
	Add a numbered list or format the selected content as a numbered list
	Add a date at the insertion point
	Select text colour for selected copy
	Select background colour for selected copy
	Bold selected text
	Make selected text italic
	Underline selected text
	Strike through selected text
	Insert a horizontal rule
	Make selected text subscript
	Make selected text superscript
	Left align selected content
	Centre align selected content
	Right align selected content
	Fully justify selected content
	Select text format
	Select text font
	Select text font size
	Create or edit a link
	Remove existing link
	Create an anchor
	Insert an image
	Insert an BeaconBee CMS media library resource
	Insert embedded media code (for example YouTube or Google Maps)
	Insert other user specified code fragment
	Copy and apply content formatting
	View and edit HTML source for displayed content
	Remove content formatting
	Spell check
	Create new document
	Click and drag to resize editor window
	Inserts a new table
	Edit table row properties
	Edit table cell properties
	Insert row before
	Insert row after
	Delete row
	Insert column before
	Insert column after
	Delete column
	Split merged table cells
	Merge table cells
	Insert a new layer
	Move layer forward
	Move layer backward
	Toggle absolute positioning

Figure 49: Rich text editor options and usage

All date fields accept input in two ways: as typed by the user in a specific format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:NN:SS where:

Element	Description
YYYY	The year as four digits, for example 2009
MM	The month as two digits for example 01 for January and 10 for October.
DD	The day as two digits for example 02 or 28
HH	The hour of the day as 2 digits in 24 hour format for example 14 for 2 PM.
NN	The minute of the hour as 2 digits from 00 to 59
SS	The second of the minute as 2 digits from 00 to 59

Figure 50: Date time field components

Figure 51: Date field illustration

The second and easier way to enter a date is to use the built-in date and time selector popup as illustrated in Figure 52.

Figure 52: Date field calendar control illustration

2.2.3.3. Workspace

Figure 53: Content item management options (in edit)

If the content item has been previously edited, deleted or added then it will live in your workspace and be listed under the Workspace section for the page until such time as it is published or the changes discarded.

For more information on available management options and their availability for various states of content please refer to Figure 42.

In every other way the workspace section behaves identically to the content section.

2.2.3.4. Options

Addable pages support automatic categorisation of their content and the filtering of the content based on the same categorisation. To set available categories, enter one category label one per line and click on [Save] when done.

Figure 54: Managing addable page categorisation options

By default a single category option 1 is created, when a page has two or more categories entered a filtering device in the form of drop down selection, radio buttons or links for example. If only a single category is specified, no filtering device is displayed on the website.

If you use a category for existing content and then edit or delete this category, any content associated with the category retains the old category until you edit it and set a new one. This means that content items with a category which no longer exists will not be displayed on the website when filtered except when the {All} option is selected.

2.2.3.5. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Your BeaconBee website comes with granular SEO management capability allowing you to specify SEO tags for each page individually if desired. A core feature is the automated inheritance of SEO tags of a page from a parent page when you have not specified page specific tags.

For example referring to Figure 29 if you do not enter any tags for the staff page, any tags entered for the about page will automatically be used, failing that it will use any you specified for the site's homepage. This automatic inheritance works at any level within the website and can be as granular as your use of it.

Figure 55: Managing page SEO tags

2.2.3.6. Analytics

To track website usage a number of website analytics options are available, such as Google Analytics for example. Similar to the SEO tags in Section Figure 55 the analytics tags are also inherited where they have not been entered for a particular page.

The content of the Header code field are inserted at the end of the header block just before the </head> tag while the contents of Body code field are inserted at the end of the body block just before the </body> tags. At this time these are the only insertion points allowed.

Figure 56: Managing page analytics tags

Conversion codes operate in the same manner as analytics codes to track conversions or outcomes such as the successful completion of a form by the user. These fields only appear for contact us and form maker pages and are associated with the confirmation page displayed on successful submission of each page.

Unlike the analytics codes above, conversion codes are not inherited meaning that if a page has no conversion codes specified then none will be inserted even if one of its parent pages has conversion codes specified.

Figure 57: Managing page conversion tracking tags

2.2.3.7. Design

The primary function of the design page management option is to specify a hero image for this page and all its sub-pages. Hero images are prominent images displayed on a page and are included in most designs. Using these hero images the look and feel of a section or a page can be differentiated from other pages and sections. Hero images are also inherited across pages, so that if a page does not have a hero image defined, it will inherit that of its parent page and so on until an image is located.

Figure 58: Managing page hero image

2.2.3.8. Form

This page management option is available only for form maker pages to allow direct management of the form fields and data.

The data collected by the form can be exported in Excel compatible format (CSV) for use externally by clicking on [Export data]. You can also reset the data collected by the form deleting all existing records by clicking on [Reset data]. A maximum of 1000 records are available to be stored for each page at any one time, so to avoid data loss you will need to export the data regularly.

Figure 59: Manage form data

To add a new field to a form, select the field type from the available options and provide a name and title for the new field. The field name may only contain characters, numbers and underscore. You can also specify if the new field will be treated as mandatory requiring that the user enter information or makes a selection.

Figure 60: Manage form maker page field details

The available range of field types is displayed in Figure 61. For fields such as {Date} and {Email} also include validation for the information entered by the user to be compatible with the type selected. The field types {Heading}, {Introductory text} and {Separator} all insert elements into the form that help structure the form but do not require user input.

Figure 61: Form maker page field types

The existing form fields can be deleted by clicking on [Delete field]. You can also edit the details of existing fields by clicking on [Edit field], excluding the field type.

Figure 62: Manage form maker page fields

You can change the field name and title and note that the same restrictions on what characters are permitted in the field name continue to exist when editing an existing field. You can also control whether the field is mandatory and where applicable edit the available options.

When you edit the form structure by adding or deleting fields after the form has been used by users will cause existing data captured by the form in the database to be out of sync with the new structure. This will result in unpredictable results when you export the data where old data records may appear to be out of place within the new structure.

To avoid this arising make sure you export and the reset your form data before you modify its structure.

Figure 63: Edit form maker page field with options

2.2.3.9. Data

This page management option is available only for contact us pages to allow the data collected by the page to be exported in Excel compatible format (CSV) for use externally by clicking on [Export data]. You can also reset the data collected by the page deleting all existing records by clicking on [Reset data]. A maximum of 1000 records are available to be stored for each page at any one time, so to avoid data loss you will need to export the data regularly.

Figure 64: Manage contact us page data

2.2.3.10. Watermarking

Watermarking allows you to add some distinctive text to the images, possibly to identify you as the owner of the image or as a way of promoting your website and its offering.

In addition to managing these watermark settings on an image by image basis, you also have the option of managing these settings for all images within a page. When the details are provided at the page level, these details are automatically copied to the image settings for each content item within that page but are also available to be edited at the image level. In essence, setting these details at the page level provides a template for all images within the page but can be overridden on a case by case basis as desired.

You can specify the desired text as well as choose one of the provided fonts. Generally, the size of the text needs to be appropriate for the image dimensions. The chosen colour, opacity and location also need to be selected carefully to ensure you do not place dark text on dark background making the text unreadable for example.

The watermark text is applied directly to the image and can not be removed once applied. If you want to change the watermark you need to re-upload the original image and create a new watermark. For this reason we recommend you always keep a backup copy of all your images outside the system in case you need to modify these watermark settings in the future.

Figure 65: Manage page watermarking details

2.2.3.11. Extranet

The extranet page management option is concerned primarily with managing the users allowed access to the extranet.

To enable bulk management of extranet users you have the option to export all existing users’ names and passwords in Excel compatible (CSV) format for use with external systems, for example reconciliation against a customer database or a membership system.

You also have the option to reset the extranet’s users which immediately deletes all users defined for the extranet page. This operation is irreversible so you are recommended to keep your own backup possibly by exporting the list of users prior to using the reset option.

To allow bulk creation of users, you can use the import facility provided. The imported file must be in CSV format and in the same structure as that of the exported file. The easiest way to achieve this and avoid unnecessary errors you might want to start by exporting the list of users, even if it is empty, then copy and paste the new users to be imported and save and import that same file back into the system.

Depending on your provider and package the number of users across all extranets on your website may be limited. If the number of users you are trying to import is larger than the available number of users slots the import operation will fail and none of the users in the imported file will be added to the system. Ensure you have sufficient credit for the number of users you want to import before commencing the operation.

Figure 66: Manage extranet users' data

To manage users one at a time, you can add a new user by providing their user name and password and clicking on [Add]. The user names may only include characters, numbers, underscore and the ‘at’ sign @. Also, the password and its confirmation must match and not be empty. Keep in mind that both the user names and password are case sensitive, so jim and Jim are two different usernames as far as the system is concerned.

Figure 67: Add or Edit extranet page user details

Should the need arise passwords of existing users' can be changed by clicking on [Edit] and entering the new password. Users are also able to change their passwords directly from the website once they have logged in provided that this feature was included in your website design. The extranet user management system does not provide password retrieval or reset mechanism as no email address is associated with a user account to communicate the change in passwords. You can change the user password directly as needed instead.

Figure 68: Manage extranet page users

2.2.3.12. RSS Feeds

For RSS aggregator pages, the RSS Feeds page management option allows you to create and maintain the set of RSS sources used to populate the page content.

You add a new RSS source by providing its name, web address and the maximum number of entries you want published from that source. The name provided may be used by your particular design as a section heading on the website identifying where the content comes from, so we recommend you use a descriptive name for your users’ benefit.

The URL entered must correspond to the address of the actual RSS feed. Simply using the link to an RSS feed icon such as may not work if the site used the icon to link to a regular web page rather than the feed itself. We recommend you navigate to the RSS feed until you can see it displayed as an RSS feed in your browser and then use that specific URL. Often but not always, the correct URL will end in the extension .xml.

The maximum number of entries that will be processed by the system is 1000 entries per source, use the Display limit field to use a smaller number or leave the value at 0 to use the system default maximum.

When a new RSS source is added, or the details of an existing RSS source are modified, these changes will be reflected when the system performs its next update. This currently takes place every 60 minutes but may change from time to time. Even though your changes will not be immediately visible once you the change the settings, they will automatically become effective at the next update.

Figure 69: Add new RSS aggregator page source details

You can remove an existing RSS source click on [Delete RSS] or to modify the name, URL or the maximum number of articles to be displayed from a specific source click on [Edit RSS source]. You can also alter the display order of these different sources on the website by clicking on the top, up, down, or bottom buttons.

Figure 70: Manage RSS aggregator page sources

2.3. Newsletters

Depending on your provider and package you may have access to the Newsletter module to send email newsletters to your users. When you first select the Newsletter module you are provided with details of the email credits allowance included in your package, if any, as well as your usage so far in your current billing period as well as the total number of email addresses in your database.

If the number of available credits is less than the number of email addresses in your list you have the option to purchase additional email credits by using your customer extranet account or contacting your provider if a customer extranet is not included in your website.

Every time you send a newsletter the number of credits available is reduced by the same number of addresses in your list, this includes any email addresses which ultimately may not receive the email due to network or other issues external to your BeaconBee website.

Figure 71: Newsletter email allowance and usage details

2.3.1. Manage copy & send

Managing email communication using the Newsletter module is simple and straight forward. To create a new email newsletter enter the text you would like to appear in the subject of the email, the plain text and HTML versions of the email.

Both versions of text, when provided, are encoded by the system so that users with email clients set to display text only or allow HTML will both see the respective text you provide.

Please remember that you must save your changes before clicking [Submit] to send your newsletter. The test facility provided will send a copy of the email as it would appear to users to the contact email address configured for your website (see Section 2.2.2.2). If you are happy with the outcome you can then submit your newsletter for transmission.

All email handling happens on servers dedicated to that function and different from your website server to ensure that your website is not adversely affected by the processing load email handling typically produces.

Also keep in mind email is not an instantaneous service and messages may take a variable period of time to be delivered depending on the condition of the network, the remote email server or even the recipient’s security and privacy settings.

Figure 72: Manage newsletter copy

2.3.2. Manage newsletter list

When a newsletter subscription facility is included in your design users are able to opt in and out of receiving your email communication directly from your website. When users subscribe they are added to the newsletter list, if they choose to unsubscribe they are removed from the list. You can also manually add users to the list by adding their email address, one per line, to the list and clicking on [Save].

Figure 73: Manage newsletter recipients list

2.4. Email campaigns

Depending on your provider and package you may have access to the Email campaigns module to create sophisticated multi-event email campaigns from your library of templates as well as give the ability to segment and manage your recipients in multiple lists. When you first select the email campaigns module you are provided with details of the email credits allowance included in your package, if any, as well as your usage so far in your current billing period.

The number of recipients varies from email to email depending on how many recipients exist in the lists you specify for the email send and should that number exceed available credits you will be informed by the system. If the number of available credits is less than the number of email addresses in your list you have the option to purchase additional email credits by using your customer extranet account or contacting your provider if a customer extranet is not included in your website.

Every time you send an email event the number of credits available is reduced by the same number of email addresses included in the lists selected for the send, this includes any email addresses which ultimately may not receive the email due to network or other issues external to your BeaconBee website.

Figure 74: Email campaign manager allowance and usage details

2.4.1. Search recipients

When you need to review or modify the details of a single recipient, or to view all recipients in the system irrespective of their list membership you can use the recipient search function.

Enter a fragment of the recipient’s email to return all recipients with an email matching the fragment entered. You do not need to enter wild card characters; these are handled automatically by the system. To display all existing recipients leave the email field empty and click on [Search].

Figure 75: Email campaign manager search recipients

Any recipients matching your search criteria are displayed along with options to delete the recipient or edit their details. If you delete the recipient, they will be removed from lists and can no longer receive communication from the email campaign module.

You also have the option of saving the search results into a new list by providing the desired list name and clicking on [Save]. If you want to add the recipients found through your search into existing one or more lists, select the desired list(s) and click on [Save].

Figure 76: Email campaign manager recipient search results

2.4.2. Email events

To send an email, start by creating an email event. For each event you need to enter a mandatory code and name and optionally a description. The code is used to track this particular event while the name and description help identify the event and perhaps its purpose, target or intended audience.

Figure 77: Email campaign add email event

To edit an existing event, click on [Edit]. Please note that email events can not be deleted.

Figure 78: Manage existing email campaign events

In addition to the event code, name and description entered when creating the event, other fields you can manage are detailed in Figure 79.

Field	Usage
Code	A string identifier for the event for usage in tracking.
Name	The name of the event used for listing
Description	An optional textual description for the event
Reply to	The email address to use when recipients reply to the email event
Subject	The subject of the email event
Apply template	Optionally select an existing template to apply to the email event. When applied the template will overwrite details of the event
Text copy	The plain text copy for the email event encoded for use by email clients configured to display text only.
HTML copy	The HTML copy for the email displayed by default by most email clients
Send to	Select the list(s) to send this email event to

Figure 79: Edit email campaign event fields’ usage

When you select multiple lists the system will intelligently deal with any duplicates. For example if you send the email to three lists all of which contain a particular recipient, only one copy will be sent to that recipient.

We recommend you create a test list of very small distribution and use that initially to ensure the email as received by the recipients is acceptable, before proceeding to send the full email to the intended full list(s) of recipients.

2.4.3. Recipients

You can manually add a recipient to the email campaign system by entering the recipient’s email and also optionally associate the new recipient once created with one or more existing lists.

Figure 80: Add email campaign manager recipient

Existing recipients may be removed from the system by clicking [Remove]. To edit the details of an existing recipient click [Edit].

Figure 81: Manage existing email campaign manager recipients

When editing a recipient you are able to edit the email address as well as add the recipient to additional lists.

Figure 82: Edit email campaign manager recipient details

You can remove the recipient from lists they are currently members of by clicking [Remove]. You can also jump directly to the list by clicking [View].

Figure 83: Manage email campaign manager recipient's list membership

2.4.4. Lists

Lists are collections of recipients. There is no limit on how many lists a recipient can be a member of. The list identified as Default list is created automatically by the system when your site is first setup as the destination for any users who subscribe from the website. You can not delete this default list.

To create new lists enter a name and optionally a description for the list. You can also import a list of recipients into that list at the same time.

Figure 84: Add email campaign list

You can edit the details of existing lists by clicking [Edit]. For all lists except for the Default list, you can also delete an existing list by clicking [Remove]. To export the recipient details of a list in Excel compatible (CSV) format click on [Export].

Figure 85: Manage existing email campaign lists

When editing an existing list you can change the name, description or import additional recipients directly into the list.

Figure 86: Edit campaign email list details

You can also remove any recipient from a list by clicking [Remove]. Keep in mind this only removes the recipient’s membership in the current list. To permanently remove recipients from the system refer to Section 2.4.3. You can also jump to a recipient’s details by clicking on [View].

Figure 87: Manage email campaign list recipients

2.4.5. Email templates

When your site is first created a default template is created automatically to get you started. The default template has a simple layout and design ready for you to customise to get your first newsletter out as quickly as possible.

You can also add additional templates for specific purposes or to reflect specific design needs such as a particular campaign for example.

To add a new template, enter a name and optionally a description for the template and click on [Add].

Figure 88: Adding an email campaign template

You can also edit existing templates by clicking on [Edit].

Figure 89: Manage email campaign templates

When editing a template you can alter the name and description, but more importantly you can enter the plain text and HTML text to be used for email events you apply this template to.

Field	Usage
Name	The name of the event used for listing
Description	An optional textual description for the event
Text copy	The plain text copy for the email event encoded for use by email clients configured to display text only.
HTML copy	The HTML copy for the email displayed by default by most email clients

Figure 90: Email campaign template fields and usage

2.4.6. Export details

To export the entire recipient database in Excel compatible (CSV) format choose the export option from the email campaign management module.

2.5. Ecommerce

The ecommerce module and some of its features may be included in your website depending on your provider and package. It is primarily an online shop with associated account management and online payment facilities.

2.5.1. Online shop

The online shop allows you to keep track of orders placed by users, manage these orders through their fulfilment lifecycle and manage inventory levels for each product.

2.5.1.1. Orders

You can search orders received through the website by entering an email address or part of one, select an order status or a date range and click on [Search].

Figure 91: eCommerce order search

The order status and place in the order lifecycle is illustrated in Figure 92.

Status	Description
New	This is the default status of an order when created implying it has not yet been marked as paid or completed.
Paid	An order is marked as paid if it was marked manually as paid by the user, or automatically if an online payment was used and was successful.
Completed	Orders are complete when they are fulfilled by the business and manually marked as such signifying the end of the order’s lifecycle.

Figure 92: eCommerce order status

Any orders found matching the search criteria used are listed along with relevant details and indication of the status of each order. To view the full details of an order click on [View] or to delete an order entirely from the system click on [Delete] but keep in mind that deleted order can not be later retrieved. You can also export the search results in Excel compatible (CSV) format by clicking on [Export].

Figure 93: Managing eCommerce orders

Once you are viewing an order you can click on the appropriate button to update its status. For example to mark an order as having been paid, click on [Paid]. Only available status updates will be presented, so if an order has already been marked as paid, then the [Paid] button will not be displayed.

Figure 94: Managing order status

2.5.1.2. Shipping options

To set the shipping policies for your online store you can provide a name and a description. These fields are for your own use and are not presented to user, to incorporate information about your shipping policy, update the appropriate content items in the Manage my site module.

There are two main shipping policies you can employ. The first is quantity based pricing where you can specify the cost for the first item and the cost for each additional item. In combination these two fields provide significant flexibility.

First item	Extra items	Effect
$0.00	$0.00	Shipping is free across the site
$X	$0.00	Shipping is a flat fee of $X irrespective of number of items
$X	$X	Shipping is a flat fee of $X per item
$X	$Y	Shipping is $X for the first item and then $Y per additional items

Figure 95: eCommerce shipping options usage

The second method of calculating the shipping pricing is use the shipping price of each individual item sold (See Figure 95 for more details). Please note you can only have one shipping policy in use at any one time. If you select item specific pricing shipping cost then the quantity based pricing fields will be ignored.

You can switch between the two methods at any time but keep in mind that if you switch from quantity based to item specific shipping you need to have updated your products with the appropriate shipping cost for each item before you make the switch.

2.5.1.3. Payment methods

Currently, there are three types of payments which you can receive through your BeaconBee ecommerce website: Offline payment methods, credit card payments and PayPal payments. Other payment methods are constantly being researched and added all the time.

For all payment methods you can supply a name and a description. The name is presented to the user on the website using a drop down selection or radio buttons depending on your specific website design. You can also mark a payment method as active or inactive, if a method is not marked as active it will not be displayed on the website and can not be used to make a purchase from your BeaconBee shop.

You can add credit card and PayPal payments only once to your online shop but can add offline payment methods multiple times, for example to cover different payment methods such as payments by cheque, direct deposit, money order and cash.

Figure 96: Manage payment method details

To edit the details of an existing payment method click on [Edit].

Figure 97: Manage existing payment methods

Credit card payments are currently only available through the eWay payment gateway http://www.eway.com.au. Once you have setup your merchant account with your bank you can obtain you payment gateway account from eWay. For more information on setting up your eWay account on BeaconBee see Section 2.5.2.2.

If you elect to accept PayPal payments refer to Section 2.5.2.1 for more information on how to configure how these payments operate. Keep in mind that this covers the usage of PayPal to process to the payments for orders managed through the website. You also have the option to use PayPal’s own shopping cart whereby BeaconBee will automatically update PayPal with all the necessary information as users are making purchases from your website.

2.5.1.4. Catalogues

Not all catalogues added to your website make their products available for sale to allow you great flexibility in using these catalogues for other purposes. From the list of all available product catalogues you added to your website, select the ones you want to make available for sale through the website and click [Save].

Figure 98: Manage participating ecommerce catalogues

2.5.1.5. Manage inventory

Using the built in inventory management features you can keep track of your stock and have sales through the website automatically reflected in your inventory levels.

To start select the item to add inventory controls for and enter the necessary details. These include an optional code for the item as well as the quantity on hand. You can update the quantity on hand at any time as your stock changes. Note that even if your stock level falls to zero this will not stop your item being available on the website and available for sale.

You can also set a trigger level for re-ordering, this will trigger an email when the pre-set level is reached. The re-order quantity is recorded and communicated as an added benefit but does not in itself provide additional functionality.

Figure 99: Manage ecommerce inventory controls

Your existing inventory controls are listed in the order they were created. You can export these controls in Excel compatible (CSV) format by clicking on [Export]. You can modify the details of the inventory control by clicking on [Edit] or delete the control by clicking on [Delete].

Figure 100: Inventory controls listing

2.5.2. Payment configuration

You use this management section to manage the configuration of your online payment options. At this time you can manage PayPal and eWay credit card payments, as other payment methods are added in the future they will be added.

2.5.2.1. PayPal payments

The main configuration field is the email address used to setup up the seller PayPal account. If you enable the Buy Now and Shopping Cart options PayPal buttons for each function respectively will be available on the detail page for each product catalogue item.

The shipping and optional instructions are PayPal instructions which you can choose to display or suppress when enabling the Buy Now and Shopping Cart buttons. If you have set up a style in your PayPal account you can use this style on your BeaconBee site by entering the same name used in your account in the Paypal page style field.

Figure 101: PayPal payments configuration options

2.5.2.2. Eway credit card payments

The only required information to enable usage of your eWay credit card payment gateway with your BeaconBee website is your Eway customer ID. Optionally you can also specify surcharges attached to each available credit card type. The surcharge is applied to the total amount processed through the gateway and includes any shipping costs. You can specify either a flat cost, or a percentage of the total amount or a combination of both depending on your specific requirements. If you would like the CCV field to be included on the website when making payment using a credit card check the Enable CCV field and click on [Save].

Figure 102: eWay credit card configuration options

2.6. Systems settings

The system settings module allows you to control all aspects of your website. The actual range of options will vary depending on your provider and package.

2.6.1. Messages

The messages section is currently used only for messages from BeaconBee. These messages relate to your website, the system and any alerts you may need to be aware of.

2.6.1.1. Message Centre

New messages in your inbox are marked with an asterisk (*) next to the message’s number in your inbox. A message is no longer new once you have viewed it at least once, to view a message click on [View], to permanently delete a message click on [Delete].

Figure 103: Message Centre inbox

The message view lists the date and time the message was added to your inbox, its subject and content, to delete a message click on [Delete].

Figure 104: Message details

2.6.2. Accounts

All users’ interaction with your BeaconBee website takes place as part of their account.

2.6.2.1. Accounts

To find specific accounts enter an email or a fragment of an email and click on [Search], all matching accounts are returned.

Figure 105: Search accounts

You can export the list of accounts matching your search criteria in an Excel compatible (CSV) format by clicking on [Export]. You can also view the details of an account by clicking [View] or deactivate the account by clicking [Deactivate].

Deactivated accounts continue to exist in the database but can not be used by the user to log in to the website, conduct ecommerce transactions, and receive emails or any other website activity requiring an account. Because the system automatically conducts uniqueness validation on new accounts the user will also not be able to register a new account using the same email address.

Figure 106: Accounts listing

2.6.2.2. Inactive accounts

Accounts which have been deactivated may be activated again in lieu of the user registering a new account using the same email address by clicking [Activate]. All other capabilities operate in the same fashion as in Section 2.6.2.1

Figure 107: Inactive accounts listing

2.6.3. Statistics

The statistics section provides information about website usage both the public facing part and the BeaconBee administration facilities.

2.6.3.1. Website statistics

All BeaconBee websites come with comprehensive web server log based usage statistics package. These statistics reflect the usage of the website from the server’s perspective so it will not reflect usage by users with website content cached in their browser or network proxy for example.

If you are more concerned with the website usage from the end user’s perspective it is worthwhile considering the comprehensive and currently free of charge Google Analytics server at http://www.google.com/analytics.

The website usage statistics provided cover the entire history of the website from its first day and provides a break down by month, day of month, day of week and hour of day among many other options.

Figure 108: Website usage statistics

2.6.3.2. Bandwidth usage

Each BeaconBee website comes with a bandwidth allocation included in the package. The amount of bandwidth varies depending on your provider and your package. The bandwidth usage monitor is an ideal was to keep any eye on your website bandwidth usage and note when your website may be getting close to the allocated limit.

Should your website exceed the allocated bandwidth the website will be unavailable for viewing until the next billing period and the new allocation of bandwidth begins. To avoid this happening you may want to monitor this usage and if necessary top it up with additional bandwidth from your provider.

The usage statistics shows your website domain name, the time remaining until the next billing period begins. In the example shown Figure 109 in the time remaining is three weeks, one day, 21 hours, 28 minutes and 10 seconds. It also shows the allocated bandwidth of 1G with 58.32MB used so far in that billing period.

Figure 109: Bandwidth usage statistics

2.6.3.3. Content activity report

This statistics option provides information on your website pages and the last time they were updated.

You can narrow down the content activity report by specifying a date range to search for. Only the pages with content last updated in that date range will be returned. To view a complete report of all the pages on your website and the last time each was updated use a date in the distant past in the From field.

Figure 110: Content activity search

The report lists the page name and its URL as well as the date and time of the last page update.

Figure 111: Content activity report

2.6.3.4. User activity report

The user activity report provides details of the administration users activities. To narrow down the report details enter a date range and also optionally select a specific user to view a report on the user’s activities only. The default is to display the activities of all users with access to the administration system.

Figure 112: User activity search

The user activity report may be exported by clicking on [Export]. For more details of the data presented in the user activity report refer to Figure 113.

Field	Usage
Time	Date and time of the activity
User	User name performing the activity
Module	The module where the activity was performed
Activity	The activity
Page	The name of the page where the activity was performed if available
Content	The name of the content item where the activity was performed if available

Figure 113: User activity report fields

2.6.4. Settings

This section allows you to manage the various settings which control what features are available on your website, users who have access to manage the content, structure and activities of your website, domain name related information as well as the details of specific features.

The range of options and features available to you will depend on your provider and chosen package. If you see a feature illustrated here which you do not have access to contact your provider for more details on how to obtain access to it.

2.6.4.1. Manage features

You BeaconBee website comes with a large range of features and options, some of which you may not in fact want to be used on the website from time to time or at all. For example you may decide to withhold the availability of the polls feature for a time or perhaps disable ecommerce inventory management altogether.

The way to achieve this is by enabling and disabling the specific features as illustrated in Figure 114. Keep in mind this change takes effect immediately. In most cases any data which exists when the feature was available continue to exist after the feature has been turned off and will become available again if you choose to re-enable the feature at some point in the future.

Figure 114: Manage website features

2.6.4.2. Manage users

As your website gets larger and its activities more complex and specialised it is likely the need will arise for different persons to have access to different parts of the website. Or more simply you may want to have another person in a position to effect an update or manage some aspect of the website when you are unavailable. Your BeaconBee website comes with the ability to support multiple users as well as the ability to assign different capabilities to different users.

To add new users to the system enter the user name, password, name and roles. The user name must contain only characters, numbers and underscore. The password you provide and its confirmation must match and must not be blank. You can only assign roles to new users that you possess yourself.

Figure 115: Add system user

Refer to Figure 116 for details on the specific access available to each role. Please note that a user may have as many roles simultaneously assigned to them as is made available by the system.

Role	Usage
Design Manager	Controls design features, specifically those in Sections 2.2.1 and 2.2.3.7.
Content Manager	Controls content management features in Section 2.2.2 unless otherwise controlled by other roles.
Structure Manager	Controls website structure (site tree) features in Section 2.2.3.1.
Settings Manager	Controls site wide and specific commerce settings features in Sections 2.5.1.2, 2.5.1.3, 2.5.1.4, 2.5.2.1, 2.5.2.2, 2.6.2 and 2.6.4.
Activity Manager	Controls access to information and reporting features in Section 2.6.3.
Campaign Manager	Controls newsletter and email campaign features in Sections 2.3 and 2.4.
Commerce Manager	Controls access to eCommerce information and other eCommerce features in Section 2.5 unless otherwise controlled by other roles.
Analytics Manager	Controls SEO and analytics features in Sections 2.2.3.5 and 2.2.3.6.

Figure 116: User roles usage

You can edit the details and access for existing users by clicking [Edit], to remove a user entirely from the system click on [Delete].

Figure 117: System users listing

2.6.4.3. Manage social bookmarks

Your BeaconBee website comes with the building ability to generate appropriate links to allow your website users to add the link to most pages to the social bookmarking site of your choice.

These changes take effect immediately but users with cached version of a particular page may continue to see disabled links until their browser refreshes the page being viewed from the server.

Figure 118: Social bookmarks settings

2.6.4.4. Email forwarding

If you host your domain name(s) with BeaconBee you are able to create and manage email aliases (or email forwarding) for those domain names. Email aliases allow you to create an automatic redirection so that when an email is sent to your_name@your_domain.com for example it is sent to another email address you own, possibly one provided by your ISP or a free email service such as Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or Live among others.

To ensure that only your domain name email address is visible on emails you send you will also need to configure your email client to use it. This is also sometimes referred to as setting up an Identity. For more help and suggestions refer to the How To section of the Help Centre.

To setup an email alias start by selecting the domain name you wish to add the email alias to and click [Go].

Figure 119: Email forwarding domain selection

Add the user name part of the domain name and the external email address to redirect your mail to and click [Add].

Figure 120: Add an email forwarding alias

You can remove existing email aliases already added by clicking [Delete]. If you wanted to alter the details of the email alias you will need to delete the old redirection and create a new one with the new email address.

Figure 121: Email forwarding aliases listing

2.6.4.5. Domain records

When you host your domain(s) with BeaconBee you some fixed domain records will be automatically created for you to enable the operation of your website correctly. These records can not be edited to ensure the correct operation of your website. Mail records are also provided by default pointing to the BeaconBee service but can be overridden as needed to point to your email servers. You can also create your own custom domain records to cater for other systems or services you may need to setup with your domain name. Generally speaking, these are specialised settings which can cause potentially significant disruption to your services if mismanaged. If you are not entirely sure about any change we strongly recommend you consult your IT or network provider for directions before proceeding as we are unable to offer support in what these settings mean and how to use them.

To start select the domain you would like to add records to and click [Go].

Figure 122: Domain records selection

To update your mail servers domain records enter the primary and secondary (if necessary) hostnames and click [Update].

Figure 123: Manage domain records

Your changes are saved by not applied to your domain controller until you commit these changes by clicking [Commit Changes Now >>].

Figure 124: Committing domain records changes

To add a new record to your domain, select the domain record type, value and destination and click [Add]. If you are not sure what these fields mean or are used for please consult your IT or network provider.

Figure 125: Adding a domain record

Existing custom domain records can also be removed at any time by clicking [Delete].

Figure 126: Domain records listing