This section explains how to register as a new user, how to register a new project, how to log in and how to log out. It also walks you through the NITRC front page.
This section describes how different users may take advantage of NITRC for their specific purposes. It describes the user homepage, how to modify user settings, how to handle user ratings, skill profiles, Diary, and Notes.
This section explains the project-specific functions of the NITRC software. These functions include:
| Project Summary | Project Summary page for your project |
| Project Administration | Project Administration covers how project administrators create and manage projects. |
| Discussion Forums | Describes the use and administration of the discussion forums. |
| Tracker | Describes how registered users, project developers, and project administrators use the Tracker to track bugs, patches, and support requests. |
| Mailing Lists | Describes how a project administrator creates and maintain mailing lists for a project. |
| Task Manager | Describes how project administrators and project developers use the Task Manager to track activities. |
| Document Manager | Describes the Document Manager. |
| Surveys | Describes how project administrators set up Surveys for a project. |
| News | Describes how project administrators add and release News for a project |
| CVS | Describes how project administrators and project developers manage CVS repositories for a project. |
| File releases | Describes how project administrators and developers publish new releases of a project. |
This section explains the site-wide functions of the NITRC software. These functions include:
| Trove Map | Describes the Project Classification System. |
| Snippet Library | Explains how to use the code fragment library. |
| Project Help | Explains how to use the Project Help function of NITRC. |
Use any browser to go to http://nitrc.nih.gov.
The NITRC home page contains a lot of useful information at a glance. On this page you may read about NITRC and what it does, catch up on the latest NITRC news, see how many projects are currently in NITRC, how many people regularly use the site and who the top users are, see which projects are most popular, which have had the most activity, and what the new projects are. The subheads (NITRC Statistics, Highest Ranked Users, etc.) are self- explanatory.
At the top of the home page are a set of tabs, which are discussed below and explained in later sections:
Home: This tab always returns you to this home page. You will see it on every page you go to in the NITRC site.
My Page: This tab will take you to your personal pages if you have logged in as a registered user, or to the login and new account page if you have not logged in or not registered. It, too, is on every page you visit on the NITRC site.
NITRC Forum: Like the individual project forums (addressed below), the NITRC forum gives everyone an opportunity to talk about NITRC, ask questions, and get answers from the fMRI community.
NITRC Survey: Registered users will be able to respond to surveys about issues of interest to the NITRC community.
Project Tree: The project tree allows you to browse the projects by one of nine standards, Development Status, Environment, Intended Audience, License, Natural Language, Operating System, Programming Language, Supported Data Format, or Topic (which is the default).
Code Snippets: This tab takes you to a page where you may post or find code fragments, scripts, and functions that could be useful in a developer's work.
Project Openings: This is NITRC's "Help Wanted" board, where projects seek people with specialized skills to join their teams. This is not a commercial job bank; it is a way to become more active in the NITRC community and share your skills.
The NITRC community is made up of researchers, developers, academics, clinicians, administrators, scholars, and others interested in finding, developing, improving, and sharing fMRI tools and resources. NITRC serves as a storehouse and storefront, a library, a workshop, and a laboratory for the fMRI community. Site visitors—users—may fill different roles at different times, and may take advantage of different functions for different tools and resources. It is all presented at nitrc.nih.gov for you to utilize as you need it.
Roles within NITRC have defined permissions, and users may easily move from one role to another as their needs warrant. Below is a general definition of the roles to help you understand your options:
Unregistered user: Everyone starts out as an unregistered user. Unregistered users, or visitors, may see the front page, visit public projects, contribute to the public discussion forums and read postings by others, read wikis, and download tools and resources. Unregistered users may submit documentation to a project administrator, who decides what to post on their project pages. For public projects they may view the feature request and bug trackers to see what may be coming or what may be a problem in a tool or resource.
Registered user: Registered users may do everything unregistered users can do, and in addition may associate themselves with projects, receive e-mail about changes in projects they are following, respond to surveys, participate in project forums and edit wikis for projects with which they are associated. They may suggest enhancements to tools and resources and report bugs.
Developer: Developers are registered users who have chosen to help build or improve a tool or resource. Users request permission from project administrators to become developers, and once accepted they may download and upload code for a tool or resource, offering changes and enhancements. They may also be assigned specific tasks by the project administrator, or volunteer to take on tasks based on the task Tracker.
Project administrator: Project administrators are decision makers for the tools and resources on the NITRC site. Using NITRC, they can manage their projects more easily. They decide who may be a developer, which suggestions for enhancements will be accepted, which bugs will be assigned to which developers, which documents and files will be published for their projects, and what news is presented for their projects. They also have the ability to delegate these responsibilities, or limit them to certain users. A project may have only one project administrator or many. The person who first posts the project is the default administrator, and that project administrator may designate other project administrators.
To register as a new user, click on the New Account link on the top right side of the browser window. You will be taken to a form where you may fill in the following data:
Required Fields:
Login name: You need a unique user name to access to the system. Login names must be all lower case. If the name you choose is already in use, the system will tell you. Be sure to use a name you can remember, because the system will not remind you if you have forgotten it: you would have to set up a new account and reset all your priorities.
Password: Passwords must be at least six characters.
First name, last name: If you use a middle name, include it in the first name field.
E-mail address: Your e-mail address is the one to which NITRC will send a confirmation e-mail message to activate your subscription. When you receive the confirmation message, you will still need to connect to NITRC using the URL in the message to activate your account.
Suggested Fields:
Time zone: The NITRC site uses GMT as the default, but you may want to change your time zone, as all dates are shown relative to the time zone.
Receive e-mail about site updates: If you check this, you'll periodically receive information about the NITRC site. The traffic is very low; we recommend that you activate this option.
Receive additional community mailings: Check this box if you are interested in other notices of interest to the NITRC community.
Click on Submit and your registration is automatically accepted on NITRC. It does not have to be approved by the NITRC administrator. Within minutes you will receive an e-mail message with a URL to click on to establish your account. When you do, you will see a welcome screen; NITRC is happy to have you join!
To register a new project, connect to NITRC, log in and go to the My Page section. Follow the "Register Project" link in the menu at the top of the page. You need to insert the following information to register a project:
Full Name: The official name of the project. This is the name that will be displayed on the NITRC site.
Project Purpose and Summarization: A brief summary of the project. This description will be used by the NITRC team to decide whether to approve your project. This is not the public description—that is entered below.
License: The license (if any) for your project. If your project license is not in the list of licenses, select "Other/Proprietary License" and provide a description of your license in the text box.
Project Public Description: A description of the project. This description will appear in the project summary page,
Project Unix Name: This is how the NITRC database will identify your project. This name must respect the following rules:
The Unix name also will be used if NITRC hosts your Web site.
NOTE: Although you might change the public name of your project as it develops, the Unix name can never change.
Click on the "Submit" button to send the project to the NITRC site administrators for approval. This approval step is to ensure that only fMRI and related projects are part of NITRC. When the project is approved, you will receive an e-mail message from the NITRC site administrator confirming that the project is active.
You may log in to NITRC by clicking the Log In link on the top right corner of the browser window. You will be taken to the login page where you may enter your username and password. Click the "Login" button to be taken to your personal page.
If you have forgotten your password, click on the "Lost your password" link and fill in your login name. You will receive an e-mail message at the address associated with your account, with a URL that you can click on to set a new password.
To log out from NITRC, click on the Log Out link on the top right corner of your browser window.
Your personal page is your customized view of NITRC, and this page appears when you have logged in or when you click the "My Page" tab. On that page you will see:
My Assigned Items: This list shows the Tracker items assigned to you. Only currently open items are listed. Click on the item name to get more details. The items are ordered by priority.
My Submitted Items: This list shows the Tracker items you submitted that are currently open. Click on the item name to get more details. .The items are ordered by priority.
Monitored Forums: This list shows the Forums you are monitoring. Forums are discussion groups about specific projects. If you choose to monitor a forum, every time there is a new post to the forum you will be sent an e-mail with the direct link to the new message. To search or post to a forum, click on its name.
Monitored FileModules: FileModules are project releases. You may monitor FileModules to receive e-mail when new releases are issued. This section lists the FileModules you are monitoring.
Quick Survey: This box shows the current surveys in which you may participate. Click on a survey to participate.
My Bookmarks: This list shows your bookmarked pages. When you click on a bookmark, you'll go directly to the page you bookmarked. When you click on Edit, you can edit or delete the bookmark.
My Projects: This list shows the active projects in which you are participating. When you click on a project, you will go to the project summary. Click on the trash can to the left of the project name to remove yourself from a project. (If you are a project administrator, the trash can icon has a red X over it; you must drop your administrator status before you can remove yourself from this project.)
When you click on Account Maintenance on your personal page, you go to a page where you may change your personal information and your preferences. You may change everything except the registration date, user ID (which is created by the system), and your login name. If you change the e-mail address NITRC has on file for you, you will have to confirm the new e- mail address by responding to an e-mail message sent to this address.
The Account Maintenance page also allows you to view your developer profile and establish your skills profile.
NITRC community members are identified by their developer profiles whether or not they are developers. The profile information is taken from your account information.
Your profile includes a link to your skills profile (which displays only if you have made it public), your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number.
On the same page is the peer scoring and the Peer Rating questionnaire. The questionnaire can be submitted or viewed by any registered user. The scoring is automatically computed.
In this section you may add your skills. You can set your skills profile to public, so everyone may see it, or to private, so that only you can view it.
When you add a skill, you must enter:
This feature allows you to keep notes on the NITRC site. You may make the notes public, or keep them private. If you make them public, those who are monitoring your notes will receive notification any time you add a public note.
You may add a project—an fMRI-related tool or resource—to the NITRC site from your personal page. See Section 2.4 for specifics.
You can be rated by other users and you can rate other users. Every time you go to the detail of a user, you can rate the user. Ratings can be given for:
The Project Page is the first thing you see when you choose a project either by clicking on the Project Tree tab and browsing through the categories or by searching for a project.
The project summary shows summarized information about the current project. The following information is displayed:
Project description and statistics: Description of the project; you can see the statistics by clicking on the "statistics" link. This description includes the name of the project, its development status, its environment and intended audience, the license under which it may be used, the natural language, the operating system, the programming language, the data formats it supports, and the topic. The date and time the project was registered is also displayed.
You can find out more about how much the project is changing by clicking on "statistics." On the statistics page you can see how much activity there is in the Tracker, forums, documentation, tasks, and downloads.
"RSS feeds" takes you to a page that offers code that will allow you to add an RSS feed to your browser to track what is happening in the project.
Project administrators and members: "Developer Info" gives you the names of the project administrator and the developers involved in the project.Each name is a link to that user's public profile. By clicking on "View Members" you can see the names of others associated with the project, and by clicking on their names you can see their public profiles. You may request to join the project by clicking on the "Request to join" link. Your name will be sent to the project administrator for approval.
Latest file releases: Latest file releases published via the FRS.
Public areas: NITRC tracks the number of messages in public forums, the number of bugs and feature requests, the tech support and the patches for each tool or resource. This section of the page also contains the link to the Web site for the tool or resource.
Latest News: This section of the page shows the headlines and allows you to click through to the story. You may also create or join a discussion forum related to any news item. The "submit news" link works only for project administrators.
The Project Administration section allows you to administer the project.
The Project Admin web page is where all the administration of the project is done. To get there, log into NITRC, and select the project from your personal page. This will bring you to the Project Summary page.
The Project admin page is available by clicking on the "Admin" tab. Clicking here will present you with links to Admin, Edit Public Info, Project History, Post Jobs, Edit Jobs, and Stats. The Project Admin page is only accessible to members of the project who have been granted administrator privileges. By default, the person who registers the project is given admin privileges. Other members may be granted administrator rights by the project administrators.
The Admin page (which is really a subset of the Project Admin section) presents the user with Misc. Project Information, Trove Categorization, Tool Admin, Group Members, Pending Requests, and Edit Roles.
Misc. Project Information: This shows the Short Description of the project and the location of the project page. There's also a link to Download Your Nightly CVS Tree Tarball.
Trove Categorization: In order for people to be able to find the project, it must be classified in the Trove Map. The Trove Map is a set of categories in which like projects are grouped. Click on Edit Trove Categorization to select up to three categories for the project. After you click "submit you will be returned to the Project Admin page. Trove categories may be changed at any time.
Tool Admin: This section provides links to the Admin pages under some of the tool tabs.
Group Members: This displays the names of the members in the project, and allows the project administrator to add members or delete them. To add members, enter their login name into the box provided, select a role, and click Add User; or follow the "Add Users From List" link to be presented with a list of registered users where you can add one of those users to the project. To remove a group member, click on the "Remove" button to the right of the name. To change a user's role, select a new role next to the user's name and click "Update." To change permissions for an observer, click "Edit Observer" and you will be presented with a page for making project functions accessible.
Pending Requests: This section displays the names of users who have requested to join the project. You may reject the request by clicking "Reject" to the right of the user's name, or accept the request by selecting a role for the user and clicking "Accept."
Edit Roles: Certain permissions for user roles may be edited by selecting a role and clicking "Edit Role." You may then change the name of the role and set permissions for the File Release System, the Source Control Repository, the Document Manager, forum management (as well as permissions for individual forums), tracker management (as well as permissions for individual trackers), and task management (as well as permissions for individual task managers). You may also set project-wide administrative permissions. Click "Add Role" to create a new role; you will be given the opportunity to define the functions of that role. Roles may be created, but cannot be deleted. All roles inherit the observer permissions as minimums.
This page enables any project administrator to change the project (group) name, description, and project page. It also allows a project administrator to set an e-mail address to which notifications of document submissions are sent, and to activate GForge functions for the project. The available functions are:
This page presents a history of the project, indicating dates for major changes such as adding or removing members changing Trove categories, etc.
This page allows you to post jobs for your project, so that registered users who visit the site can offer to help with the development. Enter a category for the job description, a short description and a long description to post a job opening. Job descriptions remain on the site two weeks.
When you have submitted a job, you may edit the category, short description, and long description text at any time, edit the skill profile, or indicate the status of the posted job (open, filled, or deleted).
This section shows information about your project in graphical form. To view a graph, select a component of interest (under "Areas": tracker, forums, docs, tasks, or downloads), the type of plot (daily, weekly, or monthly), and start and end months.
Every project can have its own discussion forums. When a new project is created, three forums are automatically created:
New forums may be created using the admin section of the forum or by clicking on the Admin tab. To create a new forum, enter the name of the forum and the description of the forum; make the forum public (open to all users) or private (available only to project members); and indicate whether anonymous (observer) posts are allowed on the forum. You may provide an e-mail address to which all forum posts are sent.
When you click on the name of the forum, you go to the detail of the forum. You may select one of the following types of display for the forum lists:
Nested: Shows the messages ordered by thread. All data of the message, including the posted message itself, will be displayed.
Flat: Similar to Nested, the messages will be displayed in chronological order.
Threaded: Displayed only title, author, and date of each message. Displays the messages in threaded order. Click on the title of the message to display the entire message.
Ultimate: Displays only the "topic started" messages. Topic starters are the messages that start a new thread.
You may select to display 25, 50, 75, or 100 messages per page.
The forums have 2 very powerful options:
Save place: This function returns you to this point in the message list, highlighting new messages added since your last visit to the forum.
Monitor forum: If you choose to monitor a forum, every post to the forum will be sent to you by e-mail. This allows you to be informed about new messages without being logged on to NITRC. The name of the monitored forum will appear on your homepage in the Monitored Forums section.
Clicking on the Forum Admin link presents you with links to Add Forum (see above) and to administrative pages for existing forums. Selecting an existing forum will allow you to change the forum name, add or change the e-mail address to which all forum posts are sent, and change the forum description. The page provides links to pages where you can delete individual messages (and follow-ups) and or delete the forum.
When you use a forum, you have the option of a simple search or an advanced search.
In a simple search, you may search for entries with a word or phrase in them. Searches may be limited to the forum you are in, all forums for the project, all data and documents associated with the project, or to trackers, tasks, releases, documents, news, software/group, people, and skill. To initiate a simple search, fill out the boxes at the top of the page and click "search."
You can start an advanced search by clicking on "Advanced Search" next to the standard search line at the top of the page. Advanced Search allows you to search for words linked by "and" or "or" and combine them with any combination of forums, Tracker information, tasks, and news.
You can be rated by other users and you can rate other users. (You cannot submit a rating for yourself.) Every time you go to the detail of a user, you can rate the user. Ratings may be given for:
The Tracker allows users to report and store items like bugs, feature requests, patch submissions, etc.
You may use this system to track almost any kind of data. Each tracker may have its own set of permissions covering whether it is open to the public and whether it allows submissions from those who are not registered with the project. You can also easily move items between trackers when needed.
Trackers may be set up for any kind of report. When a project is created, NITRC creates four trackers automatically:
Bugs: Allows users to report and track bugs
Support: Allows users to request and receive support
Patches: Allows developers to upload patches to the software
Feature Requests: Allows users to request enhancements to the software
The following descriptions apply to any of the trackers. This description is for Bug Tracker, but the functionality of every tracker is the same.
The Bug Tracker provides the following functions:
To submit a new bug, click on the Submit New link. A form will be displayed where you may insert/select the following data:
Assigned To: You may assign the item to a developer. Only users who are "Technicians" are listed here.
Priority: You may select the priority of the item. In the Browse list, and the the users' personal pages, priorities are displayed in different colors, and can be ordered by priority.
Summary: Give a short description of the bug, e.g. Logout function gives an SQL Error
Detailed Description: State the problem, giving examples, triggers, manifestations, etc.
File Upload: You may also upload a file—a screen shot with the error and log file, for instance—as an attachment to the bug. To upload the file, check the checkbox, select a file using the browse button and add a file description.
NOTE: Attachments to tracker items can be no larger than 256KB.
The Browse page shows the list of bugs. You may select to filter the bugs by Assignee or State. You may sort the items by ID or Priority, Summary, Open Date, Close Date, Submitter, or Assignee and may order them as ascending or descending. Colors indicate the priorities of the bug; an asterisk * near the open date indicates that the request is more than 30 days old. The overdue time is configurable for each tracker; the default is 30 days. When you click on the summary, you go to the detail/modify Bug page.
In the modify Bug page, you can modify the data you inserted, and also add the following information:
DataType: This combo box lists the trackers of the project. If you select a different tracker and submit the changes, the item will be reassigned to the selected tracker.
Status: The status indicates the status of the item. When an item is inserted, it is created in the "Open" state. When you fix a bug, you should change the state to "Closed". When a bug is duplicated or not valid, change it to "Deleted".
Resolution: This indicates the resolution of the item.
Canned Responses: Canned responses are prefixed responses. You may create canned responses for your project in the admin section and select the responses in the combo box.
The Change log on the bottom of the page shows in chronological order the changes applied to the item. All followups may be viewed.
If you select the Monitor button on the top left of the Bug detail page, bug monitoring will be enabled. When you are monitoring a bug, every change to the bug will be sent to you by email. To disable bug monitoring, simply reselect the Monitor button.
If you are an Administrator of the tracker, you may add or change bug groups, categories, canned responses:
Add/Update Categories: You may add new categories or change the name of existing categories. You may also select a user in the Auto-Assign To combo box; every bug with this category will be auto-assigned to the selected user. This feature can save you lots of time when administering the tracker.
Add/Update Groups: You may add new groups or change the name of existing groups. It is not recommended that you change the group name because other things are dependent upon it. When you change the group name, all related items will be changed to the new name.
Add Update Canned Responses: Canned responses are predefined responses. Creating useful generic messages can save you a lot of time when handling common requests.
Add Update Users and Permissions: You may add new users to the tracker or delete users from the tracker.
NOTE: The user has no specific permission on the tracker; he cannot administer the tracker, no items can be assigned to the user.
Technician: Items can be assigned to the user.
Administrator and Technician: The user is both an Administrator and also a Technician.
Administrator: User can administer the tracker (add user, set permissions, create/update groups, categories, canned responses).
Update Preferences: Here you can update the following information on the tracker:
Name: The name of the Tracker. This is the name displayed in the tracker list, e.g. Bug Submissions.
Description: The description of the Tracker; e.g. "This is the tracker dedicated to the Bugs of the project
Publicly Available: By default, this checkbox is not enabled.
Allow non-logged-in postings: If this checkbox is enabled, also non logged-in users may post items to the tracker. If this checkbox is not enabled, only logged in users may post items. By default, this checkbox is not enabled.
Display the "Resolution" box: By default, this checkbox is not enabled.
Send email on new submission to address: All new items will be sent to the address inserted in the text box.
Send email on all changes: If this checkbox is enabled, all changes on the items will be sent out via email. It is useful to check this radio button only if in the Send email address is inserted an email address.
Days still considered overdue: Days till pending tracker items time out
Free form text for the Submit new item page: This allows you to put a specific introduction on the submit new item page. Free form text for the Browse items page: This allows you to put a specific introduction on the Browse items page.
If you are an Administrator of the tracker, you are also enabled for the Mass Update function. This function is visible in the browse bug page and allows you to update the following information:
When this function is enabled, a checkbox will appear at the left side of each bug ID. You may check one or more of the IDs, select one or more of the values in the Mass Update combo boxes, and click Mass Update. All selected bugs will be modified with these new values. This function is very useful if you need to change the same information for a group of bugs, as when you are assigning five bugs to one developer or closing ten bugs.
The Reporting functions allow you to check the life-span of the Bug. The life span is the duration of the bug; it starts when the bug is inserted (opened) in the tracker and ends when the bug is closed.
Response Time: The Aging report shows the turnaround time for closed bugs, the number of bugs inserted and the number of bugs still open.
By Assignee: The Bugs by Technician report shows for every member of the project; the number of bugs assigned to the user, the number of closed bugs and the number of bugs still open.
When using a tracker, the name of the tracker will appear in the search combo box. The search will be done on the description and the summary of the bug.
This is where you will set up and administer the mailing lists associated with the project.
This page shows the list of available mailing lists. Clicking on List Name Archives will allow you to browse the archives of the selected mailing list. You may subscribe, unsubscribe or edit your preferences for a specific mailing list by clicking the appropriate link.
This brings you to the Mail Admin page, where the following options are available to you:
Add Mailing List: Clicking here will allow you to create a new mailing list. You can specify if it is to be made public (people who are not members of the project can see and/or join it) or not. You can also add a description of the list. You will receive an email with the administration password of the list.
Administrate/Update Lists: This allows you to change the description of the list, the state of the list, and by clicking on Administrate this list in GNU Mailman you can add members to the mailing list, set the properties of the list, posting policies and so forth.
The Task Manager is similar to the tracker, with the following differences; it allows you to:
Tasks are organized in subprojects. There are two predefined subprojects: To Do and Next Release. You can use the Admin link to create new subprojects. Tasks allows you to create and manage tasks, or blocks of work, similar to the way projects are broken down in ,for example, MS Project.
This allows you to add tasks to the subprojects – for example, Write Design Doc, Review Doc, Update Doc, Write Code, Review Code, Update Code, Test, Log Test Results, etc. They may be assigned to members of the team, and start and end dates set up for them, dependencies on other tasks set, percentage completion, etc.
You need to select first a subproject from the subproject list and then select the Add Task link. A form appears, where you are requested to insert the following data:
Percent Complete: You can select here the Percentage of the completion of the work.
Priority: You can select here the priority of the task.
Task Summary: You should insert a brief description of the task.
Task Details: You should insert here the most detailed description possible of the task.
Start Date: You can insert here the start date.
End Date: You can insert here the end date of the task.
Assigned To: You can select one or more assignees of the task. Only users who are defined as "Technicians" are listed here.
Dependent on task: You can select here one or more tasks upon which this task depends.
Estimated Hours: The estimated duration of this task in hours.
Only project members may add new items to the Task Manager, make changes to the task, or close the task.
This section lists all tasks in the open state.
The Reporting is similar to the reporting section of the Tracker.
"Task Manager Admin" under the "Tool Admin" section of the "Admin" tab for a project provides links to add a new subproject and to modify existing subprojects (selecting the "Tasks" tab, then a subproject, then the "Admin" link only allows you to edit existing subprojects).
Add a project: This allows you to add a subproject to a project in order to group similar tasks . You need to include the Project Name and description, and indicate whether the subproject is public or private. You may also provide an e-mail address to which all updates of tasks for this subproject are sent.
Edit/update project: This allows you to change the subproject name, description, or updates e-mail address. This page also allows you to delete a subproject. You may add categories to the subjproject or change category names (though categories may not be removed).
The Document Manager allows you to publish documents on the site.
Here you may submit new documents for to be published on the site. You must provide the following information:
Document Title: The document title refers to the relatively brief title of the document
Description: A brief description of the document.
Upload File: Select the file to be uploaded. You can upload text files (.html, .txt) or binary files (.zip, .doc, .pdf).
Language: Indicate what language the document is written in.
Group that document belongs in: Allows you to categorize documents. Fill in all the fields, select the group from the drop down list and click "Submit Information." The document will then be placed in the Pending Submissions section of the Doc Manager Admin page, to be approved or rejected by the project administrator.
The View Documentation page shows you a list of documents by category. Click on a document name to view the document.
You can administer the document section from the admin page, which shows all open and active documents. The Admin section allows you to:
Approve/publish pending submissions: The Pending Submissions list displays the documents that are waiting for your approval. When you click on the document name, the Edit Document form will be displayed.
Edit Documents: The Edit Document link shows all document states, and the documents in those states:
Active Documents: Active Documents are displayed in the View Documentation list.
Pending Documents: Pending Documents are waiting for your approval.
Hidden Documents: Hidden documents are not displayed.
Deleted Documents: Old, outdated documents may be deleted, but they can always be recalled from this page. To reinstate a document, click on its name.
Private Documents: Private documents are displayed only for members of the project.
Edit Document Groups: Each document must be categorized. Document groups are set up for that purpose. The "Edit Document Groups" section shows the existing document categories and lets you add more document groups.
When you select a document from one of the lists, a form will be displayed that allows you to change the Document Title, the Short Description, the Language, the Document Group and the State. It also lets you upload a new version of the document.
Surveys allow you to ask questions of developers and users and view the results. Surveys may be helpful if you need some feedback from the users. Surveys may address:
Before you can add/modify existing surveys, you need to set up the questions for your surveys. NITRC surveys handle the following question types:
You can create a new survey by clicking on the Admin link and then "add a new survey." You'll be asked to insert the following data:
Survey name: The name of the survey
Active: This flag indicates whether the survey is active.
You can modify an existing survey, although this is not recommended if answers to the survey have already been given. You should know that the results of a survey are not consistent if you modify the survey and users have already inserted answers.
You can view the results of the surveys by clicking on the View Results tab.
The news section allows you to insert news relative to your project. News can be monitored similar to tracker items, forums. News will be displayed on the project homepage and also on the site homepage, if the site administrators approve the news.
News is generally used to announce software releases, milestones, or significant changes in the software.
You can insert a news item by clicking on the Submit link.
You may post news about your project if you are an admin on your project.
All posts for your project will appear instantly on your project summary page. You may include URLs, but not HTML in your submissions. URLs that start with http:// are made clickable.
The news item will go to the News Admin for approval for publication. Posts that are of special interest to the community are approved by a member of the NITRC news team and will appear on the NITRC home page.
You may modify a news item by clicking on the Admin Link.
You can select the status of the news: Displayed or Deleted (the news will be deleted).
You can insert the Subject (title) and the details.
The CVS button shows a page that contains information on how to access the CVS repository. Use this information to configure your client for CVS access. This page also displays some statistics about the selected project's CVS tree.
The Browse CVS Repository link opens the view cvs web interface, where you can view the CVS repository, view differences between revisions, and download versions of a file.
NOTE: Only public projects will show the browse CVS repository link.
The File Releases System (FRS) is used to upload files to the NITRC site and to make these files available to the users in an easy and efficient way.
Files may be divided in different packages, and every single package can be monitored by the users; these users will receive an email every time a new file has been added to the package.
The FRS system allows you to upload file to NITRC and make this file available to the public.
You have to define a package before you can release a file. A package should have a descriptive name for the project, e.g. NITRC3.
To add a new package, insert a package name in the textbox at the bottom of the page and click Create This Package.
Your package will appear in the Releases list at the bottom of the page. Click Add release. The form has the following fields:
Package ID: You can select here the package.
Release Name: Insert the name of your release. The name should be indicative for the version of your file, e.g. pre-8.
Release Date: The release date.
File Name: Click the browse button to select the file to upload. In some browsers you must select the file in the file-upload dialog and click OK. Double-clicking doesn't register the file.
NOTE: You can't upload files that exceed the UploadFile Limit in php.ini.
FileType: Select the file type (.zip, .html, .exe, .tar. gz, etc).
Processor Type: Select the processor required to run the application.
Release Notes: The release notes.
Change log: The change log.
Release File: Click the Release File button. Your file will now appear in the list of files in the File section.
The side-wide functions are available anytime. They are not dependent on individual projects.
The site-wide functions handle data that are not relevant to a single project, e.g. code fragments, project classification, project help, etc.
The site-wide functions available to the users are:
You can search in NITRC for the following arguments:
People: You may search for login name or the complete username. The search is not case sensitive. Inserted text must be at least 3 characters.
Software/Group: You may search for software groups. Inserted text must be at least 3 characters.
Skill: You may search for skills inserted by the users. Only public skill profiles can be searched. Inserted text must be at least 3 characters.
You may search for People or Software groups by selecting the item in the combo box and inserting the search text in the text box. If the user is inside one of the Trackers, a voice Tracker appears in the combo box. If the user is inside a forum, a voice Forum appears in the combo box.
The Trove Map allows users to classify their projects in a tree so that they can be found more easily.
The Snippet Library function of NITRC allows users to collect all types of knowledge and information about incomplete fragments of code that are usually difficult to organize and share. Examples include sophisticated shell commands, javascript functions, perl one-liners, SQL expressions that perform special queries, algorithms, etc.
You can insert a new Snippet by clicking on the Submit a New Snippet link. This causes a form to appear, where the following information can be inserted:
Title: Insert the title of the snippet. This will be displayed in the list of the snippets.
Description: Insert the description of the snippet.
Type: Select the type of the snippet: function, full script, Howto, class, Readme.
License: Select the license you want to use for your snippet.
Language: Select the language of the snippet (if it is language dependent).
Category: Classify your snippet in categories tree.
Version: You should insert here the version of the snippet. For a new snippet, insert 1.0.
Code: Paste the code of the snippet.
You can browse snippets by clicking the Browse link. You may browse snippets by Language or by Category. The resulting table shows the list of all snippets of the Language or Category. You may click on the snippet number to view the detail of the snippet.
You cannot modify an existing snippet, but you can add a new version of the snippet by clicking on the Submit a New Version link on the bottom part of the detail page of the snippet. Adding a new version does not delete the old version, all previous versions will be available.
This feature allows users to search for help for their projects.
The NITRC User Guide has been adapted from the Gforge Manual dated January 9, 2006, by Tom Copeland, Roland Mas, Ken McCullagh, Tim Perdue, Guillaume Smet, and Reinhard Spisser. The original document may be found at http://projects.semwebcentral.org/docman/view.php/6/4/gforge.pdf