Helpsheet How To Copy Glow Groups Between Establishment Sites

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Helpsheet: How to copy Glow Groups between establishment sites
Helpsheet: How to copy Glow Groups between establishment sites
The ability to copy Glow Groups between establishments site can be
valuable. You may wish to use this process to:
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Share examples of good practice
The content of a Glow Group can be copied, as well as the structure.
So, a local authority wishing to publicise examples of good practice,
might choose to copy a Glow Group from a school site and replicate it
on the authority site.
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Move a school Glow Group to the authority site in order to give
users line-of-sight
For example, a school may have created a Glow Group for use within the
school community only. The original intention of the Glow Group may
then have developed into a collaborative project involving a number of
other schools in the authority. With the Glow Group located on the
school site, only members of that school can have direct line-of-sight
to it and therefore see it listed in their ‘My Glow Groups’ list and
receive targeted news from it. Members in other schools will need to
be sent the link to the Group in order to access it. Copying the Glow
Group and replicating it on the authority site would allow all users
to have equal access to it, including receiving targeted news.
Important note: Copying and replicating Glow Groups bypasses the
standard ‘Glow’ method of creating a Glow Group, instead the process
described in this document uses the Sharepoint functions which
underlie Glow. This means that there are a number of limitations to
the process, which you should take into account whenever copying a
Glow Group. A summary of these limitations is given below and further
detail is given on page 5 of this document.
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In a replicated Glow Group, the ‘Contributor’ level of permissions
gives a higher degree of rights than normal. This can be modified,
if required.
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The ‘Reader with Discussions’ level of permissions is not
available by default in the replicated Glow Group. It can however
be added, if required.
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The amount of content (for example, documents and images) that can
be copied and replicated is limited to 10MB.
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Sub-groups are not copied.
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Content within the original Glow Group, such as postings on a
discussion board, will display the SCA’s name when copied to a new
Glow Group.
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Graphics held within ‘Image’ web parts may need to be restored in
the replicated Glow Group.
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The process of copying and replicating a Glow Group has been
tested as fully as possible. However, it is possible that you may
find other limitations to the process. If you do, please let us
know so that this document can be amended for other users’
information.
*
This process has not yet been tested for Learning Spaces (ie. Glow
Groups which link to Glow Learn).
Copying and replicating a Glow Group between establishment sites
The process of copying and replicating a Glow Group is split into four
stages:
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Saving an existing Glow Group as a template
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Exporting the template
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Importing the template on a different establishment site
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Creating a new Glow Group from the template
Note: in order to start this process you must be logged on as the Site
Collection Administrator (SCA) for the establishment from which a Glow
Group is to be saved as a template. Importing the template into a
second establishment has to be done by the SCA of that establishment.
Saving an existing Glow Group as a template
Note that in order to carry out this process, you must be logged on to
Glow as the Site Collection Administrator for the establishment.
1.
Log on to Glow and navigate to the Noticeboard page of the Glow
Group that you want to replicate. Ensure that you are happy with
the layout of pages, web parts and any content.
2.
Click on Advanced Settings then on Site Settings.
3.
In the Administration section, select Go to Site Administration.
4.
In the Management and Statistics section, click on Save site as
template. To ensure that you are indeed copying the correct Glow
Group, check that the name displayed at the top of the screen is
that of the Glow Group you wish to replicate. (If it’s not, for
example if the name of the establishment is displayed, click on
Back to Noticeboard in the top left corner of the screen and start
again at step 1.)
5.
Give the template a name, title and description.
6.
Tick the Include Content box and then click OK.
7.
On the ‘Operation Completed Successfully’ screen, click OK.
8.
Click on Back to Noticeboard in the top left corner of the screen.
The template is stored in the template gallery and can now be
exported for use on other sites.
Exporting the template
Having created the Glow Group template, you are now ready to export it
to a location outside Glow. You must be logged on as the SCA for the
establishment where the template has been created in order to carry
out this process.
1.
Navigate to the Noticeboard page of the establishment site.
2.
Click on Advanced Settings then on Site Settings.
3.
In the Administration section, click on Go to Site Administration.
Ensure that the name of your establishment is displayed the top of
the screen. If it is not, scroll down to the bottom of the screen
and click on Go to Top-Level Site Administration.
4.
In the Site Collection Galleries section, click on Manage site
template gallery.
5.
Click on the name of the template you saved previously.
6.
A dialogue box will open. Click Save.
7.
Choose a suitable location to save the template and then click
Save.
8.
If a dialogue box appears to tell you the process is complete,
click Close. The template has now been exported.
Importing the template
To do this, you must be logged on as the SCA for the establishment
that the Glow Group template is to be imported into.
1.
Navigate to the Noticeboard page of the establishment site into
which the template is to be imported.
2.
Click on Advanced Settings then on Site Settings.
3.
In the Administration section, click Go to Site Administration.
4.
In the Site Collection Galleries section, click on Manage site
template gallery.
5.
Click on Upload Template and then browse to where the template was
exported (in step 7 above). Click Open.
6.
Click Save and Close to import the template.
7.
Click on Back to Noticeboard in the top left hand corner. The
template is stored in the template gallery and can now be used to
create new Glow Groups.
Creating a new Glow Group from the template
Before you continue, consider where you want your new Glow Group to be
created. This will either be as a top-level Glow Group on the
establishment site or as a sub-group of an existing Glow Group.
1.
If you want the new Glow Group to be a top-level Group, navigate
to the Noticeboard page of the establishment site.
If you want it to be a sub-group of an existing Glow Group, then on
the establishment site click on the Glow groups tab and open the
appropriate Glow Group. Ensure that you are on the Noticeboard page of
this Glow Group.
2.
Click on Advanced Settings then on Site Settings.
3.
In the Administration section, choose Manage sites and workspaces.
Check the name shown at the top of the screen. If this shows the
name of your establishment site, then your Glow Group will be
created as a top-level Group. If the name of a Glow Group is
displayed, then your new Group will be created as a sub-group of
it. Make sure this is what you intended, before continuing!
4.
At the top of the page, click on Create.
5.
You are about to create a new Glow Group, based on the template
that you have uploaded. Give the new Glow Group a title and
description. These can be the same as used on the original site or
can be different, if you prefer.
6.
In the Web Site Address section, enter the name of your new Glow
Group at the end of the URL, but this time don’t put spaces
between words. For example, if in step 5 you called the Group
Weather and Climate enter the name here as WeatherandClimate.
7.
In the Permissions section select Use unique permissions. This
enables you to select the members of the new Glow Group and assign
appropriate rights.
8.
Click Create at the bottom of the screen.
9.
In the ‘Template Selection’ screen scroll down the list of
templates and select the template you imported. Click OK.
10.
The replicated Glow Group will open but with no page tabs
displayed. To put this right, click on Advanced Settings, choose
Add, Edit or Remove pages and then simply click on Back to
Noticeboard in the top left corner of the screen. (You don’t need
to do anything on the ‘Add, Edit or Remove’ pages screen).
11.
The replicated Glow Group currently has no filter policy set.
Click Advanced Settings and then Change Content Policy. From the
drop-down menu, select the appropriate filter policy and then
click Save.
12.
The Glow Group has now been successfully replicated, but currently
has no members. Please read the information in the next section
‘Group Membership Permissions’ before setting the membership of
the new Glow Group.
Limitations of the copying process
Group Membership Permissions
The membership of the Glow Group you have replicated is not copied.
Once a new Glow Group has been created, its membership and permissions
need to be set.
Using a template to produce a Glow Group differs from the way in which
a Glow Group is normally created. This has an effect on the way access
rights behave and it is essential to take the following differences
into account:
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‘Reader with Discussions’ rights
In a Glow Group created from a template, the ‘Reader with Discussions’
right is not available by default.
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‘Contributor’ rights
Normally, Contributor rights enable users to add news and what’s on
events, upload documents, and modify their own view of pages within a
Glow Group.
However, in a Glow Group created from a template, the Contributor
permission additionally allows users to modify the shared view of all
pages, other than the Noticeboard. This means that users could
re-design the pages, by closing web parts or adding new web parts,
affecting the view seen by all users of the Glow Group.
It is fairly straightforward, however, to customise the permissions to
meet your requirements for the Glow Group. The steps below explain how
to create the ‘Reader with Discussions’ permission (or ‘site group’ in
Sharepoint terminology) and how to modify the existing ‘Contributor’
site group.
Creating a ‘Reader with Discussions’ site group
1.
Navigate to the Noticeboard page of the Glow Group, click Advanced
Settings then Site Settings.
2.
Click on Go to Site Administration then Manage site groups.
3.
Click Add a Site Group. In the ‘Site group name’ box type in
Reader with Discussions.
4.
In the List Rights section, select the checkbox for View Items and
in the Site Rights section, select View Pages.
5.
Click Create Site Group at the bottom of the screen.
6.
Click Back to Noticeboard.
7.
Click on the Discussions link in the title bar of the web part.
8.
Click Modify settings and columns then Change permissions for this
discussion board.
9.
Select Reader with Discussions then select View, insert, edit,
delete items. Click OK.
10.
Click on Modify item-level security. In the ‘Item-level
Permissions’ section check that Read access is set to ‘All Items’
and Edit access is set to ‘Only their own’. Click OK.
11.
Repeat steps 7-10 for any other discussions web parts contained in
the Glow Group.
12.
The ‘Reader with Discussions’ permission can now be used as normal
when setting the membership rights of the Glow Group.
Modifying the ‘Contributor’ site group
This situation with the Contributor site group is different from that
described previously with the ‘Reader with Discussions’ site group.
Where the latter site group was not present at all and needed to be
created, the Contributor site group does exist as a default site group
for the replicated Glow Group, but gives additional (and perhaps
unwanted) permissions. This occurs because the process of replicating
a Glow Group uses Sharepoint procedures, rather than the usual Glow
functions. The steps below explain how to modify the permissions of
the site group to replicate the usual Glow permissions.
1.
Navigate to the Noticeboard page of the Glow Group, click Advanced
Settings then Site Settings.
2.
Click on Go to Site Administration then Manage site groups.
3.
Click on Contributor and then on Edit Site Group Permissions.
4.
A number of checkboxes will be selected by default. In the List
Rights section deselect the box for Edit Items. This is the option
which gives more permissions than would be normal for Contributor
rights on a Glow Group.
5.
Click Submit at the bottom of the screen.
6.
Click Back to Noticeboard.
This has amended the overall rights of Contributor across all web
parts in the Glow Group. Any user given Contributor rights would be
able to add and delete items from web parts, and modify their own view
of the Glow Group pages. However, they cannot currently edit anything
in the Glow Group. If you want Contributors to have this right, you
now need to change permissions on individual web parts.
7.
Click on the link in the title bar of the web part, for which you
wish to change the permissions (e.g. the News web part).
8.
Click Modify settings and columns then Change permissions for this
list.
9.
Click on Contributor.
10.
Checkboxes will already be selected for the ‘View List Items’,
‘Add List Items’ and ‘Delete List Items’ options. Add the checkbox
for Edit List Items. Click OK.
11.
Click on Back to Noticeboard.
12.
Repeat steps 7-11 for other list web parts, such as What’s on, Web
links and Discussions. Ensure that you include any additional list
web parts that have been created, such as a new Web links web part
or a survey. Note that the Documents web part offers slightly
different options and will already be set to allow Contributors to
edit.
13.
The modified Contributor site group can now be used as normal when
setting the membership rights of the Glow Group.
Other limitations of the copying process
Glow Group Content
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If the original Glow Group (used to create the template) contained
content, such as postings on a discussion board or news items,
these will be copied to the new Glow Group but will display the
name of the SCA, not the name of the original contributor.
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If the Glow Group used to create a template contains sub-groups,
these will not be copied.
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It is recommended that Glow Meet and Glow Chat web parts are
removed from a Glow Group before it is copied and exported for use
on other sites. If these web parts are included when the template
is created, then it will be necessary on the replicated Glow Group
to remove the web parts, add them afresh from the Virtual Server
Gallery and configure them in the usual way.
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If the original Glow Group contained a graphic in an ‘Image’ web
part, it may not be displayed correctly in the new Group. If this
is the case:
1.
Click Advanced Settings then Existing Documents and Lists.
2.
Select the Picture Library; this contains all the images used in
the Glow Group.
3.
A file can be saved from here and uploaded to the individual
‘Image’ web part again, if required.
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Any content contained in the Glow Group, such as images, documents
and discussions, is copied as part of the template. The maximum
size of template that can be created is 10 MB. To check the size
of the Glow Group’s content:
1.
Go to the establishment site, click Advanced Settings then Site
Settings.
2.
Click on Go to Site Administration then View storage space
allocation. The size of document and picture libraries is
displayed. Look at the URLs to check which are relevant to the
specific Glow Group.
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Saving templates uses part of a site’s storage allocation. It is
recommended that templates are deleted when they are no longer
needed. To check the storage allocation:
1.
Go to the establishment site, click Advanced Settings then Site
Settings.
2.
Click on Go to Site Administration then View storage space
allocation. Total usage is displayed at the top of the screen.
3.
To delete templates, go to the establishment site, click Advanced
Settings then Site Settings. Click Go to Site Administration then
Manage site template gallery. Click on the edit icon next to the
template you wish to delete.
And finally…
Once you have replicated your Glow Group, consider whether it is
necessary to keep the original. If your aim was to move the Glow Group
not duplicate it, it can now be deleted. Ensure that you are happy
with how the replicated Glow Group looks and works, before the
original is deleted.
Note: You must be logged on as the SCA for the establishment where the
original Glow Group is sited in order to carry out this process.
1.
Navigate to the Noticeboard page of the Glow Group you want to
delete.
2.
Click Advanced Settings.
3.
Click Site Settings.
4.
In the Administration section click Go to Site Administration.
5.
In the Management and Statistics section click Delete this site.
6.
The name of the Glow Group is displayed both at the top of the
screen and as the last section of the URL. Check both of these to
ensure that you are deleting the correct Glow Group, then click
Delete.
7.
Click on the link to return to the Staff home page.
Further information:
You may also be interested in reading ‘Helpsheet - how to copy Glow
Groups within an establishment site – GC460’.
A uthor: Glow Team Page 9 of 9 Ref: GC461_v1.1