First Steps after Installation

Almost everything below happens in the ACP. Click ACP in your site's header to open it. Only master admins see that link.

The ACP has three tabs at the top left:

• Dashboard: site statistics, users online, items waiting for approval, and the Activity Log.
• Modules: every installed module, grouped in categories (Core, Profiles, Users, Site, ...). Click a module to see its tabs: Global Config (settings for the whole site), Quota Config (settings per quota), Tools, Language, Images, Templates, Info and Help. Not every module has all of them.
• Skins: the installed skins and their settings.

The Search box above the module list searches the ACP.

Open the System Check (ACP > Modules > Core > System Core > Tools > System Check) and work through the yellow and red lines. Create the Admin Account explains the usual ones.

Enter your Marketplace System ID if the installer didn't, then open ACP > Modules > Core > Marketplace > System Updates and install any updates. See Your jamroom.net Account and the Marketplace.

Turn on Maintenance Mode in ACP > Modules > Core > System Core > Global Config. Visitors then see your Maintenance Message. Admins can still log in and use the site, and other members are logged out until you turn it off. Turn it off when you open the site.

In the same place, set the System Name: your site's name, as shown in page titles and emails.

Jamroom emails members: account activation, password resets and notifications. In ACP > Modules > Communication > Email Support > Global Config, check:

• From Email Address: set to your admin account's email when you created it. Change it if members should see a different address.
• From Name
• Delivery Method: how email leaves your server.

Email from a web server is often marked as spam. A delivery service gets it to inboxes more reliably. Install one from the Marketplace if you can.

Signup settings are per quota, in ACP > Modules > Users > Users > Quota Config:

• Allow Signups: whether new members can sign up into the selected quota. If more than one quota allows it, the signup form lets people choose.
• Signup Method:
  • Instant Validation: the account is active straight away.
  • Email Validation: the member clicks a link in an email first.
  • Admin Validation: you approve each account.
• Power User Enabled: lets members in this quota create more than one profile.

Decide which kinds of members your site has, and create a quota for each in the Quota Browser (ACP > Modules > Profiles > Profiles > Tools > Quota Browser). The new site has one, example quota. Then give each quota its modules in each module's Quota Config tab.

Key Concepts explains quotas, and Example: a Community Site with a Shared Forum walks through a setup from start to finish.

Jamroom Open Source comes with the Elastic 2 skin. Install more from the Marketplace (its Skins tab).

To change the skin, open ACP > Skins, click the skin, check Set As Active Skin and save. Each skin also has its own tabs:

• Global Config: the skin's options
• Style: colors and fonts
• Images: logo and other images
• Language: text
• Templates: the page templates

Your skin provides the main site pages, such as the home page and member lists. Change them, or add new pages, with Site Builder. While you're logged in as master admin, every page that can be edited in Site Builder shows a Site Builder button. (Show Site Builder Button in ACP > Modules > Site > Site Builder > Global Config turns it on or off.)

See the Site Builder chapter.

Sign up for a second account in another browser, or in a private window, and use the site the way your members will. Upload something, check what the profile shows and which emails arrive. Fix what you find, then turn off Maintenance Mode.