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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on ePortfolios

3/13/2008

 

How do I create a reflection?

  1. Log in
  2. Click on Create Content
  3. Choose Reflection
  4. Give it a Title, Classify (or Catalog it), scroll down slightly and type it in.
  5. Scroll to the bottom and Click Submit
  6. If you want to add an attachment, Scroll about 2/3rds way down to File Attachments Click on that, then Browse (your own machine), Attach, and Submit.
  7. (* Note 'Submit' is like 'Save', and nothing is permanent until it has been Submitted. *)

May 07 IRLS504 Movie We change the layout and 'theme' from time to time, so some of the colors etc. may be different in the video to what you would see now. All the underlying principles are the same, though.

[I am a wizard at html.] How do I create a reflection using html that I have created elsehwhere (in Google Docs, NVu, or Dreamweaver etc.)?

  1. Create a Reflection as above, then go to the text box for content entry
  2. There is a button for html entry. Press it
  3. Insert1
  4. This will bring up a plain text html entry box in another window
  5. Insert2
  6. Type (or paste, or drag and drop) your html into here, then click update
  7. Insert3
  8. That will Update the original
  9. Insert4
  10. Then you need to Submit.
  11. (* Note 'Submit' is like 'Save', and nothing is permanent until it has been Submitted. *)
  12. Here are some qualifications. For security reasons, there is a filter between any html that you input and html that the browser displays. It is possible that this filter will remove some of the html that you have created elsewhere. If you feel that your html is genuinely 'innocent' and your really need all the tags, let us know for we can change the filter. Often full blown web pages use complex CSS styles, which are either in separate style sheets or inline or in the file or document itself. You need to be circumspect here. Style sheets in separate files are awkward (you could attach them, get their url, refer to that url in your html)-- it is probably best just not to do this. Inline, or in file CSS, is fine, but again you probably want to be modest. What is not a good idea is to start with a WORD document, let WORD convert that to html, then get that html and insert it as described here (WORD converts documents to html in a verbose and awkward way, using many styles).

How do I attach an artifact?

  1. Log in. Go to the relevant reflection, Click on Edit
  2. Scroll about 2/3rds way down to File Attachments Click on that, then Browse (your own machine), Attach, and Submit.
  3. Being fancy (optional)
    1. When you attach an artifact, it's there, at the bottom, like an attachment to an email, and if anyone Clicks on it, it will display or download to their machine. However, when you are attaching the artifact, next to it there will appear an address (something like 'http://sirls.arizona.edu/files/cmapping.pdf' ). This is the url of the artifact.
    2. You can use the url address of the artifact to link to it, either in the body of your reflection or (more unusually) from elsewhere. You can use the absolute address, 'http://sirls.arizona.edu/files/cmapping.pdf' to make a link, or it is better practice to use the relative address ie 'files/cmapping.pdf'

Why won't some things attach as artifacts?

The uploading of attachments is restricted in two ways: a) by file size (which is presently set at 2 megs) and b) by file suffix (which is presently set to any of jpg jpeg gif png txt html htm doc xls pdf ppt pps odt zip). So if you try to upload your 3 meg myPhDThesis.doc or your 1 meg movie myHoliday.mov, neither will work. 2 megs is pretty big, and we thought it enough, but it might not be for some power point presentations (you could compress them first before uploading). We may set this larger if that seems appropriate (and also we could change the suffixes is that seems required).

Why do my html artifact attachments become .txt attachments and then not display?

When html files are attached and uploaded, the System adds the suffix '.txt' as a security fix, so myHomePage.html becomes myHomePage.html.txt. This is unsatisfactory for linking to.

Basically we/theCMS cannot allow the User to run arbitrary html as black hat hackers could compromise the system. However, you can paste any html you like into a reflection (because then when you hit Submit we run it through a filter and remove any suspect stuff). We should, of course, run attachments through the same filter (but that is a code level modification). If you have a bunch of links, paste them into the body of the reflection itself (and paste your essay in as well). Just put a heading at the bottom 'My essay' and paste it in.

This is not overly satisfactory, but we are trying to make the best of a bad job here.

How do I insert an image

  1. Click on the green tree icon among your WYSIWYG buttons.
  2. Insert image url (unlikely) or click on small Browse icon to the right (more likely).
  3. Choose your image from the one's already there (unlikely) or Upload a new one from your own machine, by Browsing and Uploading (more likely).
  4. Click Add, make choices about alignment etc., Insert, Submit. Like this ...
  5. How to insert an image

How to import a web page [you need GAT level skills to do this]

  1. Drag and drop from the old web page
  2. Import the images and other external resources
  3. Fix up the urls to 2.
  4. Tidy up the html, using a WYSIWYG html editor like Dreamweaver or Google Docs.
  5. There is a 'gotcha' with returns in the html code. Strict standards suggest that these be ignored. But our systems automatically converts them to line or paragraph breaks (which is the proper behaviour for helping folk unfamiliar with the intricacies). To stop this conversion, change the 'Input format' (below the WYSIWYG icons) to the filter that does not do this.
  6. LIke this... [Note that the movie below is 90megs large, which is big. The video 'streams' so it will start to run without your having to wait for it to download completely. Even so, you are probably wise not to try viewing this on a dial up connection.]
  7. How to import a web page

 

Where do the artifacts go?

The system here is similar to that of email and attachments. Say you are off on your vacation, and, from Internet Cafés, you send a series of emails to your friends and on each one you attach one or more pictures of you sunning yourself, enjoying the Bodlean, etc. The pictures are, in a sense, artifacts, and the emails to some degree are reflections on those pictures (and the events they depict). And, perhaps you would like records of this for yourself to see later and to show to others whose addresses you have forgotten, so you send copies to yourself at home.

Then, on return, someone asks you 'where do the pictures go?', 'how do you manage the pictures?, 'can you forward to me some of the emails and their associated pictures?' 'Can you send me the pictures of you on the big dipper?'.

Well, you start looking through your copies of the sent mail, and you find the relevant email(s). Fortunately the pictures of interest, are for the most part attached to the emails where they belong. So far so good. But then Aunt Thelma asks you to send all the holiday photos of the baby but no photo that has Homer in it. Now you are in trouble, because those photos are attached to different emails, and you don't want all of them.

At this point, with older computer styles of working, you might create yourself a directory or folder, extract all the photos from all the emails and put them in it. Then start searching through that folder for photos of baby etc.

We are not going to do anything like that last step. This present ePortfolio system we are all using sits on a database. Now the database holds all the files, reflections, artifacts, everything, and manages them for us. What it provides for us are addresses of everything. This is no mystery to us librarians. The addresses are a surrogate for the files just exactly as catalog cards can be a surrogate for books on a shelf. All our work is going to be with the surrogates; all we are going to care about is addresses not files (catalog cards not books).

When you write and publish a reflection, you upload (and thus attach) any relevant artifacts to it. And the Content Management System (CMS) in return gives you addresses for those artifacts. Good, the artifacts are 'with' the reflection they relate to.

However, just like the vacation pictures, there are occasions when you might want all the artifacts or all of the artifacts that do not relate to Homer. In other words, you want to cross from reflection to reflection gathering. As stated, it is tricky.

But, hey, we are librarians, we organize things. Clearly what we need to do is to organize the addresses of the artifacts. What we could do, is to start a page called Artifacts, and put all the addresses of the artifacts on it, and also arrange them (artifacts relating to 506, artifacts from my first year, etc.). All of this is good, apart from we don't have an obvious way of producing this index or jump page (and it itself is obviously not a reflection). So here is a suggestion. Every one of you has your own reflections home page within the CMS. If your netID is 'jsmith' that page is called 'jsmithReflections', and that home page automatically links to all of your reflections (have a look and see). Also you can edit it. So why not start a paragraph or section on it called 'My artifact collection' and then just put there the links (addresses) to all your artifacts. You could also put a few words with those links (like meta tags or cataloging information eg links not about Homer).

In sum, attach each artifact to the reflection it relates to (and note the artifacts address). Then click on your group homepage <yourNetIDHere>Reflections, click on the Edit tab, paste in the address and any text you want to add, hit 'Submit'.

So Where do the artifacts go?; answer their addresses go on the relevant reflection and centrally on your home page.

Do I have to put my files on a server first before attaching them? If so, what is the server and do I need to use the secure transfer client software?

You do not have to put your files on a server before attaching them. You just click File attachments, Browse (and find what you want on your computer), Attach, then scroll down and click 'Submit'. [This last bit is a little strange, but it arises because no edit is considered permanent until you 'Submit' it.]. There is no server you are going to. You do not need SSH clients or similar.

What is the difference between reflections and artifacts, and what is the importance of each?

This is explained here.

‹ Creating a Reflection, and how a site like this worksupHints and tips on editing: Images and importing. ›