General Overview
Log-In
Once you have been set up with an account for VSM you will be given a username and password. The log-in screen is available at http://vsm7help.vsmtools.com. You will be required to enter your username and password to access the administration tools.
Diagram A
Please note the supported browsers listed below the log in screen. If you try to access the system with an unsupported browser it will alert you.
If you have forgotten your password you may click the Forgot Log In link to have it emailed to you. Enter your email address that is associated with the account and the website domain that is being managed. You should receive a notice in your email within a couple minutes. If not, the email address is not associated with the account and you will have to call or write support to retrieve this information: support@efinitytech.com, (360) 805-8483.
Once your username and password has been entered press the log-in button to gain access to VSM.
Dashboard
Upon logging in, you will be presented with the dashboard and various modules and actions will be available depending upon your account access level as well as installed add on modules to your website.
Diagram B
This is a site administrator view
- This is the main navigation area for VSM. Clicking on the home icon or Website link will take you back to the dashboard. Some items may be grayed out indicating that they haven’t been enabled for your site. To the far right is icons for log-off, about VSM, help and scroll to top.
- QUICK EDIT will immediately take you into the edit mode of the homepage of your website.
- CREATE A PAGE allows you to add new pages to your website. This can be opened by Pages > Add a Page from #1.
- From ADD IMAGES/DOCS you may upload new images and documents, or manage existing files in the library. This will pop-up over the screen so you will not lose your place. Clicking on Images/Docs from 1 will open to the same location.
- The PAGE MANAGER contains all of the pages of the site and allows you to organize them in folders for adding limited user access. You can also search by page name or folder. The pages link in #1 opens the same location.
- MANAGE NAVIGATION allows you to add pages to your main navigation of the website. This is ultimately what your site visitors will use to navigate your website.
- All the pages of your website are displayed here. There are indicators to determine the type of page. An N denotes a Newsletter page, a C is a companion or Pop-up page, while all standard pages do not have an indicator. Clicking on the name of the page will take you into the edit mode for that page. The green up arrow indicates the page is published, while the red down arrow is an unpublished page. Only published pages are available to your website visitors. Although not evident in the diagram above a “home” icon displays for the default or homepage of the website.
- These two graphs display site usage. The first shows the number of pages on the website and whether they are published or unpublished. The disk usage graph displays the amount of website storage used and available. Although the example above shows 500MB as the limit your account may differ. Below the graphs is a number indicating the website ID. This can be very helpful information for troubleshooting, and you may be asked for this from support if you are encountering an issue.
- Recently edited pages are listed here. Clicking on the page name will take you into the edit mode for that page.
- These links to support videos should answer most general usage questions. The list displayed here may change or appear differently with each individual log-in.
Templates
Only users with strong HTML and CSS knowledge should even venture into this area. There are four template areas available to edit: Website Templates, CSS Files, Page Content Layout and Button Styles. Select the desired template from the dropdown and click edit. We’ll only cover the website template in this example since the others are very similar.
Diagram L
Once you edit the template you will see the raw HTML load (5) as well as additional properties (1,2,3,4).
There is also the ability to open a dialog box to list the pages that are currently using the selected template. From here the pages can actually be reassigned to another template if so desired.
The HTML will have tags in the following format [#TEXT#]. These tags will be replaced upon a page save with specific information. Below is a list of the tags and their purpose:
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[#SSL#] |
Will allow the page to be set to secure if the SSL checkbox is checked in the page advanced settings. Must be placed above all content |
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[#CODEHEADER#] |
System reserved and must exist above all content |
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[#ASPCODE#] |
System reserved and must exist above all content |
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[#JSFILES#] |
System reserved and must exist after <TITLE> tag |
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[#METACHARSET#] |
Is used to display other language encoding other than English |
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[#METATITLE#] |
Meta title information from advanced page properties |
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[#METADESCRIPTION#] |
Meta description information from advanced page properties |
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[#METAKEYWORDS#] |
Meta keyword information from advanced page properties |
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[#BREADCRUMBS#] |
Will create a navigation path to the page will properties specified in website > overview section |
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[#TAGLINE#] |
Populates the tagline set in website > overview |
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[#TITLE#] |
The title of the website from website > overview will replace this |
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[#PAGENAME#] |
The page name of the specific page being loaded |
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[#ADDRESS1#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#ADDRESS2#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#CITY#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#STATE#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#ZIP#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#SUPPORTEMAIL#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#PHONE#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#FAX#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#FNAME#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#LNAME#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#CONTENT#] |
The page content will load wherever this is placed |
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[#NAVIGATION#] |
Main navigation (is site specific, so may vary) |
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[#NAVIGATION2#] |
Additional navigation area, possibly the footer or sidebar |
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[#NAVIGATION3#] |
Additional navigation area, possibly the footer or sidebar |
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[#COMPANION1#] |
Loads a companion/pop-up page within this page |
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[#COMPANION2#] |
Loads a companion/pop-up page within this page |
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[#PAGEICON#] |
Populates the same named textfield from website > overview |
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[#IMAGES#] |
Prefixes the path to an element with “/U/[siteid]” |
Site Overview
The website overview form section is separated into two areas: Site profile and Email Form sending. This area addresses site wide settings and changes here will generally affect the site globally. Most of the text fields listed are self explanatory, so we will address the fields that require more explanation.
Site Profile
- To the right of the website id you should see website statistics (if not this isn’t available to you or not set-up on your website). Web stats will give you some modest reporting on how many visitors you are getting to your website. We recommend strongly that you add Google Analytics for more in depth stats.
- The website name is not the url of the website and will appear in the header of the browser window.
- If the website url is not in place you will not be able to publish pages. When you publish a page it uses this information to render the page properly.
- A default username and password is created for the account management and is referenced here. Do not remove this information.
- Some websites are set-up to support bread crumb navigation. You can set presentation preferences here.
- Most of the Profile elements can be referenced by the website template (see site template for more information).
Email Form Sending Configuration
If you are hosting your email internally or with a provider other than Efinity, you will need to set-up this section. This will allow the website that is hosted with us to send using your hosted email.
- The Server Name is the name of the email hosting
- Usually the server port is 25 or 587 or 465 if SSL enabled
- Generally the email will not be SSL encrypted
- SMTP authentication will need to be set-up if:
- You choose not to whitelist efinitytech.com as a sender (IP: 205.234.67.17)
- Efinitytech.com is not set as an authorized relay
- If SMTP authentication is set to yes, then input the username and password to the sending account.
Users
There are a number of different types of users that can be set-up to manage your website. Keep in mind that users defined within this area are only for logging into VSM tools.
Clicking on the Users link will display all users for the website. If you have a large number of users, you may perform a search on the name or username. From the list display you may add a new user, edit, delete, disable, or enable an existing one.
When adding a user you may create one of the following:
Site Admin
This Account has unrestricted access to all functions and modules of the site.
General Admin
The general admin account type allows you to add specific permissions to modules and website management access. It has unrestricted access to edit website pages. When adding this user and completing the initial information you will have the opportunity to define specific areas of the website that you would like to grant access.
Editor
The editor has restricted access to website management and must be assigned to a folder with specific permissions limited to editing, publishing, adding pages and folders (see adding users under page manager). This account cannot access the navigation or any module functions.
Staff & Client
Reserved account for specific client needs and must be enabled for it can be used.
Restore & Backup
The restore & backup section allows you to:
- Restore Page allows you to restore a review page to have the same content as the published version of the same page. Think of it as publishing in reverse.
- Release Locked Pages will open a list of all pages that are currently locked. From there you may release any locked page and make it available for editing.
- Site Backup will back-up the entire website into a downloadable zip file. Keep in mind that it may take a few minutes to complete. Each site backup will be displayed in a list view that can be downloaded or deleted.
Page Mapping
Mapping allows you to create pointers to pages. This allows you to create easy links, or landing pages for tracking. There are two values for a map, Destination page that you may select from the dropdown list of existing pages and the source page that you define.
Example
I have a marketing campaign based upon a mailing. In the marketing brochure or postcard I can promote a map page so that I can track the resulting click thrus. I create a map with the destination page being the homepage. For the source, create a pointer named “/promo/”. This will set-up the website address http://www.mydomain/promo to redirect to the homepage once it is typed in.