This document is largely intended for FirstClass Administrators but may have some relevance for RWDe Site Administrators.
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RWD Installation
When RWD is installed, a conference is created in the FirstClass Applications Folder (which is located on the FirstClass Administrator's desktop). If you have other applications that are registered applications on your server (such as FirstClass ED), they will also be located in this folder, along with the Application Configuration form which contains a listing of all registered applications.
Registering Rapid Web Designer in FirstClass
RWD must be registered in the Application Configuration Form as App ID 1002
Note: Simply entering the information in the form does not actually register RWD. A script must be run to cause the registration to take effect at the next Server Restart. This process should have been done as part of the installation of RWD. None of the automation functions of RWD will work until it has been properly registered.
RWD installs as an unlicensed application. This does not mean that it is actually unlicensed, it just means that the method of licensing the product does not use the internal FirstClass License keys.
Inside the Rapid Web Designer Container
Inside the Rapid Web Designer application conference, you will, depending on which version of RWD you have, find that a number of other objects will be present. The image below illustrates what you should find and the following sections describe the contents.
Note: This document outlines the contents of the RWD Application container only. For documentation regarding the other items (B-D in the image below), see the document titled: Installed Material - RWD User Templates
A) Inside the RWD Application Container
One of the objects inside the Rapid Web Designer Container is the RWD Application container. The following section describes its contents.
A - 1) RWD Builder Conferences
Inside the RWD Application folder, you will find the four Builder Conferences. These conferences contain the settings files that will give users the correct RWD Page Builder form for their level of access to the system. Each conference (except RWD Approvers) contains help documentation that is appropriate for that Page Builder form. These conferences are meant to be modeled to the User Groups that correspond to them (see below for more detail on this). No user should be a member of more than one RWD User Group (see RWD User Groups and Container Groups Help Document).
A - 2) FirstClass Admins Only Container
The Rapid Web Designer container also contains a conference for exclusive use by the FirstClass Administrator called the FirstClass Admins Only Conference. It contains the following at a minimum: (it may contain more items, depending on installation)
a) The current original copies of the RWD IS templates which are required for RWD to function (See below for more details on this container).
b) The Copy Machine is a conference with some special application rules inside it that allow you to make copies of containers and calendars as well as documents. Normally in FirstClass, containers can only be aliased, not copied. Using the copy machine, you can build a website template that meets your needs and copy it as many times as you wish to roll out many sites very quickly. These copied sites can then be customized by the individual RWDe Site Administrators who are responsible for them. The copy machine contains a sample website template that you can move or alias to the WWW folder of Internet services to experiment with RWD. The site contains preconfigured pages and sample content to get
you started with RWD.
 Caution!! The copy machine is potentially very dangerous!! If you make a copy of an object with large amounts of original data / objects in it, you will create a new object with that same amount of content in it. This means that you could increase the size of your Network Store dramatically if you inadvertently make a copy of a large enough object. Use this feature with a great deal of caution. It should only be used to make copies of website
conferences once you have built your template out and want to deploy multiple copies of it.
c) The RWDe Internet Monitor conference which contains a very limited version of the Internet Monitor form which can be shared with specific users who can use it to reload the internet configuration file if needed or, more commonly, flush the HTTP cache when required. Permissions and subscriptions for this container are not pre-set and must be given to users specifically by the administrator. When you open this conference, a help document will open automatically to explain this object.
d) For convenience, we've included a FirstCkass bookmark that will seek out the FirstClass Depot server using your FirstClass client so that you can log in to your organization's account and participate in the RWD Online forums and support conference.
e) If you do not have an account on the FirstClass Depot Server, this link will automatically log you in as a guest and present you with a form to fill out to request an account. All customers who are up to date with their Maintenance and Support fees are entitled to an account on the RWD Online server. Should you require more than one account, please contact FirstClass Depot to discuss your requirements.
RWD Templates
The RWD Templates folder contains the current version (and archives of previous versions) of the RWD program. These are IS templates that must be present inside the FirstClass Standard Templates folder.
Upgrades to FirstClass Internet Services will often remove these objects from the .templates folder. All that is required to set things right again is to re-alias the RWD folder and re-copy the 2089 file to the FirstClass Standard Templates folder.
Upgrade by one-click method
When FirstClass upgrades are performed, the RWD templates must be re-aliased to the proper locations in the standard templates folder. This can now be done automatically using one of the two update buttons that are in the Toolbar of the FirstClass Admins Only conference; one is for non-clustered IS implementations and one is for clusters.
If upgrading a cluster, make sure that you know the name of the cluster you are going to upgrade.
Upgrade manually
If for any reason the automatic upgrade method above does not work, the RWD templates can put into the FirstClass Standard Templates folder manually.
There are three objects that must be included in the FirstClass Standard Templates (.templates) folder; First, there is a folder that contains most of the RWD templates and it is simply called RWD. An Alias of the RWD folder must be made to the FirstClass Standard Templates (.templates) folder.
Two files must also be represented in the FirstClass Standard Templates folder but since they are files, they cannot be aliased but must be copied. The 2089 and 2092 template files must be copied to the FirstClass Standard Templates folder which is located inside the Template Sets folder that is, in turn, in the WWW folder of the Internet Services or cluster container that is running RWD. 2089 and 2092 are the RWD master template files and must not be renamed.
A - 3) RWDe Global Control Container
About the RWDe Global Control feature
The ability to exert control over and above the effects of the RWDe Administrator form (.sitepref) is a feature that was added in RWD version 3.
 In previous versions, if there was a message (such as district-wide closing of schools) or a district banner that needed to be in each site, someone had to edit each site's .sitepref form. With the Global Site control feature, any number of sites can be influenced by a single form. If desired, several different Global Site Control forms can be maintained with some sites getting one form and others getting different forms. This is useful when large
districts, or at least geographically wide-spread districts have groups of schools that require different treatment.
Use of the Global Control feature is almost exactly the same as the Banner section of either the Page Builder form or the RWDe Site Administrator's (.sitepref) form. We recommend carefully considering all of the possible site color schemes when creating graphics for this feature so as to avoid the problem of having the global branding clashing with some of the sites.
At right is an example of several websites within a school district, each with the Global branding at the top - all accomplished from one form that was deployed to all sites.
The RWDe Global Control Console
1) Global Site Control Master
The Global Site Control Master is a container (conference) that contains the RWD Global Site Control Form and a redirect page that makes it impossible for web users to see the contents of the conference. The Global Site Control container must be aliased to each website conference that you wish to have affected in order to exert its influence.
Depending on how you plan to use this feature, you may wish to create more than one Global Site Control objects so that you can exert global influence over more than one group of sites. An example of this might be a district that has a Northern group of schools and a Southern Group of schools. If the district management wishes to have the ability to send a different message to the group of Northern Schools than it does the group of Southern Schools or if there is to be a different district banner in the two groups, two different versions of the Global Site Control container must be created.
2) Create New Control Group
To create a new Global Site Control conference (to deploy to a group of website conferences), click on the Global Site Control Master (or any other Global Site Control container that you wish to copy and click on the Create New Control Group Toolbar button. This will create an exact copy of the master object that you can now rename and deploy to whichever sites you wish. NOTE: This button is also used to make a copy of the Code Insertion Master if needed.
3) Deploy Global Control to a Site
In order for a Global Site Control form to have an effect on a website, it must be aliased to the website conference. Clicking this button will alias the selected Global Site Control container to the ROOT site you define when the pop up form appears after clicking the button. You will be asked to name the root website conference to which you wish to deploy the selected Global Site control container (see image below).
4) Deploy Global Control to a Site (Clustered IS)
This button has the same function as the Deploy to a Site button except the form that pops up allows you to define a particular cluster that holds the website conference you wish to deploy the Global Site Control capability to. The form looks like this:
5) Code Insertion Master - For advanced web programmers ONLY!
The Code Insertion Master is a container that holds 4 different files that need to be edited with whatever custom code you wish to deploy to a site or all sites The Code Insertion container must be deployed to each ROOT website conference in order to exert its influence.
Each file in the container comes with examples and basic instruction to guide you in the use of that file but for a general overview, see the section below entitled Inside a Code Insertion Container.
Caution!! Because of the almost limitless possibilities that can result from the use of your own custom codes in conjunction with RWD, the Code Insertion feature of RWD is NOT supported! Use this extremly powerful capability AT YOUR OWN RISK. If your code causes unexpected or unsatisfactory results in the site in which it is deployed, you can remove the Code Insertion by going into the root Website container and revealing the hidden objects. Unprotect and
delete the Code Insertion container and all effects of your code will be removed.
6) Deploy Codes to a Site
In order for the Code Insertion to have an effect on a website, it must be aliased to the website conference. Clicking this button will alias the selected Code Insertion Container to the site you define when the pop up form appears after clicking the button. You will be asked to name the website conference to which you wish to deploy the selected Code Insertion Container (see image below).
7) Deploy Codes to a Site (Clustered IS)
This button has the same function as the Deploy to a Site button except the form that pops up allows you to define a particular cluster that holds the website conference you wish to deploy the Global Site Control capability to. The form looks like this:
8) About this Feature
The part of the RWD documentation relevant to this feature has been reproduced for easy reference
Inside a Global Control Container
1) GlobalControl Form
The GlobalControl form is the form that you will use to set the branding aspects of the system-wide global control feature. Note: Do not change the name of this form.
2) Resources / Images
It is best to store the banner images (if using images) that are referenced by the GlobalControl form right inside the Global Control Container along with the form itself.
Note that all images referenced in the form must be referred to by the absolute path: /globalsitecontrol/imagename.jpg
The Global Control form
The Scrolling Announcement is an excellent way to send a highly visible announcement or message across any number of websites that have had the Global Control feature deployed to them. Particularly important in circumstances where a weather warning, all schools closing, etc. needs to be communicated to the widest possible audience, the scrolling announcement can be instantly turned on or off, and can be formatted to be extremely visible in cases of emergency (Urgent bulletins, Amber Alerts, etc).
When activated, the message will appear at the very top of every web page in every website that has had the feature deployed.
Scrolling Message Tab
1) Exert Global Influence on all Sites
This checkbox is a simple "on/off" switch for the Global Control feature. Un-checking this field will remove the Global Banner and any Global message from all websites where the Global Control feature has been deployed.
2) Scrolling Announcement Broadcast Behavior
The Broadcast field is an extremely important field to understand. This field has extra power in RWD in that it can override the way the entire RWD system has been set up for a given site if needed to: turn on the scrolling message, force the format to take on the RWDe Admin form format, and even broadcast an audible alarm in times of emergency. A diagram illustrating the logic behind this control is located in an Adobe PDF document called RWDe_Help.PDF. The file also contains the same information in a table format.
Broadcast emergency message will result in a message that will be visible on all pages, regardless of any special override settings in a given page.
Broadcast urgent message will result in a message that will be visible on all pages EXCEPT those pages where the Admin-force local checkbox has been checked (See the Advanced Builder Form help for more on this).
Broadcast non-urgent message will result in a message that will be visible on all pages EXCEPT those pages where the Admin-force local checkbox has been checked OR the Use Local form Settings Checkbox has been checked (See the Advanced Builder Form help for more on this).
3) Scrolling Announcement – width of message
The scrolling message can be set to display right across the web page, or, it can take up only a small amount of space on the left side of the page. Set the length of the display of the scrolling Announcement by entering the percentage of the width of the page you wish the message to occupy.
4) Scrolling Announcement Font and Font Formatting
The font for the scrolling announcement can be set and, in the case of special announcements for emergencies or weather warnings, changed to draw even more attention to the announcement. The color of the font, the font size, and the font attributes can also be set / changed to accomplish your goals for the site.
5) Scrolling Announcement Link Open Behavior
The scrolling announcement can have a link associated with it. The links for these announcements can be set to open in a new browser window or in the existing window.
6) Scrolling Announcement – Message
The text of the announcement can be as long as needed although, with the relatively slow speed of the scrolling action, it is recommended that you keep your announcement short and to the point. Longer messages should be displayed across more of the page (with a higher Scrolling width % setting)
an example of what a message might look like:
School closed today in North Central Region due to snow - click here for more
7) Scrolling Announcement – Message Link
If desired, a link to more information (such as the school transportation authority or the weather service) can be associated with the message. For any links to outside websites, you must use the fully qualified internet syntax such as (http://www.sitename.com/linkname) and we strongly recommend that you do the same for all internal links as well as local FirstClass references may not work properly in all cases on centrally set links.
8) Scrolling Announcement ToolTips
ToolTips allow for extra content to be displayed when a user hovers their mouse over top of a particular message. The ToolTip allows for a completely different message to be displayed (for example, a more descriptive summary of the link that will result in a click on the scrolling message)
Banner Image Tab
1) Include a graphical Banner (Image) or Flash file selector
Almost all of the fields in this tab will be hidden until you select something from this first field. If the field is left set to "Do not include a Banner", none of the fields will be visible and the banner aspect of the Global Control Feature will be turned off. You can choose to insert an image or a Flash file in the Banner section using this drop down selector.
If you choose to insert a Flash file, two additional fields need to be configured (see 7) and 8) below).
2) Banner Image Justification Setting
The banner image can be set to be justified on the left, in the center, or on the right side of the page. Generally, this is set to left for the first image as a second image can be put on the right side. If you wish to have Flash play on the right side of your banner, set this field to right as only this first section is able to contain Flash. Whatever you set this justification to, the other image in the banner (if used) will appear opposite to it.
3) Banner Path / Filename
Enter the path and file name of the uploaded banner image or Flash file in this field. Avoid using the name 'banner' in your image file as many spyware blockers will block these images. We suggest the naming standard: glob_bnr_lft.jpg.
If using Flash, enter the path and file name of the Flash file you have uploaded to your site.
4) Banner Image Link
The banner image can now have a link associated with it. Enter an URL that will be opened when a user clicks on the banner. This feature is particularly useful when a central authority wants to use a banner to carry a brand throughout all websites and wants a common link back to the central authority's website.
5) Link Open Behavior
Generally, links to outside websites should open in a New browser window while links to internal pages are best opened in the Same browser window.
6) Banner ToolTips
ToolTips allow for extra content to be displayed when a user hovers their mouse over top of the banner image. (for example, a summary of where the user will be taken if they click on the banner image (which will open the URL in the Banner Link To field).
7) Change image width
While this field will work on an image, it is not generally recommended that you scale images this way (you are much better off to scale the image before uploading it to your site).
If, however, you are using Flash - you must define the width and height of the flash file. This field scales the image or file in the horizontal aspect.
8) Change image height
This setting scales the image or the file in the vertical aspect but comes with the same recommendations as 7) above
9) Use Background Color
This setting will create a background color wash upon which both graphical banner images will sit. This area previously inherited the color of the Header Section background but was added to enhance the design possibilities.
10) Use Background Image
To further enhance the flexibility of the product, a background image can be set behind the banner images. If a valid Path and Filename is entered into this field, the background image will automatically tile to fill the space available.
11) Background Image Path / Filename
Enter the path and file name of the uploaded banner image you wish to use as your background for the Banner Section. The image will be tiled across the section. Avoid using the name 'banner' in your image file as many spyware blockers will block these images. We suggest the naming standard: glob_bnr_bg.jpg.
12) Second Banner Image
A second banner image can now be added to all pages to augment the first one or to create special effects (particularly the 'squishy' scalable web pages where two bookend graphics "float" over top of a background image.
All other controls in this second image section function exactly as the related control for the first image.
Inside a Code Insertion Container
The files that make up the Code Insertion feature of RWD, when deployed to a site, will be read by the web browser at various points in the RWD source code. Any custom code inserted in these files will affect the web page according to the nature of the code that has been added to the files.
The image below illustrates where in the RWD source code each of the included files will be read by the browser as the page is rendered.
Again, use this feature at your own risk as FirstClass Depot will not support it!
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