hipergate v1.2.0
User Manual

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## Table of Contents

1. Configuration

2. General Concepts

3. Contact Management

4. Project Management

5. Virtual Disk

6. Content Production

# Configuration

## Security Administration

### Domains

#### System Domain and Model Domain

When an hiperate database is loaded for the first time, two Domains required for system internal purposes are created: SYSTEM (1024) and MODEL (1025). These domains exist only for administrative purposes and must not be used for testing nor programming tasks.

Default database setup also generates three other domains: TEST, DEMO y REAL; designed for serving as support for rapid application development and testing.

SYSTEM domain is used for administrating other domains with full permissions. Default user and password for SYSTEM is "administrator@hipergate-system.com" / "hipergate".

MODEL domain is used as a template for creating new domains. Default user and password for MODEL is "administrator@hipergate-model.com" / "model".

F Changing SYSTEM and MODEL default passwords is a MUST if a minimum security is to be granted.

F Data on MODEL domain MUST NOT be modified in any way. In MODEL is modified the cloning process may fail making impossible the creation of new domains and workareas.

#### Users and Groups owners of a Domain

Each domain has a single Owner User and Administrators Group with full control over that domain. These User and group are generated automatically upon domain creation. It is not allowed to delete a domain owner nor the administrators group (althought it is possible to change their configuration) because if owner is deleted the domain will become impossible to administrate from the application front-end.

#### How to create domains

hipergate domains can only be created logged to the SYSTEM domain.

Once connected go to Configuration tab and select domains radio button. This radio only appears on SYSTEM Domain.

Each domain has a fixed unique integer identifier that is automatically assigned when it is created, and a name that can be changed at any moment. New domains start on 2048. All domains identifiers from 0 to 2048 are reserved for internal purposes and must not be used.

When a new domain is created, a default WorkArea is automatically generated with name "domainname_default". This WorkArea contains a copy of default lookup values from model_default WorkArea.

After creating the new domain disconnect from SYSTEM and re-connect to your new domain.
If your new domain name is, for example, ENTERPRISE then its administrator's default login will be: user: administrator@hipergate-enterprise.com password: ENTERPRISE. You can change this later by editing user properties from the Configuration tab.

### WorkAreas

Each domain can have one or more WorkAreas. By default domains TEST, DEMO and REAL are pre-loaded with a WorkArea.

#### How to create WorkAreas

Connect to any domain except SYSTEM or MODEL (it is not permitted to created WorkAreas on SYSTEM and MODEL for integrity reasons). Go to Configuration tab and select WorkAreas radio button. A form for WorkArea creation will appear. Choose a unique name for WorkArea. WorkArea names may not be repeated across different domains. A good policy is to name the WorkArea using the domain name as prefix, for example "test_workarea1". Only ASCII-7 characters are allowed for WorkArea names.

#### How to assign Users to WorkAreas

Connect as Administrator of the Domain. Go to Configuration tab. Select Users radio button. Edit user witch default WorkArea is to be changed. Change WorkArea at the combo box.

F Users can only be assigned to WorkAreas that belong to the same domain and they do.

#### How to activate and deactivate modules

hiperate modules are independent and can be used stand alone. For activating or deactivating a module, connect as Domain Administrator. Go to Configuration tab. Select WorkAreas radio button. Select desired WorkArea. A list with all installed applications will appear. For each application decide whether it should be visible at main menu or not and witch User Groups must have one of the four roles for the WorkArea.

### Roles

A WorkArea always have 4 fixed roles: Administrators, Power Users, Users and Guests. For each Role and WorkArea there is a single User Group with that role.

#### How to assign Roles to User Groups

Connect as administrator of domain. Go to Configuration tab. Select WorkAreas radio button. Choose a WorkArea. A list of installed applications will appear. Assign roles for each active application using its combo boxes.

#### The Administrador role

Administrators of a WorkArea have special privileges that may vary from one application to another. Administrators are the only users that can:

- Add or remove lookup values.
- Add or remove user defined fields..

#### The Guest Role

Guests can only perform read operations, being disabled for them all modifications at the database.

### Users

It is possible to create an unlimited number of users per domain. Each user is associated to a WorkArea. Usually a user only sees information from a single WorkArea. The normal login process sends the user to a particular WorkArea, although it is possible to write other login protocols that make data from different WorkaAreas visible to a user.

#### User Home Category

Each user has a home Category home that contains his personal files and other objects.

### Groups

It is possible to create an unlimited number of user groups per domain. A user obtain his permission as the sum of all permission of the groups to witch he belongs. There are no "deny" permissions. Once a user is granted a permission through a group there cannot be revoked by another directive.

# General Concepts

## Data Isolation for Domains and WorkAreas

hipergate is a multi-entity application suitable for working in ASP (Application Service Provider) mode for multiple customer groups at a time. Information is stored in a way that allows to use the same database for several independent customers that are not aware of each other.

Broadly speaking, Domains represent enterprises whilst WorkAreas represent departments inside enterprises.

## Lookup values

hipergate uses a standard system for selection look up values on all screens. For each base table hipergate have another table with all look up values.

Each look up value have an internal value (or code) and a translated label for each supported language.

Look up values may only be of character type. It is possible to set numeric or date values but they will be internally stored as character arrays.

## Queries

Queries are another common functionality for all modules. They are reachable from the top right menu. Available queries depend on what applications are active. Queries are a simple method for retrieving information from the database.

For the sake of simplicity queries may only retrieve information from a single table or view at a time. The user interface allows only 3 search criteria per query.

At standard product setup there are complex database views that allow to retrieve most common information with one of the predefined queries.

# Contact Management

hipergate provides a complete system for contact management, including companies, individuals and sales opportunities.

## Companies

Companies can represent customers, suppliers, competitors, partners, etc.

Each company have a set of Addresses and Contacts. Contacts can also have their own contact addresses. When filling the database take into account whether to associate an address to a company or to a contact.

F It is a good practice to use only uppercase letters with no punctuation symbols for Company and Contact names. The default search is case sensitive.

#### How to add addresses

Addresses cannot be added to a company until it has been saved for the first time. Once saved, addresses may be added from the top left icon or from company by clicking the right mouse button on the company name.

#### How to add bank accounts

Bank accounts cannot be added to a company until it has been saved for the first time. Once saved, bank accounts may be added from the wallet icon at the top of the edition form.

#### How to duplicate companies

Click right mouse button at company listing over the company name. On the context menu select clone. When a company is duplicated its addresses are also duplicated but not its contacts nor bank accounts.

#### How to categorize companies

If Directory application is activated, it is possible to add companies to categories. Using also address per company, this feature can be used for creating hierarchical directories of companies.

#### How to classify companies from the products they buy

If Virtual Shop module is activated, list box will appear at Company edition form.

## Individual Contacts

Individual Contacts can be created company employees or as standalone entities. A contact can have its own addresses or inherit those from its company.

#### How to write notes and attach files for a contact

Click right mouse button over contact name at contact listing page.

#### How to duplicate individuals

At contact listing click right mouse button over contact name. Select clone option. When a contact is duplicated its addresses are also duplicated but not its bank accounts.

#### How to see contact subscriptions to all distribution lists

From Contact Edition form select the Subscriptions link. A page with all lists and status of user per list will be shown. A contact can only be subscribed or unsubscribed from static or direct lists, not from dynamic lists that will be grayed.

## Opportunities

#### How to create opportunities

Opportunities cannot be created independently, they must be associated with a contact or company. For creating an oportunity go to contact list, click right mouse button over the contact name, select Create Opportunity from context menu.

#### Public and Private Opportunities

Opportunities can be visible to all users of a workarea (public) or restricted to the user that created them (private).

## Distribution Lists

Distribution Lists are sets of Contacts or Companies grouped for communication purposes (typically e-mailing, fax or mail).

A distribution list can be of one of three different types:

1. Dynamic Lists
2. Static Lists
3. Direct lists

#### Dynamic Lists

Dynamic lists are based on queries from the Individual Contacts table. Members of a dynamic list are extracted from contacts table on the fly each type the query is used. Thus members of a dynamic list vary over time as the contacts table changes and evolves. It is not possible to add or remove members from al dynamic lists, although it is possible to add them to an associated black list as we shall see later.

Dynamic lists are useful when performing recurrent communications and it is not necessary to keep a record of communicates sent in the past.

#### Static Lists

As dynamic lists, static lists are based on predefined queries. The difference is that members of a static list are set once and then never change over time even if the contacts or companies table change.

Of all data from a Contact or Company, only its Full Name, e-mail and Salutation are stored separately on the static list. Other information -such as postal address- is retrieved at runtime each time the query is used.

Static lists are useful when it is necessary to keep a historic record of all recipients contacted in a particular communication.

#### Direct Lists

Direct Lists are created by loading data directly from a text file. Whilst members of dynamic or static lists are always contacts or companies managed by the application, members of direct lists are external e-mail addresses injected directly into the list.

The only possible information for direct lists is Full Name, e-mail and Salutation. Direct lists, thus are not suitable for postal or fax communications.

#### Black Lists

Each dynamic, static or black list have always an associated black list. Black list contains blocked users that must not receive any e-mails. Black lists are never edited directly because their are always associated to a dynamic, static or direct list.

#### How to create a dynamic or static list

1. Go to Contact Management à Lists.
2. Click New link. The List Creation Wizard will appear.
3. Choose list type -Static or Dynamic-
4. Go to next screen and choose a base query for the list or create a new base query first and then use it.
5. On next page, set sender e-mail address, return e-mail address and display name.
6. Set subject and description.

#### How to create a direct list

Direct list are created by loading delimited text files. The loaded file must have an e-mail column that will be used as member primary key. The file can have up to other 3 columns with name, surname and salutation in any order. Fields must be delimited by commas with one register per line.

For creating a new direct list:

1. Go to Contact Management à Lists.
2. Click New link. The List Creation Wizard will appear.
3. Choose Direct List Type
4. Go to next screen and set delimiter and column order at the text file.
5. On next page, set sender e-mail address, return e-mail address and display name.
6. Set subject and description

#### Possible status of a member at a list

A member may be in one of three status:

1. Active. Member is present at list and may receive e-mails.
2. Unactive. Member is present at list but for some reason has been deactivated (for example its e-mail address returned persistent errors)
3. Blocked. Member is present at list and his e-mail is valid but he has requested not to receive any communications.

When performing an e-mail sending the application automatically excludes inactive and blocked members from processing.

# Project Management

## Projects

Project is the the base entity for managing tasks and incidences on hipergate. Projects can exist standalone or be linked to a Company or Individual. A project can represent the classic notion of a set of tasks to be performed but also can be other things like a support contract.

#### Project List vs. Tree

Projects may be browsed with a conventional list or with a Project Tree. As the projects have a hierarchical structure it is usually useful to browse them with an interface that reflects it.

#### How to create a project

Go to Projects tab and click on New link. The project creation form will appear. On the left there is an hierarchical list of all available projects. On the right there is the basic data of the project to be created. A parent project must be selected on the left, then assign a name to the new project and click Save. If no parent project is specified a root project will be created.

#### How to change a project's parent

1. Go to Project Management à Projects.
2. Click on the Tree link.
3. A Tree with all projects and subprojects for current WorkArea will appear.
4. Select desired project on tree.
5. A new combo box will appear on the right. Select desired new parent and Save.

#### How to assign a project to a client

If the Sales module is activated, the proper lookups will be shown at the Project Creation form.

## Duties

Duties are always associated to a project or subproject.

#### How to set costs for a project

Create a new Duty for the Project. Assign a cost to the Duty. Project cost is the sum of all costs from its duties.

#### How to set resource for a project

Resources must be assigned to duties and not to projects directly.

Project Resources are not related in any way to application users or contacts.

## Incidences

Incidences, as duties, must be associated to a project. This way is possible to link indirectly an incidence to a client by assigning the incidence to a project and the project to a company or contact.

# Virtual Disk

### Directory

Categories are the equivalent at the virtual disk to standard operating system directories. The difference is that hipergate categories are generic containers that can contain objects other than files. Another differential aspect of categories is that they have translation labels for different languages. Each category can show a different name depending on the selected language. This feature allows the creation of multi-lingual hierarchical directories.

From the virtual disk, categories contain to object types: documents and links.

#### How to browse categories

You can browse categories either using the left tree menu or clicking on the links shown in the right part of the page. Both kinds of navigation are equivalent, but left menu is not automatically updated when using the right navigation.

The categories tree can be huge. It has a root node where all child categories from all WorkAreas are placed. By default, each user can see only his personal categories and the shared hives for his domain and WorkArea.

#### How to see all categories

Login as administrator in the SYSTEM domain and open Virtual Disk. hipergate recognizes the SYSTEM domain as a special domain and shows all available categories from all domain. The SYSTEM domain also shows the internal names for each category instead of the translated labels as other domains do.

#### How to create a new category

1. Open Virtual Disk and choose a parent folder in the left tree menu.
2. Click on the selected category and choose New.
3. Alternatively, you can choose the parent category using the right navigation.
4. You will see a form where you can place the translation labels for this domain
5. Click on the plus symbol and select the language for the label you are creating.

F When you assign a label to a category, be careful to add at least your current language in the browser you are using. You can have visualization problems if you don't do so.

#### How to remove a category

Categories are deleted with the link over the left tree menu. When you delete a category all child objects are also removed.

#### Finding files and links

You can search files and link using the text box placed in the upper right part of the Virtual Disk module. The search will return matching file names and/or descriptions, and is case-sensitive.

### Document version tracking

Each document keeps an history of its changes. In fact, documents are versioned internally even if no version number is selected. Each version is identified by a label placed when you upload the file. In the list of files of a category you will see only the latest version for each document.

# Content Production

## Template based documents

Managed documents can be of two kinds: single-page (Newsletters and some other documents) or multi-page (Websites).

hipergate comes with a set of predefined XSL templates to create documents. You cannot add new templates from the web interface, but you can easily create a template from an HTML document and ask your system administrator to install it.

## How to create a new document

When you enter in the content production module you will have de opportunity to create a new Newsletter or Website.

Click on one of the two available options. In the first screen you must choose a document template to use, the language for the contents and optionally add some comments about the document you are creating.

In the next step you will have the chance to upload images to the web server to be added to the template. When you have finished adding files to the list of files to upload, click Finish.

The window will close and you will be redirected to the documents listing. You will see the document you have just created, and from this window you will be able to edit, delete or schedule a mailing (Newsletters)

## Modifying a document

### Modifying a Newsletter

To edit a document, click with the right button over the selected document and choose Edit. A new window will open with the document and a floating control panel with the following options:

- Add a new information block
- Remove an existing block
- Change the style (color, font)
- Edit a block

#### Add a new block

Click on the New option in the Control Panel. A new window will open asking you which kind of block you want to edit. Once added you can modify it.

#### Remove an existing block

Click on the check boxes of the blocks you wish to remove and click on the Remove option.

#### Change the style

The Style option in the Control Panel allows you to modify the colors (CSS) and fonts of the document you are editing.

#### Edit a block

When you edit an existing block, a new window will open with the following items:

- Button Bar: with the options: Save (stores the modifications), Restore (recovers stored data and keeps the window open ), and Close (closes the current window losing changes).
- Text edition zone: There is a text box for each content zone in the current editing block. In each text you can edit the contents, remove the text, surround the current text with a Link and add variable text data with the lower right combo box (this last option is only suitable in Newsletters)
- Image edition zone: You can use an existing image in the Image Management module, see the current selected image, remove the image, add the width and height for this image y surround the image with a link. If you leave the height and width empty the application will get them from the selected image and modify them.

F In most scenarios, you will edit a block, change the texts and click on the Save button. The window will close automaticaly and the document will be regenerated to reflect your changes.

#### Inserting variable (personalized) data

You can add personalized data on any text field in a newsletter. This information is retrieved from the database and replaced when a message is sent. This table shows the possible fields and its values:

Variable Field | Description | Effect
Name | Name of the person the newsletter is sent to | When the message is sent, the tag {#Data.Name} will be replaced with the corresponding value.
Surname | Surname of the person the newsletter is sent to | When the message is sent, the tag {#Data.Surname} will be replaced with the corresponding value.
Email Address | Email address of the person the newsletter is sent to | When the message is sent, the tag {#Data.Email} will be replaced with the corresponding value.
Date | Current Date | When the message is sent, the tag {#Data.Date} will be replaced with the corresponding value.
Time | Current Time | When the message is sent, the tag {#Data.Time} will be replaced with the corresponding value.

F Although you can add variable fields in both Newsletters and Websites, this feature only makes sense in Newsletters you want to sent to a distribution list.

### Modifying a Website

Among the tasks available in the Newsletter editor, you can perform the following actions when editing a Website:

#### Add a new page

To add a new page to a website, click on the New Page option in the top menu of the edition page. A new window will open asking you for the name of the page/tab you want to add, and choose the kind of content you will use in this page.

#### Remove an existing page

Click on the Remove Page link to delete a page from your Website.

#### Choose a page to edit

To modify a page on the Website, select its name from the combo box and click on the Edit Page link.

#### Shared Resources

Websites can include a Shared Resources page. Elements contained in this page can be used from any page in your Website. You can add or remove shared resources by selecting the appropriated page in the combo box and clicking on the Edit Page link.

F The Shared Resources page is not visible when you publish your website. Instead, it is used to create common elements to all pages, for example a menu that should be included somewhere in all pages. To edit this menu, choose the appropriate item from the Edition Menu and open the editor. You can add or remove items from the menu and edit the links for each option.

## Schedule an e-mailing

Clicking with the right button over any Newsletter in the main list will show the Schedule option. A new window will appear with the following steps to send the Newsletter to a distribution list:

1. Choose the distribution list to send the email.

2. Confirm the Newsletter and recipients list. You can add a description for this scheduled job and choose when you want to start sending messages (as soon as possible or at a certain date/time). You can also select if you want to attach the images inside the message or leave them as absolute links.

F When you finish, the Newsletter will be regenerated and queued as a scheduled job. You can see the resulting Newsletter opening it in the Scheduled Jobs window or in the Newsletter List window.