Jamroom - First Steps and Introduction
Now that Jamroom has been installed, you might be looking at all of the different options that Jamroom can do for you, and wondering where you begin, and how Jamroom works.
If you haven't logged in to your Jamroom yet, make sure you have logged in as the Master Admin so you can follow along in our walk through. If you are already logged in, but are viewing your Jamroom Home Page, you will want to click on the "Control Panel" link, which is normally located in the top or side menu of your Jamroom - this will take you into Jamroom's Control Panel.
The Jamroom Master Admin Menu
When you click on the "Control Panel" link from your homepage as the Master Admin, you will be taken to the Jamroom Master Admin Menu. The Jamroom Master Admin menu can only be seen by the Master Admin - none of your artists or members can view this menu. This menu is the "heart" of where all your System Configuration and options can be accessed and changed.
Change your System Name
Our first step will be to change your System Name. By default, the System Name will be "Jamroom". We want to change it to something that reflects your site. So click on "System Config" in the Master Admin Menu, then click on "System Settings". At the very top you will see a text entry box for "System Name" - enter the name you would like to call your Jamroom into the form field, then scroll down to the bottom of the form and press "Update Settings". That's it - now all your pages will reflect the name you entered as System Name.
View the Activity Log
Now that you have made a change to the Jamroom Settings, you can view the Activity Log. Click on the "Activity Log" link in the Master Admin menu and you will see that by updating your settings, Jamroom logged a message to your Activity Log. The Activity Log records all user and admin "actions" to a central location that can be searched and exported into a CSV file. If you are experiencing any issues in your Jamroom, the Activity Log is a good place to start, as it will alert you to any issues that might need your attention.
View the Server Check
The Server Check is a tool that tells you the various features and Jamroom settings that are affected by your Jamroom Server - this is where you want to go to get a quick overview of what Jamroom Add-ons are installed in your Jamroom, whether or not they are installed correctly, and see if there are any upgrades available . To access the Jamroom Server Check, click on the "Server Check" link from the Admin Menu. The Server Check is very helpful in giving you a reason as to why a Jamroom module may not be working for you.
Set the "Active" System Skin In Jamroom there are 2 main "areas" that can be customized - these are:
- System Skins - a "skin" controls the look and feel of all of the pages that make up the "main" part of your Jamroom site - that is, every page that is NOT a profile page of a specific artist or member in your Jamroom. The skin files are located in the jamroom/skins directory.
- Profile Themes - the individual Profile Pages are controlled by "Profile Themes" - these themes are often styled to look like their associated Skin, but it is not a requirement. Profile Theme templates are located in the jamroom/themes directory.
What we are going to do now is set the "Active" System Skin. The System Skins can be access in the System Config -> System Skins section. You will see when you enter this screen that one of the Skins is already showing as the "Currently Active" skin. You can make any of the other Skins the "Active" skin by clicking on the "Set as Active Skin" button to the right of the desired skin.
Modify a Profile Quota
At the very heart of Jamroom's flexibility and power is the Profile Quota. A Profile Quota can be thought of as a "Profile Group" that allows you to define the set of Jamroom features that are made available to any profile that belongs to the Profile Quota. With almost 200 different settings and options available within the Profile Quota, there is a tremendous amount of configurability that you can choose from to allow you to differentiate the options you want to make available to your profiles.
To see all of the different options available to you in the Profile Quotas, click on the "System Config" link in the Admin Menu, then on the "Profile Quotas" link. This will take you to the Profile Quotas display where you will see the different Profile Quotas currently created in your Jamroom. By default, on a new Jamroom install that has all of the Jamroom add-on packs installed, you will see 3 Profile Quotas: an "Artist" quota, a "Member" quota and a "Visitor" quota. These three quotas control the various features of Jamroom that are available to the profiles in the Profile Quota.
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Tip: The "Visitor" Profile Quota is a unique Profile Quota that only applies to users that are viewing your Jamroom, but are not logged in. |
Click on the "modify" button to the right of the "Artist Quota",and you will be taken into the Modify Quota screen. In order to not overwhelm you by having all 200+ options on the screen at once, you will see that the Modify Quota screen is displayed with "tabs" across the top that separate the available settings into categories. It is within these tabs that you will find the individual Profile Quota settings that control the feature set your Artist and Members have access to. Spend a few minutes browsing through the available features to get an idea of the amount of options you have under your control. If you do make a change on a tab, make sure and press the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page before navigating away from the tab in order to save any changes.
The Artist Menu
Now that you have spent a bit of time in the Master Admin Menu, the next step we want to take is view the "Artist Menu". The Artist Menu is how you access all of the different Artist Profiles that are created in your Jamroom. As the Master Admin you have the ability to create, view and modify any profile in your Jamroom.
To access the Artist Menu, click on the "artist menu" link located at the bottom of the Admin Menu.
Once in the Artist Menu, the selection of menu items will vary depending upon the "Active" (or selected) Artist Profile, and the options that are available to that Profile based on the Profile Quota that it is part of. For example, if you disable Songs in the "artist" Profile Quota (set "Allow Songs" to "no"), then when you are in the Artist Menu, you will NOT see the "songs" section available, since songs are not available to an Artist Profile in the "Artist" Profile Quota. Now that may seem confusing at first, but it's important to understand that Profile Quotas are applied to the Profile - not the User Account.
To select a different "Active" Artist Profile (or if one is not currently selected - you can tell this as it will say "no artist selected" at the top of the Artist Menu) click on the "Select Artist" link.
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Tip: If you do not see a "Select Artist" link, then it means there are no Artist Profiles created in your Jamroom. By default Jamroom installs a "Sample Artist", but this can be changed during the install process. If you do not have an Artist Profile created, you can create one by clicking on the "Create Artist" link in the Artist Menu. Note that if you are at the limit on the number of Artist Profiles available to you under your current Jamroom License, the Create Artist link may not show as well. |
After clicking on the "Select Artist" link, you will see a list of available Artist Profiles - simply highlight one of the Artist Profiles with your mouse, and click on "Change Artists". This will make it so the Artist Profile you selected is now the "Active Profile".
Creating your First Song
Now that you have selected an "Active Artist", the first thing we are going to do is create a new Song for this artist. You should see a small section in the Artist Menu that says "Songs" - and within that small section you will see an option for "create songs". Click on the "create song" link and you will be taken to the "Create Song" form. This form has text entry fields for all of the different information you can enter about a song. For now, enter a "name" for this new song into the "Song Name" field, and then scroll down towards the bottom of the form where you will see the section for "Song Files". The Song Files section allows you to choose a HIFI and a LOFI song file to "link" to this new song, as well as a Song Image. One of the important things to note on this screen is the "Maximum Combined Upload Size" dialog that is just below the "Song Files" separator. This small section shows you what the LARGEST amount of data that can be uploaded is.
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Tip: Make sure and view the Jamroom FAQ for details on increasing the Maximum Combined Upload Size value. |
Next, click on the "Browse" button to the right side of the "Upload HIFI Song File" field, and select a small MP3 file from your hard drive. Finally, click on the "Add New Song" button at the bottom of the form, and be patient while your MP3 file is uploaded to Jamroom, and the new song is created.
Viewing the Artist Profile
Whenever you make changes to content in a Profile (i.e. add a song, add a new Blog entry, etc.), Jamroom "rebuilds" the Profile so the Profile page reflects the latest changes. To view the Profile page now that a new Song has been added, click on the "View Your Site" link in the Artist Menu.
Changing your Artist Profile "Theme"
The Look and Feel of an Artist Profile is controlled by a "Profile Theme" - you can choose the different Profile Themes that are made available for your Artist Profiles to choose from in the "Site Themes" tab of the Profile Quota config. Based on the allowed Profile Themes, you can view the available Profile Themes by clicking on the "Site Themes" link in the Artist Menu. If you would like to choose a different Profile Theme for your Artist Profile, simply click on the "Rebuild your Site" in the Site Themes display.
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Tip: If you only allow a single Profile Theme in the Profile Quota applied to the Artist Profile, the "Site Themes" link will not show. |
Adding a new Blog Entry
As you have seen, the content of the Artist Menu is controlled by the Profile Quota the Artist Profile belongs to. Another Jamroom Module that profiles have access to is the "Blog" module. The Blog module allows your Artists to post blog entries, which can be viewed by their fans, or subscribed to via an RSS Feed on the artist's Blog page. To create a new Blog Entry, click on the "Create Entry" in the "blog" section in the Artist Menu. - just like creating a "song", creating a blog entry works the same way - simply enter the blog information and save it - Jamroom will make sure the profile is updated with the newest entry.
The more you play around in the Artist Menu, the more you will see that most things "work the same" - i.e. there will be a "Create" link to create a new entry, a "Modify" link to modify any existing entries, a "Delete" link to delete existing entries, and in some cases an "Arrange" link to arrange the order the items appear on the profile. Play around with the Artist Menu for a while, and you will being to see just how many options Jamroom has for your artists to use.
The Member Menu
If you are a Licensed Jamroom user, and have installed the Jamroom Bonus Pack, one of the features of the Jamroom Bonus Pack is the ability for you to have "Member" (or "Fan") profiles in your Jamroom. A Member Profile is just like an Artist Profile, but the feature set available to Members from their Profile Quota is reduced from what an Artist Profile has access to. These accounts are often used as "Fan" Profiles - i.e. it is a profile in your Jamroom that does not "create" media, but instead is a fan of the artists in your Jamroom.
As the Master Admin you will want to spend some time in the System Config -> Profile Quotas section for your Members Quota and ensure the Jamroom Member Quota(s) are configured as you want them to be, with the feature set you would like to make available to your fan accounts.
The Member Profiles work exactly the same as Artist Profiles, except for the more limited options available to Member profiles in their Profile Quota.
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Tip: You can have unlimited Member Profiles even with a 25 Artist Profile Jamroom License - Member Profiles do not count against your Artist Profile count in your Jamroom License. |
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