Welcome to CIRCA v3.3 On-line Help

CIRCA is an extranet tool, developed under the European Commission IDA programme, and tuned towards Public Administrations needs.

It enables a given community (e.g. committee, working group, project group etc.) geographically spread across Europe (and beyond) to maintain a private space on the Internet where they can share information, documents, participate in discussion fora and various other functionalities.

This private space is called an "Interest Group". The access and navigation in this virtual space is done via any Internet browser and Internet connection. Like in any working group, committee or project team, one member plays the role of chairman or moderator; in CIRCA it is called a 'Leader'.

Intended Readership

The intended readership for this document includes members of a CIRCA Interest Group or potential users of CIRCA.

You can download in your local workstation the CIRCA Help Pages manual (zip archive), concerning Interest Group services, by clicking on the foregoing link.

Definitions & Concepts

The key definitions and concepts behind CIRCA are:

• Interest Groups: CIRCA is organised around Interest Groups (I/G) i.e. a private workspace for a group of people that need to collaborate to achieve common objectives and tasks. Although all I/G have access to the same set of functionalities, the environment is fully customisable for a given I/G and the information is restricted to the ‘members’ of that specific I/G.



• Access Profile: Members of a working group usually play different roles: Chairman, contributor, secretary. Part of the work could even be made publicly available. CIRCA offers exactly this flexibility for creating access Profiles tuned to your particular needs, thus customizing users access rights to specific data elements, functionalities and operations in the I/G.



• CIRCA Leader: A specific access Profile, the Leader, is granted extra privileges to administrate, manage and customize the I/G.



• "What you See Is What You Have Access To": The User Interface is automatically mapped onto users access Profile so that only those functionalities and information users are granted access to, are visible. Thus, some of the functionalities described in this User Manual might not be accessible to you because the actual access Profile, granted by the Interest group Leader, does not allow it.

The Basics

What I need to access CIRCA

• A connection to the Internet is of course a key prerequisite to access CIRCA
• A Browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Those are freeware and can be downloaded from the Web
• An email address, although not mandatory, is recommended to take full benefit of the tool
• The Web address (URL) of the Interest Group you are a member of as well as a User ID and Password to access your Interest Group. Ask the responsible of your working group (the Leader) for this information.

Accessing CIRCA

1. Open your Browser and enter the Location of your Interest Group (see URL above).



2. You have accessed the CIRCA home page.



3. Click on the "Sign in" button at the bottom of that page.



4. Enter your User ID and Password.



5. Select the Interest Group of your choice and enter the restricted space of your Interest Group.

Access and Access Rights

It is important to understand the access control mechanism implemented in CIRCA, as it impacts the scope of services and features you will be able to access. It consists mainly of three layers:

1. Anonymous Access: Information and documents contained in an Interest Group can be rendered publicly available, i.e. there is no need for a User ID and password to access it (user accesses as Anonymous). It should be noted that a ‘public user’ will only ‘see’ and have access to data that have been made public.



2. Restricted access: As a member of an Interest Group, you can access it with your User ID and password. As a member, you are assigned an Access Profile that defines the access privileges (or access mode) to the various CIRCA services. For example, if you are of the Profile ‘Access’, you will be able to consult and access documents and information but you will not be authorised to upload a document or to contribute to the discussion forum, whereas a member of the Profile ‘Author’ can do it. The access modes available for each of the CIRCA services are listed below:
   
   
   • No Access: No Access to the Information Service.
   • Access Only: Read Access to the Information Service. i.e. view web pages and links
   • Full Edit: Read/Write to the Information Service. i.e. upload new web pages and create links poining to them^M
   • Administrate: Administration privileges to the Information Service. i.e. grant additional users with additional rights via the Access Control Mechanism
   Library
   • No Access: No Access to the Library Service.
   • Access Only: Read Access to the Library Service i.e. access for downloading all documents.
   • Edit Own Document: Access Only rights (see above) as well as Write/Modify documents uploaded by you even though upload access has been removed from you after uploading the documents. Version control mechanisms (checkout/commit) are enabled only for documents owned by the user.
   • Full Edit: Read/Write to the Library Service i.e. Edit Own Document rights (see above) as well as upload document rights. Version control mechanisms (checkout/commit) are enabled for all documents (provided that they are not already checked out by another user).
   • Administrate: Administration privileges to the Library Service. i.e. i.e. grant additional users with additional rights via the Access Control Mechanism or modify other users' notifications
   Directory
   • No Access: No access to the Directory Service.
   • Access Only: Read Access to the Directory Service.
   • Add Contacts: Read Access plus permission to add contacts.
   • Add Contacts&Members: Read Access rights plus permission to add contacts and members.
   • Administrate: Administration privileges to the Directory Service.
   Events
   • No Access: No Access to the Events Service.
   • Access Only: Read Access to the Events Service.
   • Administrate: Administration privileges to the Events Service i.e. you can also create and modify events and meetings.
   Newsgroups
   • No Access: No Access to a Newsgroup Service.
   • Access Only: Read Access to a Newsgroup Service.
   • Access and Post: Read/Write to a Newsgroup Service i.e. you can also send contributions to the newsgroup.
   • Moderate: Read/Write to a Newsgroup Service plus capability to access moderated articles and aprove or reject them
   • Administrate: Administration privileges to the Newsgroup Service to Create, Delete and Administrate Newsgroups.
   Workflow
   • No Access: No Access to the Workflow Service.
   • Access Only: Read Access to the Workflow Service.
   • Administrate: Administration privileges to the Workflow Service.

The default Access Profiles are: Leader, Access, Author, Contributor, Secretary, Anonymous and Registered. The Leader can of course create new Access Profiles or else edit one of the default Access Profile and modify the access privilege to the various services. The table below describes the access modes associated with the default Access Profiles:

Anonymous and Registered Profiles have special meaning. When an Internet user accesses an Interest Group, without Sign in to the CIRCA, he/she gets the access rights of the "Anonymous" Profile. Respectively, if a user log in CIRCA using an account created with the Sign up mechanism he/she gets the access rights of the "Registered" Profile.
See the Administration help page for details on enabling Public and Registered access in an IG.

3. Access Control: Besides the concept of Access Profile, the Leader of an Interest Group can assign additional Access Privileges to a specific user or to an Access Profile for selected CIRCA Services (e.g. Library, Meeting) or Service items (specific meeting or section in the Library). In fact, the Leader supercedes the access privilege provided by the Access Profile you are a member of. For example, an IG Leader can grant for a specific user of the Profile "Access" (not allowed to upload documents in the Library by default) "Access and Post data" privileges for a specific sub-section in the Library, so that this particular user can upload a document in that particular sub-section (and only in that sub-section and sub-sections under it). The additional Access Privileges can be later revoked by the "Revoke Permissions" selection in the corresponding Access Control menu.
   The Access Control mechanism cannot be used to restrict the Access Privileges given by the Access Profile.

Sign up

People interested in the CIRCA services may use the Sign up mechanism to apply for an account. After registering, they can apply for membership in one or more Interest Groups. The Sign up form can be accessed from the Main CIRCA page. The applicant should follow the following procedure in order to Sign up:

• Click on the link in the CIRCA Main page. The Sign up form appears.



• Provide his/her first name, surname, email address, password, phone number and postal address. Optionally the applicant can provide his/her certificate (used for secure interchange of data), some organizational data, fax number and the URL address of his/her personal web site.



• An Email is posted to the email address provided in the application form. By this email the applicant is informed about the user name and the transaction number. Additional instructions on how to complete the Sign up procedure are also included in the email. The user must Sign in to the CIRCA application within the time period specified in the email, otherwise he will be deleted. In the first Sign in the user will have to Sign in using the given username and the password he specified in the Sign up form. After Sign in the user will be redirected to type the transaction number and specify his new password.

When the Sign up procedure is completed, the user has to Sign in to CIRCA using the new account. After logging in, a list of Interest Groups appears where the user can apply for membership. By clicking on the i icon next to Interest Group name, the user is asked to suggest the Profile (access rights) that he/she requests to have in the particular Interest Group.

Getting familiar with the CIRCA interface

All pages of the Interest Group have the same layout: A navigation bar at the top and bottom. The first provides access to the available CIRCA Services whereas the second provides access to some Support Services.

As in any other Web environment, navigation is done through mouse clicks on the various buttons and hyperlinks that appear on a page: Fast, intuitive and easy. Online help pages provide additional information about the functionality of CIRCA services. Furthermore Hint icons help user's interaction with CIRCA.

The top navigation bar provides access to the following Services by simply clicking on its respective icon. Once a Service is entered, additional functionalities appear on screen:

• Information: Provides access to Information pages in HTML format.



• Library: Provides access to the library, organised in sections and sub-sections with multilingual content documents available in one or more versions - linguistic, e.g. Greek, French, German, English, etc. or numeric, e.g. 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc. Documents can be viewed, downloaded or sent to you by email. User can be automatically notified by email of any change in any particular section of the Library.



• Directory: Access to a list of Members and Contacts. The formers have access to your Interest Group whereas the latter are a list of associates to your Interest Group.



• Meetings: To effectively schedule, create and announce Meetings within your interest Group. In addition you can participate to virtual meetings created by your Leader.



• Newsgroups: Provides a forum for discussion among members of your IG.



• Mail: Gives you access to email functionality even if you have no local email system.



• Search: Allows for multilingual configured search for any document or information uploaded within your Interest Group.



• Help: An online help.

The bottom navigation bar provides access to the following Support Services:

• Personal Information: Opens a new window where you can edit your Personal Information, which is simply your account information in the Directory Server.



• User Preferences: Provides you with a form where you can define your personal preferences as it concerns the Services' view modes, the preferred Data and GUI Languages, the Global Notifications and finally your interests.



• Memberships: Opens a new window containing all of your Profile and/or Role memberships. You are also provided with the ability to revoke your membership from the chosen Interest Group.



• My Notifications: Opens a new window presenting all the different notification statuses (for the Library, Newsgroup and Calendar services) that you have set (or have been set for you) in all Interest Groups that you are member of, under all V. CIRCAs of the particular installation. You are also provided with the ability to modify a notification status by following the specific link.



• My Calendar: Provides you with an instant Calendar based information on scheduled Events/Meetings associated to all the Interest Groups that you have access rights in the Events service.



• Who is Who: Provides access to the 'Who is who' related Administrative functionalities (available only to the 'Who is who' Service Administrators).



• What's New: Presents information on new data that meet your needs. These are defined with respect to keywords which are placed within the "Search for documents containing": text field part of the page.

For additional Help, you may directly contact: circa@ine.pt

Browser Configuration

Caching Mechanism

Netscape Communicator (version 4.7x)

Your computer stores copies of frequently accessed pages in the memory cache or disk cache. This way, the computer doesn't have to retrieve the page from the network each time you view it.
To set the size of the memory cache as well as disk cache, user must do the following (it applies for Netscape Navigator users, both on Windows and Unix):

1. From the Edit menu, choose "Preferences".
2. Open the Advanced category, then click on"Cache"
3. Enter a number in the "Memory Cache" field to specify the size of Memory Cache. 1024 to 2000 KBytes is a good size.
4. Enter a number in the "Disk Cache" to specify the size of Disk Cache. 7680 KBytes is a good size (5000 KBytes for Unix systems).
5. Optionally, user can specify the another "Disk Cache Folder" instead of default.
6. To clear Memory Cache or Disk Cache immediately, click on "Clear Memory Cache" or "Clear Disk Cache", respectively.

When you quit Netscape Communicator, it performs cache maintenance. If maintenance takes longer than you wish, try to reduce the size of the disk cache.

To specify how often Netscape Communicator checks the network for page revisions (so that you don't keep "staling" pages in the cache too long), the following steps must be followed:

1. Form the Edit menu, choose "Preferences".
2. Click on the Advanced category, then click on "Cache".
3. User can select "Once Per Session", "Every Time", or "Never". CIRCA users must select "Every Time" option, which assures that the page you see is always the latest.

To refresh page in any time, simply click on "Reload" button. The computer checks the network to make sure you have the latest version of page.
To retrieve a fresh copy of a page regardless of what's in the cache, hold down the "Shift" key and click on "Reload".
In addition, form the View menu click on "Refresh" for the same result.

Internet Explorer ver. 5.x

To set the type and size of the memory cache as well as disk cache - you must do the following:

1. From the Tools menu, choose "Internet Options".
2. From the slider General, choose "Settings" from Temporary Internet files subsection.
3. From the option list considering check mechanism for newer version of stored pages select: "Every visit to the page", "Every time you start Internet Explorer", "Automatically", or "Never".

CIRCA users must select option "Every visit to the page" in order for IE to check to see whether the page changed since you last viewed it. If the page has changed, IE displays the new page and stores it in Temporary Internet Files folder.

The amount of disk space for Temporary Internet Files folder can be specified by using "Amount of disk space to use" option. The more disk space you allot to the folder, the more pages IE can store on local disk.

If you want to be sure that you have the latest version of current Web page you must use "Refresh" feature from View menu (or simply click on F5 key on the keyboard).

Language settings

When you are accessing CIRCA as a public user the system decides which will be the language of the Graphical User Interface based on the language settings in your browser. In case that the first selection is not supported then the English language will be used.
You may find below the information of how you can modify your browser language settings. Please bare in mind that this language settings apply only when you are accessing CIRCA as public user and not as member.

Netscape Navigator 4.7x

In Navigator you can specify the language you want to see, in order of preference. To set language priorities you must followed the steps displayed below:

1. From the Edit menu select "Preferences".
2. Open the Navigator category, then click on "Languages".
3. Click on "Add".
4. Select a language and its code.
5. If you want to re-order the languages in the list, select a language and use the "Move-up" and "Move-down" buttons.

Internet Explorer 5.x

1. From the Tools menu select "Internet Options" ....
2. Open the General category, then click on "Languages".
3. Click on "Add".
4. Select a language and its code.
5. If you want to reorder the languages in the list, select a language and use the "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons.

NNTP Configuration

Please read the section Read/Post Message through NNTP (for Remote Newsgroups) in the Newsgroups help pages. In addition, CIRCA does not support NNTP access to its local newsgroups since version 3.1.

Sitemap

The sitemap gives information on the data stored in the CIRCA services. The data displayed for each service is as follows: Directory: A link to the directory service. Information: The available information service links. Library: The library sections tree and links to those sections. Meetings: Links to a) a listing of old meetings, b) a listing of current and future meetings, c) the meetings callendar and d) a link to virtual meetings if one is open. Newsgroups: Links to the newgroups.
To view the sitemap proceed as follows:

1. Click on the SITE MAP button from the Interest Group bottom-bar while you are in any service.
2. A new window opens with a sitemap which you can navigate through.

The data shown in the sitemap are filtered according to the user access rights for each Circa service.

Password Rules

CIRCA password policy includes the following rules:

1. Passwords must be at least 6 characters long.
2. Passwords must contain at least one non-alphabetic character.
3. Passwords longer than the system's internal maximum length will be truncated.
4. Passwords automatically generated by the application are ten characters long and consist of any letter of the Latin alphabet (capital or not) and the ten digits.

Microsoft Office update

Due to certain problems considering download of some Microsoft Office files in the Library (for example Excel files), the users of Intenet Explorer need to install Office 2000 Service Release 1a (SR-1a).Related links and download locations:

• Microsoft Office Update:
  http://office.microsoft.com/
• Microsoft Office Software Update Download:
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspx
• Microsoft Office Assistance:
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/default.aspx