2. Spaces

Spaces are used to divide your Interact server up into distinct areas. A 'Space' could be anything from an individual course, eg. 'Maths 101' to a general information area for all users of the server.

2.1. Space Hierarchy

Once you have your server setup and running the first thing you need to do is think about your space hierarchy. You can start adding content to the default home space that is created during the installion process, but to help structure your content you can add sub-spaces, and further spaces within these.

You can also add sub-spaces to create a server heirarchy, so some spaces may be nothing more than areas for organising the spaces under it.

In the case of a learning environment you can add a space called Courses, then under that add a space for each subject area, then under that can be added the actual course spaces where the staff can start adding there course content, eg.

  • Courses

    • Science (here you could put information relevant to all science students)

      • SC101 (here the lecturer would add the actual content)

      • SC201

    • Maths

      • MS101

      • MS201

    • English

      • EN101

      • EN201

Or in the case of a corporate intranet your hierarchy could look more like this

  • General News and Information (here you could put information relevant to all staff)

  • Departments

    • Marketing

    • Sales

    • Engineering

2.2. Adding spaces

To add a space click on the icon at the top of the navigation bar, or in the block one area at the bottom on the space homepage. Then select the 'Add a whole new space' option. By default only Server Admins can add new spaces. Space admins do not see the option to add a new space when they are adding components.

2.2.1. Adding sub-spaces

To add a subspace, repeat the above process, but do it from within the space that you want the new space to be a child of. If you want you can also add a folder first, and then add subspaces within the folder. This can be useful if you have a large number of subspaces within a space that you want to organise, rather than having a long list in the navigation bar.

2.3. Space Settings

When you add a new space, or modify an existing one you will see the following settings:

  • Name - this is the name of the space, eg. Science for Beginnners, or General News & Info.

  • Short name - this is an optional setting where you can enter an abbreviated name. This short name will display in the navigation bar and in the breadcrumbs. This is useful where the actual space name may be long, or where there is a recognised abbreviation for the space, eg. Science and Technology in an Educational Setting may also be know as ICT715.

  • Description - the dscription will display when somebody mouses over the space name in the space listing pages.

  • Access - there are three different access levels possible for any space:

    • Open to logged in users - if set to this then a space will be accessible to any user that is logged in to the server

    • Open to public - this allows a space to be accessed by anyone, even if not logged in to the server

    • Restricted to members - only members of a space can access it. Anybody that is not a member will be asked for an access code. The access code can be set on the Space Settings page.

2.3.1. Optional Settings

On the space settings page there are also several optional settings:

  • Code - by default the system will assign a random code to the space. You can also manually assign a code if you want to keep track of spaces by your own coding system. This code can also be used to provide a direct URL to a space, eg http://yourserver.com/direct/space/code

  • Copy another space - instead of building each space from scratch you can copy an existing space. This will copy all of the components from the space being copied into the new one. If you select this option you need to enter the code of the space to be copied.

  • Combine short and long names on space hompage and space listing pages - in some cases you may want the short and long names combined on the space listings page. This is useful for course spaces where courses may be known by both long or short titles, eg. IT712 - Webspaces for teaching and Learning

  • Show members - if set to 'No' then the members link will not show in the space navigation bar. The space admin can still access the list of space members from the admin section, but space members will not be able to see who the other members of a space are.

2.4. Modifying/Deleting Spaces

To modify or delete a space either click on the icon next to the space name on the space homepage and then select 'Settings', or in the server admin pages follow the Modify/Delete option under the SIte navigation option.