CiviServer Producers Workbench^ä

CiviServer Producers Workbench enables the configuration, monitoring and management of CiviServer community applications developed by RealCommunities (e.g., CiviServer Experience™), or other developers.

Most web community tools today come with limited tools for monitoring and managing the community. Most also require configuration by experts and a human monitor and manager of activity. This oftentimes results in contracting with a third party to perform these functions, which is very expensive and does not allow real-time access to the important community activity.

In contrast, CiviServer Producers Workbench allows non-technical, web support staff to monitor the health and activity of the community, manage the members in a pro-active way and configure the community so that it looks and feels like an integral part of the web site.

CiviServer Producers Workbench provides user-configurable, automatic monitoring of activity, including members’ complaints and problems. Problem members can be automatically de-activated and manually re-activated.

Web support staff can easily add a standard wrapper and change text style and wording of every page in the application.

Producers can configure the profiles captured about members, track the growth of their community and make minor edits as needed.

Key Features of Producers Workbench

• Supports multiple topic areas within the same application

o Each topic area can have a unique appearance with distinctive graphics, fonts and colors.

o Each topic area can be customized by the community producer with its own content including:

• Descriptive text
• Profiles
• E-mails
• The content of member profiles can be changed to allow different data to be captured and presented
• Content and layout of all pages in all CiviServer applications can be modified to suit the web site style and purpose
• Content of all e-mails sent by CiviServer applications can be modified to reflect the web site style
• Questions and answers for all quizzes used in CiviServer™ applications can be modified to target the web site members
• Changes to images and messages can be implemented globally throughout the entire application
• Allows a producer to monitor the pulse or health of the community:

o Shows summary of various measures

o Allows targets and alerts to be set

o Shows historical details

o Shows data by topic-area

• Allows producer to monitor problems with all CiviServer applications. All problems are logged, and individual members who experience a problem, are identified and can be contacted
• Allows a producer to manage members by reviewing their profiles, their communications with the producer and any complaints about them
• Allows producer to make a member or a member’s profile inactive in the community when rules are broken

Technology

CiviServer Producers Workbench is written in Java and makes extensive use of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technologies like Servlets, JDBC, and XML. As a result, it runs on all platforms that support Java including Sun Solaris, HP Unix, AIX, and Microsoft Windows 2000. It also works with all web servers that support Servlets, including Netscape Enterprise Server, Apache, and IIS. It is designed to work with all databases that support JDBC including Oracle, Informix, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL Server.

CiviServer Producers Workbench integrates with the existing web site login and registration systems to provide security so that only authorized producers can access it.

CiviServer Producers Workbench is scalable and built to handle millions of active community members.

CiviServer Producers Workbench is included with all product offerings from RealCommunities (e.g., CiviServer Experience and CiviServer Fundamentals™.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to know SQL to use Producers Workbench?

No. The Producers Workbench is a non-technical environment requiring no coding or SQL. Everything is accessible through a standard web-browser interface.

Does Producers Workbench use a proprietary language for configuring pages?

No. Each page and the navigational wrapper(s) defined can contain any kind of HTML, DHTML, JavaScript etc.

Can members be denied access?

Absolutely. Producers can de-activate (and re-activate) any member manually. They may also set a maximum number of complaints about a member before they are automatically de-activated.

Can application text be changed?

Yes. Every message, all the text on every page and the labels and descriptions of every field in member profiles can be configured using a simple form.

Can the Producers Workbench be accessed remotely?

Yes. The Producers Workbench is a server-based application that can be accessed using a standard web browser. The Producers Workbench is secured to specified individuals.

What application diagnostics are provided?

The Producers Workbench logs any and all problems associated with the delivery of requested pages to members and visitors. A producer can review this problem log at any time. When a problem occurs, the producer can contact the member directly. Members can also send comments and problems to the producer via e-mail, which is automatically logged in the database.