.. include:: /shortcuts.rstext .. index:: pair: Administration; Configure site single: Site administrator; Configure site .. _configure_site: Configure site ---------------- *Administration menu → Configure site* .. note:: *Configure site* is only accessible by site administrators. In *Configure site* you can: * set general parameters for your Mahara site * edit site pages * determine the display of certain menu items * allow networking with Moodle or another Mahara * create and share site pages and collections * upload site files .. index:: pair: Administration; Site options single: Site administrator; Site options .. _site_options: Site options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Administration menu → Configure site → Site options* .. seealso:: The order of the site options and their categorisation changed in Mahara 20.04. In *Site options* you can set global options that will apply by default throughout the entire site. .. note:: One or more fields may be disabled if overridden by a setting in your config.php file. When you are done editing one or more settings, click the *Update site options* button at the bottom of the page. .. index:: pair: Administration; Site settings single: Site administrator; Site settings .. _site_settings: .. _masquerading_reason_setting: .. _masquerading_notification_setting: .. _anonymous_feedback: Site settings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .. figure:: /images/administration/site_settings.* :alt: Site settings Site settings #. **Site name**: Choose a name for your Mahara instance. It appears in certain places around the site, e.g. in the title bar of the browser and in emails sent from the site. Therefore, it should not be too long. #. **Language**: Set the default language for your site. If you have multiple language packs installed, you see a drop-down menu. Otherwise, the standard language, English, is displayed. .. note:: You can install more `language packs `_. `More information about the language packs `_ is on the wiki. #. **Country**: The country selected is the default for country selections throughout your Mahara installation, e.g. in :ref:`contact information `. #. **Time zone**: :index:`Select ` the time zone in which you want to have time stamps displayed around the site. If you do not select one, one will be chosen according to the country if you entered one. This may not be accurate if a country has more than one time zone. #. **Theme**: Mahara comes with a number of themes that you can use. Choose one from the drop-down menu to make it the default theme for your site. If you have :ref:`institutions ` set up, they can :ref:`choose their own theme `. You can `search for community-contributed themes `_ on the Mahara wiki. #. **Show homepage / dashboard information**: If set to 'Yes', information about Mahara and how it is used is displayed on the homepage for logged-out and on the *Dashboard* for registered people. Account holders can disable this for their own dashboard. See also :ref:`Quick links `. #. **Custom landing page**: :index:`Switch ` this setting to 'Yes' if you want people to arrive at a different page than the dashboard after having logged in. The select menu where you can choose the appropriate page becomes visible. .. note:: If a person clicks a link that is different from the homepage and requires a login, they will be redirected to the proper page rather than being taken to the custom landing page. #. **Landing page**: Start typing a letter that appears in the title of the page that you want to choose. .. note:: Only group, institution, and site pages that are available to all registered people are displayed, including group homepages as well as group discussion forums when they are visible to all registered people. If a page is deleted or access removed, the site administrator receives an email notification so they can fix the problem. In the meantime, everybody is redirected to the dashboard page again. #. **Confirm registration**: :index:`If set to 'Yes', administrators ` cannot make the *Confirm registration* setting optional when :ref:`configuring an institution `. This prevents institution administrators from disabling this setting when it is required site-wide to not allow accounts to be created without administrator approval. .. note:: When registration needs to be confirmed, people trying to register with an institution need to provide a reason. #. **Registration agreement**: If set to 'Yes', you force people to agree to the 'Terms and Conditions' before registration. You should edit your site's 'Terms and Conditions' page before enabling this option. You can do so under :ref:`Static pages `. #. **Require reason for masquerading**: If set to 'Yes', administrators will be required to enter a reason for :ref:`masquerading as another person `. This will be logged, and if the setting 'Notify people of masquerading' is enabled, included in the notification to the account holder about the masquerading. This setting needs :ref:`logging ` to be turned on. #. **Notify people of masquerading**: If set to 'Yes', account holders will be notified :ref:`when an administrator masqueraded as them `. The notification will include who, when and - if enabled under 'Require reason for masquerading' - why. This setting needs :ref:`logging ` to be turned on. #. **Anonymous comments**: :index:`If allowed `, logged-out people and people_overview without a login can leave comments on public pages or pages they can access via a secret URL. #. **Access to site files**: :index:`If allowed, registered people will have access to site files in subfolders ` of the folder 'public'. By default, only files directly in the folder 'public' are accessible to them. #. **License metadata**: If allowed, people can choose under which license they want to make their content available. They can set a default license in their :ref:`account settings ` and then decide for each artefact individually as well. An institution administrator can set the default license in the :ref:`institution settings `. #. **Custom licenses**: If allowed, authors can enter any URL as license for their content. If not checked, they will be limited to the licenses configured by the site administrator. #. **Enable MathJax**: :index:`If ` set to 'Yes', mathematics and science equations can be displayed nicely in Mahara pages. For more information on how to configure MathJax, see the *Help* icon next to the option. #. **Sitemap**: If set to 'Yes', sitemap files from publicly accessible pages, groups and forum topics are generated that can be sent to another service. #. **Watchlist notification delay**: :index:`Decide how many minutes ` after editing a page, a watchlist notification is sent. The default value is '20' for 20 minutes. .. note:: In the past, a watchlist notification about a change was sent whenever a block was edited on a page. Since that caused a lot of notifications to be sent, a delay has been put in place to accumulate a number of changes so that it can be assumed more that a page and not only an item on the page has changed. .. index:: Multiple institutions; Institution expiry; Auto-suspend expired institutions pair: Administration; Institution settings single: Site administrator; Institution settings .. _institution_settings: .. _staff_report_access: .. _staff_statistics_access: Institution settings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can use Mahara with multiple institutions and separate them for administrative purposes, e.g. account management and permissions, and to give them a different theme. .. figure:: /images/administration/institution_settings.* :alt: Institution settings Institution settings #. **Strict privacy**: You may want to require all your account holders to accept the terms and conditions and privacy statement on your site. Switch this setting to 'Yes' if you want to have more control over the acceptance. You cannot allow multiple institutions if you want to use this setting for the time being. .. note:: The strict privacy feature was created to help institution comply with the `GDPR `_ in the European Union. However, institutions that do not need to adhere to it may find it useful as well. Turning this setting on will require everyone on the site to accept the terms and conditions and privacy statement(s) the first time they log in as well as whenever they change. #. **People allowed multiple institutions**: If allowed, account holders can be members of several institutions at the same time. Thus, a person who belongs to two or more institutions only needs one account. You cannot allow multiple institutions when 'Strict privacy' is turned on and when the site has isolated institutions. .. note:: While this is a convenient setting for people who need to be institution administrators in multiple institutions and cannot receive site administrator permissions, it is recommended that account holders can only belong to one institution. #. **Warning time for institution expiry**: If set, a notification will be sent to site and institution administrators this amount of time before an institution is due to expire and be suspended. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or 'No end date'. If the latter option is chosen, institutions will not expire by default. #. **Auto-suspend expired institutions**: If set to 'Yes', this option will allow Mahara to automatically suspend an institution that has expired automatically. This means that members of that institution will not be able to log in until the institution has been unsuspended. #. **Review accounts before self-deletion**: If set to 'Yes', every institution is forced to approve or deny the deletion of accounts if people attempt to delete their account. If set to 'No', it is up to each institution to activate this setting. .. note:: This setting gives institutions in a formal learning setting the possibility to prevent accidental account deletion by people before portfolios are archived if required. #. **Access reports for staff**: :index:`If ` set to 'Yes', site and institution staff will have :ref:`access to people reports `. The following reports are available to them: * Masquerading sessions (if logging of these is turned on) * Portfolio access * Account details #. **All reports for institution staff**: If set to 'Yes', institution staff will have access to all reports in their institutions. This is normally restricted to administrators and site staff. .. index:: Default account lifetime, Default account inactivity time, Session lifetime, Warning time for inactivity / expiry pair: Administration; Account settings single: Site administrator; Account settings single: Account settings; Default registration expiry lifetime single: Account settings; Override account lifetime .. _config_site_account_settings: .. _export_to_queue: .. _anonymous_pages: Account settings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .. figure:: /images/administration/account_settings.* :alt: Account settings Account settings #. **Authors can choose page themes**: If this setting is enabled, authors can select a theme for their portfolio page. The page is displayed with this theme to other people. Thus, the institution or site theme can be overwritten. #. **Display remote avatars**: If allowed, account holders' default profile pictures will be their `Gravatar `_ pictures (:ref:`remote avatar `). They will need an account with Gravatar for this to work. .. note:: If you use your own avatar server to provide profile pictures for your account holders, you can use that instead of Gravatar for the default profile pictures. In order to do so, you need to add the :ref:`remote avatar base URL ` to your config.php. #. **People can hide real names**: If allowed, people who have set a :ref:`display name ` may choose to be searchable only by their display name and will not be found in searches by their real name. In the administration section of the site, people are always searchable by their real names. An administrator (site and institution) always sees the display name, first and last name and username. #. **Never display usernames**: :index:`If set ` to 'Yes', ordinary account holders cannot search for others using their username in 'Search for people' on the :ref:`dashboard ` or via :ref:`'People' `. They will also not be able to see the username of any other person on the site. These restrictions do not apply to staff and administrators. Additionally, Clean URLs (if activated) for profile pages will be generated using display names (if provided) or real names, rather than usernames. #. **Allow anonymous pages**: :index:`If ` set to 'Yes', account holders can hide their name as the author of a page from others. Administrators and staff can still view authorship information by clicking on the 'Author's name hidden' link that will reveal the real name. .. note:: The name is also anonymized in blocks that are on the page and would normally display the author's name. #. **People can disable device detection**: If allowed, account holders can disable mobile device detection in their :ref:`account settings `. This allows them to be more flexible in what they can view and do on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. #. **Export to queue**: :index:`If allowed `, the export queue will handle the exporting of personal portfolios for better server load management. The person exporting a portfolio will receive an email when the export is ready for download. #. **Multiple journals**: If allowed, :index:`all account holders ` will have multiple journals per default. They can still change that setting in their personal account settings. #. **HTML editor**: Choose whether the HTML editor is used by default or not. If set to **Person-defined**, account holders will be allowed to choose whether to use the HTML editor in their personal settings or not. Otherwise the specified setting will be used site-wide. #. **Session lifetime**: For security reasons, after a specified period of inactivity, a person will be logged off the site automatically. This field specifies this time in minutes. The default value is 1440 minutes (24 hours). #. **Default registration expiry lifetime**: As site administrator you can decide when :ref:`pending registrations ` that require approval expire. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or 'No end date'. If the latter option is chosen, pending registrations will not expire by default. The default value is 2 weeks. #. **Default account lifetime**: If set, accounts will expire after this amount of time from when they were created. When an account is expired, the account holder cannot log in. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or 'No end date'. If the latter option is chosen, accounts will not expire by default. #. **Override account lifetime**: Choose for which accounts a change in the default account lifetime shall take effect: * Only for newly created accounts * For new accounts and accounts without an account lifetime already set (excluding site administrators) * For all accounts (excluding site administrators) .. note:: Site administrators are always excluded from a change in the account lifetime as they should always have access to the system. #. **Default account inactivity time**: If set, people who do not log in for this amount of time will be considered 'inactive' and will not be able to log in any more. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or 'No end date'. If the latter option is chosen, people are not set to 'inactive' by default. #. **Warning time for inactivity / expiry**: If set, a warning message will be sent to people this amount of time before their accounts are due to expire or become inactive. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or 'No end date'. If the latter is chosen, people do not receive a warning before their account expires or they are flagged as having an inactive account. .. index:: pair: Administration; Access settings .. _access_settings: Access settings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .. figure:: /images/administration/access_settings.* :alt: Access settings Access settings #. **Allow public portfolios**: If set to 'Yes', authors can create portfolios that are accessible to the public rather than only to registered people. #. **Allow public profiles**: If allowed, people can set their profile pages to be accessible to the public rather than only to registered people. However, only registered people can use interactive features such as the wall. .. note:: If the option 'Allow public portfolios' is chosen, 'Allow public profiles' is automatically selected. #. **Profile access for all registered people**: If this option is set to 'No', profile pages are initially viewable by all registered people, but the owner is allowed to restrict access to their institution only if they wish. Enable this option if you want to make sure everyone with an account on the site can see each others' profile pages. Profiles of institution members will always be visible to other members of the same institution. .. index:: pair: Administration; Notification settings .. _notification_settings: Notification settings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can set the default options for new account holders to receive notifications. They can override these settings on their own *Account menu → Settings → Notifications* page. The options you have are: * **Email**: Sends an email to your primary email address once the notification was created. In some cases, the cron needs to run first in order for the notification to be sent. * **Email digest**: Sends one email per day for all the notifications that you set to 'Email digest'. .. note:: If you select either of the email options, notifications will still arrive in the person's inbox, but they will be marked as read automatically. * **Inbox**: All notifications are only sent to your system inbox that you can reach in the top right corner next to the 'Logout' button. * **None**: If you use this option, you will not get a notification for the selected notification type. Use this setting wisely as you may miss important notifications. .. note:: You cannot set 'System messages' and 'Messages from other people' to 'None'. .. figure:: /images/administration/notification_settings.* :alt: Notification settings Notification settings #. **Internal notification expiry**: :index:`The ` number of days until certain notifications in the inbox are deleted. The default value is 182 days. The notifications in question are: * Page access notifications * Watchlist notifications * Institution messages #. **Comment**: These are notifications about any comments received on pages, artefacts or journal posts. #. **Contact us**: Only site administrators see this notification type. These are messages sent via the 'Contact us' form that can be accessed in the footer of the site if the site administrators :ref:`decided to display this link