Farm Gate Guide for Administrators
The Administrator Guide contains a number of sections:
- CMS vs Jetfire
- Roles
- Farm Gate Data Model
- Farm Gate Data Objects
- Farm Gate User Interface Model
- Farm Gate Website
CMS vs Jetfire
The
Content Management System (CMS) is used to edit web pages, adding custom content to each page.
Jetfire Web Parts deliver the web 2.0 enabled applications to the website. The CMS is used to add both Content-managed and Jetfire
Web Parts to each page. CMS is separate from Jetfire to provide added security between managing content on the website and managing data for applications.
Jetfire is synonymous with FarmGate for the discussion of this application.
Editing pages in the Content Management System involves:
- Updating the content of the website
- Updating how the data is displayed on the page by setting properties
- Adding and removing Web Parts to/from the page
These functions are performed on the right side of the web page.
Editing Jetfire
workflows means having purpose-built Web Parts that provide navigation and editing capabilities on the page. The Admin and Edit Profile pages provide the ability to edit Farm Gate objects on the page (provided that the user has the correct roles.)
Users
The WebMaster has instant access to both CMS and FarmGate after logging into the Employee Login page. Business owners are (optionally) assigned a user id that provides them access to their business profile. Business users are allowed to edit their business profiles by logging into the Agri-Business login page.
WebMasters are assigned a CMS and Jetfire user ID. These should be setup as the same name and same password in the Create CMS User and Create FarmGate User Web Parts respectively. The Employee Login Web Part is configured so that the WebMaster is logged into CMS and Jetfire at the same time (using the same user name and password).
Business owners are only assigned a FarmGate user id.
Roles
Roles are available as
CMS Roles and
Jetfire Roles. The Administrator has a CMS 'Admin' role and a Jetfire 'Admin' role. This provides unlimited access to managing the website and Farm Gate application.
Each Business user can only edit their own business profile, because a specific role is assigned to their user login and business profile. Users can be easily configured to edit multiple business profiles.
Farm Gate Data Model
The Farm Gate application is developed in the
Jetfire language. A data model in software engineering is an abstract model that describes how data are represented and accessed. Data models formally define data elements and relationships among data elements for a domain of interest.
The website is served by an ASP.NET application server located at a national ISP site. Farm Gate data is stored in an SQL Server 2008 database server located at a national ISP site.
Farm Gate Data Objects
In Jetfire, an object contains properties (also referred to as attributes), methods (also referred to as commands) and
states. The Farm Gate data objects include:
- County - this is the root object from which other objects may be created.
- Farmers Market - a description to a location where producers sell produce to consumers.
- Agricultural Event - an event that occurs at a location where producers display their goods and services.
- Business Type - a type of business for the purpose of categorizing the producer.
- Municipality - a location within the county for finding producers.
- Location - an important place.
- Note - an important phrase associated with an object.
- Produce Tag - a category of goods and/or services.
- Produce - goods and/or services that are specifically sold in the county.
- Farm Produce - Produce that is sold by a Producer.
- Producer Business Type - the type of business for a producer.
- Producer - a business that sells goods and/or services.
Farm Gate User Interface Model
User Interface Modeling is a development technique used by computer application programmers. Today's User Interfaces (UIs) are complex software components, which play an essential role in the usability of an application.
The Farm Gate User interface is based on
Microsoft ASP.NET Web Parts and
Personalization. This allows the user to add multiple web parts to a page to create a customized views. Put multiple pages together to create a custom website.
Farm Gate Website
The Farm Gate website is composed of the following components:
- Master Pages - this defines the structure and layout of the pages. These are configured by the Website designer.
- Rad Skins and CMS Style Sheet Viewer - this displays the look and feel of the page. The styles are configured by the Website designer.
- Pages - there is a file for every page that can be accessed. The webmaster can:
- create, rename and delete pages
- update page title, description, and keywords
- Navigation Menu Editor file. The webmaster can:
- add new menu items
- delete menu items
- update data associated with menu items, such as the text, url, description and who has access
- Images and files for the website. The webmaster can:
- create directories for files and images
- upload new files and images
- rename, delete files and images
- upload PDF's
- Farm Gate database. The webmaster can:
- manage the data associated with all Farm Gate data
- Software binaries - the CMS and Jetfire programs.