NeedLock Documentation

Member Area

Register a member
View announcements
Edit member profile
Change access password
View accessible directories

Administrator Control Panel

System information
System configuration
Announcement setup
Member management
Administrator management
Statistics system
Administrator logs

Member Area

Register a member

- To register a new member specify the desired username, real name and email.
- Click 'register me' to create an account.

View announcements

- To view the list of current announcements choose 'Our announcements' from navigation menu bar. You will see the list of news headlines for the last five entries.
- To view the full list of news choose 'More announcements' at the bottom of the page.
- To read a piece of news click the proper headline.

Edit member profile

- Choose 'Edit your profile' from navigation menu bar.
- You will see the form with your profile settings. Here you can change your username, real name, email, and interface language (in multilingual systems).
- To save changes click 'Update my profile'.

Change access password

- To change your password choose 'Change password' from navigation menu. You will see the form with your current password settings.
- Enter your old access password, enter your new password and re-enter it for verification.
- If you want the new password to be automatically generated by the system, check box 'Create password for me'.
- To save changes click 'Change my password'.

Note: after you change your password the system will email your new password to your registered email account.

View accessible directories

- To view the list of accessible directories or open the directories choose 'Accessible directories' from navigation menu.
- You will see the list of directories you have access to.

Note: every title in the list is a link to a directory; use this link to open the necessary directory.

Administrator Control Panel

System information (level 1 to 5 administrators)

The 'System Info' section shows the summary system information:
- server load (Linux-servers only);
- system status (Online / Offline);
- signup status (On / Off);
- total number of registered users;
- the number of not activated users;
- the number of not approved users;
- the number of suspended users.

System Configuration (level 1 administrators).

a) System status

In this section you can change the global status of the system (Online / Offline) and edit the message displayed while the system is offline.

b) Global Setup

In this section you can edit such system parameters as site name, absolute paths, top HTA directory, and cookies settings.

c) Database Setup

In this section you can set up SQL database type, database connection (database host and port, username, password, database name), and tables prefix to install multiple copies of the script if you use one database.

d) Email Setup

In this section you can set up the mailing service. You can specify addresses for incoming and outgoing messages, method of dispatch (now php_mail available), format and charset for outgoing email messages.

e) Member Setup

In this section you can enable / disable new user registration, turn on / off the use of Authentication Codes for account activation, notification of new registrations, set session expiration time, set username and password for the default .htpasswd user who has access to all protected directories, and also specify words forbidden for use as new usernames.

f) Directories Protection

In this section you can protect / unprotect directories under the top HTA directory:
- To protect a directory, choose it from the drop-down menu under the title 'unprotected directories' and click 'protect directory'.
- To unprotect a directory choose it from the drop-down menu under the title 'protected directories' and click 'unprotect directory'.
- After you unprotect a directory, it will be deleted from the list of accessible directories for all users who have access to this directory.

Announcement setup (level 1, 2, 3 administrators)

a) View, change and delete announcements.

- To view the list of announcements choose 'list announcements' from navigation menu. You will see the list of current system announcements.
- To edit your announcement click 'edit' opposite the necessary title. You will see the form where you can change creation date (format yyyy-mm-dd), title and content.
- To save your changes click 'save'; to delete current announcement click 'delete'.

b) Add new announcement

- To add an announcement choose 'new announcement' from navigation menu. You will see the form where you can enter date (format yyyy-mm-dd), title and content of the announcement.
- If you want to send this announcement to all registered NeedLock users, check box 'send to all users'.
- When the form is complete click 'add announcement' to save your data.

Member Management (level 1, 2 administrators)

a) Search members

- Choose 'Search' from 'Member control' navigation menu.
- Enter a search line, choose search conditions (leave 'all' to search all fields), and click 'search'.
- To display all users leave the search line field blank.

b) Edit member profile

- In your search results choose 'edit' opposite the necessary username. You will see the form with member ID, login date and time.
- You can edit the following fields: real name, registration date, account expiration date, email address, interface language and the list of accessible directories (if you choose 'no one' the user will not have access to any directory).
- Click 'save' to update member profile.

c) Remove members

To remove members click 'remove' in your search results opposite the necessary username. The member will be permanently removed from the system database.

d) Suspend members

To suspend a member click 'suspend' in your search results opposite the necessary username. This account will be temporarily disabled.

e) Ban members

To ban a member click 'ban' in your search results opposite the necessary username. The user will be banned by his IP address, member ID, login and email address. The user will not be able to log in to the system until administrator unbans his account.

f) Register new members

- To register a new member choose 'pre-register' from 'Member control' navigation menu. You will see the form where you can enter new member's real name, email, login username, password and interface language.
- Click 'register a member' to complete the registration.

Note: If you register a new member from Admin Control Panel, the user won't need to activate his account with Activation Code; this registration will neither need administrator's approval, even if the system parameters demand both.

g) Approve new registrations

- To approve new member registration choose 'approve / reject' from 'Member control' navigation menu. You will see the list of member accounts awaiting approval.
- Click 'approve' or 'reject' under the necessary member account.

h) Unsuspend member accounts

- Choose 'unsuspend' from 'Member control' navigation menu. You will see the list of suspended member accounts.
- Click 'unsuspend' under the necessary member account.

i) Unban member accounts

- Choose 'unban' from 'Member control' navigation menu. You will see the list of currently banned member accounts.
- Click 'unban' under the necessary member account.

Administrator management (level 1 administrators)

a) View the list of administrators

- Choose 'full list' under 'Administrators' navigation menu. You will see the list of administrators (username, email and admin level).
- To edit administrator profile click 'edit' under the necessary account.
- To remove admin account from the database click 'delete' under the necessary account.

b) Edit administrator profile

Once you click 'edit' under the necessary admin account, you are redirected to admin profile page. Here you can edit email address, access level and interface language.
Click 'update administrator' after you make any changes to the profile.

Note: use the list of available admin access levels with their permission rights for reference.

c) Remove administrators

If you want to permanently remove administrator from the system database, click 'remove' under the necessary administrator in the administrators list.

d) Add new administrators

- Choose 'create admin' from 'Administrators' navigation menu.
- You will see the form where you should enter the following information: username, email, password, choose admin access level and interface language (Use the list of admin access levels for reference).

- When you complete the form, click 'create administrator'.

Statistics system

The system records statistical data for all members of the system. You can view the summary statistics: the number of visits, member's IP address, browser, or interface language. You can sort statistical data in ascending or descending order, by username, number of visits, user agent, language and IP address.

Administrator logs

The log system keeps record of the last 30 system events. Entries are listed in chronological order. Every entry contains brief description of the event, administrator's name, ID, email, access level, IP address, record ID and time.
If you want to remove a record, click 'remove record'.