Help > Managing Your Network

Creating a Network

Anyone can create a Clearvale enterprise social network. To create a network, visit www.clearvale.com. Specify a name for your network and click Create.

Note the following about creating a new network:

  • The network name appears on the home page of the network. You can change this name at a later time.
  • The network URL identifies your network. The URL is http://networkID.clearvale.com. You need to specify the NetworkID portion of the URL. Once you  create the network, you cannot change the URL.
  • The first and last name you enter will be associated with the email account that you provide in the next step.
  • The email address that you provide is used to receive messages about the management of your network.
  • The password is used to login to Clearvale. If you already have a password for another Clearvale network, you must use the same one.
  • Specify the type of network to create:
    • Private (Business). Creates a private network for your organization. Members must have an email address from the domains that you specify. Use this type of network to limit members to employees in your company. To allow people from other companies, such as your partners or suppliers, to join, specify additional domains later. See Customizing Your Network Settings.
    • Public. Creates a public network with no restrictions on email domains. Use this type of network when you do not want to limit members to specific companies. For example, use a public network when creating a customer support or marketing site.
  • Enter the characters for the security check.
  • Click Submit when you finish defining your network.
  • Check the inbox for the email address specified. You will see a message from BroadVision that indicates you can activate your network. This message also includes the URL for your network. You can sign in to the site using the email and password combination you entered when creating the network.
  • Join Clearvale Connect at http://cvc.clearvale.com. Clearvale Connect is the place to find support and advice about Clearvale and to discuss Clearvale with other administrators.
  • See Inviting Members for information on adding members to your network. 

Once you create a network and sign in, you will see a Get Started block display on your network's home page. This block contains links to areas of the network where new administrators might want to perform tasks immediately.

The block will display until you choose to close it. Once you close it, you cannot display it again; however, you can continue to perform tasks such as update network preferences, appearance, and so forth.

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Customizing Your Network Settings

Select Admin>Network Administration to change the following settings (many of which were specified when you created the network):

  • Network name and description. The description is optional and appears beneath your network name.
  • Description of your network.
  • Email address associated with the network.
  • Language choice. Choose one from the list of eight.
  • Network type:
    • Private (Business). Creates a private network for your organization. Members must have an email address from the domains that you specify. .
    • Public. Creates a public network with no restrictions on email domains.
  • Network Access. Indicate whether or not unregistered visitors (guests) can view content without logging in to the network; guests can only see content marked as "public" and cannot add or edit content.
  • Email domains associated with your network. (When specifying domains, do not include the @ symbol.):
    • For private networks, you can add email domains that are allowed to access your network.
    • For public networks, you can add domains that are prohibited from accessing your network.
  • Method members can use to join the network--with an invitation only or without being invited.

To allow people to set themselves up as an anonymous member of the network while joining the network, check the Include Anonymous Member Option when joining option. For information on what it means to be an anonymous network member, see Anonymous Setting.

  • Approval settings. Indicate whether or not members need to be approved by an administrator before they can access your network. If you need to approve members, see Configuring Invite Settings for details on approving members.
  • Whether or not content items show on the home page by default. If set to "No," administrators must manually approve of content before it displays on the home page.
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Changing the Look of a Network

When you create a new network, a default layout is provided for you. You can use this layout exactly as pre-designed or you can customize it to meet your needs.

Each element on the page is a widget. For example, the Photos block and Network Activity block are widgets. To move these around on the page or to add or delete other widgets, click Edit page layout.

  • To move a widget from one column to another, click the icon and drag the widget where you want it.
  • To add a widget to one of the columns, find the widget in the Widget Gallery, click the icon, and drag the widget where you want it.
  • To delete a widget from a page, click the icon and drag the widget into the Widget Gallery.

Click Save when done.

You can also change the behavior of individual widgets by clicking EDIT in the widget title bar. For more information about each widget, see the Working with Widgets.

Additionally, you can change the background (theme) of your pages, add logos, change the background color, and update fonts. For information, see Advanced Customization.  Only the network administrator can change the home page of the network and the network's background, colors, theme, logos, and fonts. Network members can change the look of their profile pages by moving, adding, or removing widgets. Community administrators can do the same on their community pages.

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More Customization

Select Admin>Appearance to customize the appearance of your network. Select Basic to choose a different theme for your network. The theme controls the background image and the fonts and colors used in your network. Clearvale provides several default themes. To change the theme for your network, select a theme and click Save. If the theme isn't perfect for your network, you can customize it (for example, by using a different font for the menu text). To do so, make your customization choices and click Save. Note the following about customizing a theme:

  • You can change the font associated with the network name, network description, and menus.
  • You can change the color of the canvas (the inner area of the page) or the background (the outer area at the top of the page).
  • You can change the font and background used for widget title bars.
  • If you upload a custom logo image; the logo appears in the upper-left corner of the network pages. If you want to later, you can go back to using the original Clearvale logo or you can choose to use no logo at all.
  • You can upload a custom background to use.

NOTE: If later you choose a different theme, your customizations are overwritten by the settings for the new theme (with the exception of the logo setting).

For more advanced theme customization, click Admin>Appearance>Advanced and look for the specific page element to customize. Select a Style Name and then specify the Style Options. Click Save when done. While using the Advanced tab, some preset  colors are available for you. If you want to use different colors than the ones predefined for you, go to Admin>Appearance>Palette. You can change one or more of the 16 preset color definitions. To change a preset color, click in the color that you want to change. The current color definition appears. Change the color definition in one of the following ways:

  • If you know the exact definition for the color you want to define, increase or decrease the color values on the right side of the color picker to define your new color.
  • If you aren't sure of the color definition, scroll through the color spectrum in the middle of the color picker to the approximate color that you want to define for your network. Then click in the left side of the color picker to select a specific color.
  • When you are satisfied with the color definition, click OK to save the color to the palette.

In the Login & Registration tab, you can customize the appearance of the login page of your network. You can choose a custom image to use for this page or continue to use the default Clearvale image. Additionally, you can add a welcome message that appears on the login page and format it in the way that you desire.

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Changing the Administrator

By default, each Clearvale network has one network administrator, which is the person who created the network. However, administrators can make other members administrators or choose to have their administrative rights removed.

  • Go to Admin>Member Administration>Members.
  • In the Network Role drop-down menu next to the member's name, select Administrator. To change a person back to member (no admin privileges), use the same drop-down menu and select Member.
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Monitoring Network Activity

Administrators can see network activity details by clicking Admin>Statistics. The Statistics page shows you the number of network members, number of communities, and who has recently been using your network. These numbers change as people use the network. 

You can optionally place the Quick Stats widget on the home page of your network to show a summary of network activity. See Working with Widgets for more information.

 

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Changing the URL

By default, your network URL is http://networkID.clearvale.com, where networkID is the name specified when you created the network.

In general, the URL for your network cannot be changed. However, if you are interested in using a different domain name, such as one that you already own, contact BroadVision about purchasing the premium service that allows you to change the domain name in the network URL.

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Deleting a Network

To delete your network, contact BroadVision.

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Cloning a Network

Customers can subscribe to Clearvale Premium Services. One of the premium services available is Cloning. When you purchase this option, admins see a Clone Network tab display under Admin. Fill out the information in the page and click Submit.  You can also limit cloning to specific communities. For information see Managing Communities.

Note the following about Cloning:

  • You have the option of cloning an entire site. Cloning an entire site includes cloning the following:
    • network settings
    • administrative settings
    • network members
    • existing content
    • homepage widget layout
    • titles, display settings, and content of each widget
    • communities, community settings, and layout
    • DocuVault structure within the communities and all files; version history
    • community homepage widget layout and content
    • admin email templates
    • membership data
    • profile page widget layout, settings, and content; member profiles and photos; member account settings
    • member content information
    • community membership information
    • blogs, videos, galleries, files, forums, events, polls, message boards, bookmarks and links
    • Twitter widget settings
    • Teamwork data
    • freeform widget content
    • disable content settings
    • all content comments
    • activity points, recognitions, like/dislike selections
    • notification settings
    • notifications
  • You have the option of cloning only the site structure; this option clones everything but omits network members and existing content. Note the following:
    • titles and display settings of each widget are cloned
    • content of each widget is not cloned
    • Twitter widgets are not configured
    • freeform widgets will hold no content
    • DocuVault structure within communities will remain, but no files will exist
    •  
  • Once you initiate a clone, the network is unavailable until the cloning process completes. An email is sent to the address associated with the account settings when the procedure completes. Members logged into the network when cloning begins will receive a notice to log out or risk losing unsaved work; after ten minutes, these users will be logged out automatically if they remain on the network. Members who are not logged in will receive a network maintenance message and be unable to login until cloning completes.
  • The new network administrator is identical to the original network administrator, will receive an Admin login, and have Admin access. If desired, the administrator can update this information in the new network.
  • Members of the cloned network will see the new network display in My Networks.
  • Banned member information is stored and copied to the new network in case the Admin decides to lift the ban.
  • Deleted member information is not copied over, as all information associated with a deleted member has been removed from the database.
  • Once cloning completes, an email is sent to the administrator that contains the new URL link.
  • You can clone a network more than once.
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