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Set up

Aim

By the end of this session, you should understand the main CiviCRM configuration settings.

Objectives

Specific objectives:

  • Understand how to configure CiviCRM and it's components
  • Understand how to alter the permissions for different users

Learning points

You should aim to cover the following points in this session

  • General system configuration via the administration menu
  • Examine how you can alter the user interface via display preferences and the navigation menu
  • Explore Access Control and permissions available via the CMS and also via CivICRM

Extra points that it would be good to go into, if there is time include:

  • How to work with a web host
  • Installation of CiviCRM
  • How to upgrade CiviCRM

Session Plan

This session should last 60 minutes. Without the exercises, you should be able to complete it in 30 minutes.

Outline the configuration options and allow the learners to experiment

Basic concepts (5 minutes)

Give an overview of the Administration menu console screen and explain the areas which will be covered during the session.

Show the learners the list of available CiviCRM components and how they are enabled

Ask the learners to turn off all components and say that we'll turn them on at the start of each associated session.

Describe to the learners how the changes made effect the user interface.

The configuration checklist (15 minutes)

Run through the full configuration checklist spending some time on each element (missing out contact types only and payment procesors as they are covered in contributions)

Also show the learners how to edit and add entries to the Navigation menu / look at Date formats

Exercise 1 (25 minutes)

Then ask the learners to complete Exercise 1 - the learners should be encouraged to explore and if useful questions are asked maybe relay the answer to the whole group.

Users and Permissions (10 minutes)

Explain how Access Control works to the learners. As a group exercise talk through a number of different scenarios (invite suggestions from the learners) and discuss the implications of using Access Control. Being aware that Access Control is used to restrict access to;

  • Groups of contacts
  • Profiles
  • A set of fields
  • Events

Look at the Drupal permissions page (mention Drupal Roles as well) and also talk about the Joomla / WordPress permissions

Scheduled Jobs (5 minutes)

Make the learners aware of how the scheduled jobs run automatically via server cron jobs

Examine the scheduled jobs list and explain the purpose of each item

More useful tools for Set Up

Explain that the CiviCRM Docmentation contains a lot of detail and stress how important it is that an installations is configured correctly.