Creating eRooms

This topic is organized into the following sections:

Before you begin

eRooms provide virtual workplaces where people in distributed locations can collaborate on common activities, projects, or goals. As you prepare to create an eRoom, think about these questions:

What is its purpose?
Who needs to use it?
Where does it belong (in which community at your site)?

Having this information ahead of time helps you complete the Create eRoom wizard.

Create eRoom wizard

If you have "Can create eRooms" permission in at least one community at your site, you can create eRooms from your My eRooms page. If you are an administrator, you can also create eRooms from Community Settings.

From either My eRooms or the Facilities page of Community Settings, click to open the Create eRoom wizard, which guides you through these steps:

Give your eRoom a name and determine where to create it.
Choose the members for your eRoom.
Assign roles to the eRoom members.
Set eRoom options.

Note: After you create your eRoom, you can change its settings later, in eRoom Settings. And while you specify the initial members of your eRoom when you create it, coordinators manage eRoom membership on an ongoing basis.

Create an eRoom page

Type a Name for your eRoom. As you type, eRoom automatically fills in the URL Name, minus spaces and other illegal characters. (In place of eRoomServer and Facility in the sample URL on the page, the URL you will use to get to your eRoom will show the actual names of the eRoom server and facility in which the eRoom is created.)

Note: The URL Name can be different than the eRoom's actual Name. And after you create your eRoom, you can change its name in eRoom Settings. If you do change the eRoom's URL after it has been created, however, be sure to notify all members so they can update any links to that eRoom.

Your next choice depends on

where you are creating an eRoom from (Community Settings or My eRooms)
which installation of eRoom your site uses (Standard or Advanced)
for Advanced installation only, what the provisioning rules are at your site: manual (member-selected) or automatic (eRoom-selected).
for automatic provisioning only, whether your site uses provisioning groups

Advanced installation only: In the Create eRoom wizard, the actual text label for "provisioning groups" probably reflects how your site organizes eRooms. For example, some companies group eRooms by geographic location, or by functional area. For a geographical theme, the label for "provisioning group" might be "Region"; for a functional theme, it might be "Department".

Standard installation or Advanced installation with manual provisioning

When creating an eRoom from Community Settings...

Pick a facility in the current community.

The eRoom will be created in the selected facility.

When creating an eRoom from My eRooms...

Pick a community you have permission to create eRooms in. If you have permission to create eRooms in just one community, it is pre-selected and cannot be changed.

Note: If there is no facility available in which to create the eRoom, it must be created first in Community Settings.

If there are several facilities in the selected community, pick one from the Facility drop-down list. If there is only one facility in the selected community, it is pre-selected and cannot be changed.

The eRoom will be created in the selected facility.

Advanced installation (only) with automatic provisioning

When creating an eRoom from Community Settings...

no provisioning groups

The eRoom will be created in the least-loaded facility in the current community. If there are no facilities, or if all facilities are full, the software creates one for your eRoom.
with provisioning groups

Pick the provisioning category that best fits the type of eRoom you are setting up. (If no provisioning group is assigned to that community, the eRoom cannot be created.)

The eRoom will be created in the facility assigned to the selected provisioning group, or in the least-loaded facility assigned to that group.

When creating an eRoom from My eRooms...

no provisioning groups

Pick a community you have permission to create eRooms in.

The eRoom will be created in the least-loaded facility in the selected community. If there are no facilities, or all facilities are full, eRoom creates a new facility for your eRoom.

with provisioning groups

Pick a community you have permission to create eRooms in. The page updates and displays a list of provisioning groups assigned to that community.
Pick the provisioning category that best fits the type of eRoom you are setting up. (If no provisioning group is assigned to that community, the eRoom cannot be created.)

The eRoom will be created in the facility assigned to the selected provisioning group, or in the least-loaded facility assigned to that group.

Note: If you are a site administrator using the Create eRoom wizard from My eRooms, and your site uses automatic provisioning, you have the option to use manual provisioning for the eRoom. To make this one-way switch, click the "use manual provisioning" option.

After specifying the eRoom's name, URL, and if applicable, the provisioning group or community and facility, click "Next".

If there are template eRooms available, they are listed next, under any categories they are in. Pick one to create an eRoom from that template. Or, you can Create an empty eRoom.

Once you've made your choices on the Create an eRoom page, click "Next".

Choose Members page

From the Choose Members page, pick the names of members and groups you want in your eRoom.

If you have "Can modify the community member list" permission, you can create a New Member, create a New Group, or add a Guest to your eRoom.

Once you have added a new member or group (or guest) that name is then available in the community member list so you can add it to your eRoom. Make sure the check box next to the name is selected () before you click "Next".

Assign Roles page

Assign members to each of the roles listed by clicking the member picker () to open the Choose Members page. Pick yourself as coordinator.

If any members have not been assigned roles before you click "Next", the Choose Role page appears so you can assign the remaining members to a particular role. Basic choices are:

Coordinator -- Has full access to all content in the eRoom. At least one member must be assigned this role.
Participant -- Can create new items, and read and edit other members' items as allowed by the access control settings for any particular item. Most members have "participant" rights.
Observer -- Can monitor activity in the eRoom, but cannot participate.

In addition to standard roles, Custom roles might be available. You can assign members to more than one custom role by selecting the appropriate check boxes.

You can also add a custom role from this page.

If all members have been assigned a role, click "Next" to open the Options page.

Note: Coordinators can change members' roles from those initially assigned.

Options page

Hiding an eRoom

To hide an eRoom from non-members, clear the check box labeled "This eRoom can be seen by non-members". Doing so prevents the eRoom's name and description (if any) from appearing in the results lists of eRoom searches conducted by non-members. In this case, only administrators and eRoom members can find it and open it. You can change this setting later by editing eRoom settings.

eRoom description

To summarize the purpose of your eRoom, type a Description. The eRoom's name and optional description appears in the "All My eRooms" section of members' My eRooms pages, and also in eRoom search results.

Banner graphic

Each eRoom has a banner graphic that appears at the top of every page. To pick your own graphic, select the check box to use a custom banner, and then use "Browse" to locate and select the image you want. Otherwise, your eRoom displays the community's default banner.

Note: The default size of the space for your banner is 600 pixels wide and 36 pixels high. However, there are UI customization variables you can use to specify a different size for a custom banner.

Coordinator contacts

The directory listing includes a list of coordinator contacts for the eRoom, which automatically includes the first member specified as a coordinator on the Assign Roles page. Pick any other coordinators you also want listed as contacts. These names, along with an email icon () for each one, appear in eRoom search results so that site members know whom to contact about an eRoom.

Click "OK" to create your eRoom and go to its front page.

To change these and other properties (such as access control) after you create your eRoom, go to eRoom Settings. There you can also export and delete the eRoom.