WebComment Admin Guide

Contents

1. Overview

WebComment manages all aspects related to comments. From the admin interface it is possible to check comment statistics as well as manage comments reported. If the user is authorized for moderation, when viewing a record special links are displayed to execute actions such as delete/undelete or unreport comments.

2. Managing WebComment

2.1 Viewing comments/review information

From the admin interface it is possible to view statistics related to the most commented/reviewed records and latest comments/reviews posted.

Depending on the role the user has, it will be possible to view information related to the collections the user is authorized to.

3. Configuring WebComment

3.1 Configuring moderator per collection

Configuration to specify which user is moderator of a given collection is done through WebAccess administration interface.

In order to permit a given user to be a comment moderator, the following steps have to be followed:

• Create a role for the user who is going to moderate (one for each moderator)
• Go to the Action Administration Menu inside of WebAccess admin interface
  and assign this role to the action 'moderatecomments'. Specify as argument
  the collections allowed for the user.
• In case you want to give the superadmin user access to all collections, follow
  the steps above and write * as the collection argument.

3.2 Enabling LaTeX/MathJax in comments

It is possible to enable LaTeX rendering in comments with the MathJax module. In order to do that, it is necessary to set the following directive in the invenio configuration file:

CFG_WEBCOMMENT_USE_MATHJAX_IN_COMMENTS = 1

3.3 Configuring threading

Replies to comments can be organized in threads. It is possible to configure the maximum depth of the threads with the CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_COMMENT_THREAD_DEPTH variable in the invenio-local.conf file.
Set CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_COMMENT_THREAD_DEPTH = -1 to not limit the depth.
Set CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_COMMENT_THREAD_DEPTH = 0 for a "flat" discussion.
Set CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_COMMENT_THREAD_DEPTH = 1 for one-level deep threads (default)
etc..

The main advantage of setting a maximum depth is to not enter into deep, meaningless indentations when users might not understand the concept of threads, and mix the "reply to" and "add comment" actions. When CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_COMMENT_THREAD_DEPTH is reached, the level of discussion becomes a "flat" discussion.

For example, with CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_COMMENT_THREAD_DEPTH = 1, replies to comments would go through to the following states:

Reply to
Comment 1
-------->

Reply to
Comment 3
-------->

Reply to
Comment 3
-------->

3.4 Configuring commenting rounds

You can configure WebComment to group comments according to the status of the commented record. This enables the creation of commenting rounds, so that comments belonging to the same round are grouped together, and comments belonging to past rounds are less prominently displayed.

For example, let's say that a collaboration is commenting a draft document: once a new revision of the document is uploaded by the author, the already existing comments are grouped together and moved to archive. The discussion page will then appear empty, and a new commenting round can start.
The past commenting rounds are still visible as small individual links at the top of the discussion. A click on one of these links reveals the comments belonging to this group/round. It is then also possible to continue replying to comments submitted during this past round, though it is not possible to add a new comment (not a reply).

New revision
   of file
------------>

In order to know what is the current round, the MARC metadata of the commented record must specify the name of the current group to which new comments have to be attached. The MARC field specifying the round "name" can be configured with the CFG_WEBCOMMENT_ROUND_DATAFIELD of the invenio-local.conf file. There you can set the MARC code that contains the round name, for each collection you want to enable rounds.

Note that whatever the current round is, a reply to a comment will always belong to the round of the parent.

How to modify the MARC field with the round name?: this is up to the admin of the system, but it would typically be done by a WebSubmit submission. This field might already exists if you store a revision number in your metadata, or date, etc.

How to restrict commenting rounds?: you can combine rounds with the comment-level restrictions documented in section Comment-level restrictions, which uses a similar mechanism to protect comments.

3.5 Configuring restrictions

3.5.1 Record-level restrictions

When a record is restricted via its collection (viewrestrcoll WebAccess action), the comments submitted for this record are restricted to users who can view the record.

3.5.2 Discussion-level restrictions

Discussion pages can be restricted with the WebAccess viewcomment and sendcomment actions. This let you define who can read or send comments in particular collections.

3.5.3 Comment-level restrictions

Restrictions can be applied at the level of individual records. When submitting a comment, WebComment checks in the record metadata if some restriction should be applied. The field where WebComment is looking for restrictions can be configured in the the CFG_WEBCOMMENT_RESTRICTION_DATAFIELD of the invenio-local.conf file. There you can define for each collection the MARC code containing the restriction information.

For the restriction to be applied, an authorisation for the viewrestrcomment WebAccess action must be set up. The "status" parameter of the viewrestrcomment must match the value in the MARC metadata. This lets you define different restrictions based on the value in the metadata.
Unless the status is empty, the comment will be restricted, even if no role is specifically linked to the viewrestrcomment action for this status.

Note that whatever the status of the record is, a reply to a comment always inherits the restriction of the parent.

3.6 Configuring file attachments

WebComment allows authorized users to attach files to submitted comments. This is only available to logged in users, who have been authorized via the attachcommentfile WebAccess action. By default no user (except admin) can attach files.

In addition, you can configure the maximum number of allowed attachments with the CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_ATTACHED_FILES (default 5) variable of the the invenio-local.conf file. Set CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_ATTACHED_FILES = 0 for unlimited number of files.
Note that this is only applicable only if you installed the jQuery plugins with make install-jquery-plugins.

You can set up the maximum size (in bytes) of attachments with the CFG_WEBCOMMENT_MAX_ATTACHMENT_SIZE variable of the the invenio-local.conf file.

3.7 Configuring email notifications

WebComment allows users to subscribe to discussions directly from the web interface. In addition you can set up automatic notifications that don't require the users to subscribe. The main use case for this is to notify the author that a new comment has been submitted on her document.

WebComment checks for automatic notifications of comments in the MARC record. It specifically looks for emails in fields defined by the CFG_WEBCOMMENT_EMAIL_REPLIES_TO variable of the the invenio-local.conf file. There you can define the fields to look for for specific collections.