Just wondering what one is. I am getting ready to present some information to my Church Council on Monday. I was told the our church can have as many sections of the website as we want that require User/Login codes (i.e. a general "open to all" membership registration for forum/journal/etc. access, and then I could create a unique zone for each committee and major area of ministry: evangelism, discipleship, worship).

So now that I know what a sub-domain is, and that I can have as many User/Login zones as I want, help me understand please what an FTP Account is. The idiot's guide is preferred, please.

FTP == "File Transfer Protocol"

Generally, it's a way to transfer files to and from a server that supports FTP. It's probably the main method you use to initially upload your web site. However, once you're past that, most of your access will probably be done through the CMS - either the front end or back end. That's where you start tending to use the "Browse" buttons to pick a local file and upload it or where you download something that someone else uploaded.

I'm not quite sure what you're need to worry about FTP access for in this case unless you'd set up directory structures specific to uploading files for Newsletters, Pictures, etc. I know that TYPO3 can link to those pages to display their contents with little trouble. I just don't see this being used heavily in most church staff cases.

-Pete

The reason I ask is because VineHosting's service packages offer FTP accounts, here: http://vinehosting.com/hosting_options/church_content_management_hosting_wec

I am having a little difficulty understanding this part of your comment:


Do you mean that FTP accounts (which I would only have access to one account if I purchased the basic package from VineHosting), that I or the church secretary would be able to upload the church newsletter, minutes from committee meetings, budget reports, forms, and other reports whereby others, with Username/Password access would be able to download?

If this is the case; is there a way to say make the newsletter public, and restrict committee minutes and reports to only the select few people who serve on those committees? Or is it more like, since I would only have one FTP account that anyone with access would be able to see whatever is located on that FTP?

As you can tell I am having a little difficulty visualizing what an FTP is. I appreciate in advance you dumbing it down for me.

Those are very good questions, Jason. Let me see if I can answer them a little better.

1. FTP is a relatively uncommon protocol for most users. Our church administrators don't use that protocol at all except for one who uploads a bunch of pictures as a batch. It does a great job for that and I'm not sure if there's a good TYPO3 extension to replace that.

2. Just about everything you've listed can be done using the TYPO3/WEC tools. Most extensions that let you upload a file either let you do it through the back-end or let you do it through some front-end configuration. For example, we put our sermons online and the person who does this is able to browse for the local MP3 file and upload it as part of the process of creating a sermon record. Similarly, if someone does a blog post, they can upload the file through the TYPO3 backend or through the tool they are using. I'd probably recommend doing this method for security over multiple FTP accounts.
Besides, using the security model you've designed, I'd probably be locking down those reports to either pages linked to Front-End user groups or some similar method. The uploads would be restricted in the back-end using their logins and with the logins tied in to whatever folder/folders they would need to access.

It's kind of hard to explain without actually going through it. I think you'll find that you can go through the TYPO3 backend to do just about anything except mass file manipulation. I'll have to admit that I'm not even completely sure about that. I've come across a couple of extensions that are supposed to enable that for certain functions.


Let me give you an idea of what you may want to consider for these sensitive areas (others may have different/better ideas).
1. Create a Front-end user group for your Finance Committee
2. Create a page for your Finance Committee, make it restricted to Finance Committee
3. Add a login or two to your Finance Committee group
4. Log in to the front end as a member of that group and then as someone who is not a member of that group. You should see that the page is either visible or not visible based on those permissions.

You can make this page contain certain notes specific to the Finance Committee, perhaps add a page item to link to a folder containing just Finance Committee reports, etc.


Does this help you picture things a little better?