Trunity Handbook

Trunity Web Service Handbook | Section 1 | Page 1

6/3/2010

Section 1 | Starting a Website

(See Detailed Steps here)

Basic Navigation

The topic navigator or directory on the left side is clickless. Hovering the cursor over the topicname causes the subtopics to fly-out on the Flash version, or cascade down in the HTML version.

Sign Up as a Trunity User

Like Facebook, you only need one account on the Trunity platform to do everything. As a TrunityUser, you can comment on and join other Trunity websites, add friends, favorites, send messagesto other Trunity users and of course build websites and networks of websites.The process of signing up on the Trunity platform includes standard e-mail authentication. Thatmeans, before a new user can login, they must confirm an e-mail sent by the system to the e-mailaddress used to register. The confirmation e-mail is sent out within seconds.

Sometimes these system-generated e-mails can be found in your spam or junk filters/folders.

Get Started

Once logged in, you will seeWelcome Cliff|My Dashboard|My Messages|My Network|LOGOUT at the top right of your screen. These are your private areas where only you can see all of yourinteractions with people and websites, respond to messages and manage your profile and userpreferences.UnderMy Network(below), you can manage all of your content across the entire platform all inone place!

Trunity Web Service Handbook | Section 1 | Page 2

6/3/2010

Create a Website

A Trunity website is a virtual container that holds members and any combination of content, topicsand other websites that are on the Trunity platform. That means a website can consist of nothingbut articles, blog posts, media, events and even topics or entire topic directories from otherTrunity websites.Clicking

Start Website

offers two options: to select design (start from a template) or start from ablank design.After selecting one or the other, you are taken to the Edit Website page.Click the question mark next to each option for more information.The only information required to start a website is a Website Name, which can be changedanytime and a short URL which can never be changed. The short URL added to www.trunity.net/becomes your website address.So for instance, if your short URL is “sundripstudios,” your website address will bewww.trunity.net/sundripstudios. You can never change this but you can add a custom domainname later, e.g.www.sundripstudios.com. ALL OTHER INFORMATION MAY BE CHANGEDANYTIME on the Edit Website page.

Optional Website Settings

Throughout the Edit Website page, you will see collapsed forms such as:Click the plus ( ) to expand each form box.

Trunity Web Service Handbook | Section 1 | Page 3

6/3/2010

Section 2 | Topics and Subtopics = The Site Directory

Creating Topics

Topics are like web pages, but they are also in effect, the primary website directory or menunavigation system for your website.Plan your topics ahead of time on a piece of paper. There is no limit to the number of topics orlevels of subtopics you can create and there are no rules about what you name them or how theyare organized.A Trunity website can havethousands of topics and subtopicsgoing down an infinite number oflevels deep. The simplest websitesmay have no topics at all.Topics connect to all content types(articles, news, blogs, resources,photo galleries, videos and events).When you create or edit any pieceof content, you have the ability toassign that content item to anynumber of topics in your websitedirectory.When you click on a topic, you seeonly the content that has beenconnected to it and as well as the content the subtopics below it. So this means that a topic pagecan be like a home page for a section of the site by turning on the “Feature Block” setting.Think of it like a newspaper. A newspaper has hundreds of articles organized in sections: sports,local, health, gardening, politics, etc. The front page of a newspaper represents all the content inall the sections. But as you go to each section (topic), you see only content in that section.