GroupVille I Support

GroupVille - Linking the Global Village - Groupware by Sendai Systems

FAQ for GroupVille 2.1 and later
Last updated: Tue, Dec 20, 2005

WebAccess (normal users accessing/using GroupVille)

Server side (administrators and people installing/hosting GroupVille)

WebAccess

Q. How do I choose my preferred language (English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish [Danish is only partially supported at the moment] )?
A. Choose your preferred language in your browser's preferences (the first time you use GroupVille as a user) or in GV Preferences (and when you create a new user). You may then need to log out and log in again for the changes to take place. Please note that dialects are not supported, e.g. if you select "Swiss German" as your preferred language in your browser, and "English" as a second choice, GroupVille will not recognize the first choice and will use English. In order to get the German version the first time you use GroupVile, please include standard German (or any other language) in your list of preferred languages, and move it above English (see screenshots for Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator).

Q. My custom GV People icons are not scaled properly.
A. Please always use square images up to a certain size. The aspect ratio of rectangular images will not be preserved.

Q. What browsers can I use to connect to GroupVille?
A. We recommend the following browsers: Safari 1.2+, Explorer 5.5+ or Firefox1+ / Mozilla 1.6+.

Other browsers are not recommended at the moment if you need to use the upload plugin. We are working to ensure full compatibility for normal http uploads in unsupported browsers and operating systems in a future release of GroupVille.

Please make sure that you have:

Pop-up blocking disabled (otherwise, the GV 'Chooser' window may not be able to open upon Login)
JavaScript enabled
the QuickTime plug-in installed (only needed for the Data component)
GV Upload plugin installed (only needed for fast uploads on supported browsers, otherwise you can use http://-uploads)

For the GV Mobile client, we recommend the Opera Mobile browsers.

Please refer to the installation manual, Appendix D, for details.

Q. I cannot login anymore, but my user name and password are correct. What's the matter?
A. Passwords and user names are case-sensitive (e.g.: BOB, boB, and bob are not identical user names or passwords). If this doesn't work, please ask your administrator.

You can also get this problem when you connect to GroupVille with different logins on the same browser and at the same time.

The same login / password combination can also be to sync your Palm device with the GV server.

Q. Why does it sometimes take so long for my browser to draw a page?
A. GroupVille may generate quite complex pages, especially if you have, say, a lot of items in a calendar page. For the best performance, we recommend Safari (Macintosh, officially supported soon) or Opera/Internet Explorer (on Windows) .

Other browsers will most likely work fine as well, as long as they support JavaScript and style sheets, but we haven't tested them thoroughly.

Q. Why do I get garbage when I download a file from the data component or other GV modules such as GV message center (webmail) ?
A. Option-click on the Mac (or alt-click on a PC) the "download" button in GV Data or for any file attachment to GV items - to have the file(s) saved directly to your hard drive. Then you can open it using an appropriate application program.

Server side

Q. Deploying GroupVille with WebObjects deployment (Java Monitor) doesn't work for me? Are there alternatives ?
A. Please refer to the GroupVille installation manual or visit the Apple support pages for WebObjects deployment.

We now offer the option to deploy GroupVille servers with Tomcat 5.5 or Tomcat/JBoss in the future starting with GV version 2.1.2. You now longer need to install WebObjects deployment on your server in this case. Instead, you need:

- GroupVille Tomcat Deployment file (separate download)
- Tomcat 5.5.12 on any compliant platform
- Frontbase 4.1.x SQL database (available on many platforms)

Please see the table below which deployment versions of GroupVille and operating systems / application servers work for your environment.

Q. Which deployment versions go together on which platforms ?

A. As outlined above, you can either use Apache Tomcat servlet containers or WebObjects deployment.

We recommend using Tomcat in case you are not familiar with WebObjects:

OS	Apache Tomcat version	WebObjects	GroupVille
OS X 10.4.x	5.5.12	- (only license needed)	2.1.2 Tomcat+
OS X 10.4.x	- (not needed)	5.3 Deployment	2.1.2+
OS X 10.3.9	- (not needed)	5.2.3 Deployment	2.1.2+
OS X 10.3.9	5.5.12	- (only license needed)	2.1.2 Tomcat+

Linux distributions *	5.5.12	- (only license needed)	2.1.2 Tomcat+
Windows *	5.5.12	- (only license needed)	2.1.2 Tomcat+
Solaris *	5.5.12	- (only license needed)	2.1.2 Tomcat+
Other *	5.5.12	- (only license needed)	2.1.2 Tomcat+

* Platforms require Java 1.4.2+. Some test platforms and options are untested, test results forthcoming.

Q. Can the Mobile Client server software be used stand-alone? Which versions of Mobile and Desktop browser clients should be used together ?

You can only use "WebObjects" builds or "Tomcat"builds together. The Mobile Client server software requires prior installation of GroupVille.

Please note the Mobile client installation is of course optional and can performed at a later date if needed. Your current GV usernames and passwords will work to access the Mobile client (1 single user license login is valid for both desktop and mobile client login).

The current two sets of options are:

Apache Tomcat	GroupVille Build	GroupVille Mobile Buld(optional)
5.5.12	2.1.2 Tomcat+	2.1 Mobile Tomcat+

WebObjects	GroupVille Build	GroupVille Mobile Build (optional)
5.2.3 or 5.3+	2.1.2+	2.1 Mobile+

Q. I get too many (log) files created which fill up disk space?
A. Please disable writing log files in deployment in WebObjects.

Q. What is the correct system setup before installing GroupVille?
A. Make sure you first install WebObjects deployment 5.2.3 or 5.3 and that you have installed Java 1.4.2 (or later). Java 1.4.2 is only supported on Mac OS X 10.3 and Mac OS X 10.4.

Also make sure you properly install the Frontbase 4.1.x+ database and set up an empty database which is running (green icon lights up in Frontbase Manager) - as explained in the GV administration manuals in either Tomcat or WebObjects deployment options - before installing GroupVille.

Q. How do I properly backup the recommended (Frontbase) database?
A. Please read the manual 'Frontbase in Productive Use'. This manual is written by Frontbase and explains how to do backups. It is included in our installation manual (PDF file) on the download page in the appendix.

Q. Can I customize the navigation buttons (on top of every page) in GroupVille and the login page to match the look of your Intranet / CI ?
A. Yes, these buttons (as well as all localized buttons in GroupVille) are static links, so you can alter them on your server. We suggest this for advanced administrators only. Please make sure you make two pictures for each button (normal and rollover status) and that the new buttons have the exact same image width and height as the original ones.(Note that you can add HTML snippets and your logos easily to GroupVille with the theme manager in the GV Assistant. You need administrator privileges to change the header and footer in GroupVille).

The code (HTML snippet) to add the GV login can be found in GroupVille in GV Preferences > GV Admin. You will need to have admin privileges.

Note: These buttons in the top menu do not appear if you choose the default text menu to be displayed on top of each GroupVille page. Each user can set this in the Preferences -> General Preferences tab.

The GroupVille mailing list
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Links to additional software
FrontBase (SQL database) Tomcat (servlet container)
Apple WebObjects (application server)
Apple QuickTime (browser multi-meda file viewer)

Available documents for GV2.x:

Installation Guide for GV 2.x . This document also includes installation instructions for the upload plugin and the Palm Sync client (English only)*

Installation Guide for GV 2.x Tomcat. This document also includes installation instructions for the upload plugin and the Palm Sync client (English only)*

User manual for GV 2.x *

Download all the latest documents here !

*Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader

Feedback and Bug Tracking

Wiki system / Bug Tracker for GV 2.1
Please come back soon to report bugs and check back on Wiki / FAQ served from GroupVille itself ;)

Bug reports
Please report bugs using the built in 'mailto' form in GroupVille or send and e-mail to:
marc@sendaisystems.com