In 2008.5 Hawaii, we were able to display a seperate message (ie. home page) to anonymous users. This was set in the theme configuration. In Telligent Community 5, Fiji, the welcome message set in theme config is only displayed after a user registers.
How can we display a welcome message for anonymous users on the home page? That is, registered users would be taken to their dashboard, but anonymous users would be delivered just a plain html welcome message (or perhaps even a different dashboard). Ideally, a separate dashboard for anonymous users would be the preferred choice.
Thanks.
Did I not post this in the right place? Or, do I need to submit a support ticket?
Sounds like you'd need a custom widget on your home page that served different content depending on who was viewing it...
I am also interested in the answer for this. I would prefer to have a page explaining what the site is for anonymous users and dashboard-style page for logged-in users. In its current form, the dashboard homepage doesn't display the "My Groups" widget for anonymous users. That's good, but it leaves an ugly blank spot until people log in.
Interesting idea Adam. Since the anon UserID is typically the same in every installation, perhaps you could do this on a local installation (or staging) and then copy the table entries to the production database. That way you wouldn't have to expose the production site to anons having admin access. I'll give it a shot. ...For our install, I created a custom widget that displayed the welcome message from theme to anons only (per James' suggestion). Not the easiest or best way for most people I presume, so I'll try your method out. Thanks for the tip.
Now that is really weird. I replied to Adam's post, but my timestamp is 1 hour prior and shows up before his in the thread. I can't see into the future guys, I swear! LOL. Freaky.
This has also been bugging me for a whille and then I had an idea which seems to work well:
*note: do not do this if your site is already live as it will temporarily expose the admin features to all annonymous users! - perhaps put up a holding page first*
1) Log in as admin, Go to the control panel and assign the 'Anonymous' user the administrator role (this is just temporarily)
2) then log out and go to the homepage, you will now have access to the "enter edit mode" button
3) click this and customise the page as you wish (i removed all widgets appart from the banner control, and added a welcome message)
4) click "Save Contextually" - this is important as this will just save the homepage layout/widgets for the Annonymous user
5) click "Exit Enter Mode"
6) Log back in as the Admin , Go to the control panel and remove the administrator role from the 'Anonymous' user - this is very important
7) Log out and view the homepage - you should see the "Annonymous" view (you just created)
8) log in as a standard user - you should see the "Default" view
I hope this helps.
Adam
That is Wierd. I wonder if this reply will be in the right place.
Anyway I am glad you found this useful, let me know if it works.
I think that the custom widget is an option but we often work on TC5 sites with many widgets on the homepage which the client only wants to show to the logged in users.
What we really need here is a "roles" tab on every widget with on it with checkboxes next to each role or something.
Thanks
Did anyone try this out?
I've got a solution for CS 2008.5 or earlier. I have a different homepage for multiple roles - anonymous, reg'd users, customers, staff, etc.
Can anyone from Telligent confirm this is the suggested way to design pages for anonymous users?
We too have a need to display background about our community on the home page for anonymous users but have a dashboard home page for registered users who are familiar with the community.
In addition we want a different layout for the home page from the rest of TC.
The solution we are considering is to place a separate html ( or similar page outside of TC) as a home page where we can introduce the community with a sign-in / register link to TC. Then we can have our dashboard home page with the look we want in the rest of TC.
Anyone with a view on how sensible this approach is?
Francois
Hi Francois,
You could create a specific page and direct Annonymous users to it, however the solution I have posted above should work out-of-the-box for you; thus avoiding any additional work. Do you have reservations about taking this approach?
This is the suggested approach for 5.6:
telligent.com/.../make-welcome-aspx-the-default-login-page-for-members.aspx
I think the solutions mentioned on this page only works for a Members Only site, because everypage is redirected to the Welcome Page if the user is not logged in.
I think the best way to do it is as described on this page telligent.com/.../implement-a-configurable-widget-to-redirect-anonymous-users-to-a-welcome-page.aspx
Frank