How To…

This page contains instructions for how to perform various functions within the site - think of it as FAQs. It will be updated as more functionality becomes available.

How To Register

  1. Click the “Register” link in the “Meta” menu to your right.
  2. Fill in your preferred Username and Email Address and Submit.
  3. Check your email - your password will be automatically emailed to you (This DOES now work!!)
  4. Login to the site - “Login” link next to the “Register” link.
  5. Once logged in, please fill in your details in the user info. form that appears. Please fill in your full name rather than any online alias you may use so I know who you are!

Once you’ve logged in for the first time, the Site Administrator will receive a confirmation email about your Registration. Once he’s confirmed (namecheck etc) that you’re a Tour member, he’ll upgrade your membership so you can write posts and upload photos etc. You’ll then also be able to get at any restricted site content such as the Digs Lists. You will also be sent an invitation to join the Group Photo Pool on FlickR.

How To Write Posts

Once you’ve registered at the site, you can write weblog entries or “Posts” for general consumption. To do this:

  1. Login to the site
  2. Choose “Write” from the menu along the top of the Admin screen (if you’re in the main site, click the “Site Admin” link in the “Meta” menu.)
  3. Fill in the Title for your post and write your text in the larger box below.
  4. Choose a Category from the checkboxes to your right.
  5. Click “Publish” or “Save as Draft” (to save for later) - N.B. until you’ve been confirmed by Site Admin, you can only save a draft of your post.

You are at liberty to post as you wish but please follow these rules:

  1. No Swearing
  2. Don’t write anything deflammatory about the Show or the Production Companies involved - we have a Contractual obligation to avoid this.
  3. Don’t write anything that’s going to get any of our friends and colleagues in trouble, either with those here or the folks at home - please be discrete!

The Site Administrator reserves the right to edit or withdraw any posts that break the rules - please post responsibly.

How to… Add Photos to the Group Pool on FlickR.

In order to have your FlickR photos show up on the Gallery page, they have to either be in our Group Photo Pool, or tagged with ratpackontour. The Gallery displays several sets of photos gleaned from the Group Pool and then our individual PhotoStreams (searched by tag for “ratpackontour”). Each set contains the 10 most recent photos from each location.

To get your photos into the Group Pool:

  1. Log in to FlickR
  2. Click the link to “Organize” at the top of the screen.
  3. In the OrganizeR choose to “Load All Your Photos”.
  4. Choose the “Your Groups” tab to the right of the OrganizeR
  5. Click the “Rat Pack on Tour” group icon that you find there
  6. Follow the onscreen instructions for adding your photos to the pool (drag & drop or using the control keys)

The OrganizeR is a powerful tool that can also be used to add titles and captions to your photos. These are also shown in the Slideshow on our site if present.

How to… Blog Your Flickr Photos.

Should you wish to post a particular photo to the main website (rather than have it just show up on the Gallery Slideshow), please follow these instructions. Before posting, please remember to give your photo a title on FlickR. That way the post at this site will be called something more meaningful than your camera’s filename for the image. There are a few ways to alter the information saved with your FlickR photos. These are best learned from the abundant Help pages on FlickR itself.

(If you’ve already set this up then disregard steps 2-10)

  1. Log in to Flickr.
  2. Click “Your Account” at the top of the screen.
  3. Find the “Blogging” heading and click “Your Blogs”.
  4. Click “Set Up A New Blog”
  5. From the “What kind of Weblog?” dropdown list, choose “MetaWeblogAPI Enabled Blog” and click “Next”
  6. In the “API Endpoint” box, type “http://ratpackontour.co.uk/xmlrpc.php”. Then fill in your username and password for the Rat Pack site. Click “Next”.
  7. Check your details and click “All Done”. You are now setup to blog photos to the site - just a couple of things left to do…
  8. On the confirmation screen, click “create a custom posting template”.
  9. On the Layout page, click “Mid-Size, on it’s own line”. When that loads, click “Customize”.
  10. Delete the code in the box and copy/paste (Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+V to paste) the following:

    <div class="flickred">
    <div class="blogged-pic">
    <a href="{photo_url}" title="Flickr pic"><img src="{photo_src_m}" alt="{photo_title}" /></a>
    </div>
    <h4><a href="{photo_url}">{photo_title}</a></h4>
    <p>{photo_desc}</p>
    <p>Uploaded by {uploader_name} on {upload_date}.</p> <br class="clear" />
    </div>
    <p>{description}</p>

    Click “Preview” and then “Save This Layout”.

  11. Now, whenever you upload new photos and/or want to draw our attention to a particular one, just click through to the photo page and click “Blog This” above the photo. Fill in the “Your Post” box with whatever you want to say about the photo (any existing description on Flickr will automatically be posted) and click “Post Entry”. Wait for confirmation and then check the RatPackonTour website to see your new post!!