To start using the platform you require a user account. You can create one from the front page. Fill in your preferred display name, user name and email address. You will soon receive an email with activation link and your password. Activate your account by clicking the link and following the instructions given. Now you can start working on the platform.
To login with your existing account, click the top left corner login-link and insert your username and password.
You can create new projects from the projects list (from the top menu under Projects) This opens a list of projects available to you. To create one of your own, click the Add a Project button from the left side menu. This opens the project creation page.
From this page you can select the name of the project, and some of the initial project settings:
With exception to the project name/url all these settings can be added at a later time. Afte creating you new project, you will be redirected to the project administration page.
Issue management is available on the platform as one of the more important tools. It directly supports the development process and tickets allow the users and developers to interact with the project maintainers and main developers. In this section you get a rough overview of how tickets are configured in a specific project and how end-users can take advantage of them.
Tickets are specific items that correspond to problems identified in the software, missing features requested by end users, or general communication items between developers and users. In many tools they are also known as “issues” or “bugs”, and hence the name of issue or bug trackers.
The ticket tracker tool is designed to allow for flexibility in how you track items of work that need to be completed. This includes bugs, feature requests from end users, or any other task you want to keep track of. You can even install multiple ticket trackers for different purposes. For example, a large project could have individual trackers for the design team, the documentation team, the developers, and another for support. Each of these trackers can have their own unique list of tickets, as well as custom fields, custom milestones, and their own "mailing list." Tickets can even be moved between tickets instances, even if they're on different projects.
The blog may be installed through the tools menu, as described before, by adding the corresponding tool in the administration area via Admin - Tools. Once installed, there are a number of configuration options available for each Blog. In addition to the common tool options of permissions, Label and Delete, you can determine an external feed. These external feeds may be updated every three hours and add posts to the blog accordingly. Multiple feeds may be added, which can serve to aggregate related news about the project. Unchecking a feed will remove it from the list.
To create a new post, select "New Post" from the left sidebar under the Blog option. Enter a title and description for the post and Save to publish the post. If you save a draft for later editing before making it public, change the State to Draft before saving. Select the Edit link to edit a post or saved draft. You may also delete a post from the Edit view.
Like all Allura tools, the blog uses Markdown syntax. Each blog post will also have a discussion section for users to comment on the post.