FIRST LOG-ON

If everything went right, ConfTool should now be up and running. Please use a

Web browser and enter the URL you chose in your httpd configuration file, e.g.

http://www.yourdomain2006.org/conftool/

You should get to the login page.

The database initialization also installed some standard settings as well as a

standard administration user. The initial username of that user is "admin," the

password is also "admin." Now, please log on as administrator, go to "User Data"

and change the password for the "admin" user and set the correct email address.

Registration of new users can be done at the same address, where you just logged

in as administrator. However, new users naturally do not have administrator

rights.

Setup of Conftool

Log in as "admin" and go to "Settings". Here, most basic parameters of the system

can be set.

First the main parameters like the conference name are to be defined. This can be

done in "Settings" => "Main Setup".

Secondly the dates for phases of your conference (Submission, Review, Final Upload,

Registration for Participation etc.) should be defined. We strongly recommend to

deactivate currently unneeded parts of the system! For example, it doesn't make

sense to allow entering reviews or to access the review results while the

submission is still in progress, or to allow registration for conference

participation (as the program and prices of the conference are most

likely not defined yet).

Furthermore, you should define possible topics for papers (and reviewers).

If the topics are well elaborated, assigning papers to reviewers will be

much easier.

We recommend that you now enter all reviewers as "new users" with name, surname,

e-mail and (dummy) password yourself. Initially, this is some work, but it will

help contacting the PC members by mail and avoid later headaches with "busy" PC

members who don't register themselves. When you enter such members, you should

also set their status to "Member of the program committee (reviewer)". Now you

can use the function "Send E-Mails" to contact all PC members and ask them to

complete their personal data (like their address) and also select their special

topics.

In our own experience, this is probably the most efficient procedure. Be

prepared that some PC members will also forget to register for participation

later. (They can of course use the same user account.)

When the conference program and prices are established, you can define the

conference registration data in the "Settings" menu as well. Please enter the

data step by step as defined in that menu. This part of the ConfTool is fairly

complex, but if you follow the steps, you should not experience complications.

IMPORTANT: Please schedule all possible events (tutorials, workshops etc.) and

services (social evening, extra proceedings, cups, t-shirts etc.), _before_

people can register for the conference. Although it is possible to add further

events later, we strongly discourage to do this, as e.g. participants can not

modify their registration data themselves (because registrations are binding).

All other features are explained in the tool itself. If you encounter any

problems or have suggestions, please let us know.

IMPORTANT TESTS!

The following settings can cause problems and should be tested carefully:

1. Is the mail server configuration correct?

   This can easily be tested by using the function "Forgotten your password?"

2. Does the up- and download of papers work well?

   Try to submit a (big!!) paper as admin and to download it afterwards.

   If you are using https, please also check, if you can download

   papers using the Windows Internet Explorer, as all current versions

   have a serious bug in the https implementation. ConfTool has corresponding

   workarounds, however, they require that your PHP configuration does not

   explicitly prevent the caching of files by the browser.

   If you have problems, plaease check your settings with info.php and look

   at the FAQs before sending a mail to us!

May You Do Well!

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We wish you a successful conference and hope to get a lot of constructive

feedback regarding ConfTool.

  Harald Weinreich