Using the Croquet England Website

Please give feedback, especially to report any difficulties you encounter or suggestions for improvement - the sooner you report problems the sooner they can be fixed!

Navigation depends on the screen size of the device you are using to view the site, but on all devices, the top bar logo takes you to the home page (where you'll find a set of buttons linking to the most-used parts of the website), a search button, and on small screens, the menu button, which opens up a set of links to the main areas of the site - those links appear in the top bar on bigger screens. Watch one of the videos for details:

At the top of each page is a breadcrumb trail showing the menu selection needed to get to that page - you can click on the higher levels in the trail to navigate up the tree.

Finding What You Want

The page header gives access to the main areas of the website. Click a second time to reveal a folding menu.

Click the Search button in the header to access the site-specific Google search.

Some pages are restricted to members only and you must log in to see them. This security feature puts those pages out of the reach of search engines, such as Google. Consequently, the Members Search section (below the Google search) finds all pages containing your search phrase.

Site Map View

You can also explore the site through the site map - a tree-like visualisation of all pages accessible to you. Log in first (if you see a button in the header Enable Privileges, click it first), and then click on the folder icons to show and hide the detail below them - or hide/show all with the controls at the bottom of the screen. Click on a page title to view that page.

At the top of the screen, inside configure display twisties ( Closed Twistie when clicked reveals more content, Open Twistie hides it), you can choose to show more detail, such as owner committee. Most of these settings are remembered between visits to the page - click the reset configuration button to revert to default settings.

As with most tabular views, click on a column heading to sort by that column (though here it makes sense only if you hide the tree icons). You can focus the view at any folder by clicking on the Tree tree icon next to that folder - the same icon appears at the foot of any page and takes you to that page alongside its siblings in the site map.

Keeping it Current

The biggest problem with any website is keeping the information current. Each page is owned by a committee, which is identified in the page footer, together with the date a member of that committee last validated the page as up-to-date. Any committee member can update their committee's pages.

Logged-in readers are invited to report that a page needs an update by using the feedback link Comment at the foot of the page. Raising such a comment marks the page as Page Status Revise needing revision.

Click on Info on the left of any page footer to see full information about the page, including (depending on whether logged in and a member of the owning committee):

links to and from the page
change requests and comments made about the page
for members of the owning committee, a button to
- mark the page verified as up-to-date
- re-assign the page to another committee
- mark the page as archived or to be deleted
a full change history, with access to past versions and side-by-side comparison

Page owners can view a list of pages they own, with those marked for Page Status Revise revision highlighted, via the site search page.

When owning-committee members view any of their pages that have not been validated in the previous 18 months, they are invited by a pop-up header to review the page.

Committee members can edit their pages and, when publishing their changes, they can indicate that the page has been completely validated, as distinct from had a minor correction or update.

Editing Pages

As each page is edited, its content is kept consistent with the site's general look, even though many different people may edit them. Anyone who can use a word processor has the skills to edit a page online, and the system makes it as easy as it can be with a safe environment where the user can concentrate on the content and not the technology.

Broken links are a thing of the past because it's not possible to publish a revised page if any links on it don't exist. If a page is moved or deleted, all the pages referencing it are updated to suit.

Before publishing a page, the owner sees a side-by-side comparison with the currently published version. Reverting to an earlier version is easy too if a mistake is found. Users can Compare compare an earlier version of the page using the same tool - see the Info page information in the footer.

Photos can be uploaded, resized and incorporated into the edited page in a variety of ways.

Each page is owned by a committee, and every member of that committee can edit their pages.

Publishing a page updates automatically the what's new list (off the search page).

Useful Shortcuts

The following shortcuts are available, making it simpler to give instructions in print. In all cases, the basic website can be abbreviated (in print) to croquet.org.uk (rather than https://www.croquet.org.uk)

croquet.org.uk/unsubscribe Update personal preferences (after logging in).
croquet.org.uk/myhandicaps update handicaps (after logging in).
croquet.org.uk/calendar/123 View calendar item #123.
- croquet.org.uk/calendar gets to the Fixtures Calendar listing
croquet.org.uk/news/123 news item #123.
croquet.org.uk/join Join online page.
croquet.org.uk/ncd National Croquet Day/Week page.
croquet.org.uk/ncw National Croquet Day/Week page.
croquet.org.uk/vote Council Elections.
croquet.org.uk/survey = Survey app.
croquet.org.uk/clubs/club-name redirects to club-name's website, or their Croquet England Directory details page if none registered.