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Using LabTrove to Collaborate with Others

One of the benefits of using an Electronic Notebook is that you can share your research and experiments with others. LabTrove enables users of the system to interact and collaborate, and to share their research with the wider community.

Configuring your Notebook for collaboration​

The security and access settings that you configure for your Notebook determines who is able to view your Notebook. If your Notebook is configured to have Public access, then the Notebook is available to search engines, and anyone can view the Entries unless the Trove is behind a firewall. Any users that can view your Notebook can also add comments to the Notebook and subscribe to new activity on the Notebook.

For more information about setting up security and access on your Notebook, see Creating and configuring a new Notebook.

Adding comments to notebook entries​

You can add comments to a Entry and respond to other comments added to a Entry. You can format the comment in the same way that you format a Entry, see Formatting an eNotebook entry.

To comment on a notebook Entry:

  1. Locate the Entry to which you want to add a comment.
  2. Click the title of the Entry or Comments at the end of the Entry to display the Entry page.
  3. Navigate to the Add comment to Post section at the bottom of the Entry.
  4. (Optional) Change the Title of the comment.
  5. Enter the Text for your comment and format as required.
  6. Click Submit to save the comment. The comment is added below the Entry.

Amending a comment​

You can edit comments that you make if you decide to change or include additional content. To amend a comment:

  1. Locate the comment that you want to change.
  2. Click Edit Comment.
  3. Make the change to your comment Title or Text.
  4. Enter a Reason For Edit.
  5. Click Save to save the changes to your comment.

You can not upload images or other files to a comment, but you can link to a data file that has already been uploaded to the Trove. Each uploaded file is assigned a unique numeric code, for example, 688. You can type the unique code in data markup to create a link to that data file within your comment. For example, to create a link to a file with the unique code 688, you would type the following into your comment at the appropriate location:

[data]688[/data]

To find the unique code for a data file:

  1. Click on the data file to open the file in the browser.
  2. Record the value shown in the title bar for the new window.
  3. The unique code for the data file is the number part of the name of the html file. For example, if the title of the window is displayed as http://yourblog/data/files/27654.html, the unique code for the data file is 27654.

You would therefore enter the following text in your Entry to create a link to that data file:

[data]27654[/data]

Adding comments to images​

You can add comments to annotate images that are displayed in Entries or are attached to Entries by drawing on them. Each comment is saved as an overlay for the image. These overlays can then be switched on and off by the users viewing the image.

Viewing comment overlays on an image​

To view the comment overlays on an image click on the image icon in a Entry. In the window that is opened, a list of comments is displayed in the This Image has overlays section. Each comment overlay the date and time of creation, and the creator of the comment is displayed. When you select an overlay, the content of that overlay is displayed over the original image. You can choose to view multiple comments by selecting multiple overlays from the list.

Adding comment To add an annotation or comment to an image:

  1. In the Entry, click on the image icon. The image is displayed in a new window.
  2. Click on the Comment link. You can now draw over the image.
  3. (Optional) You can view any existing comment overlays by selecting them from the This Image has overlays section.
  4. When you have completed adding your annotations or comment, click Post comment. The new overlay is added to list of existing comments.

Subscribing to recent activity​

You can choose to subscribe to new content Entries or comments on specific Notebooks. New activity on the Notebooks is displayed on the Trove Dashboard in the Your Subscriptions section.

To subscribe to new activity on a Notebook or to change your subscription settings:

  1. Click Dashboard to return to the Trove dashboard page.
  2. In the Your Subscribed Blogs section, click Settings. Your user page is displayed.
  3. To subscribe to Entries and comments from a specific Notebook, ensure the Notebook is selected in the Your Subscription Settings section. You can subscribe to multiple Notebooks.
  4. Click Save to save your settings. When you view the Trove home page the latest Entries and comments in the Notebooks you have subscribed to, are displayed in the Your Subscriptions section.

If you no longer want to receive or see the latest activity on a particular Notebook, you can change your subscription settings and unselect the Notebook.

Using the RSS feeds​

An RSS feed is a way to access information from website without needing to visit that website regularly. Each Notebook provides an RSS feed. How you view the RSS feed varies from browser to browser. There are three places in the Trove that you can view an RSS feed:

  • On the Trove home page
  • On a Notebook home page
  • From the link in the Your Subscriptions section of the Trove Dashboard

From the Trove home page you can view a feed of updates to Entries in all the Notebooks in the Trove. You can also view a feed of updates to both Entries and comments for all Notebooks in the Trove. On a Notebook home page you can view a feed of updates to that specific Notebook, either only updates to Entries or to both Entries and comments. From the links in the Your Subscriptions page you can view updates to all the Notebooks to which you are subscribed. Again you can choose to view updates to only Entries or updates to both Entries and comments.

Viewing RSS feeds in Internet Explorer​

Internet Explorer has a View feeds on this page button on the tool bar by default. If you click on the arrow next to the button, a list of the available RSS feeds is shown. Usually the choices are for Notebooks and comments. Click on your preferred option and the RSS feed is displayed in a new tab in the browser.

Viewing RSS feeds in Firefox​

In Firefox you can view RSS feeds using the Bookmarks menu. Click Subscribe to This Page and then select the preferred option from the list. Usually the choices are for Notebooks and comments.

Viewing RSS feeds in Safari​

In Safari there is an RSS button on the address bar by default. If you click the RSS button, a list of available RSS feeds for the page is displayed. Usually the choices are for Notebooks and comments. Click the preferred option to display the RSS feed in a new tab.

Viewing RSS feeds in Chrome​

To view RSS feeds in Chrome, you must install an RSS reader, for example, the RSS Subscription Extension by Google. The extension adds a button to the address bar. If you click the RSS button, a list of available RSS feeds for the page is displayed. Usually the choices are for Notebooks and comments. Click the preferred option to display the RSS feed in the same tab.

The feed offered by the main Trove menu page is similar, but will provide updates from all the blogs on that page, rather than just one, which is what is offered when you are viewing a particular notebook. Click Subscriptions to manage your subscriptions.

Using the URL​

If you want to add the RSS feed to a different feed reader or incorporate it into another service you can use the URL of the feeds.

Sending Twitter messages using the RSS feeds​

Twitter can be automatically updated with the content of notebook entries by using the RSS feeds.

Using Twitterfeed to share Notebook updates on Twitter​

This documentation is deprecated

Twitterfeed is no longer available. This documentation may be updated with instructions to use dlvr.it as the Twitter publication service.

You can use the [Twitterfeed] website to publish updates that are made to a Notebook on Twitter. The Twitterfeed website takes the RSS feeds from a Notebook and tweets any updates it detects. Twitterfeed can use multiple different RSS feeds and you can configure how often the feed is checked for updates, and what content is included in the tweet update.

To use Twitterfeed you must create or have an account that can log into Twitterfeed, a Twitter account, and the RSS feed or feeds that you want to share using Twitter.

Logging into Twitterfeed​

You can use an OpenID account or you can create a new account to log into Twitterfeed.

To log into Twitterfeed with an existing OpenID account:

  1. On the Twitterfeed home page ( http://twitterfeed.com/ ), click Sign in with OpenID.
  2. Select your OpenID service provider.
  3. Sign into your OpenID account using your username and password, and follow the onscreen instructions.

To create a new account on Twitterfeed:

  1. On the Twitterfeed home page ( http://twitterfeed.com/ ), click Don't have an account yet.
  2. Enter your details in the Sign Up Form. You will need to complete a CAPTCHA security field as part of the Sign Up process.
  3. Click Create Account.

Creating a new feed​

To create a new feed on Twitterfeed you need to decide on a name for the feed and ake a copy of the RSS feed URL from the Trove. You can use your own subscription feed, an individual blog's feed, or you can use the feed from the whole Trove as the source RSS feed.

NOTE: If the RSS feed includes a blog that is not publicly visible any update made to the blog will be shared via Twitter using the RSS feed. If you try to use the RSS feed from a Notebook that is not publicly accessible, Twitterfeed will truncate the URL. The result is the feed you send to twitter is for the Trove. For example, if the the RSS feed URL for your blog is http://blogs.chem.soton.ac.uk/feeds/your_blog, Twitterfeed will truncate the URL to http://blogs.chem.soton.ac.uk/feeds/.

To get the RSS feed URL for your subscriptions:

  1. Go to the Trove home page, and click RSS Feed or With Comments in the Your Subscriptions section. Your browser may also have an RSS Feeds button on the toolbar. Clicking this button should show you the available RSS feeds on the page.
  2. Copy the URL from the address bar in your browser
  3. Add the http:// at the beginning if it is missing from the URL

If your browser has an RSS Feeds button you can open the RSS feed for your Notebook by viewing your Notebook and clicking on the RSS button. If your browser does not have this button, you can construct the URL manually. The structure of the URL for an RSS feed for a particular Notebook is:

 http://LabTrove_URL/feeds/{{Blog}}

For example:

 feed://blogs.chem.soton.ac.uk/feeds/ceryslog

If your browser has an RSS Feeds button you can open the RSS feed for your Trove by viewing the Trove home page and clicking on the RSS button. If your browser does not have this button, you can construct the URL manually. The structure of the URL for an RSS feed for a Trove is:

 http://LabTrove_URL/feeds

For example:

 http://blogs.chem.soton.ac.uk/feeds/

When you have logged into Twitterfeed for the first time you are taken to the Create New Feed screen. If you have used Twitterfeed before you can get to this screen by clicking Create New Feed on the Twitterfeed Dashboard. To create the new feed:

  1. Enter a meaningful name for the feed in the Feed Name field.
  2. Paste or type the RSS Feed URL into the Blog URL or RSS Feed URL field.
  3. Click test rss feed to check the location of the link and structure of the feed. If the link is correct, a message Feed parsed OK is displayed.
  4. Click Continue to Step 2 to create the new Feed.

The next step is to create the connections to Twitter or another publishing service. If you have already authenticated a Twitter service on Twitterfeed you can click Create Service to finish.

Configuring Publish Services​

To configure Twitter to publish the feed:

  1. Click Authenticate Twitter.
  2. Enter your Twitter username and password.
  3. Click Authorize app. Twitterfeed adds your Twitter information to your account.
  4. Click Create Service
  5. (Optional) Configure other Publishing services as required.
  6. Click All done to finish the configuration and view the details of the feed.
  7. Click Dashboard to see the details of your Feeds.

By default Twitterfeed checks the RSS feed URL for updates. You can configure the settings for how often it checks for updates and other do dads.

Configuring Advanced Settings​

You can configure the following settings for each feed:

  • How often Twitterfeed looks for new Entries
  • What is included in the Twitter or other publishing service updates
  • Add a standard prefix or suffix in the tweets
  • Add a Keyword filter to only send updates for Entries that contain or do not contain specified keywords.

To configure advanced settings for the updates sent to Twitter:

  1. In the Twitterfeed Feed Dashboard, click edit next to the feed you want to configure.
  2. On the Step 1: Create Feed page
  3. Click Advanced Settings to expand the Advanced Settings section.
  4. (Optional) Choose how often you want Twitterfeed to look for new posts and select the appropriate time period from the Check for new posts list in the Update Frequency section.
  5. (Optional) Select the maximum number of updates that you want Twitterfeed to send each time it looks for new posts from the And post up to list n the Update Frequency section.
  6. (Optional) Choose whether to include the title and description of the Entries in the update sent to Twitter by selecting from the options in the Include list in the Post Content section.
  7. (Optional) If you want to include a link to the Entry in the updates, ensure that Post link is selected in the Post Content section. If you include a link to the post you can choose the service that provides a shorten link address from the Shorten link through list. The default service is bit.ly. Some services have settings that you can or must configure.
  8. (Optional) To add standard text to the Twitter posts add the text in the Post Prefix, Post Suffix or both.
  9. (Optional) If you only want some of the updates to your Entries to be published on Twitter use filter keywords:
    1. Select Filter your posts by using keywords to auto-approve new posts.
    2. Enter the words that a post will contain when you want to publish it in the text box. If you want to exclude a posts that contain particular words, prefix that word with --. For example, if you use --experiment as a keyword, only Entries that do not contain the word experiment will be included in an update to Twitter. You must separate individual keywords using a space.
  10. To save your settings, click Continue to Step 2 at the bottom of the screen.

What to do next: