FAQ's
How does this intranet plugin work?
When you install our core Simple Intranet WordPress plugin (we offer over 2 dozen plugins with a membership, but many are dependant on this core version), it will by default password protect all pages of your WordPress site. We strongly suggest that you set up a unique subdomain or folder for a separate installation of WordPress for your intranet (e.g. don’t try to piggyback your intranet on your existing WordPress public website). This is for optimization, uptime and security reasons. You can also restrict access to specific pages/posts as well. As an administrator, you will be able to set up basic functions such as the employee directory, calendar, forms, organization chart and other sidebar widgets such as out of office and birthday notifications. See our articles on Getting Started with Simple Intranet and 6 Steps for Creating an Intranet for more on this.
Your staff or members will be required to login via a username and password to access the front end of the site. Users such as employees are typically assigned the “Subscriber” role where they only have access to edit their profile information (e.g. password, name, title, biography etc) but won’t have access to the admin level backend functions. A “Subscriber” has read-only access versus a higher access role such as an Editor or Author. An Editor, for example, can publish and approve content, whereas an Author can only contribute content, but can’t publish or approve it. You can assign new roles and capabilities to your users using the “Add Groups” function within the “Users” menu. Visit our Getting Started with Simple Intranet article.
How does the license pricing work?
All licenses are one-time fees and include 1 year of support and updates and access to our Members area. If you purchase say a Small Business license, it is valid on one domain only for up to 10 users registered in WordPress. A user must be registered to appear in your Employee Directory for example. After 1 year, if you do nothing you won’t be charged anything (e.g. we don’t do recurring payments) your plugins may still work, but you won’t be able to access updates and support or the member’s area any longer. You can renew your access to support and updates after 1 year for an additional year. Note that you will need the Developer license package if you have more than a single domain or over 100 users/employees that you want to enter into your WordPress installation. See the Pricing area for more details and to buy or renew licenses for the various options.
I’ve purchased but didn’t receive an e-mail to login in the Members area, what can I do?
After your purchase, you will receive an e-mail confirmation with a password and link to the download (from *@simpleintranet.org) so check your server or local level SPAM/Junk email filters (you may need to wait up to 1 hour). For immediate access, use your payment e-mail as your username at the Members Area and click on the “forget password” link. Contact us if you still have issues.
Do I need to know how to use WordPress prior to using this plugin?
Yes, you do need to have some basic knowledge of how to use WordPress as a content management system to take full advantage of our intranet-related plugins. You will need to have a domain registered and have WordPress installed on your own self-hosted account, and should have familiarity with how to install plugins, add shortcodes and use widgets. While you don’t need to be a developer and know how to code, you should know how the WordPress Dashboard works and it’s basic functions. There is a wealth of information online at WordPress.org to learn more about it. Visit our Getting Started with Simple Intranet article. We only support our plugins, and do not offer general WordPress training or support.
Do you provide support for themes as well as plugins for our intranet?
No, only plugins. We are coders and not designers, and while we used to provide themes, we then had to support design issues which were typically subjective, finicky and frankly drove us crazy. We support our plugin code 100%. If you find a legitimate bug that we can replicate (e.g. a feature we say works, but doesn’t or causes an error after you deactivate all plugins but ours, and go to default theme) then we will fix it. There are many great intranet themes out there. Many of our corporate clients use paid StudioPress themes such as Enterprise or Corporate or even BackCountry.
Before I buy a paid theme, how do I know it will work with your plugins?
Well, in our experience 99% of our 30+ intranet plugins work with all themes. The only themes that may cause a conflict or format incorrectly are poorly coded or outdated themes or themes that include too much code vs theming/CSS and don’t abide by WordPress theme standards (plugins should include code, not themes). There are literally tens of thousands of themes out there though, so we can’t make any guarantees, but you can try by testing your theme with our free Simple Intranet Directory plugin from WordPress to start with to see how the directory looks. We code each of our paid intranet plugins to be as much theme independent as possible though. Lots of formatting options exist in most themes for customizing as well as using the WordPress page templating system and page format options that are shown when you edit a page.
Do you provide a trial version so we can see if we like your plugins before we buy?
Since we give away all of the source code in each of our 30+ plugins upon purchase (unlike more expensive hosted intranets who charge per seat per month fees) we can’t easily provide a downloadable trial option. We do provide some limited feature plugins for free at WordPress.org such as our Simple Intranet Directory. We also have our online demo at this site, videos, forum, documentation, and FAQs like this one at our site via the Support menu. We also have many screenshots of the admin Dashboard options in our blog articles available via search or listed on the right-hand side of our homepage.
Do you provide or support translation in my country’s language?
We suggest you use a language plugin such as WPML or a browser plugin to translate our plugins. There are some localization POT files included in many of our plugins for the most common languages, but we update them so frequently in English that it is impossible to keep them 100% updated. A language plugin will be your best bet. A simple alternative is also a translation plugin for your browser (Chrome has many options such as Google Translate).
What are the hardware and software requirements for your plugins?
Our plugins work anywhere WordPress can be installed. We don’t get into supporting hardware, but you can visit WordPress.org for detailed hardware requirements for WordPress installs. Most web hosts support one-click WordPress installs, such as dreamhost.com who we recommend. See our homepage for a discount code via them. Basically, WordPress runs on PHP 5.6+ and MySQL 5+ on most servers.
How secure are your plugins?
We use the standard login cookie-based username/password that comes with the WordPress core. We have many clients such as banks, US governments, financial services firms etc. that add their own security layers on top of WordPress, such as SSL certificates and custom htaccess files.
WordPress core itself is highly secure, assuming you keep it updated and use non-standard usernames with strong passwords. Again, we just provide plugins that work on the existing WordPress API core code, and we don’t modify the existing WordPress core API security settings. Our base Simple Intranet plugin enables site-wide WordPress install privacy using the standard username/password login requirements.
What if I am unhappy with the plugin or find it too difficult to use and want a refund?
We generally do not offer refunds as per our published terms and conditions which you must review prior to purchase. We suggest you investigate these options below to find out more, view front and back-end screenshots, as well as try or view our software prior to purchase, which include;
- Searching this site (top right side)
- visiting our FAQs
- visiting our blog
- downloading our free Simple Intranet Employee Directory plugin from WordPress.org
- viewing our plugin video demos
- or contact us for specific questions
If I buy a license, does it mean that I can install your plugin in my local WordPress CMS, because I want the intranet to be only accessible internally in our organization?
Yes, the Simple Intranet plugin (all licenses) can be installed locally on your internal WordPress CMS. It will still be accessible only to your logged in employees once setup.
Can I set up an intranet within my current WordPress site, or do I need to install another site?
While most clients set up a dedicated and separate WordPress installation for their intranet (often under a subdomain like intranet.company.com) it is also possible to set up an intranet within your current site. Here are the steps:
2) Then you would visit the Members area of our site at www.simpleintranet.org/members (your Paypal email is your username, and you can click Forget Password? option if required to have it sent to you). Then download the plugin called Simple Page Restriction and install it. Login as an admin to the Dashboard and go to “Settings / Page Restriction”. Here you select Pages and Posts from the pull-down options which you want to protect behind a login, and click Save. Now only those pages are protected behind a login requiring username/password.
Can I use my own theme with your plugin?
Yes, our Simple Intranet plugin works well and independently with the vast majority of themes. You can install your own 3rd party plugins with our plugin, or add some of our additional add-on plugins as well. We do recommend StudioPress themes such as Corporate or Enterprise themes.
I run an agency and need customized code for my clients, can you provide that?
No. We will accept and investigate feature requests and if there is enough demand from other clients we will implement them. That said we do not make any guarantees on timing of these requests. Our priority is on supporting bugs or issues with our existing plugins features first. We provide plugins that will save you literally months of development time for only a few hundred dollars flat fee. We are not an agency, and can not divert our energy from improving our plugins to supporting individual client customization requests.
I just want to buy one of your plugins (like Simple Files) and not all of them, is this possible?
No. We sell our plugins as a membership and provide access only to all of them. Also, Simple Files requires our core Simple Intranet plugin to be live as well, in order to set up User Groups and manage permissions on the front-end.
Can I set up single sign-on with Windows or Google Apps with your plugins?
Yes, there are various single sign-on plugins that connect our directory with Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP as well as Google Apps integration. See this free LDAP plugin for setting up Microsoft Active Directory/LDAP and try it with our free Simple Intranet Directory plugin from WordPress.org to see for yourself, once you have installed WordPress. Note, however, that we do not and can not support server-side configurations or 3rd party apps such as Google Apps, Active Directory, LDAP etc due to the endless server and settings configurations, and updates. We have developed our plugins such as our employee directory using WordPress core user and usermeta tables. Any updated and well-rated AD or LDAP plugin found on WordPress.org should integrate well with our directory fields, or map to our extended usermeta directory profile fields. Just test it out on your own with our free Simple Intranet Directory first if unsure.
I bought a membership and one of the features in one of your plugins does not work for me, can I get my money back?
No. We sell currently over 23 plugins and each plugin can have 10 to 20 features in it. Our priority is on fixing any bugs/errors (not notices or warnings if your debug mode is set to true in wp-config.php). We will do our best to fix whatever issue you are having. That said, if you are using a local server environment or there are other reasons that we can not replicate your issue, then fixing a bug we can not replicate is not possible.
Is pricing a one-time fee or a recurring payment?
Fees are one-time only, and includes support, updates and add-ons for 1 year. You must renew yoru licence to continue to receive ongoing support, updates and add-ons. Visit our pricing page for more.
Does your plugin work for WordPress Multisite?
No, it only works for self-hosted (WordPress.org) sites. It doesn’t work with WordPress multisite currently.
Does the Simple Intranet plugin provide automatic updates?
Yes, just check your Plugins area of your WordPress Dashboard like any other plugin, and you’ll see updates there.
Can I add other plugins to my site after I install yours?
Yes. Our plugin or themes do not prevent you from adding other plugins or themes from WordPress.org or elsewhere.
How secure is the intranet once installed?
The latest version of WordPress highly secure. Simple Intranet by default protects all pages of your WordPress installation and requires a user login. WordPress uses cookies to secure pages which are highly effective, however, some clients also add more security via SSL certificates and .htaccess files. It is also a good practice to avoid using “admin” as your WordPress Administrator username, and use a password with letters and numbers which is changed frequently.
Can I request additional features for my plugin?
We will consider and do appreciate any and all input for improvements and new features. That said, we have a list of feature requests already, but will let you know if it’s feasible and roughly how long. 🙂 If a feature request would generally appeal to our majority of users, we will definitely add it to the list! 🙂
My site is slow to load, what can I do to speed it up?
We highly recommend you run a caching plugin (takes dynamic pages and converts them to static pages for faster loading) such as WP3 Total Cache. You may wish also to download the P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) plugin which tells you how much time/load each active plugin takes so you can prioritize them. Make sure you at least enable Page Caching as well as other options where possible for minimizing scripts etc.. Any plugin that provides real-time updating of content will slow your site. Simple Chat does slow down site performance, so consider disabling if you do not have the server bandwidth for it. Also, with our core Simple Intranet plugin enabled, you may want to change the frequency that the Activity Feed updates. In your Dashboard go to “Settings / Activity Feed” and set the “Refresh time” to 60 seconds or more, or set to “0” to disable completely.
If you find your Employee Directory page is slow, you can disable the detailed employee profiles. To do this, log in as an admin and in the Dashboard, visit “Users / Your Profile”. Under the “Enable Detailed Employee Directory Page?” heading, uncheck this option: “Check if you want to include a clickable profile page accessible by clicking on the photo or name in the Employee Directory.”
Why are Employee Photos not showing?
Start by ensuring you have checked “Show Avatars” in your Dashboard / Settings / Discussion menu user the Avatars heading mid-way down the page. Also try selecting the “Local Avatars Only” option. Otherwise, this issue is typically due to a folder or permissions issue on your server. For versions prior to 1.47, you can change the upload folder under the “Users / Employee Photos” menu towards the bottom (just make sure you set up this same folder on your server under the “wp-content/uploads” directory, and test that uploads appear there. Check the box next to “User uploads:” and create a folder on your server. Make sure you are uploading photos to the same folder (“Store uploads in this folder”) as set under “Upload Files” subheading in “Settings / Media” (NOTE: As of WordPress 3.5, this option has been removed, and the default uploads folder is set at “wp-content/uploads”). You need to ensure you assign “write” permissions (see chmod settings on some applications) to your upload folder using your FTP client (e.g. Filezilla) or HTML editor. Be sure also to check you have the right folder and look on your server to see if the file is there at all, especially if you are using a subdomain.
For Simple Intranet version 1.48 and later, we have revamped the User Photo avatar options so that they only appear in the Users / Your Profile section, and in the Settings /Discussion area. We are using new updated code to make user photos easier to upload, using the native Media Uploader and avatar code that WordPress uses. Now, local installations should have less issues, and User Photos work with BuddyPress among other plugins. Settings / Discussion has some more options as well for setting permissions for uploads and only allowing local avatars (vs Gravatars). If you have found that your photos disappeared after the update, then visit Users / Your Profile (you must be an Admin to view this options) to check a box to “Use legacy photosystem in the Employee Directory vs current upgraded method.”. If you have upgraded and don’t see photos, check this option.
Note for versions 1.7 and later of Simple Intranet, be sure you check the Simple Intranet / Settings submenu to ensure that photos are checked/enabled.
1) First, update your plugins (Simple Intranet and Simple Intranet Grid View) and disable all others and go to a default 2014 theme if possible to check for conflicts. Go to Dashboard / Simple Intranet / General Settings and ensure the option “Employee photos/avatars.” and “Custom user groups/roles.” are checked and resave/update. Some plugins that modify user photos may cause issues. BuddyPress allows you for example to disable User Photos in their settings area.
2) Then, check your settings in the Simple Intranet core plugin version 1.9+) in the Dashboard / Simple Intranet / Directory Options area. Ensure that you have checked the 1st option to “Include a profile page accessible by clicking on the photo or name in the Employee Directory.” and saved the setting (or click resave again on this page if you have upgraded recently). In this Directory Options page, check all the user roles you wish to have access to detailed profiles (check the box next to “Check roles to allow access to detailed profile page”) and uncheck “Allow each user to create, edit and maintain their own custom HTML detail/biography page. User profile edits will no longer update the Employee Biographies with this option checked.“Resave all options.
3) Go to the front page where the directory shortcode is ([employees] for list view, and [employee_grid] for grid view) and refresh those pages. Be sure to use Shift / Refresh or similar browser keys to clear your cache/memory (disable caching plugins!).
4) If the above doesn’t help, go to Dashboard / Biographies and delete all of the biographies, and then be sure to go to the Trash link and click on “Empty Trash” (important). Now go back to the front end page starting with the list view [employees] shortcode page (if you use only the grid view don’t have a list view page of employees then create a page using the [employees] shortcode and refresh it from the front end). When the front end page where the directory is shown is refreshed, biographies will be regenerated on the back end.
5) Other possible issues can be that you corrupted your User profile data using the Users / Import from CSV by not mapping your data properly using the template, or included bad/foreign characters, or commas, quotes etc. Add Users manually via Users / Add New and try again testing their appearance in the directory. Also, be sure each user has a First and Last Name, since failing to do this will mean that a biography can’t be generated or linked to a detailed profile page.
I upgraded the Simple Intranet plugin and now many features are not showing up anymore, why?
You need to login as an admin and go to the “Simple Intranet / Settings” submenu and ensure all features you want are enabled/checked.
How do I stop my user photos from being pixelated?
Photos should be uploaded as square and be at least 150 pixels wide x 150 pixels high to be sure they appear properly throughout the Employee Directory.
Why doesn’t the search function or paging work for my Employee Directory?
You need to set your Settings / Permalinks to “Post Name” (rather than the “Default ID”).
Can I allow users to add events to the calendar on the front-end?
Yes! Visit the /members area (paid members only) to download our Simple Events plugin add-on. 🙂 Visit this link for more.
Can I add or display more than one or mulitple event calendars?
Yes! You can set up Event Categories (similar to Post Categories) under the Events menu of the Dashboard. You simply create categories (in the Events / Event Category menu), and then assign them to new events entered using the right hand side Category panel in the Dashboard (note: categories can only be assigned from the backend). To display a calendar with events under only a category called “Red” with a URL slug “red” you will then link to yoursite.com/events/category/red to display the calendar with only those events in that category.
How do I limit or reorder Activity Feed comments?
Go to the Dashboard “Settings / Discussion” area and check the box below and adjust settings.
Break comments into pages with [25] top level comments per page and the [first] page displayed by default.
Comments should be displayed with the [newer] comments at the top of each page but you can reorder then using a setting in this same area.
How do I limit the number of Activity Feed comments showing in the sidebar?
Go to the Dashboard “Settings / Activity Feed” area and change the number below.
[10] Number of comments to show (max 25)
Why can’t I upload the Simple Intranet zip file using the WordPress Plugin Upload function?
Our Simple Intranet plugin is approx 15 MB and some installations don’t allow zip uploads over 8 or 16 MB. So, in this case you will need to unzip the files to your local computer, and use an FTP program such as Filezilla to upload them to the “wp-content/plugins” directory, and then activate in the Plugins area of the WordPress Dashboard. You can also change the file size limit in your wp-config.php file, or your .htacess file in the root of your server. You may even need to contact your web host to get them to edit the file size limit in your php.ini file.
How do I upgrade the free Simple Intranet Directory plugin from WordPress.org to the paid full version?
You don’t. You must deactivate the free Simple Intranet Directory plugin and buy, then upload the zip file (or use FTP) and activate the paid version of Simple Intranet. The free version is a scaled back version of the paid full version and must be replaced entirely (vs upgraded).
Can I modify your plugin based on our needs or am I restricted to it as is?
You may modify or add other plugins in addition to our Simple Intranet plugin. It is customizable in many ways and operates independantly from other themes or plugins. You can add widgets and shortcodes to insert where you see fit, change the menus, add forms, customize an event calendar to insert where you want, add an employee directory to any post or page etc. You can also customize the stylesheet files included in the /css folder of the plugin to suit your needs.
Do you offer localized / translated versions of Simple Intranet in my language?
We have coded Simple Intranet to support localization using standard .pot, .po, .mo language files. That said, we can’t guarantee that your language is supported as of yet or that our translations are complete or correct due to all of our updates. We are working on a few language options including French, Danish and Spanish and will post them on this site if and when translations are completed. If you require a specific language translation, and would be interested in creating the .pot file yourself, we , maybe willing to offer you a free license in exchange for your work. Please see WordPress Localization documentation here. We suggest using PoEdit.net to create the .pot file and perform the translation. Also, there are many browser-based plugins that offer translation, and also WordPress.org translation plugins that can be more effectiveness in translation of all visible content.
How do I resolve a plugin conflict?
First, deactivate all plugins and go to the default (2014) theme. Be sure to update WordPress to the latest version. Then reactivate plugins one by one until you have isolated the problem plugin. Then reactivate your theme (themes can often contain code that causes conflicts). The most common type of conflict is caused by plugins or themes incorrectly calling JQuery (they don’t use the native JQuery code that WordPress provides).
Does your plugin and themes work on mobile devices like smartphones, tablets?
Our Simple Intranet plugin is mobile responsive. That said, mobile responsiveness depends largely on the theme being used. Our plugin works with most themes, and is designed to be responsive for mobile phones, iPhones, Android, BlackBerry devices and other smartphones as well as tablets when integrated into a mobile theme. Our Simple Intranet theme provided free with the plugin is responsive to mobile devices. You may also wish to explore WP Touch on wordpress.org which is a plugin that makes wordpress sites mobile ready.
Do you offer a way to bulk import/load users via CSV file?
Yes, when you install and activate the Simple Intranet plugin, under the “Users” menu in the Dashboard, you will see a menu called “Import Users from CSV”. This allows you to import a comma separated values file (you can use Excel to generate this) of users into your WordPress installation. Just be sure to format the column headings and data exactly as shown in the example CSV file provided on the “Import Users from CSV” menu page.
How do I hide the ability for logged in users to edit their User Profile information?
You can do this by removing all capabilities for their role/group in the “Users / Groups” area. Once this is done, users with a role without any capabilities will be able to login but won’t be able to edit or access their profile information.
Where can I modify the style sheets or css files for the Employee Directory and Widgets?
All stylesheets are in the “/plugins/simple-intranet/css” folder. Employee Directory photos/text styles are in the “si_employees.css” file. Note, however, that we suggest you copy this css file to your active theme folder (e.g. add it to your style.css) so that your customizations are not overwritten with future Simple Intranet updates. You can then download our Simple Intranet Disable CSS plugin to disable the plugin CSS styles and have them overwritten by your own custom styles from your theme folder.
Your plugin stopped my site from working properly, why and what can I do?
There are currently over 25,000 plugins and 1,800 themes on WordPress.org, not to mention paid or customized plugins and themes. Due to the almost infinite number of combinations, conflicts will occur from time to time. Some of these may conflict with Simple Intranet, this is impossible to avoid. Causes can be poor coding, excessive use of JQuery or AJAX which causes browser issues, non-optimized code and the list goes on. The most common cause of plugin or theme conflicts is incorrectly loading JQuery in a theme or plugin. See this article on how to do it correctly!
To see if your theme is causing an issue, please revert back to activating the default Twenty Twelve theme and retest our plugin to see if this solves the issue. If this doesn’t work, try deactivating all plugins except Simple Intranet, and then reactivating them one by one until you find the conflicting plugin. UPDATE: Headway Themes for example does conflict with Simple Intranet.
Does the intranet have a wiki plugin, if so what is the plugin and does the wiki editing be restricted based on user security?
Yes, we have a separate plugin called Simple Wiki.
In the document sharing directory, for example if I have a folders for the IT guys. Can this be restricted from other team and be protected and if protection is there what is the type of security used for protection?
You can restrict access to folders or pages based on roles using our plugin. There is a role manager included with our plugin which allows you to create new roles, with different permission levels (e.g. IT Manager) and then assign the roles to access upload forms or to view documents/files. Details are in the readme.txt file, and in our blog at simpleintranet.org. WordPress uses basic username/password security based on cookies. You download additional plugins to further beef up security, or install a SSL certificate to protect your local installation.
Can the forms be customized?
Forms can be customized as you wish, and you can add as many as you want to any post or page. Look for the “Add Forms” icon above the text editor next to the “Add Media” button. You can access CSV downloads on the backend or just view results.
How do I activate the Activity Feed?
To activate Activity Feed, first look in your Pages area for a draft of the Activity Feed. Be sure to publish this and it should be activated. You can rename the page, but ensure that the page id (you can view the page ID in the URL when editing the page, such as “post=8”) is the same as the ID in the Advanced settings at the bottom of the “Settings/Activity Feed” section.
Why can’t I see the Activity Feed or Comments on some pages?
You need to go the the page, click on the “Screen Options” pull-down in the top right of the Dashboard, and check the “Discussion” box. Then go down below the text edit box and under the “Discussion” heading, check or uncheck “Allow comments” and “Allow trackbacks and pingbacks on this page.”.
Can Simple Intranet restrict only part of my existing site vs the whole WordPress install?
Yes, Simple Intranet can restrict parts of a site vs the whole thing. By default, it protects the whole WordPress site, but you can deactivate that by unchecking a box under “Settings / Groups” that is under “Private Site” that says: On this settings page for Groups, you can also check to active the Login Form widget so users can login to view restricted content. Then you can use short codes to restrict content. You can add these bolded short codes to any page or post (these are documented when you click on the main “Simple Intranet” menu item in the top left of the WordPress dashboard when you install.
– To restrict content only to employees who are logged in, include content between these shortcodes: [employee_logged_
– To display a new member/employee registration form (requires username/e-mail and sends password via e-mail), use this shortcode: [register] in a post/page.
– To show content only to employees with specific roles, add content between these shortcodes: [access role=”administrator,editor”]Content for admins or editors only.[/access] in a post/page.
How do user or role permissions work?
By default, once Simple Intranet is installed, your entire WordPress installation is protected behind the standard WordPress login screen (username / password required). Once, for example, a Subscriber (lowest access role – read only) logs in, they will have access to view the site (now an intranet) edit their Users / Your Profile information from the Dashboard. Read more on standard WordPress roles/permission levels here.
Also with Simple Intranet, you are able to add your own roles, beyond the available 5 roles that WordPress offers in non-multisite installs (Multisite adds a 6th SuperAdmin role). You can custom define roles which we call Groups in Simple Intranet using Users / Add Group. They function just like any other role in WordPress. Additionally in the Employee Directory (To add a searchable employee directory to a page or post, insert the [employees] shortcode) your new Group is now searchable via drop-down menu.
– To display a new member/employee registration form (requires username/e-mail and sends password via e-mail), use this shortcode: [register] in a post/page.
– To show content only to employees with specific roles, add content between these shortcodes: [access role=”administrator,editor”]Content for admins or editors only.[/access] in a post/page.
How do I set up the Appointments plugin to allow employees to book boardrooms?
- Login to simpleintranet.org/members
area and download the Simple Appointments plugin if not done already (version 1.2 is latest). Note, we have added custom time slots vs preset time slots. Go to Plugins / Add New and upload the zip file and activate it. - Go to Appointments / Settings and Services tab to add your boardroom by name.
- Go to the General tab, down to Display Settings heading and check box after “Create an Appointment Page” with settings you desire. Check “Notification Settings” for email settings you desire.
- View “Make an Appointment” page which was automatically generated. You can add or remove shortcodes as required. To add a weekly calendar of what times are booked (they must be approved in the Settings area to show as booked), use [app_schedule]
- Go to Appearance / Widgets to add a Appointments Monthly Calendar widget.
I’m using the Simple Appointments plug-in and can’t see booked times like in the demo, why?
If you would like the same Appointments version as the demo with custom time slots, login to the Members area at simpleintranet.org/members and look for the link to download the version 1.2 version. In order to allow custom time slots with the new version, we had to change how available/booked slots were shown.
In the latest version available in the Members area, you have to use the [app_monthly_schedule] shortcode in addition to the default [app_schedule] shortcode that is generated in the Appointments Settings area (the checkbox that generates the “Make An Appointment” page automatically). This allows booked time slots to show in the weekly calendar format when you click on a day from the Appointments widget and display this appointment page.
With the older version (1.0), you can to set up a new Service (Appointments / Settings / Services) with a specific time slot (e.g. 30 min, 60 min etc). The older version of the Appointments plugin only allows a specific time slot duration per service, but again, these can be customized by service. The newer version (1.2) allows for custom time slots.
I can’t see any menus for the pages I create using the Studiopress Corporate or Enterprise theme… help!
You need to setup a custom menu using “Appearance / Menu” and then select the name of your custom menu on the same Menus page, under “Theme Locations” and then “Primary Navigation Menu” . These themes require custom menus, but other themes such as Simple Intranet theme does not. Consult StudioPress support area for these issues.
This is typically a file folder issue or a server permission issue. First, go to “Users / User Photos” in the Dashboard, and scroll to the bottom option settings area where it says “Photo Options”. Find the “User Uploads” checkbox, and check it and add a directory such as “/avatars”. Retest uploading. If still no luck, check that your server allows read/write/execute permissions, or CHMOD 755 at least on that folder. Filezilla for example is an FTP client that allows you to right click on folders to see and set permissions. Failing that, check the box that says:
“, this option often helps when using sub-domains.”
Retest and try a different folder and set permissions if problems persist. Be sure to right click on any broken image/photos and “Copy Image URL” to see where the folder is on your server. Look for that file and folder on your server, or within the default “wp-content/uploads” folder. Search elsewhere. Check also your settings under “Settings / Media” and uncheck the box next to “ Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders.” Retest uploading and again check the image URL source by right clicking, check your server and check permissions.
How do I re-order the list of comments in the Activity Feed?
To reset the order of the Activity Feed, login to the Dashboard, and visit “Settings / Discussion” and under “Other comment settings” toggle the pull-down option shown below from “older” to “newer” and you are all set. The Activity Feed is treated as a listing of comments in WordPress.
Comments should be displayed with the [older / newer] comments at the top of each page
How do I configure the Simple Active Directory Add-on?
We do not support this add-on due to too many local configurations and complexities. That said, first review the plugins readme.txt file for troubleshooting. We also suggest you may with to contact the original developer via his forum here.
How do I setup a wiki when I load this optional add-on?
You make new wikis from the Dashboard / Wikis / Add Wiki (there are no shortcodes required). Note that you must “Add Wiki” first before you will see anything at the /wiki default URL. You can make as many wikis from the backend as you’d like. Find them under the “/wiki” directory of your installation. You can change this directory in “Wikis / Wiki Settings”. When you add a wiki, you can set “Wiki Privileges” seen in the right hand column towards the bottom, and the default is to allow editing to anyone who can edit posts in your site.
When you go to the front end, you can have users create subwikis using the “Create New” tab. You can view all wikis and subwikis in the Wikis area of the Dashboard. Wikis are created just like posts with URLs like posts and you can reference them. Each wiki needs it’s own page. Permissions can be set on the front end, and you can edit Wiki settings on the backend.
How do I change CSS / styles for the Employee Directory?
All styles for the Employee Directory are found in simple-intranet/css/si_employees.css. You can copy the styles (code) this file to add it to the end/bottom of your active theme’s folder style.css file. Then login to the Members area of our site (paid members only) and download the Simple Intranet CSS Disable plugin to disable the styles set by our plugin. Then when you update Simple Intranet, your custom CSS style.css file will have priority over the plugin styles. Now you can safely update the Simple Intranet plugin, and main your revised/saved styles (styles.css) in your active theme directory.
When I installed Simple Files, my site crashed… what happened?
Simple Files requires that you use WordPress version 3.5 or newer, since it uses the wp_enqueue_media() which is a new function that takes advantage of the improved Media Uploader. Also, Simple Files uses JQuery and AJAX which can conflict with other plugins using the same. Please test for this conflict by deactivating any other themes or plugins that are suspected to use JQuery or AJAX. We often recommend deactivating all plugins and going back to the default (e.g. Twenty Twelve) theme to test.
How do I search for uploaded files within my site that were uploaded using Simple Files?
We do provide a Simple Files Search plugin in our Members area (which is currently in beta). Alternatively, login to the Dashboard / Media Library and there is a search function in the top right. The default frontend search function provided by WordPress is very limited, but there are plugins available to extend it’s functionality. I recommend using this one, which is what we use for our site: http://wordpress.org/
Why can’t I create a folder, or rename or upload a file or set permissions using Simple Files?
You must click on the confirmation buttons in the pop-up windows for these operations to work properly rather than hitting Enter or Return. These functions use AJAX which is browser based code that needs buttons in the browser to activate/save settings.
All I get is a whirling “Loading” messages for Simple Files, what happened?
This generally indicates that another plugin is conflicting with Simple Files due to heavy use of JQuery or AJAX code. Simple Files uses the “no conflict” JQuery function to avoid issues, but other plugins that don’t use this could cause Simple Files to hang. Deactivate all other plugins (including setting to a default theme to be sure that doesn’t contain bad JQuery/AJAX also), and retest Simple Files. It should work. Then reactivate other plugins one by one until you have found the problem plugin. As per our terms and conditions, we can not support conflicts with the thousands of (sometimes badly coded) 3rd party plugins available on the market. You simply have to deactivate other plugins that cause the conflicts.
Developers may wish to troubleshoot by “Viewing Source” (in Chrome right click and select “Inspect element” and then click on “Sources”) or similar in your browser to check for plugins or themes that reference direct calls to JQuery which are not native to WordPress (e.g Google’s API or CDN). Simple Files does it the right way by referencing jquery through WordPress which prevents conflicts since the default in WordPress is to run it in the “No Conflict” mode. Other plugins or themes (via the header.php or functions.php file for example) can call JQuery directly which causes problems and is not native to WordPress. You will be able to see this by right clicking and Viewing Source of your document. This is not good, since they can load old or corrupt versions or versions that do not enable the no conflict mode.
Can I have my employees add custom HTML and biographies to the Employee Directory?
Yes! In the “Users / Your Profile” Dashboard area for Administrators only, we have added the option under “Enable Detailed Employee Directory Page” to check a box to allow each user to create and edit a custom HTML biography page. They can add photos, files and edit it like any other post or page. The title must remain their full name however to work with the Employee Directory functionality.
How do I use Simple Chat?
Simply install it and go to Dashboard / Settings / Chat to configure your options. It is active immediately for logged in users.
How does the Simple Q&A Plugin work?
First, go to Settings -> Permalinks in the site admin dashboard to check your permalink structure. Simple Q&A uses pretty URLs so rewrites and pretty permalinks must be enabled. Your permalinks can be anything but the default permalinks. Go to Questions -> Settings in the site admin dashboard to assign capabilities to the roles of your choosing. Visit http://yoursite.com/questions/ask/ to create your first question. Now all you need to do is use Custom menus with your theme or add a link on your site to direct your users to http://yoursite.com/questions/ask/.
I updated to the latest version of WordPress and my Forms don’t work, what happened?
You need to login to the Members area (use your payment email as your username, and our forget password link/function if necessary) and download the latest Forms plugin under the “Free Add-ons” section. All old form data will be saved and carried over.
I can’t update to the latest version of Simple Intranet, why?
Some versions that have 3 digits (such as 1.531) after the decimal point won’t allow updating to new versions. You must go to the Plugins / Editor area, select the “Simple Intranet” plugin and the file “si_main.php” to edit. Once you have that, in line 7 or so you will see for example: “Version: 1.531”. Please remove the last digit so it reads “Version 1.53”, and then click the blue “Update File” button at the bottom. You will now be able to update to the next version of Simple Intranet in the “Plugins” area (click “Check for Updates” next to the Simple Intranet plugin).
I can’t view Simple Files when using Internet Explorer (version 10), all it shows is a Loading icon. What can I do?
You need to disable the settings in “Compatibility View Settings”. By default, IE 10 enables the displays intranet and websites in Compatibility View. You must uncheck these 2 options in the Compatibility View Settings.
How do I change the styles or appearance of the Events Calendar or List or Calendar Widgets?
Please note that we only support plugin coding issues, and will not support theme or design related customizations. Theme changes should be done in your theme files and folder (vs the plugin files/folders) so as not to overwrite changes after plugin updates. For the most part, you should start by identifying what style class or divs are needing to be changed by right-clicking the area of interest and “View Source” or “Inspect Element” (depending on your browser). You can then use the class or div names and add them to your theme’s style.css file (or similar) to override event styles. Please Google how to use your View Source/Inspect Element features for your specific browser.
Some specific event theme changes you can do yourself. What you need to do is find the event page or widget template PHP file in the simple-intranet/views folder. If you want to edit the Events Lists widget for example, copy the list-widget.php file from “plugins/simple-intranet/views/widgets/list-widget.php” into your theme folder, and create a “tribe-events” folder. So if your theme is called Responsive, then copy it to “themes/responsive/tribe-events/widgets/list-widget.php”. Then you can edit and customize the list widget php file all you’d like, as well as change/override the styles in your own theme’s style.css or similar.
My Google Org Chart does not display, why?
Our organization chart feature uses the Google Org Chart API, and has a number of limitations for some browser versions and sizing. Firstly, the org chart is really not meant to handle much over 100 employees (it is possible in some configurations, but often corrupts in some browsers). It simply was not designed to have an entire 1,000 employee org chart diagram rendered on one page. Also, there are know issues for some browsers included Intranet Explorer versions (see here for a Google forum on this). Try our Simple Dynamic Org Chart instead as per our demo.
Some solutions include upgrading your browser version, or switching browsers to see the chart display. Also, be sure that you are not assigning employees incorrectly in the Users / Your Profile area (if an employee should not be shown in the org chart, ensure that the “Exclude from chart” option is shown, available in Simple Intranet versions 1.69 and newer). Also, you may want to assign a full-width page template to your page or post where the org chart is being displayed (see right column of Dashboard when editing a page or post). Templates available depend on your theme, but you can always customize a template to make it full width with some basic coding knowledge of PHP, or just google a tutorial on this.
How can I export Vacations, Bookings and other post data?
Try this plugin called Export to Text to export post data including vacations, bookings etc. Install it and find options under Tools / Export to Text.
I like your Simple Intranet demo theme, can I use that?
Our demo runs on a slightly modified version of the old default Twenty Twelve theme (3 column layout vs 2, plus some extra Page Templates). You can download it here if you’d like. However, we DO NOT support it or any other themes, and don’t guarantee it will display perfectly on all browsers and mobile phones etc. You use at your own risk! 🙂
I’m getting a 404 file not found error when I click on an event from the calendar, how do I fix?
This is a Settings / Permalinks caching issue. You need to go to this setting in your Dashboard, and reset to default post ID permalinks or month/day format and hit Save/Update. Then view your events and they should work now (you may need to logout and clear your browser memory/cache and relogin). NOTE: Month/day permalinks format won’t change postname links for pages, only posts. If this is not ideal, you can reset to your custom permalink URLs and resave. You may also need to deactivate and reactivate all Simple Intranet and Event Pro or Community add-on plugins to have this change take effect. Try also closing and reopening your browser to clear cache.
I have hundreds of users. How can I bulk import user data including title, department, birthday, photos etc?
With the Simple Intranet version 1.87+ installed, you can do this via the Users / Import Users from CSV menu. We also provide an import template file which shows all of the user data available. NOTE: You will have to format your birthday and anniversary columns to “YYYY-MM-DD” format (be sure to user UTF-8 Coding when saving). In Open Office, you can do this by right-clicking, the date cell and select “Format Cells…”, then the “Numbers” tab, and select the “User defined” setting to: YYYY-MM-DD and save in Open Office as a CSV format. Also note that if you don’t see the birthday/anniversary data in the widgets, you may need to delete/readd them or even deactivate and reactive the plugin.
In Simple Files, one of my users can’t see the folders I gave them permission to view, why?
If you change a user role after creating a folder, they will lose the permissions set for that folder. You need to delete that user and recreate a new user with a new role to allow for the folder permissions to work.
I just installed/upgraded Simple Intranet and get errors and then a white screen, what happened?
This is either due to a plugin or theme conflict (we don’t troubleshoot or support 3rd party plugins or themes) or you exceeded your memory limit. Check your PHP settings or in your WordPress wp-config.php file add “define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);”(no quotes). If it’s a plugin conflict, deactivate all plugins, go to a default (e.g. 2014) theme and reactivate each plugin one by one. Simple Intranet unzipped file size is over 15 MB so this can occur if you already have many plugins installed. You can also google “white screen of death wordpress” for more troubleshooting on this common issue.