Step 1 - Register for an account

As an unauthenticated user (not logged in) you should see a "User login" block at the top of the left-side column. Click on the "Create new account" link (Now Closed). You will be prompted to enter a username, email address, full name (First and Last), organization, and phone number. Click the "Create new account" button to submit your information. You will then be sent a confirmation email to verify that it was you that requested the account. You will be provided a one-time registration link and your login credentials. If you have problems with the account creation process please contact the OGC Webmaster.

Step 2 - Navigating the Site

The site is constructed as a "skeletal" format matching the sections and chapters of the NBIMS Standard (available for download here). Comments for a Section/Chapter should be made directly on the page named after that Section/Chapter. To see the high-level overview click either the Comment tab at the top right of every page or the "comment" link in your user menu in the left column. Either link should take you here.

Once you are on any page relating to a section of the NBIMS Standard you will see a navigation block in the right column containing a Section/Chapter layout. You can click on any link to jump directly to that page. If a Section is selected you will see its Chapters expanded in the navigation block.

In addition, each page of the NBIMS Standard has relative navigation links to the previous (Index in this example), next (Chapter 6.1 in this example), or parent ("up" in this example) Section or Chapter as seen in the following image:

Sample relative navigation block.

Structure of the Site URIs

In general the site URIs pertaining to the NBIMS Standard content are constructed in the following manner:

http://nibsdoc.opengeospatial.org/v<volume #>/p<part #>/<section #>/<chapter #>/<subchapter #>

(e.g. http://nibsdoc.opengeospatial.org/v1/p1/5/3/2 would refer to NBIMS Volume 1.0 Part 1, Section 5, Chapter 5.3.2)

Step 3 - Posting Comments

Where do I post?

You must be an authenticated user (logged in) to post comments. On each NBIMS Standards page, Below the relative navigation links (described above), you will see controls allowing you to enter comments. By default, the input field for the comment entry field uses a rich-text editor, this means you have controls to format the text similar to MS Word or other word processing software. Mouse over the icons at the top of the edit window to see tooltips for each control. Rich-text mode can be disabled/enable clicking the link directly below the Comment entry field. In rich-text mode the bottom-right corner of the Comment entry field can be clicked and dragged to resize the input field to give you more visible space for text entry. Otherwise a scroll bar will allow you to extend beyond the default visible size.

What should I post?

For an initial comment post the first field asks for chapter, page, and line number information. It is pre-populated with the text "c/p/l" to remind you of the proper formatting. Update this field to include whatever information is relevant. For a reply to a previous comment (which will result in a threaded dialog) this input field will be labeled "Replying to:" and will be pre-populated with the title of the previous comment. Feel free to update the text as necessary.

The Comment field should contain whatever text you need to explain your issue.

When you are ready to submit your post you can click the "Preview comment" button to review the appearance of your post before it is officially posted or you may click the "Post comment" button to bypass preview and immediately post your comment. Remember, if you hit "Preview" you still need to "Post" for your entry to be submitted.

Attaching files to a comment.

Sometimes it's just more efficient to upload a document or perhaps a image containing a diagram. To attach a file to a comment post click the "File attachments" link below the Comment entry field this will dynamically expand the input fields for queuing files for upload when the comment is submitted. Click the "Browse" button to find the file on your local machine. Files will be uploaded when the comment is posted and will appear in a table at the base of your comment.

File upload sizes are capped at 5MB. The intent is allow uploading of small documents, not to pass large documents revisions back and forth.

Replying to an existing comment

Comments "stack" on top of each other in chronological order. By default, this results in a "nested" layout where replies to comments (or even replies to replies) will nest in indented fashion directly beneath the referenced post. Once comments are posted on a page you will see controls to change your viewing options of the comments (change display order by time, flatten the threads, or display more comments per page). To reply to a particular post simply click the "Reply" link within that post.

How do I know when/what other people are posting?

The easiest way to stay informed is using the RSS Feed. This will update whenever comments are posted on the site and will provide you with a direct link to the posted comment. To establish an RSS connection from your web browser simply click on the link provided and follow the instructions. If you use a feed reader just copy the URL for the RSS Feed and paste it into your reader. For more information on subscribing to RSS feeds click here.