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New Site Administrators

This page is designed to highlight topics that are most immediately relevant to new site administrators.

A recorded session is available on the LegalServer Youtube Channel if you would rather watch and listen than read. 

For information on free and paid training options: LegalServer Training.

If your organization hasn't gone live yet, but is about to, see the Training Before Go Live page.


Links

The most important thing to learn on this page is including links in emails to support and tickets  you file from your site.

By "including a link", we mean just copying the URL of the page you have a question about or have a problem on and pasting it into the body of your email or the ticket description.

Changes and Other News

At least one person in the organization should join the siteadmins group (mailing list), but as many as want to are welcome.

In addition to the weekly release notes, we periodically post important updates, for example warning about site downtime for maintenance. Other site administrators may also post items of interest or solicit ideas or help from fellow site administrators.

Subscribing is a 2-step process:

  * Send an email (it can be blank) to siteadmins+subscribe@legalserver.org
  * Reply to the email you will get (you don't need to add/say anything). Ignore the shiny blue "Join This Group" button in the email.

We require applying to foil bots and spammers.

You do not need a Google account to subscribe and receive the emails or send an email to the group. Subscribing with a Google email address (personal or Google Workspace) will let you use the optional web interface to the group (search previous posts, etc.). Feel free to subscribe via a work address and a personal Gmail address if you want access to the web interface and to get emails, and don't have a Google Workspace address.

There are three additional mailing lists:

  * Public Defenders: Email as above to pdadmins+subscribe@legalserver.org
  * API Integrations: Email as above to api_integration+subscribe@legalserver.org (there's an "_" (underscore between "api" and "integrations")
  * Pro Bono: Email as above to probono+subscribe@legalserver.org

Getting Help

  • Search this site using the search box in the upper right corner.

  • Post a message to the siteadmins mailing list (siteadmins@legalserver.org) to get feedback from other administrators.

  • See if there is an organization willing to be contacted about a specific module or feature on the Who Is Using Module X page.

  • Attend our free web trainings.

  • Contact us at support@legalserver.org

    • There is no per-incident or other charge for asking for help. We will always tell you up front if there would be a charge for proposed work or specific help.

    • Descriptive subject lines in emails are helpful in general, but especially if there is a serious problem. "Site is down", "Users can't login", "Can't do intake", etc.

    • Links are very helpful. Very. Copy and paste the URL of the form, profile, report, etc. where you are having trouble or have a question.

    • Did we mention that links are helpful? They are.

  • Hire us for training or work sessions. 

Poverty Scales

Not having a current poverty scale will prevent users from completing the financial information page in intakes, and prevent them from opening cases. Poverty scales are maintained on the Admin > Poverty Scales page. See the help page for more information.

Demo Site

Each organization keeps its demo site. If your LegalServer site is abc.legalserver.org, your demo site is abc-demo.legalserver.org. The demo site is an excellent place for administrators to test new configurations and try new features. Demo sites are updated weekly (overnight on Wednesdays) with that week's new features and fixes. There is no delay like there is for live sites.

Maintaining User Accounts and Permissions

Resetting passwords, removing the ability to login when users leave your agency, setting permissions, etc. See User Accounts and User Roles and Permissions.

Maintaining Lookups

Admin > Lookups is where you maintain the values users see in dropdown fields on forms and profiles. For example, should the Gender dropdown display just Female and Male, or also display Transgender, Unknown, Refused, or other values. See Lookup Lists. 

Offices, brochures, zip codes, common adverse parties, and grants (funding codes) may look like lookups and act like lookups, but they are not lookups.  Each has its own link on the Admin page.

Adding Fields

The Fields - Adding New Fields to a Site page explains how to add new fields to your site's database. If you are you still onboarding (have not gone live yet), talk to your LS onboarding person before adding custom fields.

Other Interesting Admin Pages

- Navigation Bar Tabs  

- Site Settings

- Grant Management (Funding Codes)

- Document Templates - Creating and Editing

- Requesting New Features or Changes to Features

Reports

Site administrators are also often report writers. The Reports Manual covers building and editing reports (as opposed to running existing reports)

Miscellaneous Tips

* Finding user accounts: If you don't see someone on the user list or pro bono user list, you can adjust the list filters, or use the Search menu to search Contacts for the person's name (users are automatically made contacts). 

* Missing lookup values: All lookup lists (Gender, Race, Language, etc.) display only active values by default. Remove the Active = Yes filter to see all the values in a list.

* Support likes URLs. Emailing us with a question about a form, profile, etc.? Save yourself and us time by copying the URL when you are looking at the relevant page and pasting it into your email. For reports, right click the report name (or edit link/pencil) and "Copy link address" (or whatever your browser calls it).