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About the Pulse Dashboard

About the Pulse Dashboard

The Pulse dashboard is the web-based interface to the Pulse system. Depending on your group membership, authorized users can use the dashboard to configure a variety of server settings, administer users and groups, moderate the Pulse content associated with your Flare output, and access some basic end user features.

Closedgroup dashboards

The Pulse dashboard gives registered users the ability to view and gain access to different features based on the group membership of their user account. See Managing Groups.

There are three levels of group access available:

Closedadministrator dashboard

Users who have been granted access privileges to the Administrator dashboard include:

  • PulseAdmin Account This is the default PulseAdmin user account. It is created during the initial server configuration and the person configuring the server sets the password.
  • Members of the Administrators Group Registered users who are members of the Administrators group. See Managing Groups.

Members of the Administrators group have full access to all dashboard features and options. It is recommended that you limit the number of members in the Administrators group. See Managing Groups.

Closedemployee dashboard

The Employee dashboard is available to registered users who have been added as members of the Employees group in Pulse. See Managing Users and Managing Groups.

This dashboard provides members with access to a variety of Pulse moderation features and all of the customer-facing community features.

Closedcustomer dashboard

The Customer dashboard has limited access to features. It lets users edit their profile, view the general system status, view system notifications, and use messaging features.Users with access to functions of the Customer dashboard include:

  • All Registered Users All registered Pulse users have access to the features that are available in the Customer dashboard.
  • Members of the Customers Groups An Administrator can also explicitly add a user as a member of the Customers group.See Managing Users.

Because the Customer dashboard functions are limited, most organizations integrating a Pulse system with Flare encourage their end users to access Pulse directly from the Flare output. The embedded discussion forms and optional Community tab in the Flare output provide end users with the richest community experience.

Note: By default, registered users who are not explicitly added to a group are granted the same access privileges as members of the Customers group.

Closedhow to initially log in to the dashboard

If this is your first time logging in to the Pulse dashboard, you must log in with the PulseAdmin account that was created during the initial server configuration. See Pulse Server Configuration.

  1. In a web browser, navigate to the Pulse Server URL. If you do not know the Pulse Server URL:

    1. Log in to the Pulse web server as the server administrator.
    2. Double-click the MadCap Pulse desktop shortcut. The starts the Pulse application on the server.
    3. In the Pulse Server Configuration window, the Pulse Server URL appears in the Web Site area in the URL box.

    4. Click the View button to launch the Pulse dashboard.

  2. In the Pulse Account Login page, do the following:

    1. In the Email Address box, type: PulseAdmin.
    2. In the Password box, enter the password that you created during the initial server configuration. See Pulse Server Configuration.
  3. Click Login.

After logging in to the Pulse dashboard for the first time, you should create at least one administrator account before you start inviting users to join Pulse. See Managing Users.

Closeddashboard structure

The Pulse dashboard consists of several areas:

Closedmenu bar

Across the upper-left of the Pulse dashboard is the menu bar. The menus and commands that are accessible to you depend on your group membership. This table details the general availability of the Pulse dashboard menus:

Menus

Commands

Customers Group

Employees Group

Administrators Group

Pulse

Home

Messages

Profile

Timeline

Logout

People

Find People

Followed by Me

Groups

Find Groups

Followed by Me

Owned by Me

Create Group

Tags

Find Tags

Followed by Me

Create Tags

Systems

Find Systems

Create Systems

Administration

Settings

Reports

Closedsystem bar and search

Across the upper-left of the Pulse dashboard is the system notification bar. This area shows general system status information, including notifications and messages. It also gives users the ability to perform full-text searches of the posts and comments in the embedded discussion forms.

This table details the availability of the system bar and search functions:

Feature

Customers Group

Employees Group

Administrators Group

Status

Notifications

Messages

Search

Closedprofile

The profile area of the Pulse dashboard shows the user's first and last name, profile avatar, and a link to edit the user profile.

Closedyour apps and lists

The Apps area displays a list of Pulse applications. It lets users customize which apps display in the personalized Your Apps menu. The Lists area displays items that the user adds to his or her list of Favorites.

The following apps can be added to the Pulse dashboard. This feature is available to members of the Administrators or Employees group.

Your Apps

Description

Most Recent1

Shows your most recent posts.

Files

Upload files to share with others, and download files.

Messages1

Shows a list of all system conversations. This includes both chat messages and email messages.

Notifications1

Shows all of the notifications about system events. You can turn notifications on and off by clicking Edit My Profile and then selecting the Notifications tab.

Moderation

View content that is pending (i.e., awaiting moderation).

Tasks1

Shows a list of tasks assigned to you.

Mentions1

Lists posts where you are mentioned.

Top News

Shows the top news.

Read it Later

Lists items you have marked to read later.

Statuses

Shows the latest updates posted to the selected feed.

Questions

Shows a list of all your posted questions.

Articles

Shows a list of all your posted articles.

Profile

Opens the Profile Editor.

1This displays in the Your Apps list by default.
Closedstatus updates

The lets you post status updates, ask questions, create articles, and assign tasks to other registered users.

Closedsearch this feed

The Search this Feed area lets users perform full-text search on the contents of the active system feed. As shown below, matches to search queries are highlighted in bold text.

The Search this Feed area is powered by the Pulse search engine. The Pulse search engine restricts its search to the system feed. It does not search your Flare content for matching topics.