Collect documents from participants (Document submissions module)

The Document submissions module lets participants send you a PDF right from your project page: a brief, a petition, a technical study. Your team reviews each document and decides what gets published. With the Document submissions module:

• logged-in participants send PDFs, with an optional comment for your team;
• your team publishes or refuses each document, in the languages you choose;
• participants get an email at every step.

In this article

• Add the Document submissions module
• Set up the module
• How participants send a document
• Review a document
• New versions
• What's shown on the project page
• Unpublish a document
• Emails participants receive
• Troubleshooting

Add the Document submissions module

1. Click List of Projects in the left menu, then open your project.
2. Open the Modules tab.
3. Click the + button above the Modules table.
4. In Create a module, choose Document submissions as the Type. Change the Title if you like.
5. Click Save. The module's settings open.

Set up the module

On the module's General Information tab, fill in each field in every language of your project:

• Title: the heading visitors see.
• Description: tell participants what you're looking for, and how and when your team will review documents.
• Submit button label: the text on the button participants click, for example "Submit a brief". It's also the heading of the window where they add their file.
• Thank-you message: shown to participants after they send a document.
• Highlight: gives the module a coloured background so it stands out on the page.

Click Save.

How participants send a document

Participants must be logged in to send a document. Visitors who aren't logged in see a message and a Login link that brings them back to the module.

1. The participant clicks your submit button.
2. They choose their PDF file. Only PDFs up to 25 MB are accepted.
3. They check the Document title. It's filled in from the file name.
4. If they like, they add a Comment for the project team (up to 500 characters). Only your team sees it.
5. They click Submit, see your thank-you message, and receive a confirmation email.

Once logged in, participants see their own documents in the module, each with its status: Pending review, Published, Published · new version pending review or Not published. Only they see their documents until you publish them. From each document's menu, they can Upload a new version or Delete it.

Limits: each participant can send up to 5 documents per module, and up to 5 versions of each document. Documents a participant deletes still count toward their limit.

Review a document

When a document arrives, every administrator of your platform receives an email. Click Review document in the email to open it directly. You can also find it yourself:

1. Open your project, then the Modules tab, then the Document submissions module.
2. Open the Documents tab. The Show filter starts on To review.
3. Click a document to open it. You see the participant's name and email address, every version, and the participant's comment. Click the file name to open the PDF.

Then decide:

1. Under Publish in, check each language the document should appear in.
2. Under Title, check the title shown on the project page. You can edit it, for example to fix a typo or a file name.
3. If you like, write a Message sent to the participant by email (plain text). It's sent with your decision, whether you publish or refuse.
4. Click Publish or Refuse.

Use the Show filter to see your documents by status: New submission, Published, Published, new version to review, Not published, Withdrawn by participant or All.

New versions

When a participant uploads a new version, your administrators receive an email and the document goes back to To review. Nothing changes on the project page until you decide:

• Publish the new version, and it replaces the old one on the page.
• Refuse it, and the version already published stays online.

The document's Versions list keeps every version, with its status and who reviewed it.

What's shown on the project page

Published documents are listed in the module, in the languages you chose. Each one shows only its title, a PDF icon and its size. Visitors click it to open the PDF. Anyone can view published documents: no login is needed.

The participant's name and comment are never shown on the page.

The first 5 documents are shown, and visitors click See more for the rest. New documents are added at the end of the list. To change the order, choose On the site, in display order in the Show filter, then use the arrows.

Unpublish a document

Open the document, click Unpublish, then confirm. The document leaves the project page in every language. Its versions are kept, and the participant isn't notified.

To put it back, open it and click Publish again. No email is sent.

Emails participants receive

• Document received, when they send a document.
• New version received, when they upload a new version.
• Document published, when you publish it, with your message if you wrote one.
• Document not published, when you refuse it, with your message if you wrote one.
• New version not published, when you refuse a new version. The email tells them their previous version stays online.

Unpublishing, publishing again and a participant deleting their own document don't send any email.

Troubleshooting

The submit button on the project page has no text.
The Submit button label is empty. Fill it in, in every language of your project, then click Save.

"Only PDF files are accepted." or "The file is larger than 25 MB."
The module accepts PDFs up to 25 MB only. The participant needs to save their document as a PDF, or make the file smaller.

"You have reached the limit of 5 documents for this module."
The participant has already sent 5 documents, counting the ones they deleted. They can upload a new version of an existing document instead.

"This document changed since you opened it…"
Something changed while you were reviewing, such as a new version arriving. The window has been refreshed: check the latest version, then decide again.

A document needs to be removed for good.
Unpublish it so it leaves the page right away, then write to us at support@cocoriko.org.

Need help? Write to us at support@cocoriko.org.