User's Guide - Layla Cultural Platform

Using the App

1. Getting Latest News

To get the latest news, follow these steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the leftmost one with the word News below it. This will open the News Tab.
The News Tab has two sections: News & Events, which gives you updates on the latest events in and outside Layla Cultural Platform, and Latest Additions, which contains information about the latest books added to our library.
Tap on any item to open it. If you tap a News & Events item this will open a window showing details of the news. If you tap a Latest Additions item this will open the Book View window, where you can download the book, rate it, write a review about it, create a chatroom to discuss it, and more.

2. Searching the library

To search for a specific title or an author in our library, follow these steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
Tap on the magnifying glass icon at the very top of the App's window. This will open a Search field where you can enter the name of the author or book you want to search for. Tap Return (or Enter) on your virtual keyboard to submit the search query you just entered.
Search results appear in a separate window, where all books that contains the word(s) you requested in the title or the author name(s) are displayed. Tap on any search result to open the Book View page and see the details of that book.

3. Browsing the library catalogue

To browse the library catalogue for books in a certain language or category, follow these steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the second button from the left, the one with the word Browse below it. This will open the Browse Tab.
By default, all the fields will be ticked (or On). That means if you tap on the Show Books button at the bottom of this page, it will show you all the books in all languages and all categories.
If this is not what you want, you can restrict search to books in certain languages. You can search for books in a specific domain if you know the category of the book you are searching for.
After you turn on/off the fields to suit your needs, tap on the Show Books button at the bottom of the page. This will open a Search Results window with the results of your query. Tap on any search result to open the Book View page and see the details of that book.

4. Editing Your Local Library

Books should be downloaded to your local device before you can read them. If you want to see which books you have on local media, or if you want to delete local files of a certain book to free space, you can do it be following these steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the second button from the left, the one with the word Browse below it. This will open the Browse Tab.
On an Android device, the Local Library tab is shown in green to the Right side of the All Books tab. On an iOS device (iPhone or iPad), the MyLibrary link is shown in green at the top of the screen to the right side, between the Search magnifying glass and Help.
If you have already downloaded some books to your local device, they will be shown in the list. If your local media doesn't contain any book files, the list will show a message saying so.
Tap on any list item to open the Book View page of that book. From there, you can download the book, rate it, write a review, create a chatroom to discuss it, open the Author Page, and more.
Deleting local files of a book differ between Android and iOS. On Android, you will need to tap the round green button at the bottom right side of the screen, the one with a pen on it. This will open the Edit My Library window. From here you can check the books you want to delete and then tap the Trash button on the toolbar to remove those files.
On iOS, you will need to tap the small circled i on the right of a book's name. This will open a dialog telling you the size this book occupies on disk, and asks you if you want to remove this book from your local media.

5. Getting Your Download Queue

If you have added books to your Download Queue and you want to get them on your device, you need to follow these steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the second button from the left, the one with the word Browse below it. This will open the Browse Tab.
On an Android device, the Local Library tab is shown in green to the Right side of the All Books tab. Tap the round green button at the bottom right side of the screen, the one with a pen on it. This will open the Edit My Library window.
On an iOS device (iPhone or iPad), the MyLibrary link is shown in green at the top of the screen to the right side, between the Search magnifying glass and Help.
On either system, you will find a button with a Down-pointing Arrow at the top of the screen, to the right side. This is the Get Download Queue button. On Android, this will be next to the Trash button. On iOS, this will be to the left of Login. Tap on the Get Download Queue button to start downloading the books you added to your Download Queue to your local media.

6. Creating a New Chatroom

Chatrooms are useful to let people come together and discuss books, authors, and other events that are related to books and culture in general. You can not create a chatroom to discuss your personal life or connect with your friends, there are social media sites that are better suited for that purpose.
To create a new chatroom, follow those steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the middle button, the one with the word Chatrooms below it. This will open the Chatrooms Tab.
At the top of the tab, you will find a green button, titled Create New Chatroom. Tap on it. If you are logged in, you will be presented with a window asking you to enter the name of the new chatroom. If you are not logged in, you will be asked to login first. See section 8 below on how to login.
The name you enter for the new chatroom should clearly indicate the event or book you intend the chatroom to discuss. Please provide full details so other users will know what is the purpose of this chatroom. For example, to create a chatroom for the discussion of the book Pride and Prejudice by Jave Austen, you would create a chatroom named: Discussion of the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, or anything similar. Ambiguous names and useless chatrooms can be removed by the administrator at any time, without prior notification to the chatroom creator, so please pay attention when creating your chatroom!

7. Joining a Chatroom

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the middle button, the one with the word Chatrooms below it. This will open the Chatrooms Tab.
You will find a list of the currently registered chatrooms. If a chatroom is active, i.e. there is at least one user inside the room, a green icon will be shown to the left of the chatroom name, and the chatroom will be marked Active, and a Join button will be shown to the right.
If a chatroom is inactive, i.e. all users have left the chatroom (or the admin have shutdown the room), a grey icon will be shown to the left of the chatroom name, and the chatroom will be marked Inactive, and a Join button will not be shown to the right.
To join a chatroom, tap on the Join button next to its name.
You can join only one chatroom at a time. To join another chatroom, you will need to Leave that chatroom before joining another one.

8. Logging in to your account

If you have an account on Layla Cultural Platform, you can log in as follows:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On an iOS device, you will find a Login button on the toolbar, to the right side. Tap it to open the Login Dialog.
On an Android device, you will need to tap the Three Dots on the toolbar, to the right side. From the drop-down menu, select Login to open the Login Dialog.
Enter your username and password.
Tap on Login.
If you forgot your password, you can tap on the Forgot your password? link. This will ask you to reenter your user name, after which your password will be reset and a new password will be sent to your registered email address.
After you are successfully logged in, the Login button on top of the window will be substituted with Logout. If you tap on the Logout button you will be logged out.
If you want to be logged in automatically when you start the App, you can do so from the Settings Tab as shown below.

9. Signing up for a new account

If you don't have an account on Layla Cultural Platform, you can create an account as follows:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device.
On an iOS device, you will find a Login button on the toolbar, to the right side. Tap it to open the Login Dialog.
On an Android device, you will need to tap the Three Dots on the toolbar, to the right side. From the drop-down menu, select Login to open the Login Dialog.
At the bottom of the screen, tap on the Create a new account link. This will open the New user signup dialog.
Enter your new username, password (twice), and email address.
Usernames and Passwords must be between 6 and 20 characters in length, and can contain letters and numbers.
Usrnames and Emails are unique on our platform. That means you cannot register two accounts using the same email address. Likewise, you cannot register two accounts using the same username. We need a unique username in order to identify each member of our network as a different person. We also need a unique email ID so that we can communicate with you and send you email notifications of new books and events (you can change your preferences later).
Tap on Register.
If you provided a unique username and password, you will be registered on the system.
You can now login to your account (see Section 8 above).

10. Using Your Mailbox

There are two types of mailboxes on Layla Cultural Platform, both accessible only to registered members:

Author Mailbox: You get this mailbox only if you registered yourself with us as an author. If you are a registered author, this is where you can read messages sent to you from your readers and followers. You can also broadcast a message to all your followers from this mailbox.
Member Mailbox: All members get this mailbox. This is where we send you notifications about new book additions and important events. It is also where you can send messages to your favourite authors, and read their replies.

To access your mailbox, do the following:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device. If you are not logged in, you will need to login first.
On an iOS device, you will find a Login button on the toolbar, to the right side. Tap it to open the Login Dialog.
On an Android device, you will need to tap the Three Dots on the toolbar, to the right side. From the drop-down menu, select Login to open the Login Dialog.
After login, the mailbox list will contain the Member mailbox. The Author mailbox will only appear if you are a registered author.
Tap on the mailbox you want to open. Inside the mailbox, tap on any message to read it.
Buttons for Reply, Delete, and Refresh will be shown on the toolbar, to the right side. Use them to perform those actions on the message you are viewing.

11. Changing your system preferences

You can change some aspects of the behaviour of the App by following these steps:

Open the App on your Android or iOS device. If you are not logged in, you will need to login first.
On the Toolbar (at the bottom of the screen), you will find five buttons. Tap on the right-most button, the one with the word Settings below it. This will open the Settings Tab.
If you want to automatically login whenever you open the App, check (or make On) the setting: Keep me signed in. If you don't want that behaviour, check (or make Off) the setting.
If you want to automatically purge (or clear) your Download Queue after the App gets the books on your local device, check (or make On) the setting: Purge Download Queue. If you don't want that behaviour, check (or make Off) the setting.

12. Getting Help

Help is available on most of the windows and dialogs of our Apps. On an Android device, you will need to tap on the Three Dots that are found on the right-side of the toolbar. From there, you can select About Us, FAQs, or Help to read about these topics.
On an iOS device, you will find only one button named Help. This will open the Help window which contains all of the above-mentioned items. You are free to browse and read the help to learn more about how to use and interact with the platform.
If, for any reason, you are unable to view Help on the App, you can always read help online.