Improve My City

Improve My City for WordPress is a platform for managing local issues; from reporting, to administration and analysis.

It is an integrated solution aimed to local governments seeking collaboration with their citizens, freely available as open source.

Report

Collecting issues via web or mobile.

• Reported via web or mobile

  By allowing citizens to report issues from their home using the web version, or while on the street using the mobile app (iOS & Android).

• Easily composed but descriptive

  By asking citizens to provide only the information necessary to locate and resolve the issue, such as title, description, location and category.

• Accurately positioned

  By offering a map to facilitate citizens in determining the exact location of their issue.

• Picture enabled

  By allowing to attach an image on the spot for describing the issue.

• Categorized based on their nature

  By urging citizens to select one of the pre-specified categories reflecting the municipality departments.

• Commented and voted

  By offering the mechanisms to post comments or vote for issues that have been submitted by other citizens.

Administer

Easy to use administration platform.

• Browse effectively

  Issues are presented on the city map, as an ordered list but also in a single-issue page displaying the full set of submitted details.

• Distribute responsibilities

  Assign one or more officers per category and split the administration effort across the municipality departments.

• Track pending issues

  Issues are automatically routed not only to the appropriate department but also to the inbox of the responsible officer.

• Monitor progress and update citizens

  Resolve issues and inform citizens by email or through a progress indication bar (Open -> Acknowledged -> Closed).

• Provide direct feedback

  Provide written feedback to the citizens giving non-standard explanations for each specific case.

• Customize easily

  Fully customize the system in terms of user rights, number and nature of categories, notification rules and localization settings.

Documentation

[1] Set IMC Main Page

The Improve My City Main Page (IMC-Improve My City Main Page) is located on Pages > IMC Improve My City Main Page.

After activating the plugin, a page called “IMC – Improve My City Main Page” is automatically created. This is the core page of the plugin, where all the issues will be presented. You can add it on a menu, or assign it as you front page. If you ever delete this page or any page that is created by the Improve My City plugin you can bring them back by disabling and enabling the plugin again.

• [1.1] Add Improve My City Main Page to your main menu

1. Visit Appearance > Menus
2. Choose an existing menu or create a new one.
3. Search and Add to Menu the “IMC – Improve My City Main page” from the Pages section.
4. Choose a location for your menu at Theme locations and save it.

• [1.2] Set Improve My City Main Page as your site’s Front page

If you want to use the Improve My City Main Page as your front page, go to Settings > Reading and set “Front page displays” to “A static page”. From the dropdown menu, select the “IMC – Improve My City Main Page”.

[2] Issues & Categories

• [2.1] Before creating your first Issue

Each issue that is submitted to the “Improve My City” platform is assigned a Status and a Category. Statuses denote the progress of an issue. You can have as many statuses as you want, although it is best to limit the number of statuses to 6. You can have as many Categories as you like.

Before using the plugin to report issues, there has to be at least one Status and one Category set, so the plugin can function as intended.

In the following sections, it is described how to manage the Statuses & Categories.

• [2.2] Manage Statuses

To access the Status manager navigate to Improve My City menu > Issue Statuses.

On the left hand side of this screen you can add a new status by providing the necessary information:

1. Name: The Status name that will be shown everywhere in the application.
2. Slug: The unique identifier of the Status. It usually is the status name in lowercase without special characters and spaces.
3. Description: A short description about the status that is usually used internally to convey information between administrators.
4. Color: A unique color that best represents the status. Use the color picker to select from a predefined color or set your own.

Then click on the Add new Status button to save it.

You can also edit an existing Status.

On the right hand side of this screen resides the Status table that lists all of your created statuses. The chronological order that they are created, define the order of each step (as seen in the order field).

For example the first status that you create, is also an issue’s first (initial) status (the one with the smallest order number). The second one is the status after the initial, and so on.

There is a soon to be implemented ordering mechanism to enable setting the ordering manually.

• [2.3] Manage Categories

To access the Category manager navigate to Improve My City menu > Issue Categories

On the left hand side of this screen you can add a new category by providing the necessary information:

1. Name: The Category name that will be shown everywhere in the application.
2. Slug: The unique identifier of the Category. It usually is the category name in lowercase without special characters and spaces.
3. Parent: Use this dropdown if you want to make this Category a sub-Category; you have to select the sub-category’s parent category. “Improve My City” can only support depth of one level.
4. Description: A short description about the category that is usually used internally to convey information between administrators.
5. E-mail Notifications: The e-mail address that will receive all notifications about any changes. You can use more than one if you like, by separating them with a comma. By leaving it blank, it means that all the notifications for this category will be sent to the website’s admin mail (WordPress admin).
6. Category Image: Select an icon that will represent this category. Icons should have at least 100×100 pixels size and background transparency.
   Then click on the Add new Category button to save it.

You can also edit an existing Category.

On the right hand side of this screen resides the Categories table that lists all of your created categories.

[3] Issue Reporting

In the following section, the default roadmap on how to report an issue is described, both from the frontend and from the administrator panel.

• [3.1] Report an issue (Citizens)

To report a new issue as a citizen:
1. Visit Improve My City Main Page on your website.
2. Click on Report an issue link at the top right of your screen
3. There are five pieces of information associated with each new Issue that you need to fill in.

Title: Add a short title for the issue

Category: Select an appropriate category from the dropdown option.

Description: Write a thorough description of the issue.

Address: Add the specific address of issue’s location. By dragging the pin icon on the map, the Address field is populated automatically. You can also start typing and the auto-complete feature will suggest an address based on your location. The Locate button is used to make sure that the address entered is correct.

Photo: (optional) Attach a photo of the issue. Photo size must be less than 2MB.

• [3.2] Report an issue (Administrators)

To report an issue as administrator:
1. Visit Improve My City > Add New at your dashboard
2. There are six pieces of information associated with each new Issue that you need to fill in.

Title: Add a short title for the issue [4.2.1]

Description: Write a thorough description of the issue [4.2.2]

Address: Add the specific address of issue’s location. By dragging the pin icon on the map, the Address field is populated automatically. You can also start typing and the auto-complete feature will suggest an address based on your location. The Locate address button is used to make sure that the address entered is correct. [4.2.3]

Category: Select an appropriate category from the dropdown option. [4.2.4]

Status: Select an appropriate status from the dropdown option. [4.2.5]

Photo: (optional) Attach a photo using the Featured Image field. [4.2.6]

You can also enable/disable comments for this issue by checking/unchecking the “Allow Comments” checkbox.

[4] Improve My City Settings

The Improve My City Settings are located on Settings > IMC Settings, spanning 3 tabs.

• [4.1] Settings regarding Google Map

In this tab resides all the configuration options about the Map functionality of the plugin.

1. Google Maps API KEY: Add your API Key to authenticate requests about your Google Maps. For more information on getting an API Key, see the Google Developers website.[5.1.1]
2. Initial Address: Add specific address that every map in IMC will have as default. By dragging the pin icon on the map, the Initial Address field is populated automatically.[5.1.2]
3. Initial Latitude: Add a specific latitude value that every map in IMC will have as default.[5.1.3]
4. Initial Longitude: Add a specific longitude value that every map in IMC will have as default.[5.1.4]
   Note: The 5.1.3 and 5.1.4 values are populated automatically when you set an Initial Address on 5.1.2.
5. Initial Map Zoom: Set the default zoom of the map. Available values range between 0 and 20.[5.1.5]
6. Map Language: Change the in-map language as well as the directions output language. See supported list of languages.[5.1.6]
7. Map Region: Change map region to apply bias for IMC behavior towards your Region. See Unicode region subtag identifiers.[5.1.7]
8. Allow zooming with mouse scroll wheel: Choose if you want to enable zooming on the map, using the mouse scroll wheel.[5.1.8]
9. Clustering markers: The map clustering functionality will be available and thoroughly documented at a later time.[5.1.9]
10. Boundaries: Insert a GeoJSON object, extracted from the OpenStreetMaps page to display your city’s boundaries and allow reporting only inside these limits.[5.1.10]

• [4.2] Settings regarding Notifications

In this tab the administrator can enable or disable the dispatch of notification e-mails for a range of the plugin actions.

1. On new issue to user: Send an e-mail notification to Citizen, immediately after reporting an issue.[5.2.1]
2. On new issue to admins: Send an e-mail notification to Admins, immediately after an issue reported on their Category (See [3.2]).[5.2.2]
3. On change category to user: Send an e-mail notification to Citizen when his issue has changed category.[5.2.3]
4. On change category to admins: Send an e-mail notification to Admins, immediately after an issue has moved to their category (See [3.2]).[5.2.4]
5. On change status to user: Send an e-mail notification to Citizen when his issue has changed status.[5.2.5]
6. On change status to admins: Send an e-mail notification to Admins (See [3.2]), immediately after an issue has changed status.[5.2.6]
7. On new comment to admins: Send an e-mail notification to Admin immediately after a comment is published.[5.2.7]

• [4.3] General Settings

In this section the administrator can set whether new issues will be published immediately, or will be moderated at first.

1. Moderate new Issues: Set if you want to moderate new issues. This means that when a citizen reports an issue, it is saved as a draft, so an administrator can check the issues information first and then publish it. [5.3.1]

[5] Roles and Capabilities

• [5.1] Roles of Improve My City

A Role defines a set of tasks that an assigned user can perform. Improve My City plugin uses three different roles for giving the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the platform.

1. Administrator: (WordPress default role) A user that has access to everything in your site and the entirety of the Improve My City plugin.
2. Department Admin: (Custom role) A user that has access to the entirety of the Improve My City plugin but not on the rest of the website.
3. Subscriber: (WordPress default role) This role is the default for citizens. It allows reporting, editing and browsing issues on the front end, while it denies access to the administration platform.

• [5.2] Add New User as Department Admin

You can create a new Department Admin user by visiting Users > Add New and selecting “Department Admin” as a Role option.

[6] Important Notes

• [6.1] Allow citizens to report issues

In order to allow citizens to report issues, you need to enable registration to your website.
1. Visit Settings > General
2. Check Anyone can register at Membership option
3. Select Subscriber at New User Default Role option
4. Provide Login & Register Links at your site