PPIO Stationary Globe Porcelain Painters International Online

Member's Help Page

Return to Member Logon Page

Help Topics:

Logging On

The Logon Page is where you go when you want to start using any of the "Members Only" features on the Porcelain Painters web site.

When you join the Porcelain Painters International Online (PPIO) organization, you are given a temporary username and password.  These are designated as "temporary" because, once you log on for the first time, there is a selection on the menu where you can go to a page to change either one or both your username and/or password.

If you have joined PPIO as a paid member, and you have not received a username and password, email Marci Blattenberger at marci@ppio.com and she will email your username and password to you.

If you joined online, through the secure credit card transaction facility and the application completed to the point where you were permanently added to the PPIO database, then your temporary username and password should have been displayed to you at the end of the application process.  If this did not happen, there may have been a problem with you being added as a member to the database.  In this case, notify Marci Blattenberger at the above mentioned email address and she will find out what happened with your application and see that you are added to the database and given a username and password.  (Marci receives an email receipt for each member who joins via the secure credit card transaction facility).

If you joined by mailing in your check or money order, you should receive an email from Marci with information about your username and password and how to log on.  If you have sent an application in by mail and haven't heard from Marci within a reasonable time, email her asking about your application.  She may have missed notifying you about your membership.  You will eventually receive a membership card and badge, but since these are mailed in batches, it may take some time.

When you have your username and password, be careful entering them, and recheck your entry before you click on the send button.  Neither the username nor the password are case-sensitive, so you can use either lower case or capital letters.  There are no spaces in the username or password, so make sure there are no spaces in either entry.

Once you enter the Username and Password, click on the "Send" Button and your entry will be verified.  If it is correct, a new page will display. This is the Member welcome page, which displays: "Welcome (your name) You are successfully logged on to PPIO for this session."

If you get to this Welcome page, your logon was successful and you can go to the available Member pages during your time on the PPIO site without having to logon again.

Note: If you should stay on a page for longer than one hour, the system will timeout the information that you are logged on.  In that case, should you try to go to another Members Only page after the hour has passed, you will get a message that "You do not appear to be properly logged on as a member".  There will be a link to go to the Member Logon page.  Just click this link and you can log on as a member again.

This "Time Out" occurance should only occur if you stay on the same page for more than an hour.  You should not run into this problem as long as you are moving around the different pages of the PPIO site.

If you get an error message, or you do not get the Member Welcome page, there may be a problem with your entry.  If the Username and Password were entered correctly, then it may be that your browser either does not support "Cookies" or has that capability turned off.

To find out more about "Cookies" and why the Members Only features of PPIO require that they be supported and turned on, read the section on this page titled "Cookies" (see the Listing of Subjects at the top of this page).

Message: This is a "PPIO Member Only" page. You do not appear to be properly logged on as a member

You will receive this message if you try to display any of the "Members Only" pages without logging on as a member (on the Member Logon page). There is a link below this message which lets you go to the Member Logon page to log on.

Successful Logon and Later "Not logged on Message"

If you successfully log on as a member and then later, after you have been online for awhile, you try to go to a Members Only page, you may get a message similar to this:

This is a "PPIO Member Only" page. You do not appear to be properly logged on as a member

or something similar, you may be experiencing a "Timeout".  The program is set to automatically log you off if you have not done any "surfing" among the pages of the PPIO site for more than one hour.  If this happens, and you get the above message, just select the link to go back to the Member Logon page and log back on.

In some instances, you may receive this message even if your session has not "timed out". If your Internet browser does not support "Cookies" or if it is not set to accept "Cookies", the PPIO site will not be able to store the username and password you entered for later verification and you may get this message when it cannot retrieve the username and password on a subsequent page.  To learn more about "Cookies" and how they affect your member logon session, read the paragraphs below.

Cookies and Session Variables

In order for Several of the special pages on the PPIO site to work correctly (and in most instances, for you to even be able to view these pages), it is required that your browser be set so that your computer will accept "cookies". This is explained further below:

One Important Note of Information, before we go on:

The PPIO web site uses two domain names, www.porcelainpainters.com and the shorter www.ppio.com. Both domanin names display the same home page. Its just two different links to reach our web site. When you set your "cookie acceptance" mode in your browser, you usually will have the choice of setting it to accept all cookies or to put in the URL (internet address) of the web sites for which you will accept cookies. If you chose to restrict your acceptance of Cookies in this way, be sure to set it so that cookies are accepted from both http://www.porcelainpainters.com and http://www.ppio.com, the two web site domains that the PPIO files are on. Otherwise, you may have problems viewing some of the Members Only pages.

Now, to continue with the explanation about "cookies":

What are "cookies"?

A cookie is a text file that a web site you visit may write to your hard drive or, as in the case with cookies generated by PPIO, the information is not written to your hard drive, but is stored temporarily in your computer memory. It is not an executable file which will run on your computer. It contains information which the web site writing to it uses in displaying pages on your computer screen.

Cookie files are generally temporary, with an expiration date, the date when they will be removed from your computer. Some cookie files only exist during the "browser session" (the time during which you are using your browser to view pages online) and are never stored on your hard drive - the "Cookies" created by your PPIO member logon session are this type of Cookie..

Why Would a Site Put Cookies on My Computer? Most of the time, a site uses cookies either in the way the PPIO Membership Logon and other Member Only pages do, which writes information to a temporary file on your computer or to your computer memory, which is removed when the session is over, or they write cookie files to your computer which remain on your computer for some pre-set period of time and are used by that site the next time you access it to determine some specific type of information.

Examples of information stored in a cookie file:

  1. When you last visited their site
  2. What type of browser you have
  3. What pages you visited on their site (maybe so they know your interests?)
  4. Registration information.

(Some sites require you to register for visiting some pages of their site, but do not require a paid membership. They store registration information on your computer for the next time you visit. )

These are only a few examples of reasons a site may want to store cookie files on your computer.

Although harmless, some may see the storing of these "cookie" files on their hard drive as an intrusion.

Why Does PPIO Need to Put Cookies on My Computer?

The "Membership Logon" facility of the PPIO site uses what are called "Session Variables".

A Session is the period of time you are online through your browser. "Session Variables" are just "entities" (for want of a better word), which hold values which may be needed by a program. It is kind of like Algebra where you learned A = b + c. Think of A, b and c as "Variables", and if you knew what b and c were, you could figure out A. So a "Variable" is just a place to store a value.

Most HTML pages (web pages) are static. This means that when you type in an internet address, your browser sends the information to get the page from the server where it resides and the server delivers it to you through your browser (be it Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL or any other Internet browser), storing all the files for the page in a temporary folder on your computer. (That's why some pages load faster when you visit them subsequent to the first time. If the page is not newer on the server, your browser will get the copy of the page that was stored in an earlier visit to the site, from your own computer.)

After the page displays, the server's work (as far as you are concerned), is done until you click on a link on the displayed page or type in another internet address. Although you are connected to your Internet Service Provider, you are not connected continuously to the site of the page you are viewing. A copy of the page has been downloaded to your local computer and you are viewing that copy. When you click a link on that copy of the page you are viewing, the browser again sends information to the server to get the new page for the link you have selected or the new address you have entered.

In between these two connections, there is no active connection between the first page and the new page your browser just downloaded. Each page is just "statically" displayed on your computer. So the only way for one page to let another page know what went on is to use the "Session Variables", which are stored in the temporary cookie file in your computer memory.

The cookie files and the Session Variables contained in them provide a place to put values used by the different pages on the site which need to interact with each other. Each page can "read" the values in the Session Variables (which may have been stored by a previous page) to get information they might need to perform some operation.

The Members Only feature of PPIO uses Session Variables to keep the value of the username and password you enter so that it can be passed on to the next page for verification that you are okay to see this next page too. In the case of some pages used in the FAQ Search, there are also other Session Variables which store the selections made on the page where you put the criteria in for the search of the database so the page that it is passed on to knows what to search for. The Charter Member page uses a Session Variable to send the name of the picture file to display on the page which pops up when you click on the "Painting" link next to a member's name who has a painting on display from the Charter Members' page.

It is up to you whether you want to allow a site to store cookies on your computer. (Providing that your browser supports this feature, and some of the much older browsers don't.) At the end of this document, there is a list of browser versions known NOT to support cookies at all. Generally, most of these versions are no longer in use.

The "Members Only" (Classroom, FAQ) pages and the pages displaying a member's painting will not work for you, if your browser does not support cookies or if you have cookies "turned off", because there will be no place to store the values needed for the pages to work.

If your browser supports cookies, you may have them turned off. There are a couple of options which you may or may not want to do to allow you to accept cookies. Information is provided below on how to change your "cookie" acceptance option in Internet Explorer (versions 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0) and Netscape Navigator (version 4.0) As mentioned below, concerning Internet Explorer 3.0, it appears to default to accepting cookies. We're not sure if this applies to the Internet Explorer version which comes with AOL. Other browsers and bowser versions, which support cookies, may different somewhat from the procedures listed below.

Here is how to choose what you want to do about "cookie" acceptance in Internet Explorer 4.0:

  1. Go to View, and select Internet Options from the list.
    This will bring up the Internet Options window.
  2. Click on the "Advanced" tab.
    There is a list of options in the window of this tab which can be turned on (checked) or off (checkbox left blank).
    About 2/3 of the way down there is a little yellow triangle with an exclamation sign (!) in it, and the word "Cookies" beside it. Under this are three "option" circles. If you have cookies disabled, the circle beside "Disable all cookie use" will have a dot in it.
    • To enable cookies from all sites, you click in the circle beside "Always accept cookies".
      This will mean that you will get cookies from every site, no questions asked.
    • To be given the choice to accept cookies or not from a site, click in the circle beside "Prompt before accepting cookies".
      If you select this "Prompt", then whenever a site is going to put "cookies" on your computer, a "Security Alert" gray box will pop up which will say, "
      In order to provide a more personalized browsing experience, will you allow this Web site to put information on your computer?"
      "If you click Yes, the website will save a file on your computer. If you click No, the current web page may not display correctly."
      There are three buttons displayed, "Yes", "No" and "More Info".
      • You can click the "More Info" button, and the gray window will display more information below it, which will have the address of Porcelain Painters domain (www.porcelainpainters.com) and several "garbage" letters (which may be the coded text that the "cookie" file will contain) and the information that the cookie expires at the End of Session.
      • Choosing the "Prompt" alternative is one way you can control who you accept cookies from, but it may become annoying for some people after some time, having the "Prompt" window popup for you to make a choice every time a site tries to send a cookie to your computer.
        You may find that, if you select this setting and later try to access the FAQ Search Database, when you click "Yes" to accept the cookie from the site, it may re-display the same confirmation box. Its not clear why it does this, but clicking on the "Yes" button again will usually get rid of the confirmation box and take you to the Search.
  3. To Disable cookies from all sites, click in the circle beside "Disable all cookie use". If the reason you are unable to get the Members Only Logon to work is because of "cookies", then it is likely that this is the option which is set on your computer.
  4. Each of the three options for Cookies can be reset by opening the Internet Options window and clicking one of the cookie options and then clicking the "Ok" button. This will immediately change your cookie acceptance option. You can change the option anytime you wish.

Here is how to choose what you want to do about "cookie" acceptance in Internet Explorer 5.0:

  1. From the menu across the top of your browser page, go to Tools, and select Internet Options from the list.
    This will bring up the Internet Options window.
  2. Click on the "Security" tab.
    Then click on the "Custom Level" button.
    This will bring up another window with list of options which can be set.
    Scroll down the list until you come to the section titled "Cookies". Under this are three "option" circles (Disable, Enable and Prompt). If you have cookies disabled, the circle beside "Disable" will have a dot in it.
    • To enable cookies from all sites, you click in the circle beside "Enable".
      This will mean that you will get cookies from every site, no questions asked.
    • To be given the choice to accept cookies or not from a site, click in the circle beside "Prompt".
      If you select this "Prompt", then whenever a site is going to put "cookies" on your computer, a "Security Alert" gray box will pop up which will say something like, "
      In order to provide a more personalized browsing experience, will you allow this Web site to put information on your computer?"
      If you click Yes, the website will save a cookie file to your computer hard drive or store cookie information in your computer memory (depending on how the site uses cookies). If you click No, the current web page may not display correctly.
      • Choosing the "Prompt" alternative is one way you can control who you accept cookies from, but it may become annoying for some people after some time, having the "Prompt" window popup for you to make a choice every time a site tries to send a cookie to your computer.
        You may find that, if you select this setting and later try to access the FAQ Search Database, when you click "Yes" to accept the cookie from the site, it may re-display the same confirmation box. Its not clear why it does this, but clicking on the "Yes" button again will usually get rid of the confirmation box and take you to the Search.
  3. To Disable cookies from all sites, click in the circle beside "Disable". If the reason you are unable to get the Members Only Logon to work is because of "cookies", then it is likely that this is the option which is set on your computer.
  4. Each of the three options for Cookies can be reset by opening the Internet Options window and going through the steps outlined above. This will immediately change your cookie acceptance option. You can change the option anytime you wish.

Here is how to set your browser to accept "cookies" in Internet Explorer 6.0:

  1. In your browser, click on "Tools" from the menu at the top of the page.
  2. From the Tools menu, click to select "Internet Options". This will bring up the "Internet Options" box.
  3. Click on the tab labeled "Privacy". Then click on the "Advanced" button. If the "Override automatic cookie handling" is not checked, check it.
  4. Then select the option "Accept", under both "First-party Cookies" and Third-party Cookies.
  5. Click on the "OK" button in the Advanced popup.
  6. Then click on the "OK" button again on the Privacy Tab.

This should set your Internet Explorer, Version 6 to accept cookies from the PPIO web site. If you wish, you can try just selecting "Accept" only under the "First-party Cookies" and leave the "Third-party Cookies" unchecked. If you still have problems viewing the Members Only section pages, you may have to go back and check the "Accept" option under "Third-party Cookies" too.

Here is how to choose what you want to do about "cookie" acceptance in Netscape (Communicator) Version 4.0:

  1. From the Netscape Menu, select Edit, and then Preferences.
  2. On the Preferences popup form, click on Advanced from the listing in the white panel on the left.
  3. You should see, (on the right side - gray area), a section titled "Cookies"
    In this area, there are three choices:
    1. Accept all cookies
      Make this selection to enable the transmission of cookie information.
    2. Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server
      Make this selection to disable the transmission of cookie information to servers other than the server that originally transmitted the web page.
    3. Disable cookies
      This selection will turn off the transmission of all cookie informtion by all sites you access.
      • Warn me before accepting a cookie

        This is an additional selection you can make after you have selected to "Accept all cookies". If you make this selection, then you will receive a notification dialog box when Netscape Communicator accepts a cookie. It will tell you that Porcelainpainters.com wishes to write a cookie file to your computer and it will display a long line of unintelligiable "coded" letters that the cookie will contain. If you agree to accept the cookie, then the dialog box will close and the Members Only page transmission will continue.

Select one of the three choices and the warning choice, if applicable, and then click on the "OK" button to set the preference.

Here is how to choose what you want to do about "cookie" acceptance in Netscape (Communicator) Version 7.1:

  1. From the Netscape Menu, select select Edit, and then Preferences.
  2. On the Preferences popup form, find "Privacy Security" in the white panel on the left. If there is nothing listed under "Privacy & Security", double click the words "Privacy & Security" to see the choices under this category
  3. This should display a list which includes "Cookies". Click once on the word "Cookies". This should display a gray area on the right
    In this area, there are three choices:
    1. Disable Cookies
      Make this selection to disable the transmission of all cookie information.
    2. Enable cookies for the originating web site only
      Make this selection to disable the transmission of cookie information to servers other than the server that originally transmitted the web page.
    3. Enable cookies based on privacy settings
      This selection allows you to make custom settings for acceptance of cookies.
    4. Enable all cookies
      This will enable cookies from all web sites you visit

You will need to select either choice 2, 3 or 4 in order for the Members Only and Charter Members pages to work. Probably the safest for you to choose is number 2.

There are two additional settings in the gray section which further control the way cookies work for your browser:

  1. Ask me before storing a cookie (checking this box will mean that your browser will display a popup box asking you if you want to allow a sight to store a cookie on your computer. The popup may or may not happen as far as PPIO cookies since our cookies are stored in your computer's memory, not on your hard drive
  2. Limit maximum lifetime of cookies (this choice allows you to set cookies to last either only during your current browser session or for a set number of days)

Cookies in Internet Explorer 3.0:

It looks like Internet Explorer will accept cookies by default.
There is a way you can opt to have Internet Explorer warn you before accepting cookies. To set this warning:

  1. Go to View, and select Options from the list.
    This will bring up the Internet Options window.
  2. Click on the "Advanced" tab.
    In the "Warnings" section, click on the checkbox for "Warn before accepting cookies" This will accept cookies, but will pop up a warning message before it does the download of cookies to your computer and give you the chance to say YES or NO about accepting the download. If you say NO, the pages of PPIO which use cookies will not work.

If you have a browser other than those mentioned in the above instructions, and they are not listed in the list of Browsers which do not support cookies (below), you may be able to find the area on the menu of your browser (or try the Help section of your browser) where you can make a choice as to how you want to handle cookies. If you are using AOL, you may be able to find out from their tech support about setting the options for cookies on the version of AOL which you are using.

Below are some Browser/Browser Versions Which Do Not Support Storing Cookies on Your Computer:

  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 1.0
  2. Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer Version 1.0
  3. Some versions of AOL16 Version. 1.2
  4. Some versions of Netscape 1.0 for 16bit Windows Environment (not Windows 95 Environment)
  5. Lynx 2.6-Version 2.14, version 2.7.1, Version 5.03, Version 5.06, version 5.07, and probably all earlier versions of Lynx.
  6. NCSA Mosaic Version 2.1, Version 3.0
  7. Prodigy Classic (Version 3.2)
  8. WebView Version 2.0

The above list is by no means the only browsers which do not support cookies. There may be others. Possibly, some of the other older browsers do not support cookies. The newer versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and above) do support cookies.
Likewise, the newer versions of Netscape Navigator and Communicator (Netscape 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and above) support cookies. See the sections above for how to set your browser to accept cookies or set your browser to prompt you about accepting cookies (only for browsers which support cookies in the first place).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Database

Note: Not all information from the mailing list is contained at present in the database table. Records are constantly being added.

The FAQ Searchable Database table is composed of three "Fields": Category, Subject and Comments.

The entry page of the FAQ Seachable Database facility has three options for searching. Which option you select will depend on how you want to conduct the search of the database table. It is important to note here though, you must select an option for your search. If you don't select an option and just select one of the Categories in the Drop-down box or enter criteria for a search into one of the textboxes, without clicking one of the little Option buttons, your search will yield NO RESULTS! and you will probably get an error that you have not selected an option. The program needs to know how you want the search conducted.

  • The first option is by Category.

    All records in the database table have a category. All available categories are listed in the Drop-down box on the entry page. If you want to search for information based on one of these categories, click the little round "Option" button above the Category Drop-down listing box and then click on the down arrow on the Drop-down Categories box. (The option button is to the left of the words "Select a Category")When you find the category you want to search by, click on it so that it is displayed in the Category Drop-down box. Click on the "Send" button and you will be taken to a page which (if everything goes as planned) will display the information from the records in the database which meet the Category criteria you have selected.

    Some Categories, like Gold, have an enormous number of records. Selecting these categories will produce a very long page. You can print the information displayed on the results page of your search. Just use the print feature of your browser.

  • The second option is by Keyword(s) for Exact Match in Subject.

    The second grouping of the records in the database table is by Subject. If you know the EXACT words in the subject, you can be more precise in your search by using this option. Keep in mind though, the entry you make, although not case sensitive, does require that the subject in the records selected EXACTLY match what you enter in the box for this search. To use this option for your search, click the little round "Option" button above the box for entry of the Keyword(s) for Exact Match in Subject. (The option button is to the left of the words "Keywords for Exact Match in Subject"). Then enter the exact match phrase for your subject into the text box below this title. Click on the "Send" button and you will be taken to a page which will display the information from the records in the database which meet the "Exact Match" criteria you entered.

  • The third and last option is by Keyword(s) for Wildcard match in Comments.

    This option allows you to enter words that may appear in the comment (description and narrative part) of the records. This is the best option to select if you are not sure what category your information may fit into and you don't know the exact phrasing in the subject. For instance if you enter "porcelain", the page should display any information in the FAQ database with the word "porcelain" ANYWHERE in the narrative part. If the subject has the word "porcelain" in it and the narrative does not (not very likely), the record will not display in the list. The wildcard keyword you enter has to be somewhere in the NARRATIVE portion of the record. Entering the word "paint" might result in records with the words "paint", "painting", "paints" or "painted" in the narrative.

    To use this option for your search, click the little round "Option" button above the box for entry of the Keyword(s) for Wildcard match in Comments. (The option button is to the left of the words "Keyword(s) for Wildcard match in Comments:"). Then enter the word you want to be used in the wildcard search into the text box below this title. Click on the "Send" button and you will be taken to a page which will display the information from the records in the database which meet the criteria you entered.

The entries you enter into the textboxes for either the Exact Match or Wildcard searches do not cause a search in the "Category" of the records. This sometimes makes a difference in your being able to find records.

When you have finished viewing the display of information resulting from your search, you can click the link at the bottom of the page to go back and do another search, or you can click on one of the links across the bottom of the page to go back to another page on the PPIO web site.

MAJOR THANKS go to Johnny Mathely, and her FAQ Database Maintenance team for putting data from the mailing list into the FAQ Database table.   This is a major effort which they continue to do ongoing.   Thanks a bunch girls!!

Problems Searching the FAQ Database

These problems were covered above, in the Frequently Asked Database section, but they are repeated here in case you are "Jumping" straight down to this section from the Table of Contents.

If you enter some criteria for the search into one of the three areas; Category, Subject or Keywords, and you do not get any results, you may have forgotten to click on one of the "Option" buttons to indicate how you want the search to be made.

Doing this now should return a message to you, saying that you have not selected an option for the search.

The FAQ Searchable Database table is composed of three "Fields": Category, Subject and Comments.

The entry page of the FAQ Seachable Database facility has three options for searching. Which option you select will depend on how you want to conduct the search of the database table. It is important to note here though, you must select an option for your search. If you don't select an option and just select one of the Categories in the Drop-down box or enter criteria for a search into one of the textboxes, without clicking one of the little Option buttons, your search will yield NO RESULTS! and you will probably get an error that you have not selected an option. The program needs to know how you want the search conducted. If this happens, just click on the link to get back to the Search page and enter an option for the search along with your criteria.

Printing Problems

Let us know if you have problems with the way the pages from the Members Only sections print out. We may be able to tell, based on the nature of the problem, whether it is due to a problem between your printer and browser settings, or whether it is a problem with the page or pages you are trying to print. You can email either Marci with an explanation of your problem.

Email Marci at:
rxguitar@comcast.net
marci@ppio.com

PPIO Classroom

The Classroom is composed of titles and a "thumbnail" picture of the available lessons. To go to a specific lesson, click on the thumbnail picture for that lesson. Check back often as we continually add new lessons to this page.

Contacting Us

If you have problems which are not covered on this page, or you wish to contact Marci concerning your membership, click on the links below to open an email window.

Email Marci at:
rxguitar@comcast.net
marci@ppio.com

 

Click Here to return to the Member Logon page.
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