Welcome to the CTA ​HelpDesk!

For users (old and new)

I’m new in CTA – what can I do?

If you‘ve just joined the CTA collaboration, you should make sure that the group representative of the institute you work for has added you to the CTA database.

The CTA database is located in SharePoint and it is the starting point of the transmission of your account to the other web services.

If your name and email address are in the database, you will be automatically added to the cta-members@cta-observatory.org mailing list, meaning that you will be informed about major happenings in CTA.

If you need access to the CTA web services (i.e. InDiCo for the meetings, SVN for the repository etc.), you should request an account. In order to do this, you should go to the User Registry located at:

https://cta.cta-observatory.org/web-registry/

The account request procedure will follow in two steps: In the first part you will be asked to choose a user ID (that cannot be changed, please choose something easy to remember, like your family name, or both first and family name, but not your email address!) and some personal details. After this, you will get an email with a link you should follow in order to create a password of your choice and add the institute details. Once you submit, you only have to wait for your request to be approved (this takes usually not more than 24 hours) and then you will get immediate access to the CTA web services. 

What do I have access to with my account?

·        - The CTA collaboration portal on SharePoint:

https://portal.cta-observatory.org

As a CTA member, you will have access to most of the sub-sites in Sharepoint with reading permissions (meaning you can view everything and download documents). If you need to perform some actions, you should join the respective group with contributing rights (for example, if you’re working on the Atmospheric Calibration within the Central Calibration Facilities you might want to join the group cta-wp-ccf-atmos). Also, you will be automatically added to the corresponding mailing list (in the example cta-wp-ccf-atmos@cta-observatory.org). A list of all available groups can be found on:

https://portal.cta-observatory.org/_layouts/groups.aspx

(click on the list, then on Actions/Join this group. A request will be sent to the person/s responsible for this group or, in some cases, automatically accepted).

·        - The meeting page on the InDiCo:

https://indico.cta-observatory.org/​

As a CTA member, you will have access to most categories. You can only upload materials to an agenda if you are manager of that meeting or speaker 

·        - The project management web application Redmine for CTA sub-projects (wiki, ticketing system...); first go the CAS sign-in, then choose CTA collaborator and add your log-in data:

https://forge.in2p3.fr/projects/cta/repository

SVN is the historical and legacy code repository of CTA. 

- CTAO provides a gitlab instance, where future software developments will be stored at the address http://gitlab.cta-observatory.org​, which can be accessed with the CTA-IT credentials

https://jama.cta-observatory.org/login.req

- You will also be provided with a @cta-consortium.org Microsoft 365 account.

Your Microsoft 365 A1-licensed account will enable you to gain access to most of Microsoft 365 tools, including Microsoft Office suite web version, Microsoft Teams, 1 TB Onedrive for Business cloud storage space.

Note: the Microsoft 365 accounts are yet to be created for all CTA members. As a CTA member, you will be informed as soon as your SharePoint account is migrated to Microsoft 365.

How can I join a mailing list?

The starting point for the mailing lists is again Sharepoint. Each group in Sharepoint corresponds to a mailing list. Join a group, and you will be automatically added to the mailing list:

https://portal.cta-observatory.org/_layouts/groups.aspx

(click on the list, then on Actions/Join this group. A request will be sent to the person/s responsible for this group or, in some cases, automatically accepted).

How do I unsubscribe from a Sharepoint group / mailing list?

Go to the corresponding Sharepoint group on https://portal.cta-observatory.org/_layouts/groups.aspx, choose the group, click on Actions / Leave this group. Everything else will happen automatically.

I will leave CTA. What do I have to do?

You should leave the groups you joined by following the procedure explained at “How do I unsubscribe from a Sharepoint group / mailing list”. As for the membership in CTA, your group representative should add a stop date to your record. According to CTA policy, your name will disappear from the members list from that date on, but you will keep your account for a further year (meaning that you will also receive emails from the cta-members mailing list). This will grant you the possibility to opt-in for the authors’ list in case of a published paper. If you don’t wish to receive emails anymore, please contact cta-support@cta-observatory.org

What do I do if I change institute?

Please ask cta-support@cta-observatory.org to update your personal details in the User Registry on https://cta.cta-observatory.org/web-registry/ and to check if changes in the database are needed.

What if I want to change my personal details?

If you have changed name, affiliation or email address, please ask cta-support@cta-observatory.org to update your personal details in the User Registry at https://cta.cta-observatory.org/web-registry/

I forgot my password, what do I do?

Go to https://cta.cta-observatory.org/web-registry/, click on “Forgot your password?” and follow the instructions.

How do I join the old WiKi?

We strongly recommend not to use the WiKi anymore (use SharePoint instead), but if you need to access it, please ask cta-support for the log-in data

http://cta.cta-observatory.org/ctawpcwiki/

For external users

I’m not a CTA member but I need an account. What should I do?

If you’re an external CTA consultant or as part of a review committee you need to have access to some parts of the collaboration portal or the meeting website, you should ask your contact person to inform cta-support@cta-observatory.org about it. 

​For group or party representatives

Brief introduction – GROUP and PARTY REPRESENTATIVES

The CTA collaboration is divided by parties, which are country-related. One country can have more than one party though. Each party is formed by several (in rare cases just one) institutes.

Each institute has a GROUP REPRESENTATIVE.

Each party has a PARTY REPRESENTATIVE.

Sometimes the group rep and the party rep are the same person.

As a group or party representative, you are responsible of the maintenance of the CTA database of your institute. Usually, the group rep takes care of the start and stop date of the members and their FTEs, and the party rep only checks the FTEs before big events like the Consortium meetings. Sometimes the group rep and the party rep are the same person. Also, rules may vary internally.

How do I edit the CTA members’ database?

The so-called people list is located at this address:

https://portal.cta-observatory.org/Bodies/ProjectOffice/Lists/People/Grouped.aspx

There are different views of this list. The default view is grouped by country and then by institutes for a better overview. To see another view of the same list, you can click on the down-arrow in the blue ribbon beside the word “Grouped” and choose another view (for instance the list of all party and group representatives).

By clicking on the word “country” and then “institute” the members of this institute will be listed. As group or party representative, you have editing rights (on the left of the first name you will see a small edit icon).

How do I add a new member?

At the very top of the page (right under the URL) you will see the option “List tools” with “Items” and “List”. Click on “Items” and then on “Add new item” on the far left. A new window will appear where you can add a new member. If the new member has already an account, please add it to the field “Sharepoint Account” (search for his email address), otherwise leave it blank.

Never replace an old member with a new one!

If you want to grant the new member access to the CTA web services, please ask him to have a look at the Helpdesk (this page) or send him this link

https://cta.cta-observatory.org/web-registry/

in order to request an account.

How do I delete a member?

You are not allowed to delete a member, but you can add an end date to his record. If the date is in the past, the member’s record will disappear from the list. (see also “I will leave CTA. What do I have to do?”).

If you have a special reason to delete a member, please contact cta-support@cta-observatory.org

How do I move a member to another institute?

In this case, please inform cta-support@cta-observatory.org, who will take care of changing the database accordingly and inform the people involved.

Before a Consortium Meeting: Declaring FTEs

Only for party representatives: When asked by the CB chair (usually immediately before a Consortium Meeting), please check the FTEs of all members of your party by following the procedure on this document:FTE_checking_HowTo.pdf.​

Contacting the CTA IT-support

Open a ticket (issue) via RedMine​ (to log-in, first click on CAS sign-in, then choose CTA collaborator and add your credentials).

In the "new issue" window add a subject and describe the problem, assign to cta-support at the bottom of the drop-down list (unless you can name a specific person who should help you. In this case, assign to that person). You can leave the other field empty or with the default choice. Upload files (e.g. screenshots) if necessary.

When you describe the problem, you may want to provide the following information, in order to avoid unnecessary turnarounds (thus get your solution quicker):

• At which URL ("web address", copied from your browser) did your problem occur? Or what exactly did you do to obtain the error or problem that you are going to report.
  
• What did you expect to happen when your problem occured?
  
• What happened instead? (If possible, send us the exact error message or a screen copy.)
  
• At what time (as good as you can tell) did the problem occur? Were you able to reproduce it after an hour, after a day, eventually?
  
• What operating system, navigator, other relevant software did you use?
  
• Can you reproduce the error with another computer/software or in another environment?