Digital UIC

​Omeka is an open-source web application that can be used to create and display online digital collections. Developed by programmers at George Mason University, Omeka was designed to be user-friendly, both during installation and setup and during daily usage.

You can learn how to use this application from our Omeka Research Guide and the official Omeka Support Documentation. This support guide will help you get started and begin creating your Omeka site.

Omeka sites are especially useful for digital history archives, where users want to take advantage of the rich metadata capabilities, timeline, mapping, and crowd-sourcing features.

1. To get started you’ll need to login to your control panel (https://digital.uic.edu/dashboard) using your Net ID and password.
2. Once logged in you’ll be on the homepage of your cPanel. Navigate to the Web Applications section of the cPanel and find Featured Applications. Then select Omeka.
3. This page gives you more information about the Omeka software. To begin the install, click install this application in the upper-right hand corner.
4. On the next page, the installer will ask for some information about this install. The first thing you’ll want to do is decide where to install it. If you’re wanting to install Omeka on your main domain, you can leave the directory area empty. If you created a subdomain, you can select it from the drop-down menu. You also have the option of installing Omeka in a subfolder by typing in the folder name in the Directory field. Click here for more information about subdomains and subfolders.

5. Scroll down to the next Setting section. Set an Administrator Username and Administrator Password. You will need this again shortly.

6. By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out. While we recommend you keep this option, it is possible to only do minor updates, or turn them off completely. The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details. Click Install to continue.

7. The installer will take just a few moments to install Omeka and a progress bar will keep you updated. When it is complete you will see a link to your new Omeka site as well as a link to the backend administrative section for your Omeka site. Click the Omeka Admin link to configure your new Omeka installation.

8. When you visit your new Omeka Admin link, you are asked for the admin username and password. Enter the Username and Password that you set for the administrative superuser (i.e. yourself).Begin adding content in the Admin Dashboard. You’ll find lots of instructions, tips, and ideas on the Omeka.org documentation site.

As you begin to use your Digital UIC Omeka install you may wish to add additional functionality by way of the various open source plugins available at http://omeka.org/add-ons/plugins/. Although Omeka doesn’t currently include an automated installer for plugins, the process of uploading them to your space is outlined here.

1. To get started you’ll want to log into your cPanel (digital.uic.edu/dashboard) using your Net ID and password.
2. In cPanel you’ll access the File Manager located under the Files section.
3. In the File Manager you’ll navigate on the lefthand sidebar down to your plugins folder which should be one of several folders within your Omeka install (your root directory for your domain is public_html).
4. Here you will see all plugins currently in your Omeka install. To add a new one you want to have downloaded the zip file locally to your computer from Omeka’s website first. Then click the Upload button to upload the file.
5. Here you will see all plugins currently in your Omeka install. To add a new one you want to have downloaded the zip file locally to your computer from Omeka’s website first. Then click the Upload button to upload the file.
6. You should now see a zip file for your plugin in the plugins folder. The last step is to extract the contents of the zip file to the same folder. To do this select your file and click the Extract button.
7. Once the plugin is extracted you can delete the zip file and the plugin will now be available for activation within your Omeka administration interface.

Just as you would install plugins, installing themes to Omeka is very similar. Omeka has a few themes installed automatically that you have access to. But there are more themes available at https://omeka.org/classic/themes/. There is no automatic installer so you would need to upload the theme to your File Manager in cPanel.

1. Start by finding the the theme you’d like to install. Download the theme by clicking on the red button. *Note that the file should be in .zip format.
   
2. Then open your file manager in cPanel.
3. After, you’ll go to your specific Omeka install. Click on themes.
4. Click Upload.
   
5. You can drag and drop the .zip file into the window or you can click select a file.
6. Once your file is uploaded to the themes folder you need to go in and extract the files from the .zip folder. Click on the theme file you just uploaded then click on extract.
7. You’ll need to confirm that you want to extract the files. Click extract files.
8. Once the theme is extracted you can delete the .zip file and the theme will now be available for activation within your Omeka administration interface.