User manual

The CYAF Sierra Leone Directory is the national membership register of the Catholic Young Adult Fellowship. It carries the public information pages, the nine-step membership registration form, a member dashboard, an executive review desk for unit, diocesan and national officers, and a super-admin console with a full activity log.

Anyone can browse the public pages. Registering requires an account. Reviewing applications requires an executive role. The admin console is restricted to the super administrator.

Home — mission, vision, rotating scripture, live membership statistics and the three membership categories (Active, Passive, Dormant).

About Us — the fellowship's values, the four councils (ADEC Freetown, MADEC Makeni, BODEC Bo, KENDEC Kenema) and the four-stage membership approval path.

Contact — national and diocesan contact details.

The first time you open the app in a browser session, a short animated welcome plays. Tap anywhere to skip it, then press Continue to enter the site.

Go to Login, choose the Sign Up tab, and register with your full name, email and a password — or use Continue with Google.

Every new account starts unauthorized. Ordinary members can sign in immediately, complete the registration form and track their application; the administrator authorizes the account afterwards.

Executive accounts (unit, diocesan or national office holders) are blocked until the super administrator authorizes them and assigns the office and council. Until then, signing in shows an 'Awaiting authorization' screen.

Step 1 Personal information — full name, date of birth, gender, marital status, nationality.

Step 2 Contact information — phone, email, address and Sierra Leone district.

Step 3 Church information — diocese, then the parish unit (the unit list changes with the diocese), plus baptism and confirmation details.

Step 4 Membership category — Active, Passive or Dormant.

Step 5 Professional information — occupation, employer, education level.

Step 6 Skills and ministries — choose all that apply.

Step 7 Emergency contacts — one required, a second optional.

Step 8 Photo — take a live photo with your camera (capture, review, retake) or upload a file if no camera is available. Images are compressed automatically.

Step 9 Declaration — tick the consent statements and submit.

Your progress is saved in the browser as you go, so you can close the page and return to the same step. Each step validates before you can continue.

Open Dashboard after submitting. It shows the four stages — Submitted, Unit approved, Diocese approved, Nationally approved — with the current stage highlighted.

If an application is returned, the reviewer's note appears on the dashboard. Correct the details and resubmit.

Once nationally approved you are a full member of the directory and your record carries your photo and council details.

Executives open Review from the header. The desk lists only the applications inside your scope: unit executives see their parish unit, diocesan executives see their whole diocese, national executives see the entire country.

Filter by Pending, Approved, Returned or All. Open an application to read every submitted field and view the photo.

Approve moves the application to the next tier. Return sends it back to the member and requires a note explaining what must be fixed. Every decision is recorded with your name, the time and the note.

The super administrator opens Admin from the header. Six tabs:

Overview — counts of members by status, users by role and a live feed of the newest activity.

Users — every account with name, email, role, council scope and authorization state. Search, create an account directly (the temporary password is shown once for handover), authorize or suspend, change role and scope, or send a password reset.

Members — every member record in the country. The administrator can override any approval stage directly, regardless of tier.

Councils & units — add, rename or remove dioceses and parish units.

Activity — the full audit trail with filters and CSV export.

Danger zone — destructive operations, described below.

Every admin action is checked on the server, not just hidden in the interface.

The log records who did what, when, and to which record: sign-ins, sign-ups, account creation and authorization, role changes, form submissions, every approval or return, photo uploads, council edits, exports and all danger-zone steps.

Database triggers also capture direct row changes, so nothing can bypass the log through the interface.

Entries are append-only — nobody, including the super administrator, can edit or delete a single entry.

Filter by actor, action type or date range, search free text, and press Export CSV to download the filtered view.

Available operations: delete a user, delete a member record, delete a diocese or unit, purge all rejected applications, wipe all member data, or reset the entire dataset.

Gate 1 — type the exact name of the target, or DELETE EVERYTHING for a full wipe.

Gate 2 — a confirmation dialog restates precisely what will be destroyed and that it cannot be undone.

Gate 3 — a six-digit confirmation code is issued to the super administrator, valid for ten minutes and usable once. Enter it to run the operation.

Requested, confirmed, cancelled, expired and executed states are all written to the activity log. Deletions are permanent — there is no undo.

'Awaiting authorization' — an administrator has not yet approved the account. Contact the national secretariat.

Camera does not open — allow camera permission in the browser, or use the upload option on the photo step.

Diocese chosen but no units listed — the diocese has no units yet; an administrator adds them under Councils & units.

Application seems stuck — check which tier it is waiting on in the dashboard, then contact that council's executive.

Forgot password — use the reset link on the login page, or ask the administrator to send a reset.