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pg. 1, Group Unit Information Using Nodes and Adding Members

 

InciWeb Drupal Group Unit Information 

Introduction: 

Since InciWeb Drupal’s release on October 26, 2022, the application has been continuously 

evolving with input from Public Affairs Officers / Specialists, and Information Officers who 

represent multiple agencies. Changes have occurred rendering how to start an Incident and

Incident Publications invalid. The original dropdown menus for creating or editing content have

changed and relocated due to security issues. 

Assigned users and superusers can still create or edit a new or existing incident or publication. 

Navigation to create a new Incident or an Incident Publication is using a new feature called 

Nodes. A Node is a connecting point of two or more lines coming together in a computer 

network. 

To use this manual effectively, follow the Instructions section (Page 3), and complete Steps 1 – 

3 each time before choosing a How-to Guide for completing a specific task.

Note: 

• If you are a Member, User, or a Superuser, there will be features or buttons shown in this 

manual not available in InciWeb Drupal. Different accounts have different access. However, 

Nodes is available to every user regardless of access level. 

• All of the screengrab examples (Figures) shown throughout this guide switch between 

agencies or locations depending on the example required to demonstrate a particular step.

• This manual could also assist in navigating through the InciWeb Practice Site, now available

at the User Help page. Look for the large light blue circle with the black checkmark on the 

right side of the screen. Select the link attached to the InciWeb Practice Site words. A user 

will know they are in the Practice Site when the top black menu bar switches to neon green.
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Contents

Introduction: ................................................................................................................................................. 1

Note: ............................................................................................................................................................. 1

Instructions: .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Step 1: Access............................................................................................................................................... 3

Step 2: Group Units:..................................................................................................................................... 3

Step 3: Selection Options............................................................................................................................. 4

Definitions of the Menu Options: ................................................................................................................. 4

The New InciWeb How-to Guides:............................................................................................................... 5

View the Nodes in your assigned Group Unit (for Users and Superusers)................................................... 5

Add New Content to a Group Unit................................................................................................................ 7

Add Existing Content into Nodes. ................................................................................................................. 9

Edit Existing Content Using Options: .........................................................................................................11

Option A: The Group Unit Page..................................................................................................................11

Option B1: From the Nodes Chart..............................................................................................................12

Option B2: Operations................................................................................................................................13

Option B2a: View Relation .........................................................................................................................13

Option B2b: The Dropdown Arrow ............................................................................................................14

Option C: Incident Publication Search .......................................................................................................15

Remove Existing Content from an Application Group................................................................................17

Delete Existing Content (Superusers Only)................................................................................................. 18

View or Add Members in your Group Unit (Superusers Only) ...................................................................18
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Instructions:

When creating a new incident or incident publication or you want to edit an existing incident or 

incident publication, follow Steps 1 – 3 each time before following a specific How-to Guide

beginning on page 5. 

Step 1: Access 

To add a new or edit an existing incident publication or incident, from any page, select the 

Shortcuts button in the top black menu bar. This will open another menu in the white menu 

bar. Choose the third button from the left (circled in red) Group Unit Search / Access in order to 

proceed (Figure 1).

 

Figure 1: Go to Group Unit Search / Access in the Shortcuts section to view the current list of Group Units. The 

Unit Search is another button to use for further information.

Step 2: Group Units: 

To find the Group Unit (Figure 2), type the name of the Group Unit your assigned to into the 

Search for a unit blank form field. This is an auto-populating field. InciWeb will try to guess 

what you are searching for. Keep typing the name in until the proper Group Unit appears. Then

select the name to populate the blank search field. To finish, select the blue Apply button.

Figure 2: To use the Groups Unit Search section, type in the search field. InciWeb will attempt to guess what you are

searching for? Once found, the Group Unit will fill the form and then choose Apply.
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Step 3: Selection Options 

The window then changes to display 4 - 8 different blue option buttons to navigate throughout 

the InciWeb webpages (Figure 3). Choose the blue Nodes button, last in the row reading from 

left to right.

Figure 3: Once in a Unit Group, a selection of blue function buttons appears. In this example, select the blue Nodes 

button to proceed. 

Definitions of the Menu Options: 

As a Member, User, or Superuser not all of the blue Menu buttons will be visible or available to 

use depending on access level and defined below. 

• View: To return to the home InciWeb page

• Edit: To change the group (not needed in most circumstances) 

• Members: A quick view of the members, their active status, and roles assigned. 

• Nodes How to add a new or edit an existing incident and/or publication.
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The New InciWeb How-to Guides: 

View the Nodes in your assigned Group Unit (for Users and Superusers)

1. Follow the Group Unit search instructions (Steps 1 – 3) start on Page 3.

2. Select the blue Nodes button (Figure 4).

Figure 4: A selection of blue buttons available (depending on access level). 

Note: If there is not anything listed directly under the blue buttons (e.g., for the Pictured 

Rocks National Lakeshore) this Group Unit has not created a new incident or incident 

publications yet.

3. After selecting the blue Nodes button, you can also see there is no new or existing content 

that in the Nodes chart (Figure 5). 

Figure 5: At the time of creating this manual, the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore did not have any 

content posted (see No Content Available message) within Nodes. 
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4. If the Group Unit has published content, before selecting the Nodes button, it will look like 

the Mendocino National Forest (Figure 6). 

Figure 6: After selecting the Group Unit (e.g., the Mendocino National Forest), a list of editable Incidents and Incident 

Publications appear below the blue option buttons.

5. After selecting the blue Nodes button, a chart containing all the Incidents and Incident Publications 

will be available. These are all listed ways to access existing content (Figure 7). 

Figure 7: This Group Unit page mimics the much larger Incident Publications and Incidents Libraries under 

Content.
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Add New Content to a Group Unit

1. Ensure to start at your selected Group Unit or start back at (Steps 1 – 3) on Page 3 before 

continuing. 

2. Then select the blue Nodes button (Figure 8). 

Figure 8: The blue Nodes button. 

3. Then select the blue button below (Figure 9). 

Figure 9: The blue “Add new content” button.

4. Add New Content here (Figure 10).

Figure 10: When choosing, there is always the option to switch between Incident Publication and Incident.

5. Whichever choice, the next screen opens to create a new Incident Publication or a new 

Incident for the assigned Group Unit (Figure 11).
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Figure 11: Once open, complete the requirements to add a new publication. Remember to fill in all the required 

fields and save.

6. The new Incident Publication will now appear on your Group Unit nodes list. The latest 

update goes to the top of the list (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Once Saved, the window changes back to the Incident and Incident Publication node list.
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Add Existing Content into Nodes. 

These steps are shortcuts to access existing content. When an Incident or an Incident 

Publication becomes available in Nodes, selecting the Title opens it immediately giving the user 

additional editing options.

1. Follow the Group Unit search instructions (Steps 1 – 3) starting on Page 3. 

 

2. Select the blue Nodes button (Figure 13).

Figure 13: The blue Nodes button

3. Click on the Add existing content button (Figure 14).

 

Figure 14: The blue Add existing content button. There is a typo, it should read “Add to Existing Content.”

4. Here you will see where and what you can Add existing content. For example, if you would

like to edit content already on your Group Unit, choose from and click on Incident 

Publication or Incident (Figure 15). 

Figure 15: Once inside, two choices become available. Either choose Incident Publication or Incident.

5. Here you can search by the title of the page that is already present in your site. 

For example, let us add to an incident publication (Figure 16). This is another autopopulating field. As you type in the title, InciWeb will try to guess what you are looking for

to find it quicker. Realize publication titles may be similar to others and may require more 

typing out the title to discover the correct one.
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Figure 16: Type in the title of the already existing publication you would like to open and edit. Once found, 

select the correct title to place inside the Title field, and click on Save. The page will revert back to the Nodes 

page.

6. Once the Title populates the form field, select the blue Save button. 

7. The webpage switches back to the original page. In this example, the Mendocino National 

Forest has their incident publications and incidents listed below (Figure 17). 

Figure 17: The Mendocino National Forest has one Incident and four Publications available. 

Note: The above example only lists editable Incidents (Projects) and Incident Publications (with 

Dates). If you do not intend to edit any existing publications, only incidents will appear. 

8. This content is now inside the Group Unit and the Nodes chart available to edit (Figure 18). 

Figure 18: The table containing all the publications available for that Group Unit.
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Edit Existing Content Using Options: 

There are three primary ways (A, B1, and C) to edit existing content and three additional options (B2, 

B2a and B2b). The three primary ways available (depending on user or superuser abilities) to access

already published content. 

A. From the Group Unit page

B. From the (1) Nodes chart under Titles and (2) in Operations. 

C. From the Incident Publication Search pages. 

Option A: The Group Unit Page

1. Follow the Group Unit search instructions (Steps 1 – 3) starting on Page 3. 

2. Once in the Group Unit, for this example the Mendocino National Forest, there will be at least 

one incident and incident publication viewable below (Figure 19) has five underneath the blue 

action buttons. 

Figure 19: The titles listed under the blue buttons are available to edit.

3. Selecting any of those titles will open another window with four blue action buttons (Figure 20). 

To begin editing, select the blue Edit button. The darker blue View button will return the user to 

the previous screen. The other two action buttons are self-explanatory. 

Figure 20: To edit an existing Title, select the Edit button (second from the left).

4. The incident or incident publication will open. Make any changes needed and save using the 

blue button at the bottom of the page. If a user exits without saving new edits, all updated 

information gets erased. 
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Option B1: From the Nodes Chart

1. Follow the Group Unit search instructions (Steps 1 – 3) starting on Page 3. 

2. Select the blue Nodes button (Figure 21).

Figure 21: The blue Nodes button will open up the incident or incident publication to edit.

3. This opens the Nodes chart (Figure 22) for the Tres Rios Field Office (an example). 

Figure 22: Editing can occur by selecting either the Title or the Operations sections.

4. Selecting a Title will open another window with four blue action buttons (Figure 23). In 

this example, selecting blue Edit button will open up the Animas City Mountain 

Prescribed Burn. 

Figure 23: Select the blue Edit button.

5. The incident or incident publication will open. Make any changes needed and save using 

the blue button at the bottom of the page. As a reminder, information not saved 

becomes deleted.
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Option B2: Operations 

1. Follow the Group Unit search instructions (Steps 1 – 3) starting on Page 3. 

2. In the Operations section of the Nodes chart (Figure 24), editing the contents of 

Incidents and/or Incident Publications have two options. Both have different options. 

a. View Relation

b. Dropdown Arrow

Figure 24: This will work better if you know the exact title you are looking for. If not, it will try to guess for 

you.

Option B2a: View Relation

1. Choosing the View Relation button will display three blue option buttons for editing 

content (Figure 25). However, these three buttons are not functioning properly at the 

time of writing this InciWeb manual. 

2. Instead, select one of the blue titles (below the three buttons) for the Incident or the 

Incident Publication you would like to edit. 

Figure 25: The three blue menu buttons available when editing content for the Mendocino NF 2023 RX Fire 

Projects title selected in the previous Nodes chart.
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3. This will open the same four blue button options as in Step 4 of Option B1 (Page 12, 

Figure 23). Choosing the blue Edit button will open the Incident or Incident Publication 

you chose from the previous menu.

4. Make any changes needed and save using the blue button at the bottom of the page. 

Not saving erases added information. 

Option B2b: The Dropdown Arrow

1. In the Operations selection (far right) there is a dropdown arrow right of the View 

relation menu button. Select the arrow and then choose the Edit node option from the

possible five listed options (Figure 26). This menu closes just after being idle for seconds. 

Figure 26: Of the five menu options to choose from, select the Edit node button.

2. After selecting the Edit node, the incident or publication will open immediately to edit

(Figure 27). 

3. Make any changes needed and save using the blue button at the bottom of the page. 

Not saving erases added information.

Figure 27: It is now possible to edit an incident publication. 
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Option C: Incident Publication Search

4. There is a way to by-pass the Nodes feature to edit an incident publication for the assigned 

Group Unit. However, there are more steps involved, and it does not work for editing an 

incident. 

In the top black menu bar, just below your username, in the white menu bar is the Incident 

Publication Search button (circled in red) to the right of the Group Unit Search / Access button

(Figure 28). 

 

Figure 28: To the right is the Shortcuts menu is the Incident Publication Search.

5. This opens the Incident Publications Search webpage. There are six search options available to 

hone down a search besides by name. The primary way is to use the Search Incidents window

(Figure 29). 

Search Incidents: This is an auto-populating form field. InciWeb will try to guess what 

publication you are looking for based on typing. Once found, select the title to populate the 

blank form field and engage the blue apply button to find.

Figure 29: The table of all InciWeb incident publications.

6. If a user wants to access an incident publication, InciWeb might not let you open it. Users will 

only be able to access and edit publications from their assigned Group Unit. To discover what is 

or is not available to edit, once a title fills the blank form field, select the blue Apply button. 

A blue Edit button appears means it can be accessible. If the page only shows a blue Apply and 

Reset buttons, the publication is unavailable. Select the blue Reset button to return to the 

previous screen (Figure 30). 
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Figure 30: If the publication is not available to you to open, the blue Edit button will be missing.

7. The following category titles (located at the top of the publications chart) are search buttons 

available to rearrange a search order for all the available incident publications in InciWeb: 

Incident Publications inside the chart are in the following order (Figure 25) in the left side 

column: 

• The first numbers 0 – 9 and their consecutive numbers (e.g., 1148, 2022, 3, 735, 8).

• Letters A – Z.

• Special Characters (e.g., “”, **, .0) 

8. When scrolling down or up through the Incident Publication Search chart, the titles for each 

section changes colors from black to blue. These section titles will remain at the top of the 

webpage regardless of how far down or up scrolling goes and can rearrange the sorting order if 

engaged (Figure 25). 

9. The list in the top row of the Incident Publications chart are buttons for rearranging the order of 

each title: 

• Incident: 0 – 9, A – Z, Special Characters; or reversed

• Incident Publication Title: Same as above

• Publication Date: from earliest date today; or reversed the very last incident publication 

stored in InciWeb. 

• Publication Type: Switches between Announcements, Closures, and News.

• Publication Author: Goes in alphabetical order or reversed.

• Edit Publication: This will notify you if you have access to edit an incident publication. If 

you do not see the blue word Edit next to the incident publication you would like to 

access. You do not have access to that document.
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Remove Existing Content from an Application Group

This function only removes the publication from the Group Unit list. It does not delete it from 

InciWeb. It actually stays in the Incident and Incident Publications library available for retrieval. 

1. To remove existing content, make sure you are on the Group Unit application main page

after selecting the blue Nodes button on the right side (Figure 31). 

2. Find the page Title you want to remove from the group. In the Operations section, choose 

the dropdown arrow to the right of View relation. 

Figure 31: A listing of Publications within an incident Group.

3. After selecting the dropdown arrow, another menu of options opens. For this example, 

select Delete relation. A red arrow in Figure 32 (below) is pointing to the correct selection.

4. This has removed the publication from your Group Unit and not deleted from InciWeb. It now 

resides in the Incident and Incident Publications library and retrieved. 

Figure 32: Deleting a publication from a Group Unit does not erase it from InciWeb. It only changes its 

location to only being available in the Publications and Incident library.
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Delete Existing Content (Superusers Only)

Advisory: This feature removes any Incident Publication or Incident from InciWeb 

completely.

1. To delete existing content (an incident publication for example), make sure you are on the 

Group Unit’s main page where the Nodes feature resides, and the Incident Publications 

listed inside the chart (Figure 31, page 17). 

2. Find the publication Title you want to delete from the Group. 

3. In Operations, select the dropdown arrow to the right of View relation. Of the five 

additional menu selections to choose from, select Delete node. A red arrow (below) shows

the correct option to select (Figure 33). 

Figure 33: Select the Delete node in the View relation dropdown menu. 

4. The final window will open double-checking to make sure you want to delete this 

publication. If no, select the shaded Cancel button. If the answer is Yes, select the blue 

Confirm button, and deleting the Incident Publication. 

View or Add Members in your Group Unit (Superusers Only)

1. Go to https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/group-units

2. Search for your Unit group name link you want to add content to. 

3. Click on the blue Members button (Figure 34).

Figure 34: The Members blue button.

4. Now you can see all the members and their roles in your unit Group (Figure 35). 
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Figure 35: A view of the Members table with dropdown options for each member.

5. To View a member, select the down arrow in Operations, to View, Edit, or Remove an already 

assigned Member of the Group Unit.

6. To add a New Member, choose the blue Add Member button (Figure 36).

Figure 36: Under the Group Unit title after selecting the blue Members button, the first button under the 

title is Add member.

Note: To add a new member, they must already have an established InciWeb Drupal 

account. If they do not, you will not be able to locate them. These are not the steps in 

creating a new member, only the steps to add an existing / unassigned member to a 

Unit Group. 

7. Find the Member you would like to add by typing their Username into the blank field 

form. This is an auto-populating field. InciWeb usernames can either be a short name 

(first initial + last name) or the beginning of an email address, or other. If the autopopulating field stops guessing the member you are looking for may not be in InciWeb, 

misspelled, or has a different profile name. 

If the auto populating field does locate the profile name your searching for, select it and it will 

remain in the form field as you complete the other information (Figure 37).

Figure 37: While the Username is the only required field marked with a red Asterix, completing the Roles, and 

assigning an Expiration Date will prevent issues in the future.
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8. In assigning a Role there are two options:

a. Leaving the box empty or unchecked means your assigning a new member as a User

or a Unit Member. Remember, they can still create new and edit existing incidents 

or publications in InciWeb Drupal.

b. Checking the box means assigning that new member as a Superuser. Superusers 

have the same access as Users / Unit Members. They may also have more 

supervisory / managing responsibilities to the Group Unit.

9. Choose an Expiration date a new member will have access to the Group Unit for. This 

can be any date of your choosing. 

Recommendation: Choose what the need is:

a. If it is a PIO on a two-week incident assignment, select a possible expiration date of 

14 to 16 days from their First assigned day.

b. If this is a local District bringing in additional help throughout the summer, assign a 

new member for the season (three or four months).

c. If this member is a PA Officer or Specialist working full-time year-round, then maybe 

an annual / yearly expiration date is best? Something to correspond with a member 

being issued a Red Card (a possibility, not a requirement).

d. Choosing an Indefinite expiration date (over a year) is highly discouraged. People 

change responsibilities, careers, agencies, or even retire. Choose a reasonable 

expiration date to manage everyone annually.

10. Once completed, select the blue Save button (Figure 27). The screen will return to the 

Group Unit Members chart. Double-check to ensure acceptance.