SiteNet BBS Documentation Chapter 3
3. Getting Started
3.1 How to Create Forums
3.2 Forum Settings & Options explained
3.3 How to Create Moderators (Super Users) For Your Forums
3.4 How to Customize Forum Colors and Other Options
3.5 Global Settings & Options Explained
3.6 How to add your own custom smiley icons
3.7 How to use and add your own user images/graphics.
3.8 How to use Templates to Customize Your Forums
3.8.1 What does the Default Templates Do?
3.8.2 How to insert images into Templates
3.8.3 How to Create and Use Custom Templates
3.8.4 What is Template Includes and How To Use Them
3.8.5 How To Create and Use Template Include
3.1 How to create forums
After you have installed SiteNet BBS you will naturally want to add forums and moderators.
To add Forums, click the Forum Manager button when in the control panel.
First, add a category that will house forums by clicking on the ‘Add New Forum Category Link’ – You can create as many categories as you need.
Once the category has been created, there will be a URL link called ‘Add Forum To This Category’. Click on this link and fill in the fields.
Once a forum has been created you may at any stage edit its settings by clicking the ‘Forum Settings’ link next to each forum when in the ‘Forum Manager’.
3.2 Forum settings & options explained
When you create a forum you will need to supply some settings and information. Below is an overview of the settings you need to provide.
Forum name: The name of the forum you are about to create.
Forum description: The description of the Forum you are about to create.
Forum moderators: This is the moderator’s that will manage and moderate the forum. Separate the moderator names via comma. Don’t worry if the forum moderator users are not present in the user database at this stage. You can create moderator users by following the steps explained in ‘How to Create Moderators (Super Users) For Your Forums’
Who may post messages: You may create a forum(s) where any users may post messages without registering. You may also create a forum where users must register before they are able to post. In addition to this you may also create a forum where only moderators can post messages.
Allow users to post polls: This will enabled or disable the ability of users to post voting polls.
Allow HTML in messages: Forum users will be able to include HTML tags in their messages when this is enabled.
Is the forum moderated: This option enables you to moderate forums. When enabled all messages that is posted needs to be approved by a moderator before it can be displayed in the forum. The ‘Moderation’ link in the ‘Forum Manager’ enables you to approve messages posted – when moderation is enabled. There is also a ‘Moderators’ button in all forum displays where moderators can login to approve moderated messages. The ‘Moderator Admin Control Panel’ also comes with other moderator features.
Graphic to use: This is the forum graphic/image that is to be used. You can upload/copy your own graphic/image for each or any forum and specify the name of the graphic/image to be used. Place the graphic/image in the 'html' directory. The 'html' directory is explained in the installation instructions.
Use smiley icons in forum: This enables or disables the use of smiley icons for messages.
Do you want to password protect the forum?: This enables you to password protect forums with a global password.
May messages be posted in the forum? If this is set to ‘No’ the forum will be ‘read only’ and no messages can be posted in it.
The above options can also be changed when clicking 'Forum Settings' next to each forum in the 'Forum Manager'.
3.3 How to Create Moderators (Super Users) For Your Forums
To assign moderator status to yourself or other users click the ‘User Manager’ button in the control panel. Then click the ‘Add a Moderator, Administrator or User’ link. After you have created a moderator user, you will need to assign the moderator user to a forum or forums.
Go to the forum manager and click the ‘Forum Settings’ link next to any forum. Specify the moderator names separated via comma’s in the ‘Forum Moderators Field’.
Moderators have many privileges to manage forums.
You can also at any time change a standard forum user’s status to a moderator.
Remember that a user will only be able to become a moderator if he/she has moderator status assigned to a forum or forums.
3.4 How to Customize Forum Colors and Other Options
You can change the colors used by your forums when clicking the ‘Settings’ button in the control panel. The settings section also enables you to change other settings which effects the operation of your forums.
3.5 Global Settings & Options Explained
To set global options click on the ‘Settings’ button in the control panel. Below is an explanation of the global options:
Forum Name: This is the name of your forums. This name will be displayed on some of your forum pages in the top right.
Email Address: This email address will be used by SiteNet BBS when sending all email.
Show how many registered users there are: The number of registered users will be displayed in your forums if this is enabled.
Move topics to top when replies are posted: When a topic receives a reply it will be moved to the top of the topic thread, if enabled.
Max images size in kilobytes: This is the maximum allowable size in kilobytes of images/graphics that is uploaded by users. Users can upload their own graphics/images when editing their profiles. The graphics/images are displayed in messages that has been posted by users.
3.6 How to use and add your own custom smiley icons.
You can easily add you own smiley icons by just copying/transferring image icons (.gif format) to the html/icons’ directory. SiteNet BBS will recognize the extra icon images and make them available for selection when users post messages.
The ‘html’ directory is explained in the installation instructions.
You are also free to edit any existing icon images by replacing the existing icon images in the ‘html/icons’ directory.
3.7 How to use and add your own user images/graphics.
User images/graphics are here referred to as the images or graphics that is displayed next to user names when reading messages.
Users can choose images/graphics when editing their profiles. A standard set of graphics comes with SiteNet BBS that users can select as their user image/graphic.
You can add extra images/graphics to the selectable image/graphic list. To add extra images/graphics to the list copy/transfer the extra images to the ‘html/user_images’ directory.
The ‘html’ directory is explained in the installation instructions.
SiteNet BBS will automatically recognize the new images/graphics and add them to the list of selectable user images/graphics.
You may also delete the standard graphics/images and add your own.
3.8 How to use Templates To Customize Your Forums
SiteNet BBS uses templates to enable you to give your forums the exact look and feel of your web site. With templates you can add banners, graphics, your menu bar, links and more.
To edit the templates you may click the ‘Template Manager’ button when logged into the control panel.
3.8.1 What does the Default Templates Do?
The default templates are used for forums by default – For example when they have first been created. You can edit these by going to the Control Panel >> Template Manager >> Edit Default Templates.
You can open the templates with your web editor by copying and pasting the template HTML code into your web editor. You can also open the templates with your web editor. The default templates are located in the ‘data’ directory. The default templates are called ‘template.html’ and ‘tmplpopup.html’. The ‘data’ directory is explained in the installation instructions.
When editing the templates ensure that the word !!netboard!! is present inside the templates. This word is a variable that is replaced by forum data.
3.8.2 How to insert images into Templates
When you make use of images in the HTML code of templates, you must use a URL link to indicate their locations.
For example:
<img src="someimage.gif"> will not work.
You have to indicate the entire URL where someimage.gif is located. For example:
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/someimage.gif">
The <img is an HTML tag indicating that you want to insert an image in the HTML page. The src= part indicates that you want to specify the location of the image to be inserted. Some web editors will support inserting images from a web url and some won't. If your web editor does not support this, insert the image into the HTML page like usual and when finished edit the source of the HTML code and manually insert the URL path's to the images. Ensure that the images are on the server for the URL path's you specify.
Example, editing the HTML source code:
Replace <img src="someimage.gif"> with
<img src="http://www.yourdomain.com/someimage.gif">
3.8.3 How to Create and Use Custom Templates
You can create custom templates for specific forums. Once you created a custom template you can assign custom templates to specific forums in the ‘Forum Manager’. Click the ‘Template’ link next to forums to select a custom template that has been created.
To create a custom template, go to the Control Panel >> Template Manager >> Edit/Create Custom Templates
Supply a template name and press the ‘Create Custom Template’ button.
The HTML code of the default template will be provided in the box where you need to supply HTML code to create the custom template. Replace or change this HTML code with your own. Remember to have the word !!netboard!! inside your custom template when you have finished creating it.
After you have created the template you can assign this template to be used by any forum. Go to the Forum Manager and click the ‘Templates’ link next to any forum to assign the a custom template to a forum.
3.8.4 What is Template Includes and How To Use Them
Template includes enables you to include text or HTML code in some parts of your forums. Let’s say you want to include some extra information on only the topic page of a forum. In this case you will create a template include and insert a tag for it into your default or custom template that is in use for the specific forum. You can create template includes that will only be displayed on topic pages, message pages (where users reads messages) or the pages where users post messages.
3.8.5 How To Create and Use Template Include
1. Go to the Control Panel >> Template Manager >> Edit/Create Template Includes.
2. Fill in a name for the template include and click the ‘Create Template Include’ button.
3. Insert your text or HTML code in the box, and choose on which pages you would like the template include displayed via the check boxes. Then press the ‘Create Template Include’ button.
4. Now go to the Control Panel >> Template Manager >> Edit Default Templates
5. You will see a list of the template includes available. Insert a template include tags into your template where you want the template include displayed. The tag should look like this <!--include_name-->
You may also insert template includes into custom templates.
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