Invision Power Board 2: A User Guide: Configure, manage and maintain a copy of Invision Power Board 2 on your own website to power an online discussion forum

Invision Power Board 2: A User Guide

David Mytton

BIRMINGHAM MUMBAI

Invision Power Board 2: A User Guide Copyright © 2005 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First edition: June 2005

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK. ISBN 1-904811-38-8 www.packtpub.com

Cover Design by www.visionwt.com

Credits Author David Mytton Technical Reviewer Rikki Tissier

Commissioning Editor Douglas Paterson Technical Editors Paramita Chakrabarti Niranjan Jahagirdar

Layout Paramita Chakrabarti

Proofreader Chris Smith

Indexer Niranjan Jahagirdar

Cover Designer Helen Wood

Illustrator Dinesh Kandalgaonkar

Foreword Invision Power Board is the culmination of nearly six years worth of work from me and the other developers at Invision Power Services. My ideas and designs have developed over this time in different products, but the desire to create a product that is not only feature-rich, but also easy to use, has remained constant. My formative years with the Internet began in 1999, and I joined a few discussion boards to help further my knowledge. The ability to communicate with other like-minded people from around the world fascinated me. The discussion boards of the time were fairly primitive and I began writing enhancements for them. My combined background of design and programming gave me a good foundation for improving on the basic formula. Invision Power Board is the result of those first tentative steps. I have always believed that the best way to develop a product is to garner the thoughts and ideas of the end user and our thriving community of customers is vital to our success. Some of the best concepts have developed from a nucleus of an idea contributed by a user of our products. This symbiosis is at the very core of our development ideals and this book cements this relationship. For the first time, a comprehensive book is available to guide and instruct fledgling administrators on how to get the best out of their Invision Power Board—a product developed in line with the wishes of our customers who are seasoned administrators. Although the Internet is a great resource for information, I don’t think that you can beat a good book to hold in your hands to consume the knowledge contained within. This book will take pride of place on my bookshelf, fitting in neatly between programming references and instructional guides. I hope it finds a place in your bookshelf, too. Matt Mecham Cambridgeshire, UK. C.E.O. & C.S.A. Invision Power Services, Inc.

About the Author David Mytton is a young web developer based in the UK. Although he spends much of his time programming for the Web, he is also a keen writer having written articles for web development resource SitePoint.com and International PHP Magazine, as well as his own website. These articles included interviews of famous personalities such as Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski (PHP architects and Zend Founders), Matthew Mecham (Invision Power Services CEO and Lead Developer), and Nick Lindridge (ionCube Founder). He does all this in between running his software development company, Olate Ltd (www.olate.co.uk), scuba diving, and fencing.

Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Invision Power Board

1 5

What Is Invision Power Board? History Development What is New in IPB2? The IPB Advantage Performance Customizability Maintenance Ease Versatility Example Websites

6 6 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 10

Chapter 2: Installation and Configuration Minimum Requirements Licenses Purchasing and the Client Area Installation Step 1: Uploading and Setting Permissions Step 2: Web-Based Installer Your Server Environment Your Database Environment Your Administrator Account

Step 3: Post-Installation Conversion Other Downloads Summary

13 13 13 14 16 16 18 19 19 20

21 21 22 23

Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Tour: User Front End The Index Page The Member Bar Forums and Categories The Footer Bar Lo-Fi Version

Viewing Forums Topics Creating a New Topic BBCode and Smilies Post Options Attachments Post New Topic/Preview Post Add Reply Fast Reply User Control Panel/My Controls Control Panel Index Messenger Subscriptions Personal Profile Edit Profile Info Edit Signature Edit Avatar Settings Change Personal Photo

Options Manage Your Attachments Manage Ignored Users E-Mail Settings Board Settings Change E-Mail Address/Password

Moderator Tools Searching Private Messaging Compose New Message Message Folders (Inbox, Sent Items, and Saved) Edit Storage Folders ii

25 26 27 27 28 28

28 31 34 34 36 36 37 37 37 38 38 40 40 41 41 42 42 44

44 45 45 45 46 46

46 47 49 49 50 50

Table of Contents

Empty PM Folders

50

PM Buddies/Block List Message Tracker Calendar Moderation Summary

51 51 51 52 52

Chapter 4: Administration Panel Tour: Settings Admin CP The Menu ACP Home System Settings Important Settings Settings: Board Guidelines Settings: Board Offline/Online Settings: Calendar and Birthdays Settings: Converge Set Up Settings: Cookies Settings: COPPA Setup Settings: CPU Saving and Optimization Settings: Date and Time Formats Settings: E-Mail Setup Settings: Full Text Search Setup Settings: General Configuration Settings: News Setup Settings: Personal Message Setup Settings: Search Engine Spiders Settings: Security and Privacy Settings: Topics, Posts and Polls Settings: The Trashcan Setup Settings: User Profiles Settings: Warn Setup Summary

53 53 55 56 56 58 59 59 60 60 61 61 62 64 66 67 67 68 68 68 69 71 72 72 72 74

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Chapter 5: Admin Panel Tour: Forum Control New Forum Quick Setup Basic Settings Forum Redirect Options Permission Settings Postable Forum Settings Allow HTML to be Posted? Allow BBCode to be Posted? Turn on the Quick Reply Box? Allow Polls and Vote Bumping? Posts in this Forum Increase Member's Cumulative Post Count? Moderation Password Protection Sorting

Permission Access Levels Create this Forum Manage Forums Categories New Forum Permissions, Edit, and Delete Ordering

Forums Settings Permissions Forum Rules Skin Options Resynchronize Delete and Empty Forum Ordering

Permission Masks Create New Mask Edit Preview Moderators Add Moderator

Multi-Moderation Summary iv

75 75 76 76 77 77 77 77 78 78 79 79 79 79 80

80 82 82 82 82 82 82

83 83 83 83 83 84 84 84

84 85 86 87 87 88

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Chapter 6: Admin Panel Tour: Users, Groups & Other Features Users and Groups Manage Members Edit Member's Profile Change Member's Name Change/Reset Password Suspend Member Delete Member

Add New Member Manage Ranks Add a Member Rank Edit/Delete Rank

Manage Usergroups Add a New Member Group Edit Group Delete

Manage Validating Custom Profile Fields

91 91 92 93 96 96 96 97

97 97 97 98

98 99 102 104

104 104

Add New Field Editing Deleting

105 106 106

IP Member Tools Member Settings The Post Office Creating an E-Mail

106 107 107 108

Filters Sending

Manage Bulk Mail View E-Mail/Error Logs Subscriptions Payment Gateways Gateway Configuration

Subscription Packages Add New Subscription Package Currency Setup

Transaction Searching Languages

109 109

110 110 110 111 111

112 112 113

113 114 v

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BBCode Add New BBCode Filters Bad Word Filters Ban Filters Statistics Summary

114 115 116 116 116 117 117

Chapter 7: Forum Maintenance and Administration 115 Hints and Tips Your Forum/Website Members Moderation and Problems IPB Moderation Tools Inline Moderation Multi-Moderation Add a New Multi-Moderation Action Using the Multi-Moderation Edit/Remove

Prune/Mass Move Maintenance Backups Summary

Chapter 8: Skins and Templates Common Tasks Changing the Logo Change the Default Font Type, Font Size, and Font Color Skin Manager Skin Menu The Board Wrapper Templates Template Bits Editing a Template Bit

CSS Editing in Easy Mode CSS Editing in Advanced Mode vi

116 116 118 120 122 123 124 125 126 126

126 127 128 128

129 130 130 131 132 134 135 137 139 140

141 143

Table of Contents

Replacement Macros

144

Adding/Editing

144

Edit Skin Settings

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Basics CSS Options Image Options Set Author

146 147 147 147

Skin Tools Rebuild Master Templates Rebuild Skin Set Cache Update Members Skin Choice Search and Replace Skin Import/Export Export Import Summary

147 148 148 148 149 149 149 150 151

Chapter 9: First Steps—A Guide

151

Initial Configuration Licensing User Groups Adding a Moderator User Group

151 152 152 153

Adding a Member to the New Moderators Group

Forums Tweaks Ranks Profile Fields Bad Word Filters Skins and Templates Modifications Robots.txt Bot List Securing Uploads Other Modifications Promotion Managing Your Forum

155

155 156 157 157 158 158 159 159 160 160 161 161 162 vii

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Summary

Appendix A: Files and Directories Directories Files

Appendix B: Further Resources PHP/MySQL Resources

Index

viii

162

163 163 165

167 169

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Introduction This book is about obtaining, downloading, installing, configuring, managing, and maintaining a copy of Invision Power Board (IPB) 2 on your own website. It covers general forum management, user moderation, templates, and skins. Invision Power Board (www.invisionboard.com), originally called IBForums, allows website owners to add a community to their existing site within minutes. Visitors are able to register and post threads discussing any topic, reply to existing messages, and generally participate in active discussion with other members. If you are reading this, it is probably because you are either already running a community forum, or are planning on establishing one. You may already be using Invision Board 2, an earlier version, or perhaps one of the rival products. Either way, by working through the chapters, you will be introduced to, and provided with, detailed information about Invision Power Board 2 and how to manage it. If you are interested in using IPB2 for your website or want to learn more about its implementation, then this book is for you.

What This Book Covers The book starts with an overview of Invision Power Board (IPB), its history, advantages, and some sites that are using IPB. Chapter 2 walks you through an installation of IPB, including the necessary preparation work and post-installation tasks. Chapter 3 takes you through the user front end of your new forum. This includes a visit to forums, topics, posts, searching, the calendar, and the user control panel. This is the section that your visitors will spend all their time using and this chapter ensures that you are familiar with how everything works.

Introduction

Chapters 4 and 5 give you an in-depth tour of the area you will initially spend your time in, changing settings, creating forums, and later managing your entire user base. Every option has been discussed so that you can effectively manage everything IPB offers. Chapter 6 provides you with details about what running a real forum is about. It includes hints and tips from other forum owners and takes a good look at how to manage topics and posts using the advanced moderation tools IPB includes. Chapter 7 takes you through the various aspects of user management for creating a successful community and provides useful tips for running a successful board. Chapter 8 guides you through one of the most important aspects of creating your own, personalized forum—the skins and templates. The look of your site is what distinguishes it from other competing forums so this chapter is important to help you make your copy of IPB unique. Chapter 9 is a step-by-step guide to getting your forum up and running in the shortest time possible. It explains exactly how to get going right after you have installed IPB onto your website. It provides sample settings so you can be ready to launch it in almost no time at all.

What You Need for Using This Book The only requirement for using this book is that you have a copy, or have access to a copy of Invision Power Board 2. It does not even need to be installed or working since Chapter 2 takes you through the full installation process. Invision Power Board is available as a commercial product from the Invision Power Services website at http://www.invisionboard.com. You can either purchase a license or you can obtain a free trial. Although the free trial is limited (see IPB website for details), it will allow you to work through everything in this book, with the exception of being able to bulk e-mail your members (which is disabled in the trial).

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Conventions In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning. There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: "To illustrate the difference, you can print_r() the results of both functions". A block of code will be set as follows:

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:

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The first few lines of these are standard HTML header text, which is (or a variant of which is) always included in every HTML page. In this case, it shows that the code is using the XHTML format. For more information about XHTML, see http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/. Throughout the code you will see tags within . Where these are is where certain elements will appear. For example, where you see is where the members' quick control bar will appear—this contains links to their profiles and private messaging. One of the most important of these is (highlighted in the code previously). This is where all the page templates are inserted with the general site code wrapping around it. To add something that will appear on every page, position it based around this tag. Equally, if you wanted to remove the board header from your forum, just delete the tag, and it will not be shown. Note that you cannot remove the copyright notice. Deleting the tags will remove that section from your board. This will often remove large portions of the board functionality, so it is unlikely that you will ever need to do this. Clicking on Save Wrapper will save the changes you have made, and then return you to the skin manager. Clicking on Save and Reload Wrapper will do the same, but will reload the edit wrapper page rather than the skin manager.

Templates The templates make up every page of your forum. They contain HTML and control how the page is laid out. Clicking on the Edit Root Skin Template HTML link will take you to a list of all the templates for that skin:

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This large table shows quite a bit of information about that template. Firstly, it lists categories that the template's files themselves are grouped into (for example Board Index, Calendar, Help, etc.). Next to the name is the familiar small gray square. This turns red when the category contains templates that have been edited. On the right side against the name are two numbers enclosed by brackets next to a gray box and a red box. The first number on the left of the gray box shows how many template files within the category have not been edited. The number (default 00) on the left of the red box shows how many templates with that category have been modified. On the right of this is a small Internet Explorer icon, either full or slightly dimmed with a red line through it. Clicking this launches the relevant section in your forum; no preview is available otherwise. Finally, at the top of the table is a search box to allow you to search the template names for something specific you are looking for; on the right side is a drop-down menu that lists common templates you may wish to edit (for example, Board Header or Post View & Table).

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Template Bits Every category has several template bits within it. These contain the actual HTML that appears on your site. Clicking on the name of the category will expand a box listing all the template bits within that category. This box has several features:

Starting at the top-left corner of the box, the button with the red X closes the box. Clicking the category name will also have the same effect. Next, the tick-mark button checks/unchecks all the templates within the category. This is useful if you wish to edit all the template bits within that category: you can check the boxes next to the template bit names and then click the Edit Selected button to edit those template bits. The next button floats the box so that you can open multiple categories at the same time and view them more easily on the page. Moving over to the right, the down arrow on the far right increases the size of the box by the size of one template bit. The up arrow on the left decreases the size of the box by the size of one template bit. The button in the middle expands the box fully so you can see all the template bits. Within the box itself, you have the gray boxes next to each template. As before, these change color when the template has been modified. On the far right are two icons—a page and an Internet Explorer icon. The page icon loads the template in your browser as plain text so that you can see the template source code in full. 138

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On clicking this button, the page loads and allows you to view the template either as the source code, as parsed HTML, or as parsed HTML with CSS. This enables you to perform a quick preview of the code. The Internet Explorer icon loads up the same page, but defaults to the parsed HTML with CSS option.

Editing a Template Bit Clicking on the name of a template bit will load up the source HTML for that page into a box so that you can edit it. This page also includes several buttons to modify how you can edit the source code:

You can see several hidden fields in the screenshot. Removing these is possible, but is not recommended—these are required fields, and it will probably break your board if you do so! The Change Editor Preferences menu in the top-left corner of the page drops down to reveal options that allow you to edit the design of the editing page to suit your preferences. This includes changing the code's display font, size, color, and background color. You can also change the height and width of the edit box. The Float button loads the editor into a new browser window without the left menu frame. On the top right are several other buttons.

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If you remember from earlier in the chapter, macros are variables you can enter into the template to be replaced by text or images. The Macro Lookup button allows you to quickly search these macros for the macro you are looking for. The next button compares your code's current version to the last edited version. This is known as a 'diff', and can help you recover from an error if you do not wish to revert to the last saved template, which is what the Restore button does. The View Original button loads up the original template file so you can see the code for this. This is not a revision history system; it only compares the current contents of the textbox with the last saved version of the template, and not the original, default HTML. If you alter the content and save it, the changes become the 'original'. At the bottom of the page is a small drop-down menu, which will show you the HTML code for several common symbols including the copyright © and the dot •. You can then copy the code from the small box to the side of the drop-down menu and paste it into the edit box. Above that are two buttons: Save Template Bit(s), which will save the changes you have made and return you to the previous screen, and Save and Reload Template Bit(s), which will save and then reload this page. This is especially useful if you make a small change and then want to preview it, but also make other changes directly afterwards. If you choose to edit multiple template bits then the page will repeat for each one you can edit. You can make the changes to the multiple bits and then save them all at once.

CSS Editing in Easy Mode HTML tags are designed to define the way that text is laid out on the page. Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, are designed to define the color and styling of the page. In Invision Power Board, CSS is used to change the colors, font type, and font sizes of the template, and in some cases, background images. It also offers two methods of altering these, one of which is the Easy Edit mode.

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In versions up to 2.0.3, the Easy Editor can be unstable. There have been reports of it becoming confused and mangling code up. While this does not cause major problems, it can cause some errors with borders around images and other small problems.

You can find out more information on CSS and read several good tutorials at http://www.w3schools.com/css. You can load the CSS editor by clicking on Edit Root Skin Colors (CSS Easy Mode) from the pop-up menu on the skin manager page. The following page may take a few seconds longer to load than normal, but contains a list of all the CSS elements. CSS is broken down into elements with specific names that are then referenced within the HTML. For example, a link may use a tag such as: Link

In the CSS, this would then reference an element called link1. The Easy CSS Editor shows all these elements and allows you to change the color of the font and its background, as well as add extra CSS attributes to the element. The color picking is done by entering the HTML color code for the color you wish to use. However, this is made much easier by using a color picker, which, on clicking on a small color grid next to the color box, pops up a larger grid showing a range of colors. Clicking on the color you wish to use will tell you the color code. If you click on Save, it will add that code to the color box for the CSS attribute.

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In the Other CSS Attributes box on the right, you can add your own CSS to change the styling of that element. For example, to make the font Arial, you would enter this into the box: font-family: Arial;

After each attribute, use a semi-colon to show the end of the attribute. You can find out more attributes you can use from the W3C online CSS reference at http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp. When you are finished, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Edit to save the changes.

CSS Editing in Advanced Mode If you know how to use CSS, you can simply use the Edit Root Skin Stylesheet (CSS Advanced Mode) option from the Skin Manager. This loads a large textbox with the raw CSS code in. You can edit it as you would any CSS, and click on Save Stylesheet and return to the skin manager or click on Save and Reload Stylesheet to save and then reload the page. Because of the way the template system works with caching, it is not possible to easily edit the CSS by downloading the files directly from the file system. You need to edit through the IPB interface. As with editing a template bit, the edit box allows you to edit the design of the edit box (font, font color, background color, etc.) from the Change Editor Preferences dropdown at the top. A useful feature hidden at the bottom of the edit page is the option to view where a certain CSS element is used within the templates and to preview the attributes of the element. Select the name of the element from the drop-down menu and then either click on Go! to find its usage within the templates or on Preview CSS Style to see how the style attributes are used.

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Replacement Macros Replacement macros are used in the IPB templates to hold HTML code that is often used in many pages, and provide a copy of the HTML that can be inserted into the relevant templates when needed. This means that multiple pages can be updated by changing the code in the template. These macros include buttons such as the Fast Reply and New Topic buttons and other images. Each macro is given a tag that can be inserted in the HTML and is parsed by the IPB template system and replaced with the relevant code. The Edit Root Skin Replacement Macros option in the Skin Manager will take you to the page to manage these. On the list page, you will see all the current macros. On the left is the tag that is entered into the template HTML, in the middle is the parsed HTML that will be inserted, and on the right is the button that will allow you edit the macro. As is common throughout the template system, a gray square exists on the left for each macro. This square changes to red if the macro has been changed from its default value. An example of a macro is . Wherever this tag is placed in the template, it is replaced by the following code:

Adding/Editing To add a new macro, simply click the Add Macro button in the right corner of the page. To edit the macro, click the Change button. Adding and editing are mostly the same; adding will be described here. Once you have clicked on Add Macro, a pop-up box will appear:

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The Variable field will contain what you wish your macro tag to be. When used in a template, this appears in a format. For example, if you enter example_logo into the Variable field, you would use the macro in the HTML by typing . The Replacement box will contain the replacement code to be entered into the template. This will usually be HTML. For many of the default macros, this is for an image. For example, the replacement macro A_APOLL has the replacement code:

If you wish to insert an image, you can do so using a direct reference to the actual path (e.g. if it is stored in another part of your website). However, you can also upload the image to the skin images directory (which you might want to do in the case of having multiple images specific to the skin). In this case, you can dynamically insert the path to the image as shown in the code example for the A_APOLL macro. The variable can be used to insert the name of the image directory currently in use by the skin. Finally, clicking on Add This Macro will add the macro to the database for you to use in the skin.

Edit Skin Settings Every skin has several settings. These can be customized from the Skin Settings menu link in the Skin Manager:

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Basics When you create a new skin, you can give it a name. The Set Title field allows you to set the name of the skin so that you can easily identify it in the Skin Manager. You also have the option to hide the skin from members so that they cannot select it from the control panel to use it. The skin can be set to the default skin and also given a parent, if applicable. You may remember that the Set as default skin and Hide from members? options can also be toggled from the Skin Manager page itself.

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CSS Options Normally, the CSS is stored in the database and placed into every page as it loads. However, by setting the Cache CSS to text files option to Yes, you can have the CSS placed into a file and then loaded by the page. This reduces the size of the page as it loads, and also means that the browser can cache the CSS file for future use. If you have not set the permissions for the skin_images/ folder correctly, an error will be displayed when selecting the cache option. In this case, you need to set the permissions (using the chmod command on Linux and checking the user permissions on Windows) so that the user has read/write access to the directory.

Image Options As seen in the Replacement Macros section, you can choose the image directory that the skin uses, by selecting from the Use image directory? drop-down menu. You can also choose to use a specific set of emoticons by choosing the directory name from the drop-down menu.

Set Author If you are going to distribute your skin, and even if you're not, you may like to add your personal author details to the skin, which can be done in the Set Author section.

Skin Tools The IPB template system not only stores the templates in the database, but also creates a flat-file version. This caching system means that users load the templates from the files and not from the database, thus reducing the load on the database server. The flat file is updated whenever you change a template. The Skin Tools option from the Admin Control Panel's left frame menu provides you with three maintenance tools.

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Rebuild Master Templates As mentioned earlier in the chapter, templates inherit their template bits from the parent template to save space. Using the Rebuild Master Templates option, you can rebuild the cache store of the master templates used by all your skins. This is helpful if you have made a change that's not showing up when you access the forum. Click the Run Tool… button to do this.

Rebuild Skin Set Cache Even though the IPB template system is very efficient, sometimes it fails to update the flat-file cache; changes you make might not be reflected on the site. You can manually force the rebuilding of the entire cache by selecting the template from the dropdown and clicking Run Tool…. Alternatively, you can click the Rebuild All link to rebuild every skin:

Update Members Skin Choice The final option allows you to change which skin members are using. This is useful if you do not wish members to use one skin and want to change it in one go. This option works by changing the skin of members based on the skin they are currently using. For example, if you have ten members using Skin A and you want them to use Skin B, you would select Skin A from the first drop-down menu and then select Skin B from the second. Clicking on Run Tool… will apply the changes:

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Search and Replace Many web editors include search and replace tools to search your documents. IPB also includes this functionality to search through all the templates and find a certain search term and optionally replace with code that you specify. This can be done from the Skin Search & Replace link from the Admin Control Panel left menu.

Skin Import/Export IPB allows you to import a skin created by someone else (or a backup of your own skin) and export a skin that you have made (for distribution or backup, for example). This can be done from the Skin Import/Export menu option.

Export You can download all your skin customizations into one file for distribution and/or backup. The first option on the import/export page is exporting. To export a template, first select the template you would like to export from the Export Which Template Set? drop-down menu in the Export Skin Templates box. Next, choose what you would like to export—just the customizations you have made to this skin, or the complete skin, including the full parent skin. When you are finished, click on the Export Skin XML button to download the .xml file containing the skin. Exporting the Skin Templates does not include any images—they must be exported separately. This can be done from the Export Skin Images box by selecting the skin set (it tells you which skins use the images) and then clicking on the Export Skin Images button. The images are exported using the XMLarchive format, which may not work correctly for PHP safe-mode users. To find out if this applies you to, try exporting the files. If you encounter any problems, you may have safe mode enabled. You can check with your web-hosting company to double-check this.

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If this is the case, you can download the images manually by FTP-ing to your server. The images are located in the skin_images/ directory and are ordered by skin in a numbered directory. The Image Set dropdown on the Export page includes the ID that this number references. The XMLArchive format was developed by Rick Jelliffe and is a method of storing compressed XML data based upon the ZIP archiving system.

Import Importing a skin is just a case of uploading the skin templates and skin images. In both cases, you can browse your computer for the XML files to upload to the forums. Alternatively, you can upload them to your forum root directory using FTP and then enter the file name into the second field. In both cases, you can also create a new skin or image set with a new name or use the name provided in the XML file:

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Summary This chapter has covered all aspects of the IPB templating system, explaining how to edit the templates to change the actual HTML code of your site; you saw how to edit the CSS to change colors and fonts and how to import and export templates. There are many templates available for download, free and paid for. Appendix B has a list of resources, including sites for downloading templates for use in your forum.

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9 First Steps—A Guide In this chapter, I will take you through the first steps to getting your forum up and running, customizing the settings, creating forums, user groups, and starting to promote your forum. This chapter will help you get your community started and point you in the right direction.

Initial Configuration The first user that was created when you initially installed your forum in Chapter 2 has admin permissions. Log in as this user and click on the link labeled Admin CP. This will launch the Administrator Control Panel. Your username and password will be the same as your main user account. This configuration has been described in detail in Chapter 4. Once you click Login you will be taken to the control panel. From the left menu, select System Settings and click on General Configuration: 1. General Configuration: This is the first thing you should edit. Change the Board Name, Website Name, and Website Address to match your site. In addition, to allow user uploads (file, avatar, and picture uploads), change the values in Upload URL and Path to 'upload' directory. Ask your web host for help in filling out these values. 2. E-mail Set-Up: Your forum will send out e-mails to new users, notifications for new private messages and topic reply notifications, among other things. Make sure you have the email set up correctly and that you have a valid From address which members can reply to if they have any problems. The two most important values in this section are Board incoming email address and Board outgoing email address.

First Steps—A Guide

The incoming address will be used as the reply to address and the outgoing address will be used as the From address. Once you have changed the settings for the general configuration of the board, you should go through each setting group looking up what it does in Chapter 5. This will allow you to configure each option to your liking. Immediately after installation, it may be a good idea to set your board offline so members and guests cannot access any part of your forum unless you grant access to them (Users & Groups | Manage User Groups | Edit | Global Permissions | Can view OFFLINE board will grant access). Those that do not have access are presented with a customizable message. When you are finished with the board configuration, you will want to make the board appear online. To do this, go to the Board Offline/Online section in the Board Offline/Online section of the System Settings menu. From here, you will see an option called Turn the board offline?. Set this to No and then click Update Settings. This will make your board publicly viewable.

Licensing Even though you download IPB from your member area, the board is unlicensed by default. You should register your license key as soon as possible. This can be done by clicking on IPB License from the System Settings category. A box will appear at the bottom of the page asking you to enter your registration key. If you do not know what it is, the page is framed so you can log in to the member area within that window, click on Invision Power Board on the right menu, and then copy your license key into the box.

User Groups Although forums are the core part of your board and without them you wouldn't have a community, they are the third thing you should set up. The second is user groups. User groups allow you to categorize your members and manage the permissions that allow access to forums and features. It is much easier to define the user group first and then create the forum as you can define 152

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the group permission when you create the forum. This saves creating the forum, creating the group, and then going back to the forum to change the permission. Assuming you wish to create a new member group, go to the Users and Groups category and then to Manage User Groups. It might be a good idea to create a Moderators group at this time so you can create your moderators for your forum if you have some already. Alternatively, you can add individual users to the forums as moderators rather than using a user group via the Forum Control | Moderators menu.

Adding a Moderator User Group You can have individual members as moderators. This is useful if you wish to have different members manage specific forums matching their specialist subjects. However, you may wish to have a team of global moderators all contained within a user group. One of the main advantages of this is that you can tweak their settings all at once, give them moderator ranks and images, and allow them access to certain features of the board. The first step to adding a new member group is to choose which existing group you would like to base the new group upon. The new group will have its set of options based on what the group you selected has set. This is useful if you wish to only alter a few options. In our case, we're going to be creating a Moderator group and so it will be best to base the initial options on the Members group. Once you have selected the Members group from the drop-down menu, click on Set up New Group. You will then be required to specify the options for the Global Settings. This section requires you to choose some base settings for the new group. This includes the group name and the permission mask you want the group to have applied to it. You can also choose an icon for the group, which will be displayed in group members' profiles. You can use either a full link (http://www.example.com/example.gif) or a path to the image. If you choose to use a path, you must upload the image to style_images/{image_dir}folder_team_icons/{image}. The path to enter into the box is the same. {image_dir} is the directory created for the forum skin.

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For the purposes of our new group, we're going to call the group Moderators. If you have an image you can use, you can enter the path in the box called Group Icon Image. A common way to distinguish moderators from normal members is to have them appear a different color. This can be achieved by entering in some HTML into the Online List Format [Prefix]/ [Suffix] boxes. For example, if you wanted to make your moderators appear black in the Online List (normal members appear blue) then you would enter <span style='color: black'> into the Prefix box and into the Suffix box. Equally, you could make them appear bold by using the <strong> and HTML tags. The following permission options can generally be left as they are—they will have the same permissions as normal members. However, you may wish to allow moderators to view the board when you mark it offline. This can be done by checking the Yes box of the Can view OFFLINE board? option. The Posting Permissions options allow you to customize the actions the user can perform even further. Many of these default to No, but as a Moderator it is often useful to be able to do most of these. Therefore, it is recommended you allow these. The Moderation Permissions give three options to define special moderator actions. Since the original purpose of this group was to set up global moderators, set Is Super Moderator (can moderate anywhere)? to Yes. It is completely up to you if you want to allow moderators access to your Administration Control Panel or to allow them to post in closed topics. Generally, you will not need access to the Administrator panel as a moderator—everything you need to do can be done from the main interface. Therefore it is advisable not to allow moderators access to the Administration Control Panel. Finally, since you probably want to hand pick your moderators, you do not want to allow users to get promoted the moderator group. Set the Group Promotion to Don't Promote. Next, click on Add Group and you will be taken back to the Manage Groups page.

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Adding a Member to the New Moderators Group You can now edit any member and add them to this new Moderators group. Clicking on the Manage Members link from the left menu will take you to a search screen. From here you can search for any of the members who are registered in your forums. Once you have entered your search terms, click on Find Member, and any members matching your terms will be displayed. A small box contains some vital statistics about the member along with five links to perform different actions: edit member profile, change member name, reset password, suspend member, and delete member. You can also click on the member name at the top of the box to view their public profile on the front end of your forum. You can edit many of the options that apply to each member by clicking Edit Member Profile. You will be taken to a page where you can alter that member's profile. The two menus displayed in the Member Group Options section allow you to choose the primary member group this user belongs to and a secondary user group. The user will inherit permissions from both groups, but the primary group is the one that will appear in the member's profile. From here, you can choose the Moderators group that we just created. Click on Edit this Member to submit the changes.

Forums Now you have your groups in place and the board set up with the configuration options you want, you can go ahead and create the forums. Go to the Forum Control category and then click on Manage Forums. You will probably first want to remove the default forum and category before adding your own. Adding a category and then forums within the category is very simple. Clicking on the New Forum link on the left menu or the Manage Forums screen will take you to the page to do so. You can quickly set up a new forum by following these steps: 1. From the Administration Control Panel, select the Forum Control category from the left menu and then click on New Forum. 155

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2. Under the Basic settings heading, enter a name and a description for the new forum. You can then select which parent the forum will be under (usually a category or under another forum if you wish this new forum to be a subforum). The forum name is what will appear on the index to tell the users the topic or subject of the discussions within that forum. The forum description allows you to expand upon the name and describe what you want posted in that forum. A parent forum can be selected. This new forum will then appear beneath the parent. To create a normal forum, you would set the Forum State option to Active and Act as a Normal Forum not a Category to Yes. The Forum Redirect options can be ignored, as can the Permission Settings. 3. Postable Forum Settings allows you to fine-tune what you want members to be able to do within the forum. The options remember the last settings when you created your last forum. The default options are usually satisfactory for most new forums. However, you will want to ensure that members cannot post HTML (while this allows members to use familiar HTML code tags, it can leave your forum open to abuse), can post BBCode (BBCode is a method created specifically for posting messages in forums or comment systems, which allows posters to format their text), and have the quick reply box enabled (quick reply gives your members the option of being able to quickly post a response to any topic rather than viewing the full post reply page). 4. Permission masks are covered in depth in Chapter 5. However, you can set permissions when you create a forum. You will see a grid with different options and checkboxes. On the top you will see five different actions. These are the five actions you can set user permissions for—you can decide whether you want users to be able to perform these actions. Along the left column, you will see five of the standard user groups—Admin, Banned, Guest, Member, and Validating. You will also see any custom user groups you have created yourself. You will use these to define what you want your members of these groups to do.

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5. Click the Create this forum button and your forum has been created. You can see the forum on the forum index and users will be able to post.

Tweaks Your board is now set up and ready to use. However, there are quite a few options you can change and modify to make your board even better!

Ranks Just like in the military, ranks show the status of your members. As a member increases his or her post count, their rank will increase. By default, IPB comes with three rank levels, but these are not very exciting. Ranks are an important tool in encouraging activity as they show the member's level within the forum. Therefore, they often serve as an incentive to post! To create your own ranks, go to the Users and Groups category in the Administration Control Panel and then click on Manage Ranks. You will see the default three ranks and the option to add your own. Adding a new rank is very simple. The add box is already on the page and you just need to define the name for the rank, the minimum post count required, and how many pips you wish to display. If you prefer to use your own images, you can type in the image URL instead of typing a number of pips and that image will be displayed when you click on Add this Rank.

Profile Fields Depending on the topic of your board, you may wish to create your own profile fields. These appear in the member's profile view and alongside their post, when they post in the forums. They too can encourage activity by providing information to other members. For example, if you run a car forum, you could add a custom field asking the member which car they have and another asking which car they would like to have. If you run a forum about mobile phones, you could do something similar with mobile phone makes and models. To add your own profile fields, go to Users and Groups in the Administration Control Panel and then click on Custom Profile Fields. 157

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Click on Add New Field. The next page shows thirteen options, which you will use to define the new custom field. The first option you need to set is the Field Title and Description. These have a maximum value of 200 and 250 characters respectively and are shown to the user—the Title in the user control panel and the public profile next to the username in the post view, and the Description in the user control panel only. Next you choose which type of field you require. You can choose from a small text box, drop-down menu, or the larger version of a text box—the text area. The next five options define how the field will be shown to the user and what can be done with it. Finally, you can choose how the field is displayed underneath the name of the member on the left when they make a post. The default simply shows the Field Title and then the value the user enters, but you can add your own formatting to change it as you like it. The variables you enter to show the content and title are {title} and {content}. These will be replaced with the actual data when it is shown. To save the options and add the new field, click on Add Field.

Bad Word Filters As suggested in Chapter 6, to keep your forum clean, you should utilize the word filters built into IPB. They will replace any word you define with censor characters. This is usually used to block out swear words. Clicking on Manage Badword Filters shows you any existing filters, and allows you to create new filters and import lists of already created filters. Bad word filters will globally replace words in posts, signatures, and topic titles. You add a new filter in the Add a new filter box by entering the word to censor and what you would like to replace it with. The replacement word you might choose could be **** or h**l, for example.

Skins and Templates Now that you have a working and customized forum, you will want to start getting new members to register. But why should they? It looks 158

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exactly the same as other default IPB installations. An important part of setting up your community is distinguishing it from other boards. You could make some subtle changes such as those on my own board at www.olate.co.uk/forum (changing the colors and images very slightly) or you could make many changes to the way the board is designed such as those on www.forumeye.it/invision. You will find a detailed guide on how to create your own style in Chapter 8 and you will also find a list of websites where you can download free and commercial IPB styles and templates in Appendix B.

Modifications Modifications extend the functionality of your forum to include features that are not included by default. They can be a simple addition to a file or a large update to many files and the database. Note that Invision Power Services does not provide support for modifications or errors caused by modifications. As an IPB license holder, you get access to the IPS Customer Chat forum. Within this forum is a Hints and Tips forum, which contains a number of very useful additions that you can apply in just a few minutes. You will find the forum at http://forums.invisionpower.com/ index.php?showforum=225. You may not have access to the forums by default. You must first register as a new user in the IPS Customer Forums. Once you have done this, you have to associate your Member Area account with your forum account. To do this, login to the Member Area at http://customer.invisionpower.com. You will see IPS Company Forums at the bottom of the page. Follow the instructions to link your accounts. You will then be able to access the forums.

Robots.txt The first mod you should set up is the robots.txt file. The robots.txt file is read by search engine spiders and tells them what they can and cannot do. You can find out more about robots.txt usage at 159

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www.searchengineworld.com/robots/robots_tutorial.htm and www.robotstxt.org.

The modification we are concerned with can be found at http://forums .invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=148689. It gives you a sample robots.txt file to use in your forums. This will direct the search engine spiders to the correct pages of the index within your forum. Creating a robots.txt file is very simple. Using an editor such as Notepad, just select the red text from the post above and paste it into the blank file. Then save the file as robots.txt and upload it to your forum root directory (where you see index.php and conf_global.php). That is it!

Bot List Following on from the robots.txt modification, you will want to identify each search engine spider as it visits your forum. That way you can see which search engines are visiting your site and you can even have them displayed on the board index Who's Online list. In order to do this, you need to have a list of the spiders and their identification string. This is provided for you at http://forums .invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=149681. You paste this list in the box that can be accessed by going to the Administration Control Panel, clicking on System Settings, View All General Settings, and then on Search Engine Spiders. Paste the list from the forum topic into the box labeled Search Bot User-Agent. You can show the spiders as they visit your site on the Active Users list by checking the option on this page.

Securing Uploads Although the IPB uploads system is very well designed and is quite secure, you can add an extra layer of security to it by following the instructions provided at http://forums.invisionpower.com/ index.php?showtopic=152644. This will prevent the execution of any .php or .pl scripts if they are uploaded to your site by placing some code into an .htaccess file. You can find out all about .htaccess files by reading the tutorial at www.olate.com/articles/24. Note that .htaccess files only work on the Apache web server. 160

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Other Modifications There are many other modifications in the Invision Power Services forums (http://forums.invisionpower.com) as well as on many of the resource sites listed in Appendix B.

Promotion You are now ready to launch your forum to the world. But how do you promote your forum? Here are some tips: •

If you are an active member on other forums, place your link into your signature and create a signature image to advertise your forum. Also include the link in your e-mail signature.

•

Let your customers/friends/business contacts know by sending out e-mails or telling them in person. Let them visit the forum and then promote it themselves.

•

Place links onto your website to allow visitors to browse through your forums easily.

•

Write articles or tutorials for popular websites and include your link in the credit line.

•

Arrange link exchanges with sites of similar interest.

•

Use a tool such as Magpie RSS (www.olate.com/articles /214) to grab the latest topics from your forum using the RSS feed. Put this list on your homepage.

•

If your forum is about a specific product or company, see if you can arrange endorsement with that company or see if it will announce your forum on its own website/mention your forum to its customer base.

There are many different techniques to effective promotion. You could spend a lot of money advertising. If you can afford to do that, it may be effective, but the tips above won't cost you anything except time. This can often be the best way of promotion. It all depends on your audience and forum topic.

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Managing Your Forum Getting users to register and then continuing to post can be a very difficult and time-consuming task. But if you follow the tips above and those in Chapter 7, hopefully, your forum will be a success!

Summary After following through the steps explained in this chapter, you should have a fully working Invision Power Board forum, which you can then further customize using the detailed steps provided in the different chapters in this book.

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A Files and Directories This appendix outlines the Invision Power Board directory structure with a brief description of the contents.

Directories File/Directory

Description

cache/

To be used in the next releases of IPB for caching files, images, and content.

install/

Contains the files used during the installation process.

ips_kernel/

This contains the PHP source files for the classes, core to application functionality. This includes Converge functions in class_converge.php, which allow you to integrate the IPB member system into your own applications on your website. The kernel classes are composed of converge, MySQL, image, template, upload, xml, and xmlarchive functions.

jscripts/

Contains JavaScript source files that are used throughout the templates.

lang/

The language files used throughout the board.

lofiversion/

The files that control the design and functions of the lo-fi version of the forum. This is a cut-down version designed for use by search engines.

Files and Directories

File/Directory

Description

modules/

The base for creating your own IPB modules. This directory contains an example mod file to help you get started, as well as the subscription manager.

retail/

Contains the functionality for the licensing of the software and the chat add-on.

skin_acp/

The skin files (including images) for the Admin Control Panel.

skin_cache/

To enhance performance, the templates system generates static copies of the skin; these are stored in this directory. This improves response times.

sources/

Contains all the key functions and PHP code. Also contains all the functions, with the exception of the seven classes in ips_kernel/.

style_avatars/

Contains the avatar packs.

style_emoticons/

Contains the emoticon packs.

style_images/

Contains all the images for the main user front-end skin.

upgrade/

Contains the files used during the upgrade process.

uploads/

Contains all files, photos, and avatars that are uploaded. Avatars are prefixed with av-[memberid], photos with photo-[memberid], and file uploads to post with post-[postid]-[timestamp].

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Files Here is a list of the main files in the root directory of your Invision Power Board installation: Filename

Description

admin.php

Loads the Admin Control Panel functions

conf_global.php

Contains the information needed to access your database and several other essential configuration options

index.php

Loads all the forum functions when requested by users

ipb_templates.xml

Contains all the template code for the templates used on your forum

ipchat.php

Script used to bridge IPB with the new IP Chat application (www.invisionchat.com)

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B Further Resources Invision Power Services runs its own 'Community Resource Program'— an approved list of resource sites and third-party resource sites. You can obtain modifications, skins, tools, and support from these websites: •

•

•

•

•

Invision Resource Directory—invisionpower.com/ resourcedirectory/: The official Invision Power Services controlled resource directory for IPB and other IPS products. Invision Resource Center—www.invisionresource.com: This site is a full resource and support site providing technical support, skins, and modifications, and lets you upload your own creations as well. IBUnique—www.ibunique.com: This site focuses on providing high-quality skins for all versions of IPB as well as other add-ons and modifications. Invisionize.com—www.invisionize.com: Apart from unofficial member-to-member technical support, you can download modifications, skins, graphics, and add-ons. Invision-It-All—www.invision-it-all.com: IIA focuses on skins and supporting members who create their own skins for IPB. It has a wide range of free and commercial skins for you to download.

Further Resources

•

•

•

•

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Invision Board Essentials—www.ibessentials.com: IBE provides itself on being able to help IPB users get the best support when they need it. Apart from advertising your forum here, you can also download graphics, skins, and modifications, and chat with other IPB users. Invision Board France—www.ibf-french.com: This site aims to offer support, services, and resources for IPB users who speak French. It provides a fully translated IPB version for the French language, and includes support for installation and all aspects of the use of the software. It is an official IPB reseller. Invision in Russia—www.ibresource.ru: Created specifically for Russian/Slavic languages, Invision in Russia is an IPS-approved reseller providing a Russian/Slavic language version of IPB as well as add-ons, graphics, skins and templates, and technical support. IPB SDK—ipbsdk.sourceforge.net: IPB SDK is a library of PHP functions that allow you to maximize the use of the membership system built into IPB without needing to create all the functions yourself. It allows full integration, including the PM, avatars, and login and registration systems.

Appendix B

PHP/MySQL Resources The following resources will help you with PHP/MySQL development: • • • • • • • • •

Codewalkers: www.codewalkers.com DevShet: www.devshed.com MySQL Developer Resource: dev.mysql.com Olate: www.olate.com php.net: www.php.net PHPBuilder: www.phpbuilder.com PHP Freaks: www.phpfreaks.com Sitepoint: www.sitepoint.com Zend: devzone.zend.com

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Index A active users, tracking, 63 admin.php file, 165 Administration Control Panel board statistics, 117 filters, 116 forum control, 75, 124, 155 forum, recount and rebuild, 127 home, 56 launching, 151 Post Office, 107 profile fields, 157 skin tools, 147 SQL management, 128 starting, 151 statistics, 117 subscription manager, 111 system settings, 56 user management, 92 usergroups, 91 See also users and groups, administration, forum control, administration, and system settings, administration Administration Panel navigation, 55 Advanced Mode, 131 announcements, 68 attachments, 36 avatars, 42

B backups, 128 badword filters, 116 ban filters, 116 BBCode about, 34

adding, 115 allowing, 78 working, 114 block list, 51 board statistics, 117 bot list, mod, 160 buddy list, 51

C cache directory, 163 calender, 51 categories, 27, 82, 138 chmod command, 18 class_converge.php file, 163 composing, 49 conf_global.php file, 165 Converge user authentication, 60 cookies, 61 COPPA, 61 CSS, 131, 141, 143, 147

E e-mailing. See Post Office emoticons, 35, 164

F fast-reply option, 37 filters, 116 font, changing default, 131 forum announcements, 68 backups, 128 categories, 27,82,138 creating, 75, 82, 155 deleting, 84 filters, 116 footer bar, 28 jump list, 63

Index

maintenance and administration, 115, 127 management, 162 managing, 82 moderators, 87 modifications, 159 online/offline board, 59 ordering, 84 permission masks, 84 promotion, 161 recount and rebuild, 127 resynchronizing, 84 rules, 83 search, 30 statistics, 117 tips, 116 topics, 31 topic listing, 29 viewing forums, 28 See also forum control, administration IPB moderation tools forum control, administration basic settings, 76 BBCode posting, 78 categories, 82 categories, ordering, 82 creating, 155 deleting, 84 forum rules, 83 forum, ordering, 84 HTML posting, 77 moderators, 87 password protection, 79 permission access levels, 80 permission masks, 84 permission settings, 77 permissions, 82 polls, 79 quick reply, 78 quick setup, 76 redirect options, 77 resynchronizing, 84 settings, 83 skin options, 83 sorting, 80 See also forum control, 172

administration and IPB moderation tools FTP, 17

G global actions, permission masks, 87 global permissions, 100 groups. See users and groups, administration

H hot topic, 71 HTML, posting, 77

I IBUnique, IPB resource website, 167 ignored users, 45 index.php file, 165 inline moderation, 123 install directory, 163 Invision Board Essentials, IPB resource website, 168 Invision Board France, IPB resource website, 168 Invision in Russia, IPB resource website, 168 Invision Resource Center, 167 Invision Resource Directory, 167 Invision-It-All, IPB resource website, 167 Invisionize.com, IPB resource website, 167 IPB Administration Panel tour, 53 Advanced Mode, 131 advantages, 8 components, 5 converting packages to IPB, 21 development, 7 directory structure, 163 history, 6 installation, 13, 16 language support, 114 licensing, 14, 152 purchasing, 14

Index

server environment, 19 support, 14 upgrade, 14 user front end, 25 website examples, 10 IPB installation admin account, 20 database environment, 19 permissions, 18 post-installation, 21 prerequisites, 13 server environment, 19 uploading, 17 web-based installer, 18 IPB moderation tools about, 122 inline moderation, 123 multi-moderation, about 124 multi-moderation, adding, 125 multi-moderation, editing, 126 multi-moderation, removing, 126 multi-moderation, using, 126 topic, moving, 126 .See also forum control, administration IPB SDK, IPB resource website, 168 ipb_templates.xml file, 165 ipchat.php file, 165 ips_kernel directory, 163

J jscripts directory, 163 jump list, 63

L lang directory, 163 language support, 114 licensing, 14 lofiversion directory, 163 logo, 130

M macros, 143-144 master template, 148

member bar, 27 members. See users and groups, administration message tracker, 51 messaging. See private messaging moderation moderator groups, 89 moderator tools, 46 moderators, 87, 153 moderators, adding, 88 post-moderation tools, 33, 79 topic-moderation tools, 34 moderator tools, 46 moderators, 87,153 modifications, 159-161 modules directory, 163 multi-moderation, 124-126 MySQL resources, 169

O optimization, 62 ordering, 84

P payment gateways, 111 permission masks creating, 85 editing, 86 global actions, 87 previewing, 87 personal messaging, See private messaging php resources, 169 PHP time formatting, 64 PM. See private messaging polls, 79 Post Office bulk-mail management, 110 e-mail, creating, 108 e-mail, filters, 109 e-mail, logs, 110 e-mail, options, 108 e-mail, sending, 109 posting about, 31 access restrictions, 94 173

Index

actions, 33 attachments, 36 BBCode, 34 body, 32 fast-reply option, 37 HTML, 77 multiple actions, 124 post icons, 36 post-moderation tools, 33 preview, 37 reply, adding, 37 topic, creating, 34 topic, moving, 126 topic, pruning, 126 tweaking, 71 previewing posts, 37 private messaging about, 49, 68 block list, 51 buddy-list, 51 composing, 49 messenger, 40 message folders, 50 message tracker, 51 storage folders, editing, 50 pruning, 126

R ranks adding, 97 creating, 157 deleting, 98 editing, 98 managing, 97 types, 97 replacement macros, 144 resynchronizing, 84 retail directory, 163 Robots.txt, mod, 159

S searching, 47, 68 signature, 42 Skin Manager, 132 skin_acp directory, 163 skin_cache directory, 164 174

skins board wrapper, 135 CSS, 131, 147 CSS editing, advanced mode, 143 CSS editing, easy mode, 141 editor preferences, 140 exporting, 149 font attributes, changing, 131 images, 147 importing, 150 logo, changing, 130 macros, adding, 144 macros, editing, 144 master templates, 148 search and replace, 149 Skin Manager, 132 skin options, 83 skin set cache, 148 skin settings, 146 skin tools, 147 template, 137 template, categories, 138 template, editing, 137 template bits, 139 template bits, editing, 140 wrapper, 135 smilies, 35 sources directory, 164 SQL management, 128 statistics, 117 style_avatars directory, 164 style_emoticons directory, 164 style_images directory, 164 subscription, 110 subscription packages, 112 supermoderators, 102 suspending, 96 system settings, administration announcements, 68 board guidelines, 59 calender, 60, 63 converge setup, 60 cookies, 61 COPPA setup, 61 date and time formats, 64 e-mail setup, 58, 66 forum jump list, 63 fulltext search, setup, 67 general configuration, 58, 67 online/offline board, 59

Index

optimization, 62 personal messaging, 68 posting, 71 private messaging, 68 search engine spiders, 68 security, 69 trash can, 72 user profiles, 72 users, tracking, 63 warning members, 72

T templates. See skins topic subscription, 40 topics, 31, See also posting tracking users, 63

U upgrade directory, 164 uploads directory, 164 User Control Panel attachments, managing, 45 avatar settings, 42 email settings, 45 index, 38 messenger, 40 moderator tools, 46 personal photo, 44 profile, editing, 41 signature, editing, 42 topic subscription, 40 user profiles, 72 users, ignoring, 45 users and groups, administration

access restrictions, 94 contact information, 94 group options, 94 member settings, 107 password, resetting, 96 profile fields, 157 ranks, 97 security settings, 93 supermoderators, 102 user benefits, 118 user, adding, 97 user, deleting, 97 user, editing profile, 93 user, posting permissions, 102 user, suspending, 96 user, upload permissions, 100 user, warning, 72 usergroups, adding, 99 usergroups, deleting, 104 usergroups, editing, 103 usergroups, global settings, 99 usergroups, moderating, 153 usergroups, promotion, 102 usergroups, types, 98 username, changing, 96 usergroups, 98-104

V validation management, 104

W warning members, 72 wrapper, 135

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