Building Your Forum

The Forums application is designed for the group discussion and user-generated content in which participants with common interests can exchange their opinions on a subject.

The chapter provides you a guide to use all Forums features or to make Forums work in your desired manner.

• Regular user

  Detailed instructions on how to do common actions that are for regular users, such as creating topics and posts, subscribing, using BBCode, or changing user settings.

• Moderator

  Introduction to the Moderation tasks that are for moderators, and steps to perform them, including: moderating forums/topics/posts, viewing all pending moderation tasks, or banning IPs.

• Administrator

  Details about advanced tasks that are for administrators only, including setting up the Forum portlet, managing categories/forums/users and other administrative tasks.

In Forums, the role of each user group is clear and very important. Each role has a set of tasks that they can execute. Administrators and moderators are responsible for setting up and maintaining Forums. With the highest rights, the administrators are in charge of the entire management tasks, including form configurations, users management, permissions, categories, forums, topics and messages. With sub-sets of administrative permissions, the moderators will manage the respective sub-sets of the forum.

The user interface will indicate which features are available to you, based on your role.

• As a regular user, you will have the User bar and Action bar with the basic actions.

• As a moderator, you will have the User bar and Action bar with a sub-set of certain capabilities.

• As an administrator, you will have the Administration bar which is basically the User bar with more administrative actions. You also see the Action bar with the advanced actions on forums and categories. Most of management tasks are shown via these bars.

To have an overall look of actions which users of each role can do in the Forums application, see the following table:

Features	Description	Administra tor	Moderator	Regular user	Guest
Subscribing to RSS feeds	Gets a link to a forum for easy sharing.
Attaching a file	Uploads an attachment to a topic/post, previews and downloads it.
Bookmarks	Bookmarks a category, forum, topic.
Creating a post	Posts a reply, quote, private post, quick reply.
Editing your post	Edits a post, quote and private post.
Deleting your post	Deletes a post inside a specific topic.
Creating a topic	Starts a new topic.
Editing a topic	Edits a topic in a specific forum.
Deleting a topic	Deletes a topic inside a specific
Locking/Unlocking a topic	Locks/Unlocks a topic inside a specific forum.
Adding a poll	Adds a poll to a topic.
Rating a topic	Evaluates a topic by rating stars.
Adding a tag	Creates a new tag and tags a topic.
Sending private messages	Sends or receives private messages.
Watching	Subscribes to a category, forum, topic to receive email notifications of new posts or topics.
User settings	Changes profile settings, personal forum settings.
Sticking/Unsticking a topic	Sticks/Unsticks a topic inside a specific forum.
Locking/Unlocking a topic	Closes/Opens a topic inside a specific forum.
Splitting a topic	Divides one topic into two separate topics.
Merging topics	Combines two or more topics into one.
Managing a poll	Creates, edits, deletes, closes and reopens a poll.
Moving a topic	Moves one topic/post from a forum/topic to the other forum/topic.
Approving a topic	Changes a new topic/post from pending status to normal status so that guests and normal users can view.
Uncensoring a post	Allows a topic which has censored content to be displayed.
Showing/Hiding a post	Allows a post to be shown/hidden.
Managing pending tasks	Manages all topics/posts waiting for moderation in one place.
Managing a watch	Manages the subscription (watch), edits and deletes a subscribed email.
Banning users	Bans users from accessing specific forums or categories.
Adding a forum	Adds a new forum to a specific category.
Editing a forum	Changes the title, description, moderator, permissions of a forum. However, moderators cannot set moderators for a forum.
Deleting a forum	Deletes a forum from a specific category.
Locking/Unlocking a forum	Locks a forum so that it can be viewed only.
Closing/Opening a forum	Closes/Opens a forum. The closed forums are still manageable by administrators and moderators.
Moving a forum	Moves a forum from one category to the other.
Exporting a forum	Exports a forum in the format of a .zip or .xml file.
Importing a forum	Imports a forum from a .zip/.xml file into the Forums application.
Adding a category	Adds a new category.
Editing a category	Edits a category and changes its properties.
Exporting a category	Exports categories in the format of a .zip or .xml file.
Importing a category	Imports a category from a .zip/.xml file into the Forums application.
Deleting a category	Deletes a category and all forums, topics, posts inside it.
Administrating Sorting	Sorts forums, topics according to specific conditions.
Administrating Censor	Defines keywords that will be censored in a forum.
Customizing an email notification	Defines content of the email notifications.
Customizing BBCodes	Adds, edits and deletes the BBCode tags used in writing posts/topics.
Setting up auto-pruning	Sets up auto-pruning to clean a large amount of obsolete and inactive topics based on criteria.
Banning IPs	Bans IPs in the whole Forums application (only administrators) and in specific forums only (administrators and moderators).
Managing users	Manages user’s profile, promotes users, bans users, views a topic and post of a specific user.

Note

(*): Regular users can only edit/delete their own posts/topics.

Regular user

This section describes actions that a regular user can perform in the Forums application of eXo Platform, including:

• Topics

  Steps to create, edit, rate and tag/untag a topic, and how to create a poll.

• Posts

  Steps to post a quick/advanced/private reply, to reply with a quote, to edit/delete a post.

• Using BBCodes

  Details about BBCodes and how to use them.

• Private messages

  Steps to send and receive a private message.

• Bookmarks

  Steps to add/view and delete a bookmark.

• Subscribing to RSS feeds

  The ways to get an RSS feed.

• Watching

  How to watch your desired category/forum or topic.

• Getting permalinks

  Steps to get permalinks of a specific forum/topic/category and share it with others

• User settings

  Details about editing your profile, changing forum settings and editing your subscription.

Topics

This section represents all actions related to topics that a regular user can perform, including:

• Creating a topic

• Editing a topic

• Creating a poll

• Rating a topic

• Tagging a topic

Creating a topic

1. Go into the forum where you want to start a new topic.

2. Click .

3. Enter the topic title and its content. The title must be less than 100 characters (special characters are accepted). You may set other optional properties if you want.

• Click Attach files to attach files to your message. The Attach File form is displayed.

  • Click Select File to select a file from your local device, then click Save to accept attaching your file to the message. The maximum size for the attachment is 20Mb.

  • Click next to the attachment if you want to remove it.

• Use BBCodes to format text, or

  to insert images, videos and links.

4. Click Preview to see the topic before submitting, or click Submit to complete your topic.

Sharing the topic on Activity Stream

When a topic is created, an activity containing the topic title and content, the number of replies, and average rating is also created on the Activity Stream.

Replies, rating , information about the added/closed/removed poll and information about the edited/locked/unlocked/closed topic are added to the activity as comments.

When a comment is added to the activity from the Activity Stream, it will be updated to the Forums application as a reply of the topic.

When the topic title and content is modified, the activity will be updated and a comment is added to the activity.

• Click the topic title to directly open it in the Forums application.

• Click to jump to the Forums application with the New Post form opening for you to reply the topic.

• Click to jump to the Forums application and view the latest reply.

Note

• In a forum that enables moderation, new topics will need reviewing and approving by moderators before being published.

• You may not have right to start topics if the administrators/moderators set the Starting topic permission on the category and/or the forum for specific users/roles/groups only.

When creating a topic, you can also add extra properties to this topic:

• Setting the topic options.

• Controlling who can view or post in your topic by setting topic permissions.

Setting the topic options

Going to the Options tab, you can select status, state, type of the topic and more.

Details:

Field	Description
Close the topic	Sets the topic to open or close state.
Lock the topic	Sets the topic to locked or unlocked status.
Stick the topic	Checks this option to stick the topic. A sticky topic will be located at the top of the topics list. A sticky topic will not fall down in the list if any new posts are added.
Moderate the posts	Checks this option if you want posts to be moderated before being published.
Notify on post	Checks this option to enable the notification email when there are new posts in your topic.

Setting topic permissions

You can allow specific users/roles/groups only to view and reply on your topic by going to the Permissions tab. By default, all users can view and reply on a topic.

To set the permission to certain users, you can enter their usernames manually;

Or, click

• to select users.

• to select users defined by specific roles. When ticking Restrict who can view in this topic to or Restrict who can post in this topic to, if you set the * membership for the selected group, all users of that group will be restricted to only viewing or posting in this topic.

• to select groups.

Then, click Add to perform adding the selected ones.

See here for more details.

Editing a topic

Regular users can only edit their own topic.

1. Open your desired topic and click on the Action bar. For regular users, this button is only shown when you are the creator.

2. Click Edit from the drop-down menu to open the Edit Topic form.

3. Make changes to your desires. Also, leave the reason in the Reason field if needed.

4. Click Submit to finish.

Creating a poll

Each topic may have a poll question with pre-defined options for users to select. As a regular user, you can only add a poll question to your own topic. Meanwhile, administrator and moderator can add the poll to any topics.

1. Go to the topic you want to add a poll.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Add Poll from the drop-down menu.

3. Enter the poll question and options.

Details:

Poll Question: Question raised for polling that is required and must be less than 100 characters.

Poll Options: Options which allow users to select as their answers. Click to remove a poll option. And, click to add a poll option.

Close Poll: Period after which the poll is closed.

Users may change their votes: Allows users to change their votes or not.

Allow Multiple Choices: Allows users to vote for multiple options or not.

4. Click Submit Poll to complete. The topic that contains the poll is marked with in the topics list.

To perform further actions on this poll, simply left-click More Actions on the Poll panel to open the drop-down menu. Here, you can edit, close/reopen or remove the poll by clicking the relevant button.

Rating a topic

The Forums application provides an intuitive rating experience through a five-star scale. Your choice of five stars means the highest rating for the topic.

1. Go to the topic you want to vote.

2. Click on the Action bar.

The Rate This Topic form will appear.

3. Rate the topic by clicking the star. The number of selected stars will be changed from grey into yellow.

4. Click Close to quit the form.

Note

Each user can only vote for a topic once. The function is disabled in closed topics and with banned users.

Tagging a topic

This function is for all logged-in users. Tags are keywords which are used as labels to describe or categorize the topic content. One topic may have several tag names. Using tags allows you to categorize topics based on the actual content. Even, it can be a better way to find a specific topic than a full-text search.

1. Click on the Action bar.

An input text box will pop up.

2. Enter a tag name or multiple tags separated by a space or select existing tags in the suggestion list that appears when typing.

3. Press Enter or click Add Tag button.

Tags which are assigned to the topic appear as below.

Untagging a topic

The first way

• Simply click next to that tag.

The second way

This way allows you to untag one or multiple topics.

1. Click a tag name which you want to remove from all tagged topics. You will be be directed to the tags management page which shows all topics assigned a same tag.

2. Tick your desired topic checkboxes from the topics list.

3. Click on the Action bar, then select Untag from the drop-down menu.

4. Click OK in the confirmation message to remove this tag.

Posting a reply

To post a reply, select the topic you want to reply to. You can reply to any topic as long as it is not closed and restricted. While you are viewing the topic, there are many ways to reply:

• |image36| Clicking the Post Reply button that is at the top or bottom of the topic.

• Typing a message in the Quick Reply box at the bottom of the topic.

• Replying with a quote.

• Posting a private reply

Posting a reply with Rich text editor

You can post a reply with the Rich text editor as follows:

1. Go to the topic you want to post a reply.

2. Click on the top or bottom of the topic.

3. Enter your message in the textbox. Use BBCodes to format texts, or insert images, videos and links.

Optionally, you can attach files to the topic by clicking Attach Files. The attachment size must be less than 20Mb.

4. Optionally, click Preview to view your reply before submitting it.

5. Click Submit to finish.

Posting a quick reply

You can post a reply quickly with plain texts without taking into account its format.

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the topic to see the Quick Reply box.

2. Enter your message. Use BBCodes to format text, or insert images, videos and links.

3. Optionally, click Preview to view your reply before submitting it.

4. Click Quick Reply to submit you message.

Replying with a quote

You can include a quote from the previous message in your reply to a specific post. This may substantially increase the readability of the discussion topics when it is used correctly.

1. Click under the post you want to quote.

This will bring up the “Quote” form, with the previous message already quoted in the textbox.

2. Enter your message. Edit the quotation if necessary.

The quoted content is wrapped between BBCodes tags [QUOTE][/QUOTE] which is automatically generated. Add your message content before or after this quoted content.

To add a block quotation to your text, simply click from the WYSIWYG editor toolbar.

The block quotation appears on the location of your cursor with the format as below:

3. Click Submit to finish.

Posting a private reply

Note

This function is available only if the topic’s author is not suspended.

You can send a private reply in a topic, which only allows the responded user to view the message content.

1. Go into the topic you want to post the reply.

2. Click under the post to open the Private Post form.

3. Enter your message and send it as described in the Posting a reply with Rich text editor section.

Note

Private posts will not be checked for approval when they are posted in a topic that has the ‘Posts moderation’ enabled. Private posts are displayed with the ‘Post Private!’ label.

Editing/Deleting your post

Editing your post

This function is to make changes on the post which has been submitted.

1. Click under the post you want to edit.

2. Make changes on the post, then click Submit to accept your changes. When you edit your post, you also can upload attachments, or delete existing ones.

Deleting your post

Simply click under your post that you want to delete, then click OK in the confirmation message.

Using BBCodes

BBCodes (Bulletin Board Codes) are special tags in bulletin boards that help users enrich their posts with formatting and inclusions. They are useful to provide guarded formatting capabilities to the forum users without the risk of breaking the HTML markup of the page. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML: tags are enclosed in square braces “[” and “]” rather than “<” and “>” and it offers greater control over what and how something is displayed.

Depending on the BBCode template customized by administrators only, you may find it very easy to add BBCodes to your posts through a toolbar above the message area on the posting form. You can either type the BBCode tags manually or use the toolbar in the posting form. To easily get the BBCode tags without typing them, simply click the respective icon which is shown on the toolbar above the message area.

Click on the toolbar to get the full list of built-in BBCode explanations and examples.

Private messages

Private messages will not be moderated and only viewable for recipients. Only logged-in users can do the following actions on private messages:

Sending a private message

1. Click the username or avatar of the user you want to send message, then select Send Private Message from the drop-down menu.

The Private Messages form will appear.

2. Enter the username of the other recipients;

Or, click the icons next to the Send to field to select more others (if you want to send to many users at the same time). Note that if you select a group with the * membership, all users of that group will receive the message, regardless of their membership role.

3. Type your message title and content.

4. Click Send to send the message.

Receiving a private message

When you have received a private message, there will be a notification on your User bar.

Click to open the Private Messages form.

Details:

Inbox: Where to view or delete received messages.

• Click the message title to see its content.

• Click to reply the message. You will be redirected to the Compose New Message tab.

  

  Enter the message content into the Message field, then click Send.

Note

You can also send your message to other users. See here for more details.

• Click to delete the message.

Sent Messages: Where to view or delete your sent messages.

Compose New Message: Where to compose new messages.

Bookmarks

In the Forums application, the Bookmark function is to collect links to a category, forum or topic you have visited, so that you can return to that category, forum or topic directly. Bookmarks can be created and managed by yourself through the following actions:

Adding a bookmark

This function is for all logged-in users to save links to categories, forums or topics into the Forum Bookmark.

1. Go into the object (category, forum or topic) you want to bookmark.

2. Click on the Action bar;

Or, right-click the object title and select Bookmarks from the drop-down menu. The bookmarked link will be added to your bookmarks list.

Viewing a bookmark

To view a bookmark, click on your User bar. This will bring up the My Bookmarks form, with the list of your bookmarked links. To view a bookmark, click your desired bookmark title from the list.

Deleting a bookmark

Simply click corresponding to the link that you want to delete.

The selected bookmarks will be removed from the bookmarks list.

Subscribing to RSS feeds

This function is for all users to subscribe to a specific category, forum, topic. If there are any changes, the feed of the subscribed category, forum or topic will be updated. To get the RSS feed, click on the Action bar.

Or right-click the item you want to subscribe to and click RSS from the drop-down menu.

Depending on which browser you are using, the next step may be different. The browser used in this example is Firefox 19, which use the Firefox Live Bookmark.

The RSS feed on Firefox will look like:

• Category feeds contain all posts from all topics in all forums in a category. The category feeds shows the title (title of the category), description (category description), link (permalink to the category), pubdate (creation date of the category).

• Forum feeds contain all posts in all topics in a forum. The forum feeds show title (name of the forum), description (description of the forum), link (permalink of the forum), pubdate (creation date of the forum).

• Topic feeds contain all posts in a topic. The topic feeds show title (title of the topic), description (the content of the topic’s initial post), link (permalink to the topic), pubdate (the creation date of the topic).

Watching

This function is for all logged-in users to keep track of changes in categories, forums or topics via email notifications. Whenever there are new changes, such as new categories, topics, posts created, you will receive a notification.

Watching a desired object

Go into the object (category, forum or topic), then click on the Action bar;

Or, right-click the object title and select Watch from the drop-down menu.

The watched objects are also listed in the My Subscriptions tab in the Settings form. When being unwatched, they will automatically be removed from this list.

You will receive the notification message of the successful watching. You will receive the email notifications about new posts/replies of the forum that you are watching as well. In the email notification, you will be provided links that help you go directly to the topic or go to reply to the post. After clicking this link, the new posts in your watched topic will be highlighted.

Note

Once a category/forum or a topic has already been watched, the Unwatch option will appear in the right-click menu or on the Action bar, so you can unsubscribe from the object.

Getting permalinks

This function is for all users to view and copy the link of a specific forum/topic/category and share it with others.

1. Go into a forum/topic/category which you want to get the permalink.

2 Click the label at the right corner.

Your browser will open a new tab with the permalink you want to get on the address bar. You can copy and share it to others.

User settings

You may configure your preferences in Forums, such as personal profile, Forums settings and subscriptions.

Click on the User bar to go to the Settings form. Once you opened the Settings form, you can control your personal settings, options and preferences via the following actions:

Editing your profile

By selecting the Profile tab, you can see your personal information and other preferences.

Here, you can:

• Edit your screen name and title displayed in forums in the Screen Name and User Title fields. The User Title field allows Administrators only to edit.

• Edit your signature which will be displayed at the bottom of your post. Enter your signature in the Signature textbox. Tick/Untick the Display Signature checkbox to enable/disable your signature.

• Change your avatar by clicking the Update link. Tick/Untick the Display Avatar checkbox to show/hide your avatar.

• Follow your created topics by selecting the Watch topics I start checkbox. You will receive email notifications when there are any new posts added to your topics.

• Follow topics which you have posted by ticking the Watch topics I post in checkbox. You will receive email notifications when there are any new posts added to the topic.

Changing forum settings

Go to the Forum Settings tab in the Settings form. You can change preferences, such as time zone, date and time formats, and other display options.

Editing your subscription

Go to the My Subscriptions tab in the Settings form, where you can update or delete existing subscriptions.

• In column, you can subscribe or unsubscribe your subscriptions by selecting/deselecting the respective checkboxes, then click Save. The selected objects (categories, forums, topics) will be updated to the Your personal feed URL is field. You can use this link to view the content of your subscriptions.

• In the column, you can edit your subscription email by ticking the checkbox corresponding to it, then enter a new email address into the Your watches are sent to field. Click Update to add your entered email addresses in the column.

• Click to remove your watched category, topic, post. After being removed, you will no longer receive any email notifications of the removed object.

Moderator

Moderators of a forum are responsible for managing content of posts and replies before and after they are posted to the category where they are assigned as moderators.

As a moderator, you can do the followings:

• Moderating forums

  Details about how to edit, lock/unlock, close/open and move a forum.

• Moderating topics

  Details about how to approve, edit, close/open, move, delete, lock/unlock, stick/unstick, and split a topic, or merge topics.

• Moderating posts

  Details about how to approve, delete, move, hide, show and uncensor a post.

• Viewing all pending moderation tasks

  Information about pending moderation tasks, how to approve or delete a pending topic/post.

• Banning IPs

  Details about how to ban IPs on a specific forum.

Moderating forums

Note

Moderators can manage all the forums inside their assigned categories.

Moderating forums includes the following actions:

• Editing a forum

• Locking/Unlocking a forum

• Closing/Opening a forum

Editing a forum

1. Go into the relevant forum.

2. Click on the Action bar, then click Edit from the drop-down menu.

3. Edit the forum properties. See Managing forums for more details.

4. Click Save to save all the changes.

Locking/Unlocking a forum

Locking a forum will prevent all members from creating new topics and posting replies in this forum. All topics in a locked forum will be locked also, but their content is still viewable. Moderators can only lock/unlock the forum that they manage.

1. Go into the forum.

2. Click on the Action bar, then click Lock/Unlock from the drop-down menu.

Note

You can also lock/unlock a forum while editing the forum by selecting the Locked/Unlocked status.

Closing/Opening a forum

Closed forums are invisible to regular users. To administrators and moderators, the content in a closed forum is still viewable, but creating topics and comments is disabled. Moderators can only close the forum that they are assigned to manage.

1. Go into the forum you want to close or open.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Close or Open from the drop-down menu.

Note

You can also close/open a forum while editing the forum by selecting the Closed/Open state.

Moderating topics

Moderating topics includes the following actions:

• Approving a topic

• Editing a topic

• Closing/Opening a topic

• Moving a topic

• Deleting a topic

• Locking/Unlocking a topic

• Sticking/Unsticking a topic

• Merging topics

• Splitting a topic

Approving a topic

Moderators can approve pending topics in forums that enable the Moderate Topic option. All new topics added to these forums will be pending for approval. It means that nobody can view these topics except administrators and moderators of the forums. Pending topics are only viewable for regular users when they are approved.

The administrator and moderator will know the total number of pending topics at the right corner of their Forums Administration bar and User bar.

Moderator can view the list of topics to be moderated. See Viewing all pending moderation tasks for more details.

Approving a topic

The first way

1. Open the forum you moderate and tick topics with the Pending label, then click on the Action bar.

Or, open a Pending topic, then click on the Action bar.

2. Click Approve from the drop-down menu.

The second way

1. Open the forum you moderate.

2. Click on the Action bar, then click Approve from the drop-down menu. The Unapproved Topics List form opens.

3. Select checkboxes corresponding to the topics you want to approve. You can preview the topic when hovering your cursor over the topic title.

4. Click Approve to accept your approval. Approved topics are shown normally for regular users to view and take some actions.

Editing a topic

The first way

1. Select a topic to edit by ticking its respective checkbox.

2. Click on the Action bar, then click Edit from the drop-down menu that appears.

3. Make changes on the topic. Leave the reason for editing in the Reason field if needed.

The second way

Follow the steps in the Editing a topic section for regular users.

Closing/Opening a topic

Only administrators and moderators can perform these actions. Closed topics will be invisible to regular users. Moderator can only close or open topics in the category that he manages.

1. Select a topic by ticking its relevant checkbox, then click on the Action bar if you are in a topics list;

Or, click on the Action bar if you are in a topic.

2. Click Close or Open from the drop-down menu.

Note

You can also close/open a topic while editing the topic by ticking/unticking the Close the topic checkbox in the Options tab.

Moving a topic

Only administrators and moderators can perform this action. This function is used to move topics from a forum to another one. Moderator can only move topics between forums that he manages.

1. Select a topic by ticking its relevant checkbox, then click on the Action bar if you are in a topics list;

Or, click on the Action bar if you are in a topic.

2. Click Move from the drop-down menu.

3. Click a destination forum to move.

Note

The moderator of a forum will be checked for permission. The moderator cannot move topics to:

• Closed/locked forums that he does not manage.

• Forums to which he does not have the right to add topics.

• Forums which are in categories that he is restricted.

Therefore, only the forums to which the moderator can move topics are shown in the list of destination forums.

Deleting a topic

1. Select topics by ticking their corresponding checkboxes, then click on the Action bar if you are in a topics list;

Or, click on the Action bar if you are already in a topic.

2. Click Delete from the drop-down menu.

3. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Locking/Unlocking a topic

This function is for administrators and moderators only to lock inappropriate topics. All posts in a locked topic are still viewable, but posting replies will be disabled.

1. Select a topic by ticking its corresponding checkbox, then click on the Action bar when you are in a topics list;

Or, click on the Action bar when you are in a topic.

2. Click Lock or Unlock from the drop-down menu.

Note

You can also lock/unlock a topic while editing the topic by ticking/unticking the Lock the topic checkbox in the Options tab.

Sticking/Unsticking a topic

This function is for administrators and moderators only to stick topics which will be located at the top of the topics list. The topics will not fall down the list if any new posts are added.

1. Select a topic by ticking the corresponding checkbox, then click on the Action bar when you are in a topics list.

Click on the Action bar if you are already in a topic which you want to stick/unstick.

2. Click Stick or Unstick from the drop-down menu that appears.

You can see the sticked topic in the top of the topics list.

When creating a new topic, you can also make this topic sticked by ticking the Sticky checkbox in the Options tab.

Note

You can also stick/unstick a topic while editing the topic <EditingTopic> by ticking/unticking the Stick the topic checkbox in the Options tab.

Merging topics

When there are two or more related topics, you may want to merge these topics into one.

1. Go to the topics list.

2. Select more than two topics to be merged by ticking their checkboxes.

3. Click on the Action bar.

4. Click Merge from the drop-down menu that appears. The Merge Topics form opens.

5. Select a destination topic which will be the main entry of the merged topic from the list of the existing topics.

6. Give one name for the new topic in the New Topic Title field if you want.

7. Click Save to accept.

After being merged, selected topics will be joined into one topic. All posts of the other topics are displayed as posts below the main entry.

Splitting a topic

A topic with more than two posts can be split into separate topics.

1. Go into the topic you want to split.

2. Click on the Action bar, and select Split from the drop-down menu. The Split Topic form opens.

3. Enter the name for the new topic in the New Topic field.

4. Select posts by ticking their respective checkboxes.

5. Click Save to complete.

The new topic will be displayed in the topics list with the new name. The last selected post will become the main entry of the new topic.

Moderating posts

As a moderator, you have some specific rights on a post. To moderate a post, you need to select that post first by ticking its relevant checkbox.

Next, click on the Action bar and select your desired action from the drop-down menu. All the moderation actions will be reached via this menu.

Approving a post

All posts in a topic that requires post moderation will not be viewable before approval. This function is to approve posts which have the Pending for Approval! label beside the topic title.

You can select to approve a single post or multiple posts at the same time. The moderator can view the list of tasks to be moderated. See Viewing all pending moderation tasks for more details.

The first way

1. Select the posts to approve.

2. Click on the Action bar, and select Approve from the drop-down menu.

The second way

1. Click on the Action bar, and click Approve from the drop-down menu. The Posts to Approve form opens.

2. Select checkboxes corresponding to the posts you want to approve.

Note

You can preview a post before approving by hovering your cursor over the post title or click the post title to open the View Post form, then click Close to quit this form.

3. Click Approve to accept your approval.

Approved posts are shown normally for regular users to view and take some actions.

Deleting a post

The first way: Delete one or many posts at the same time.

1. Tick the checkboxes corresponding to the posts you want to delete.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Delete from the drop-down menu.

3. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

The second way: Delete one post only.

1. Click under the post you want to delete.

2. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Moving a post

You can move posts to a topic of your choice.

1. Select the post that you would like to move.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Move from the drop-down menu.

3. Select a destination topic in the topics list that appears.

The moderator will be checked for “Move” permission. He can only move posts inside the forum that he manages. Therefore, at the destination topics list, only the topics which the Moderator has the “move” permission, are listed.

Hiding/Showing a post

Hiding a post

When a post is hidden, only administrators and moderators can view and manage it.

1. Tick checkboxes corresponding to posts which you want to hide.

2. Select on the Action bar, and click Hide from the drop-down menu.

After being hidden, the hidden posts are marked with the ‘Post Hidden!’ label which cannot be viewed by regular users.

Showing a post

You can show a single or multiple hidden posts at the same time:

The first way

• Select hidden posts and click on the Action bar, then click Show from the drop-down menu.

The second way

1. Click on the Action bar, then select Show from the drop-down menu.

2. Select hidden posts by ticking their checkboxes.

3. Click Show.

Uncensoring a post

The administrators and moderators can uncensor all topics, posts containing censored keywords. These censored keywords are specified by Administrator. All topics and posts containing these keywords will be labeled with Censored and Post Censored! respectively.

The first way

• Follow this method to uncensor a specific post/topic.

1. Select censored posts/topics by ticking their checkboxes.

2. Select on the Action bar, then click Censor from the drop-down menu.

The second way

• Follow this method to uncensor posts/topics in the list of existing hidden posts/topics.

1. Click Moderation on the Action bar, then select Censor from the drop-down menu. A list of hidden posts appears.

2. Select hidden posts by ticking their relevant checkboxes.

3. Click Approve.

Viewing all pending moderation tasks

Administrators and moderators can manage all pending tasks in Forums easily. The total number of pending topic/posts that need to be moderated are shown right on the User bar/Forums Administration bar.

To open the list of pending tasks, click Pending on the User bar.

The pending topics and posts are shown in the Waiting for Approval form.

This form lists all the pending topics, posts and the created dates. From here, you can approve or delete topics/posts.

Approving a pending topic/post

1. Click the topic/post title in the list.

2. Click Approve to accept approving the topic/post.

Deleting a pending topic/post

1. Click the topic/post title in the list.

2. Click the Delete This Topic/Delete This Post button.

The pending topic/post will be removed completely from the pending list and its forum.

Banning IPs

This function allows banning IPs that may be used by users who abuse the forum functions or violate the forum rules and policies.

This function is similar to the Banning IPs tool used by administrators. However, the Ban IPs tool used by administrators can ban IP from all forums, while moderators can only ban IP from forums which he manages.

Banning IP on a specific forum

1. Go to the forum you want to ban IP.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Banned IPs from the drop-down menu. The Banned IPs form opens.

Do the same actions as the Banning IPs section of Administrators.

Administrator

With the highest rights, administrators are in charge of the entire management tasks. In other words, administrators have the global role of doing significant jobs, including:

• Setting up the Forum portlet

  Steps to configure the Forum portlet, how to specify the category scoping, to enable/disable the Forum components and a bookmarkable Forum URL.

• Managing categories

  Steps to add, edit and delete a category.

• Managing forums

  Steps to add a new forum, to configure the moderation settings and to delete a forum.

• Managing users

  Steps to promote a user, to modify the forum settings, and to ban users.

• Administrative tasks

  Details about how to configure Sort settings, to define censored keywords, to customize email notifications/BBCodes, to set up auto-pruning, to ban IPs, and to back up a category/forum.

Setting up the Forum portlet

You can set up the Forum portlet to make it work in your desired way.

1. Open the Page Editor page by following one of two ways below:

The first way:

• Click –> Portal –> Pages.

  

  The Page Manager page will be displayed.

  

• Click that corresponds to the Forum page in the pages list.

The second way:

• Open the Forums application, then click –> Page –>

  Edit Layout.

The Page Editor page appears:

2. Hover your cursor over the Forum portlet, then click in the quick toolbar to open the Edit Mode tab.

This form allows you to configure the Forum portlet in various aspects via the following actions:

Specifying the category scoping

In the Scoping tab, you can show/hide categories and forums in the Forum portlet by selecting or deselecting their respective checkboxes.

Enabling/Disabling Forums components

In the Panels tab, you can enable/disable some components in the Forum portlet by simply selecting/deselecting checkboxes of the components respectively.

The following components can be enabled/disabled:

• Show Poll

• Moderators

• Show Quick Reply

• Show Icons Legend

• Show Rules

• Show Statistics

Enabling/Disabling a bookmarkable Forums URL

Before doing this function, you first need to have knowledge of Ajax. Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is used in the Forums application, aiming at updating a whole webpage or a part of the webpage.

This feature defines how the links are generated in the Forum portlet. You can select to use Ajax or not.

• By not using Ajax, Forums will generate plain URLs in the links. The added benefit will be bookmarkability and better SEO as the links will be permalinks.

• Using Ajax, the links will be Javascript based and generate Ajax calls. This makes your browsing faster because the whole page is not reloaded.

Managing categories

Only administrators can do categories-related management tasks. To manage forums better, the administrators usually build a good forum structure using categories. So, a category is a set of forums containing all discussions about the same subject. See the following diagram to learn about the typical structure of a forum.

Adding a new category

Only when you are assigned as an administrator, you can do this function. Normally, one category is created as public and it allows everyone to access without any restrictions. Meanwhile, one restricted category only allows specific users/groups/memberships to access. Also, you can assign moderators to your category and specify a set of permissions for members in the category.

1. Click on the Forums Administration bar. The Category form will be displayed.

2. Enter the category title into the Title field which is required. Its length must be between 1 and 100 characters (Special characters and spaces are accepted).

In the Category tab, optionally you can also:

• Enter the order of category in the numeric format into the Order field.

• Give a brief description for your category into the Description field.

• Create a category restricted which allows specific users/roles/groups only to have access via one of the following ways:

  • The first way

    Enter names of users/groups/memberships into the Restricted Audience textbox. The different values are separated by commas.

  • The second way

    Use selectors next to the Restricted Audience textbox.

    Selecting a specific user: Click to open the Select User form, then check your desired users and click Add to accept your selection.

    Selecting all users with a specific role in a group:

    i. Click to open the Select Role form.

    ii. Select a group on the left panel and a specific role on the right panel.

..note:: If you select * on the right panel, it means that all members of the group are selected.

Selecting a group of users:

i. Click to open the Select Group form.

ii. Select a group on the left panel and its sub-group on the right panel.

If the group on the left panel does not have any sub-groups and you want to select it, click the Select this Group link.

Note

The Restricted Audience field is empty, it means any users can access the category.

3. Optionally, set category permissions.

By default, all users have rights to start topics, add and view posts in forums of a category. However, you can set these permissions and assign the moderator role to specific users/roles/groups.

• Select the Permissions tab.

  

• Do the same as setting the Restricted audiences of a category.

• Click Add to add selected users/roles/groups to the permissions list.

• Tick the checkboxes corresponding to the rights you want to grant to the users/roles/groups.

To remove permissions of the users/roles/groups from the list, click the corresponding icon.

Note

• When granting the moderator to a specific user/role/group, to allow other users to start topics, add/view posts, you should uncheck these rights of the moderator. The moderator of a category can manage all forums in the category.

• When granting any permissions above, if you set the * membership for the selected group, this permission will be granted to all users of that group, regardless of their membership role.

4. Click Save to finish.

Note

In eXo Platform, each space forum belongs to a category named “spaces” and there is only one forum per space. You cannot therefore create new categories within each space forum.

Editing a category

1. Select a category to edit from the Forums homepage, then click on the Action bar when you are in the categories list.

2. Click Edit from the drop-down menu.

3. Make changes on the category properties.

4. Click Save to save your changes.

Deleting a category

1. Select a category that you want to delete from the Forums homepage, then click on the Action bar.

2. Click Delete from the drop-down menu.

3. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Note

When a category is removed, all its forums are also removed.

Managing forums

Forums management can be performed through the following actions:

Adding a new forum

1. Open the Forum form by following either of two ways below:

The first way

• Click on the Forums Administration bar.

The second way

• Go into the category to which you want to add a new forum.

• Click on the Forums Administration bar;

  Or, click on the Action bar and select Add Forum.

  

The Forum form will be displayed:

2., Enter the forum title which is required. Its length must be less than 50 characters, including spaces.

Optionally, you can:

• Select the category to which you want to add your forum by clicking Add Forum to Category and selecting one from the categories list.

Note

If you follow this way, you cannot change the pre-selected category.

• Enter the order for your forum that must be in the positive integer format.

• Select the forum state.

• Select the forum status.

• Give brief description for your forum.

3. Click Save to finish.

The administrators and moderators of a forum may want to get updated of what is new in forums under their management. This can be done when creating a new forum.

Configuring the moderation settings

When creating a forum, you can set moderation-related options.

1. Select the Moderation Options tab in the Forum form.

2. Do actions in the relevant fields.

Details:

Field	Description
Auto-fill the moderator’s email	Checks this option if you want the moderator’s email is auto-filled. The email address will be taken from the moderator profile.
Email addresses to notify when there is a new post	Enters the list of email addresses which will get the notification if any new post is created. This field will be filled automatically if the Auto-fill the moderator’s email is checked.
Email addresses to notify when there is a new topic	Enters the list of email addresses which will get the notification if any new topic is created. This field will be filled automatically if the Auto-fill the moderator’s email is checked.
Moderate Topics	By default, new topics must be always approved and visible to everyone. If this option is selected, new topics will be pending for approval before being viewable.

Setting forum permissions

While creating a new forum, you can assign the moderator role or rights to start topics, add and view posts in the forum to specific users/roles/groups. To do this, select the Permissions tab in the Forum form and follow this step.

Note

• When granting the “moderator” role to a specific user/role/group, to allow other users to start topics, add/view posts, you should uncheck these rights. The moderator of a forum only has right to manage the forum.

• If you do not set the starting topics, posting, and viewing posts permissions for any users/roles/groups, and the category which includes the forum is not set permissions, it means all users can do these actions.

• When granting any permissions above (moderate, start topics, post or only view posts in a forum), if you set the * membership for the selected group, this permission will be granted to all users of that group, regardless of their membership role.

Deleting a forum

Only administrators can perform this action. When a forum is removed, all of its topics will then be deleted.

1. Go into the forum you want to remove.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Delete from the drop-down menu.

3. Click OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Moving a forum

You can move a forum to another category as follows:

1. Go into the forum you want to move.

2. Click on the Action bar, then select Move from the drop-down menu.

A list of existing categories will appear. Select a destination category to which your selected forum will be moved.

Managing users

To take this action, click on the Forums Administration bar. The Manage Community form will be displayed.

Here, by clicking , you can do the following management actions:

• :ref:Promoting a user <ManagingUsers.PromotingUser>`

• :ref:Modifying user’s forum settings <ManagingUsers.ModifyingUserForumSettings>`

• :ref:Banning users <ManagingUsers.BanningUsers>`

Note

You can first search for your desired users to do the management actions quickly.

Promoting a user

In the Profile tab, you can modify the user’s profile in the following fields:

Field	Description
Screen Name	The name displayed in Forums.
Title	The title representing the role of user, by default. However, you can enter anything you want.

Also, you can promote your selected user to an administrator or a moderator by editing the following fields:

Field	Description
Forum Administrator	Grants the Administrator role to a selected user or not. The Administration role of the default administrator cannot be edited in the Manage Community form.
Moderator of Categories	The list of categories moderated by the selected user. Click to select a category.
Moderator of Forums	The list of forums moderated by the selected user. Click to select a forum.

Modifying user’s forum settings

You can modify the forum settings set by your selected user by going to the Settings tab in the Manage Community form.

For the detailed descriptions in the User Settings form, see User settings.

Banning users

This function is to ban users from the Forums application or specific forums and categories. To do so, go to the Ban User tab and tick the Banned checkbox .

Details:

Duration: The interval during which the user will be banned. This field is only edited when the ‘Banned’ field is ticked. In the ban duration, the banned user only can view forums and topics but he/she cannot post replies or send messages.

Reason: The reason for banning this user.

Ban Count: The number of times that this user was banned.

Ban Log: Other log information.

Ban Date: The date when the ban takes effect.

Administrative tasks

All of administrative tasks can be reached via the menu that appears after clicking on the Forums Administration bar. You can select a desired action from the following drop-down menu.

The administrative tasks include the following actions:

• Configuring Sort Settings

• Defining censored keywords

• Customizing an email notificationtemplate

• Customizing BBCodes

• Setting up auto-pruning

• Banning IPs

• Backing up a category/forum

Configuring Sort Settings

Click on the Forums Administration bar, then click Sort Settings from the drop-down menu. The Sort Settings form opens. Now, you can set properties for how forums and topics are sorted in Forums.

• Sort Forums by: Sort forums by several criteria: name, order, lock status, creation date, modification date, topic count and post count.

• Direction: Sort forums in the Ascending or Descending order.

• Sort Topics by: Sort topics by name, lock status, creation date, modification date, date of last post, post count, view count, attachments count.

• Direction: Sort topics in the Ascending or Descending order.

Defining censored keywords

Censored keywords are those which are specified as inappropriate in the Forums application. If any topics or posts contain censored keywords, they will be hidden until being verified by Administrators or Moderators. The Censor Keyword form will be displayed.

1. Click on the Forums Administration bar, then click Censor Keywords from the drop-down menu. The Censor Keyword form appears:

2. Entercensored keywords in the Censored Keywords field. The keywords are separated by commas.

3. Click Save to complete defining the censored keywords.

Customizing an email notification template

If there are new posts in the category, forum or topic that a user has watched, the user will receive the email notification like this.

This section will describe how to create and edit the email templates that can be used to send email notifications to users.

Click on the Forums Administration bar and click Notifications from the drop-down menu to open the Notifications form.

The Notifications form consists of two tabs:

• New Posts Notification: Customizes the template of the email notification when there is a new post/topic in categories/forums/topics that users are watching.

• Moved Notification: Customizes the template of the email notification when a category/forum/topic/post which is being watched is moved to another location.

Details:

• Subject: The notification subject.

• Add a prefix to notifications: Ticks the checkbox to add a prefix to the email notification.

• Content Notification: The template content of the email notification of new topics/posts that can be modified with the built-in Editor.

The followings are variables which can be used in the template:

The common variables for both tabs:

• VIEWPOST_LINK: Will be replaced by the public link referring to the new topic/post.

• $VIEWPOST_PRIVATE_LINK: Will be replaced by the private link referring to the new topic/post.

• $REPLYPOST_LINK: Will be replaced by the private link referring to the topic and a form to reply will be automatically opened.

The variables used in the New Post Notification tab:

• $OBJECT_WATCH_TYPE: Will be replaced by the watched object type (category/forum/topic).

• $OBJECT_NAME: Will be replaced by the name of the watched object (category/forum/topic).

• $ADD_TYPE: Will be replaced by the newly added object type (topic/post).

• $ADD_NAME: Will be replaced by the newly added object name (topic name/post name).

• $POSTER: Will be replaced by the topic/post owner.

• $POST_CONTENT: Will be replaced by the topic/post content.

• $TIME: Will be replaced by the time when the topic/post was added.

• $DATE: Will be replaced by the date when the topic/post was added.

• $CATEGORY: Will be replaced by the category name.

• $FORUM: Will be replaced by the forum name.

• $TOPIC: Will be replaced by the topic name.

The variables used in the Moved Notification tab:

• $OBJECT_PARENT_NAME: Will be replaced by the forum name (if moving topics) or the topic name (if moving posts).

• $OBJECT_PARENT_TYPE: Will be replaced by the type of the moved parent object, such as forum (if moving topics) or topic (if moving posts).

• $OBJECT_NAME: Will be replaced by the name of the moved object (topic name/post name).

• $OBJECT_TYPE: Will be replaced by the type of the moved object (topic/post).

These variables are used to load the content dynamically. Thus, you should not edit them. In case the template is changed unexpectedly, you can go back to the default template by clicking . You can use the text editor to format the template as you wish.

Customizing BBCodes

By default, there are some default BBCode tags that are initialized via plugins: “[B]”, “[I]”, “[U]”, “[FONT]”, “[HIGHLIGHT]”, “[IMG]”, “[CSS]”, “[URL]”, “[GOTO]”, “[QUOTE]”, “[LEFT]”, “[RIGHT]”, “[CENTER]”, “[JUSTIFY]”, “[SIZE]”, “[COLOR]”, “[CSS]”, “[EMAIL]”, “[CODE]”, “[LIST]”, “[WIKI], “[SLIDESHARE]”. You can add, edit or delete the BBCode tags.

Click on the Forums Administration bar, then select BBCodes from the drop-down menu to open the BBCode Manager form.

Here, you can do the following actions:

• Adding a new BBCode

• Editing/Deleting a BBCode

• Activating/Deactivating a BBCode

Adding a new BBCode

1. Click Add BBCode in the BBCode Manager form to open the Add BBCode form.

2. Input values into the Add BBCode form.

Details:

Tag: This is the text for BBCode, which goes inside the square bracket.

Replacement: The HTML codes that replace the user-entered BBCode.

Description: The brief description about this BBCode tag.

Example: The sample of the BBCode in use.

Use {option}: Allows BBCode tag to have option or not.

: Clicks this icon to preview your rendered BBCode.

: Clicks this icon to see descriptions of each field.

3. Click Save to finish or Reset to clear all input fields.

Editing/Deleting a BBCode

Editing a BBCode

1. Click corresponding to the relevant BBCode tag in the BBCode Manager form.

2. Make changes on the BBCode tag.

2. Click Save to finish your changes.

Deleting a BBCode

Simply click corresponding to the BBCode you want to delete in the BBCode Manager form, then select OK in the confirmation message to accept your deletion.

Activating/Deactivating a BBCode

Any BBCode can be activated/deactivated.

• To activate an existing BBCode tag, tick the relevant checkbox.

• To deactivate an existing BBCode tag, simply deselect the relevant checkbox. The entered BBCode will be displayed as the plain text.

Setting up auto-pruning

The pruning allows you to clean a large amount of obsolete and inactive topics based on criteria.

1. Click on the Forums Administration bar and click Pruning from the drop-down menu to open the Auto Prune form.

2. Click corresponding to the forum you want to set the prune settings.

3. Specify the criteria.

4. Click to check how many topics will be pruned.

5. Click Save to accept settings.

After setting the prune successfully, the auto-prune will be run automatically on the forum that has been set to check for the inactivate topics.

Banning IPs

Administrators can ban IP addresses used by users who abuse the forum functions or violate the forum rules and policies. All banned IPs cannot be used to add posts to all forums in the Forums application. Any users who use banned IPs to add post, will be recognized as the banned user. As the result, the banned user can only view in Forums.

Click on the Forums Administration bar, then click Banned IPs from the drop-down menu. The Banned IPs form appears.

• To ban an IP, simply enter the IP address into the IP textboxes and click Add. All banned IPs will be listed in the banned IPs table. You can view all posts which are posted from the specific banned IP or delete them from the banned IPs list.

• To view all posts submitted from a specific IP, click of the respective IP. These posts can be viewed and deleted by the administrator.

• To remove banned IPs from the banned IPs list, click of the respective IP.

Besides, you can also filter the banned IPs if there are so many banned IPs.

To filter banned IPs, enter a part of the IPs address into filter textbox, all IPs matching with the filter term will be displayed.

Backing up a category & forum

The Export function is a best way to back up data in the Forums application. This function allows you to export categories and forums in the Forums application into the .zip or .xml file. When a category/forum is exported, all of its forum, topics, posts and properties are also exported. This exported file can be used to import into the Forums application.

Backing up a category & forum includes the following actions:

• Exporting a category

• Exporting a forum

• Importing a category

• Importing a forum

Exporting a category

1. Click on the Forums Administration bar.

2. Click Export from the drop-down menu to open the Export Categories form.

Details:

Field	Description
File Name	Name of the exported file.
Export All	Checks this option to export all data in Forums, such as all categories, user profiles and forum statistics.
Only Categories	Checks this option to export the selected categories only.

3. Select categories and enter the file name into the File Name field.

4. Click Save.

Exporting a forum

This function is used to export forums and all topics inside the Forums application into the .xml or .zip file.

The first way

1. Go into a forum you want to export and click on the Action bar.

2. Click Export Forum from the drop-down menu to open the Export Forums form.

3. Input the file name.

4. Tick the Compress checkbox to export the file into the .zip file or leave it blank to export into .xml file.

5. Click Save to get and store the exported file in your local device.

The second way

1. Go into a category containing the forum you want to export.

2. Click on the Action bar, then click Export Forum from the drop-down menu.

3. Select a forum you want to export by ticking the relevant checkbox. The Compress checkbox is checked by default that means the file is exported in the .zip format.

4. Click Save to get and store the exported file in your local device.

Importing a category

1. Click on the Forums Administration bar, then click Import from the drop-down menu to open the Import Category form.

2. Click Select File to browse and select the file to import.

3. Click Save.

Importing a forum

1. Go into one category, then click on the Action bar.

2. Click Import Forum from the drop-down menu.

3. Browse and upload the selected file in the Import Forum form.

4. Click Save to accept importing.

After being imported successfully, the forum and topic data will be displayed properly in the Forums homepage.