• Cold Fusion 4.01
• IIS or Cold Fusion supported web server
• MS Access 2000
• Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape 6

Features

Find below a list of some of the more integral features found in FlexiForums.

• ability to verify registered accounts have a valid email (even when it's changed)
• private messaging between users
• post may include images and files
• each forum can have its own visual theme
• each forum has its own configuration parameters
• forums may be restricted for internal users based on email and ip address
• password protected forums
• auto login via the use of cookies
• email notification of replies to a thread
• ability to associate a unique email per account
• user activity rating
• emoticons
• anonymous posts
• post previews
• option to allow only registered access
• ability to ban or delete user accounts
• customizable headers and footers for forums and all outgoing emails
• censoring of offensive words in posts
• optional license agreement can be displayed for acknowledgement prior to registration registration
• member profiles including photo
• option to show member photos in threads
• ability to edit visual themes, license agreement files, headers and footers for forums as well as emails through the admin interface via the web.

Getting Started

OK lets get started using the application, I will take you through the steps required to setup a forum. Before we begin, I am assuming you have already:

a) created an ODBC connection to the database

b) customized the application.cfm and have Flexiforums running on a Cold Fusion server

When the application is first run, you are presented with 3 options, click on login.



By default there is one existing administrator account, the username and password is admin. Go ahead and login.

After you have logged in you will find the top menu now has more options.

Creating a Forum



Lets create a Forum. Click on Forums. This area of the application controls the creation, editing and removal of forums.



Enter in the name of your forum in the "Forum" text box (try and use the same text above since the tutorial will reflect the text I have entered), enter in some text detailing the forum in the "Description" text area. When done click on "Add >>".

You have just created a forum. However when a forum is first created, by default its status is set to inactive. In other words the forum will not be published until it is ready to be shown. This is quite handy when you are creating forums and its respective subjects which are not quite ready to be displayed on the site.



On the next screen, you will be presented with all the forums, e.g. one shown above. It is currently inactive. Now click on "inactive" and this switches the Forum to an "active" state. In other words it will be published on the site immediately. Usually you would wait to make it active until after setting up the forum subjects.

Adding Forum Subjects

Before we can add subjects under a forum, it must first be selected. Go ahead and click on "Computer Hardware". Upon selecting the forum you will notice that there are now even more options available in the top menu.



This now reflects which forum it will be configuring, notice the top left hand corner.



The folder indicates which forum the user has selected.

Click on subjects. Creating a subject is virtually the same as creating a forum.



Enter in the text above, then click "Add >>", be sure to make the subject "active" in the next screen.

Moderators may also be defined in this area, a subject can have several moderators. Administrators may also be assigned as moderators.

Once you have made the subject active, lets go ahead and enter the forum. Do so by clicking on the forum folder on the top left hand corner.



Congratulations! Your forum is now ready for use!

Managing Users

The next thing to consider is managing your users. As you are currently logged in with an Administrator account, you have unlimited access to the forum. You can also create many other administrator accounts by clicking on "Register". Only administrators are given the option of "user type" in the registration screen, you can either create administrator or normal accounts.

All the users created by the application can be accessed from the User Manager.



As you can see above, there is only one account, this is the administrator account we are currently using.

The user manager can be used to either delete or disable accounts. An account cannot be deleted if the user has existing posts in the forum, in which case setting the account state to inactive effectively locks the users account, thereby denying access.

It might be a good idea to change your username and password, the default values may easily be compromised. You can do this by clicking on "My Account" in the top menu.

Thread Manager



By using the thread manager an administrator can quickly get rid of threads that are considered old. Simply enter in how many days old a thread should be, and all corresponding threads related to the currently active forum is deleted. This also includes any related images that the thread may contain.

Setup

The majority of the features of FlexiForums are defined here. This is where each forum can be fully customized when it comes to behavior or visual layout.



When a forum is first created, it inherits the default setup values. These values are defined in the file "default_settings.xml" in xml format. You can change the values in the file to suit your preferences, so that each time a forum is created you won't have to make too many setup alterations.

We will go through each of the features that are offered in the setup section.

Local Forum Setup

• Posts summary per page : controls the number of posts that will be displayed per page. This is the result set the user views prior to selecting a thread.
   
• Posts per page : controls the number of posts that are displayed per page when viewing a thread.
   
• Days after posts are marked "old" : how old a post is in days that's no longer indicated as new.
   
• Max User Rating Post Count : the user is rated based on the amount of posts that he or she makes, this is the value that if reached will give the user a 100% rating (vocal score must be enabled).
   
• Max Stars : the maximum number of stars the user is awarded based on the amount of posts made in relation to the "Max User Rating Post Count".
   
• Cell Spacing : allows you to define the cell spacing (grid thickness) for tables with multiple rows or columns.
   
• Header File : any text/html included in the defined file is viewed as the forum header. The selected forum header file can also be edited through setup. Scroll below to locate this feature. Changes saved here are reflected immediately.
   
• Footer File : any text/html included in the defined file is viewed as the forum footer. The selected forum footer file can also be edited through setup. Scroll below to locate this feature. Changes saved here are reflected immediately.
   
• Agreement File : text included within this file is displayed prior to registration in the currently active forum, the user must agree to all guidelines and accept the terms outlined within this text. This is done by clicking on the "I Agree" button. Upon agreeing the registration process continues. If the user disagrees he or she is prevented from registering. The selected agreement file can also be edited through setup. Scroll below to locate this feature. Changes saved here are reflected immediately.
   
• Style Sheet : what style sheet the forum will be using, a forum can be assigned different visual styles. Flexi-Forums comes with 5 preloaded styles (default.css, green.css, blue.css, bluesky.css, corpgreen.css). All style sheets must reside under the subdirectory "style_sheets". The selected style sheet file can also be edited through setup, scroll below to locate this feature. Changes saved here are reflected immediately.
   
• Email Header File : all outgoing email headers contain text/html that is included in the defined file. This is used for customizing the email header. The selected email header file can also be edited through setup. Scroll below to locate this feature. Changes saved here are reflected immediately.
   
• Email Footer File : all outgoing email footers contain text/html that is included in the defined file. This is used for customizing the email footer. The selected email footer file can also be edited through setup. Scroll below to locate this feature. Changes saved here are reflected immediately.
   
• Default Forum Email Address : all outgoing emails from the forum are assigned this email as the sender.
   
• Disable Account Registration : option to disable the account registration feature in FlexiForums if you are planning on implementing your own (applies only to non administrator accounts).
   
• Disable Account Verification : option to disable the account verification feature in FlexiForums if you are planning on implementing your own (applies only to non administrator accounts).
   
• Disable Account Edit : disables and hides the link to editing an account.
   
• Users IP must contain : this feature can be used to isolate internal users, the users ip address must contain part of the entered ip address. E.g. If you enter ".55.81.122" then the users ip must contain these values otherwise access to the forum is denied.
   
• Users Email must contain : this parameter can also be used to isolate internal users, the registered account email must contain part of the entered email address. E.g. If you enter "@xtra.co.nz", only users with an email that ends with these values may access the forum.
   
• Forum Password : password protects the current forum. All Users apart from administrators must enter in this password to gain access to the forum.
   
• Must be registered to view posts : a user must be fully registered to access the forum.
   
• Account Verification : if enabled, forces the user to subscribe to the forum with a valid email. This is done by sending a verification code to the email address upon enrolment to the forum. Once the user has acquired this code in his or her inbox, the account may be activated by entering in the code under the Verify Account section of the site. Upon successful verification the user is then allowed to add threads/posts. If the account email is changed at any time, the account has to be re-verified! This ensures that there is always a valid and working email associated with an account.
   
• Allow Image/File Uploads : enables or disables images and files in posts. The file extensions for any uploads must also be declared under allowed image and file extensions, otherwise no file uploads are accepted even if this parameter is enabled.
   
• Allow Emoticons : enables or disables emoticons in posts.
   
• Allow Anonymous Posts : if enabled, users are not required to register in order to add threads/posts.
   
• Enable Search : enables or disables keyword searching in the forum.
   
• Enable e-mail notifications : if enabled the user has an option to recieve an email notification if somebody replies to his or her thread, or if a new message is recieved.
   
• Moderator e-mail notifications : if enabled moderators receive an email notification when new unapproved posts are created in a forum.
   
• Display post previews : enables or disables if the user sees a preview of the post before actually clicking on the post.
   
• Post preview length : controls the length of post previews in characters. Pages may take longer to load with higher values. Adjust this value with the bandwidth of your users in mind.
   
• Enable Vocal Score : enables or disables user vocal scores (user is rated on amount of posts made).
   
• Hide Link to Forum Index : if enabled doesn't display the link to the forum index, if you only have one forum it makes sense to enable this feature.
   
• Hide Forum Listing from Index : if enabled doesn't list the currently selected forum in the forum index. e.g. you might choose to hide a forum and only make the link available to internal users.
   
• Censor Offensive Language : when enabled replaces rude or offensive words with random symbols in posts. The collection of words deemed as offensive by the application is located in the file "rudewordfilter_words.txt" under the "rudewordfilter_words" directory. The file can be edited to accommodate the administrators preference.
   
• User Photo in Threads : when enabled displays the users photo next to his or her post when viewing a thread. The types of images accepted must be defined under "Allowed Image Extensions".
   
• Forum Statistics : displays various statistical information for the currently active forum in the applications footer.
   
• User Photo Width : allows you to define the photos width when viewed in a thread.
   
• User Photo Height : allows you to define the photos height when viewed in a thread.
   
• Limit User Photo Size to (KB) : enter in the size in kilobytes to define a maximum user photo size. If the file exceeds the size limit, it is rejected.
  
  
• Allowed Image Extensions : define the file extensions for images that are accepted for upload in the forum e.g. gif,jpeg,jpg. Extensions defined here are treated as images and are immediately displayed.
  
  
• Allowed File Extensions : define the file extensions that are accepted for upload in the forum e.g. txt,doc,pdf. Extensions defined here are available for download via a link.
  
  
• Limit File Size to (KB) : enter in the size in kilobytes to define a maximum file size for uploads. If the file exceeds the size limit, it is rejected.