ActiveForums 3.

ActiveForums 3.6
Administrator’s Guide

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Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Installation ............................................................................................................................................3
Installing the Private Assembly (PA).............................................................................................3
ActiveForums Setup ...............................................................................................................................4
Advanced Forum Settings .....................................................................................................................13
Security Options – ..............................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Security Options – Continued................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Attachment Options ..........................................................................................................................13
HTML Editor .....................................................................................................................................13
Administration .....................................................................................................................................14
Forum Groups ..................................................................................................................................14
Forums...........................................................................................................................................15
Filters .............................................................................................................................................15
Templates..........................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Member Ranks................................................................................................................................16
Style Sheet Settings ................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
Support ...............................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Thank you for choosing ActiveForums. ActiveForums is designed to easily integrate with
DotNetNuke. By utilizing the DotNetNuke framework, ActiveForums allows you to easily
setup and maintain a discussion forum for your web site. No other forum package for
DotNetNuke has as many features or the flexibility of ActiveForums.

Our goal is to continuously add features and improve functionality while maintaining
optimum performance and administrative flexibility.

Installation
Installing the Private Assembly (PA)
The Private Assembly is a zip file that contains all of the necessary files for the module. Please follow the
steps below to install the ActiveForums PA.
1. Extract the ActiveForums3.6.X-DNNX.zip from the compressed zip file you downloaded.
2. Log in to your portal with your host account.
3. From the “Host” drop down menu click on “Module Definitions”
4. Place your mouse over the down arrow icon and click on “Upload New Module”

5. Click on the Browse button and select the ActiveForums3.6-PA.zip to add the file.
6. Click the “Add” link next to the Browse button.
7. Click the “Upload File(s)” link at the bottom.
8. DotNetNuke will now install the ActiveForums and display the processing results.
9. Now you are ready to add your module to a page.
NOTE: If you receive any red errors, please copy and paste them in an email to
[email protected]

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ActiveForums Setup
1. Navigate to the page/tab where you would like ActiveForums installed.

2. Select NTForums or ActiveForums from the Module drop down menu.

3. Then click the “Add” button.

4. Now you should see something similar to the screen below.

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5. Place your cursor over the arrow icon then click on the Control Panel link.

6. Now you will have access to the main admin home screen.

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7. The first step is to go to the Main Options screen.

Forum Template: This determines which template is used when viewing the forums.
Page Size: This determines the number of posts and topics that will appear on each page.
User Photos: Check this box if you would like to give users the ability to upload a photo to appear
on their profile page.

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User Bios: Check this box if you would like users to be able add an extended bio to their profile
page.
Users can subscribe: Check this box to give users the ability to subscribe to posts.
Enable User Signatures: Allows you to choose if users can create plain text or HTML signatures.
Disable Profiles: Check this box if you wish to disable user profiles.
User Display Mode: This gives you ability to control what name appears for the user next to each
post. Options are User Name, Full Name, First Name and Last Name.
Enable Who’s Online: Check this if you with to enable the Who’s Online feature.
Member List Mode: This determines which users will be able to access the member list
Allow Avatars: Check this box if you would like to allow users to have an Avatar appear with their
post
Allow Avatar Links: Check this box if you would like to give users the ability to link to an Avatar
on a remote server.
Avatar Dimensions: Set the maximum height and width in pixels for Avatars.
Stats Enabled: Check this box if you wish to have stats appear at the bottom of the page.
Stats Template: This is an HTML Template that will allow you to format and choose what will
appear within the statistics.
Update Interval: This is the number of minutes it will take for the stats to be updated.
Date Format: The date format option allows you to customize the date display.
Time Format: The time format option allows you to customize the time display.
Server Time Zone: Select the time zone where your server resides. This will allow for proper
date/time calculations for your users.

8. Press “Update Settings” and now you will be ready to add a Forum Group.

9. Before creating any forums you need to create a forum group.

10. Click the “Add Forum Group” Button.

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11. Individual forums have the ability to inherit the settings from the group. This can help with
creating and managing a large number of forums. If your forums will require unique settings then
you do not want to use the inherit settings options. In that case, all you will need to do is enter
the name of your forum group and click “Save”. For additional information on the options below,
review the forum settings.

12. Now you are ready to add your first Forum.

a. Navigate to the Forum admin screen by clicking on the link on the left or the button on the
admin home page.

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b. Click the “Add New Forum” button

c. Choose the group for this forum and enter a name and description. If you do not wish to
have unique settings for this forum then you can click the “Inherit Group Settings”
checkbox and click Update.

d. Select the Security and Moderator Roles. The security grid provides tight control over each
role within your forums. The forum owner option allows you to give moderator
permissions to an individual

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user.

The Creator/Owner Role: In most cases the creator/owner role should be identical to
your registered users. However there are some changes you may want to make.
Users can create and view only their posts: To do this you must uncheck the read
permission for the desired user role.

View: Allows users the ability to see the forum in the forum list. (note: to prevent users
from seeing the forum you must also check the hidden checkbox.)
Read: Allows users the ability to read topics within the forum.
Create: Allows users the ability to create posts within the forum.
Reply: Allows users the ability to reply to posts within the forum.
Edit: Allows users the ability to edit their own posts.
Delete: Allows users the ability to delete their own posts.
Lock: Allows users the ability to lock a topic and prevent additional posts.
Pin: Allows users to permanently move a topic to the top of the topic list.
Attach: Allows users the ability to attach files to a post or reply.
Subscribe: Allows users the option to be notified when someone posts to the topic.
Announce: Allows users to make the post an announcement.
Poll: Allows users the ability to create a poll.

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e. Choose your forum options

Forum Owner: Grants a specific user moderator rights

Moderator Roles: Grants users in the specified role moderator rights
Moderated: Posts made to the forum will need to be approved before they are posted
Allow Attachments: Users that have the attach permission will be allowed to attach files
Use Filter: Posts will be filtered
Hidden: Prevents users who do not have the view permission from seeing the forum
Active: Must be checked for forum to appear
Allow HTML: Allows users to enter HTML into posts
Allow Emoticons: Displays a list of emoticons for users to pick when posting
Allow Script Tags: Allows users to use <script></script> in posts. (Must have Allow
HTML checked to work)
Allow Forum Subscriptions: Allows users the option to be notified whenever someone
posts to the forum.
Index Content: Indexes content to work with DotNetNuke Search
Allow RSS: Allows forum to be syndicated
Topics Template: This chooses which template will be used when viewing the forum
Topic Template: This chooses which template will be used when viewing a topic

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f. Click “Update Forum” and you will be redirected to the main forum management screen.

g. Repeat these steps to add additional forums.

13. Congratulations! Your forums are now ready for posts.

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Advanced Forum Settings

Attachment Options
ActiveForums gives you several options for managing attachments within forums. When you select “Allow
Attachments:” from the forum options screen your Attachment options will be displayed.

Max Number of Attachments: This determines how many attachments a user can add per post.
Max File Size: This allows you to control the max file size for any attachment being uploaded.
Allowed File Types: Add extensions of files that you will allow to be uploaded.
File Store: ActiveForums allows you to store files in database or file system.
Max Image Height and Width: ActiveForums can automatically resize image files based upon the height
and width settings you determine. Leave these values set to 0 if you would like to disable this feature.
Use Unique FileNames: Checking this box will rename the users uploaded file with a unique random
filename.

HTML Editor
ActiveForums provides you with three input options for creating forum posts.
1. TextBox – Plain text box which will accept HTML and tags that you specify in the “Filter” settings.
2. ActiveEditor – A WYSIWYG/HTML editor based on FreeTextBox. AcitveEditor will allow you to
control what tool bar options appear in the editor and style.

Toolbar options include: ParagraphMenu, FontFacesMenu, FontSizesMenu, FontForeColorsMenu,

FontForeColorPicker, FontBackColorsMenu, FontBackColorPicker, Bold, Italic, Underline,
Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, InsertImageFromGallery, CreateLink, Unlink, RemoveFormat,
JustifyLeft, JustifyRight, JustifyCenter, JustifyFull, BulletedList, NumberedList, Indent, Outdent, Cut,
Copy, Paste, Delete, Undo, Redo, Print, Save, ieSpellCheck, StyleMenu, SymbolsMenu,
InsertHtmlMenu, InsertRule, InsertDate, InsertTime, WordCount

3. Default DNN Editor – This will load the default HTML Editor that you have specified as your
HTMLEditor Provider for DotNetNuke.

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Administration

User Administration
Additional user settings are available to forum administrators under each user’s profile. These settings can
be accessed by viewing a user’s profile and selecting the “Edit Profile” link.

Forum Groups
The Forum Groups administrative page allows you to create and edit groups you have created for your
forums. The main display grid will allow you to select a forum group to edit, change the sort order and
delete. Below is an example of a populated forum group admin grid.

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Forums
The Forum administrative page allows you to create and edit forums. The main display grid will allow you
to select a forum to edit, change the sort order and delete. Below is an example of populated forum admin
grid. WARNING: Deleting a forum will delete the forum and all associated posts.

Filters
Filters allow you to specify text that will be replaced when a post is created. This can be used for
emoticons, profanity or any other text replacement you would like to make. Create a new filter by entering
the text you would like to replace in the “Text to Find:” box. Then in the “Text to Replace” box enter the
value to replace the found text and click the “Add Filter” button. You can edit and delete filters by clicking
on the appropriate button in the Filters admin grid.

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Member R anks
Ranking is a way to display an icon and/or text to indicate a user’s participation in the forums. This is
based upon the number of user’s posts. The Member Ranks administrative interface allows you to
customize various levels of user ranks. ActiveForums comes with several sets of ranking icons for you to
select. You can also add your own ranking icons by copying them into the “ranks” subfolder under the
“NTForums” directory. The display drop down list is automatically populated based on the contents of the
ranks subfolder. (Note: You must add the token [RANKDISPLAY] to the PostInfo template for the rank icon
to display. [RANKNAME] will display the name of the rank.)

Support
Please visit our web site, www.activemodules.com, for all the latest news and updates for our modules.
Contact us immediately if you encounter any problems with ActiveForums. If you purchased from
Snowcovered you can log a help desk ticket on their site and we will be notified. You may also visit the
support forums on our site which we monitor regularly. You may also send an email to
[email protected].

We know your site is important and will resolve your problem in a professional and timely manner. In
some cases we may ask to discuss the issue over the phone. In that case we will request a number and
best time to call.

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