<%= OutputCSS() %>
<% SELECT CASE request("page") %> <% CASE "customfields" %> <% CASE "editcustomfields" %> <% CASE "avasmile" %> <% CASE "dynHF" %> <% CASE "maillist" %> <% CASE "copyForum" %> <% CASE "userManage" %> <% CASE "massmail" %> <% CASE "userdetail" %> <% CASE "usergroups" %> <% CASE "viewusergroup" %> <% CASE "viewgroupdefinition" %> <% CASE "addusergroup" %> <% CASE "viewcals" %> <% CASE "addcal","editcal" %> <% CASE "calgroup" %> <% CASE "calgpaddedit" %> <% CASE "rank" %> <% CASE "news" %> <% CASE "css" %> <% CASE "color" %> <% CASE "selectCat" %> <% CASE "addCat", "editCat" %> <% CASE "editForum", "addForum" %> <% CASE "gpfirst" %> <% CASE "gpaddedit" %> <% CASE "private", "moderator" %> <% CASE "selectForum" %> <% CASE "banned" %> <% CASE "stats" %> <% CASE "memimport" %> <% CASE "srvmsg" %> <% CASE "siteconfig" %> <% CASE "bodyoption" %> <% CASE ELSE %> <% END SELECT %>
Custom Registration Fields
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You can now add custom registration fields to collect additional information about your member. * new in version 2

There are 32 small fields, and 5 large fields for you to customize. Small fields means it can take only 200 characters, and large fields on the other hand does not have such restriction. You should use small fields whenever possible.

On the screen, you should see 4 columns:

  • Field Name: The name of the column in pgd_regFields table. The name of the column has no special meanings. It is displayed there as a link to the customization interface.
  • Field Title: It is the title of the field displayed on the registration form or the profile editing interface. You can set it to whatever you want.
  • Shown on registration: Whether to collect information for this field when user registers. If not, then it will be displayed in the edit profile interface.
  • Sort Order: The display order on registration form and profile editing interface.

You can choose to enable/disable for each field. If the field is active (enabled), it means that users will see this field on the profile editing interface. Active (enabled ) fields are shown on the table on top. By default, all fields are disabled.

You can also purge all information users entered into the custom registration fields by clicking on the button at the bottom, named "Remove All Members' data". This will delete all the records on the pgd_regFields table, and unless absolutely necessary, I don't think you will ever need to use this function.

For more information on customizing the registration fields, click here.

Custom Registration Fields
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This interface allows you to customize the 37 custom registration fields (32 small, and 5 large fields). * new in version 2

  • Field Title: It is the title of the field displayed on the registration form or the profile editing interface. You can set it to whatever you want. It is required.
  • Shown on registration page?: When checked, this field will be displayed on the registration form.
  • Can Member Update this field?: When checked, users will be able to update the data on this field. You should check this item in most cases. However, you can do the following with this option unchecked:
    • If you don't want users to change the data for this field, make sure the shown on registration page option is checked, otherwise users will not be able to enter data to this field at all.
    • You can also set up a read-only field (updateable by admins only).
  • Can Member Hide this field?: 4 options:
    • No: this field must be available to everyone.
    • Yes: members can choose to hide this field from other members.
    • Always hidden to others: data entered into this field is always hidden from other members.
    • Only Admin can view: can be used to store private information for certain members without their knowings.
  • HTML Interface?: For small fields, you can choose textbox, drop-down menu, or radio button. For large fields, only textarea is available.
  • Field Value: Only available when you choose drop-down menu or radio button for small fields. The format:
    • value:text (value and text separated by a colon)
      • value - information stored in database. Can be the same as text
      • text - description of an individual option for this feild (shown to members).
      • For example, if I want to produce a drop-down menu like this: , I would enter this in the text box (one option per line):
        1:first 
        
        2:second
        
        3:third
  • Regular Expression Validation?: If you select textbox for small fields, you can specify validation pattern as well as an corresponding error message for each validation. You can provide multiple pattern validations by separating each regluar expression pattern with ;; . If you input multiple validation patterns, make sure you also supply an error message for each pattern separated by ;;
    • For example:
      • required field: .+
      • required field + phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx): .+;;^\d{3}\-\d{3}\-\d{4}$
      • e-mail (optional): ^([_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.([a-z]){2,4}))?$
      • 10-digit number (optional): ^(\d{10})?$
    • Validation is always case-insensitive, and global. (/pattern/gi)
    • You can also leave it blank (not perform any pattern validation)
    • This is a pure pattern validation, and cannot be used to validate the trueness of the input data. For example, it cannot check whether an e-mail address really exists.
    • This validation capability is based on JavaScript Regular Expressions. If you need any special validation patterns, you can post a request on our forum.
  • Error Messages?: Refer to the option above.
  • Example: The data you enter here will be displayed below Field Title. You can briefly descirbe what is required for this field here.
  • Is this field active?: Enable this field or not.
Smiley/Avatar Upload and Management
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You can now manage custom smiley faces and avatars online. * new in version 2

Custom Smiley Faces (not the original ones that come with our software) are stored in the upfiles/smiley/ folder, and avatars are stored in the avatars/ folder. If you enabled upload (file attachment) for your forum, the custom smiley folder is writable by IUSR already. However, the avatars folder is not. So, if you want to enable avatar management, make sure you allow write permission for the avatars/ folder as well.

You can upload 10 smiley faces or 10 avatars at once. The total file size cannot exceed 200KB per upload. You can also create an avatar group by using the Create a Folder option.

You can delete a smiley face or avatar by clicking on it. You can also delete a avatar folder by clicking on the small red x beside each folder. Remember, once a folder is deleted, all avatars under that folder are deleted as well.

Dynamic Header and Footer
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With Dynamic Header and Footer, you don't have to worry about overwriting your header and footer after each upgrade.

Make sure you enter only HTML, as ASP won't work in Dynamic Header + Footer

The following is a list of file names that you may want to use in your dynamic header and footer setting:

  • admin_default.asp => forum main page
  • register.asp => registration page
  • login.asp with onclick="return logwin(this.href)" => login page
  • search.asp => search page
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=lastvisit => view posts since last visit
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=today => view today's posts
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=active => view active posts
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=poll => view all polls
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=faq => view all FAQ's
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=approve => view posts that await moderator approval * new in version 2
    • searchpro.asp?searchfor=recycle => view posts that have been put into the Recycle Bin * new in version 2
  • calendar.asp => calendar page * new in version 2
  • memberlist.asp => member list page
  • memberlist.asp?view=groupinfo => user groups listing * new in version 2
  • pm.asp => private message page
  • editprofile.asp => profile editing page
  • subscribe.asp => subscription list page
  • address.asp => address book page
  • redirect.asp => log out link
Mail list builder
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Here you can build a Mail List from the user database. Using the Mail List generated here you can easily import the users you currently have on your forum to your favorite mail list program. It is a lot better than trying to send out newsletter from this ASP Application because ASP is not designed for doing a lot of mailing work (unless you have ASPQmail).

Below are two options you can use to generate you mail list. One is with user's login name, which is an ideal solution if you would like to personalize your newsletter, and the other one is without. Choose the option you want below and then click on the button at the end. Existing mail list will be backed up first.

*NOTE: This option generates an text file, which will temporarily reside in the upfile/ directory, and therefore there are two things you will need to be careful about:

  • Generated list will be downloadable from the internet. However, once the list is generated and downloaded an option will be provided to you to delete the list. Always delete the list after you have downloaded the list to your own PC.
  • Since this list reside in upfile/ directory, you will need to make the upfile/ directory writable to anonymous account.
Copy Forum
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You can use this feature to copy the entire setting of a forum to create a new forum. * new in version 2

  • First, select from the list the settings of the forum you want to copy from (template forum).

  • Second, choose whether to include importation of the 3 optional settings from the template forum

  • Once the settings are copied over, you will be brought to the Edit Forum interface where you can edit the name and description of the new forum.
User Management
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This is where you manage users individually. Available options are:

  • Search for User
    • You can search by various parameters.
    • Always use "%" as wild card in your search.
    • Available parameters are:
      • Login Name
      • First Name
      • Last Name
      • E-mail
      • Member ID (wild card not available)
      • IP Address
      • Show all banned users (does not take text box input)
      • Show all users who haven't passed registration process (does not take text box input)

  • User group: Click to go to user group management.

  • User Listing
    • Members per page: Set how many records per page you want to display the user list.
    • Assign to group drop down list: You can assign users to a user group by selecting a group from the list. Of course you have to check at least a user first.
    • You can click on Member ID, Login, First Name, Last Name, E-mail to sort the records.
    • Click on Member ID to select and see user's info.
EMail Organizer
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From time to time, you will see a list of e-mail's always return "invalid address", which can be a problem to you when you try to send e-mail to them. This massive e-mail organizer can be used to ban those user with invalid addresses, or simply help you to organize users into a group you created.

Just import the e-mails, one e-mail a line, into the text box. Then select the action you want to take after you imported the e-mails. Use this function to organize users based on their e-mail addresses.

One useful tip: You can organize people into a group and then assign a custom user title to the entire group, if you feel that the ranking system is inappropriate for your forum.

User Detail
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As the name of the interface suggests, this is where you view / edit user's detail. There are a few things you need to be careful:

  • Check to ban this IP: You can click on this to ban this particular IP, but be careful as some users may share the same IP or his IP is dynamically assigned to him by his ISP
  • Ban this guy: Check to ban this guy => he will not be able to login again (only as guest)
  • Show User Groups: Click to see the groups the person is currently a member of.* new in version 2
  • Registration: You can use this drop down list to approve a user or disable a user.
  • Allow upload avatar: If this person always upload troublesome avatar, you can disallow this person's avatar upload ability
  • Allow Use of Private Message: You can disable this person's PM ability
  • Custom Title: Admin has the ability to give this person a special title. This will overwrite the title assignment by the value you specify in User Ranking panel (see User Ranking)
User Groups
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This displays all user groups you have (number in parentheses indicates the # of members), as well as:

  • Add Group: Click on it to add another group
  • : Click to view the members in this group
  • : Click to change the settings of this user group * new in version 2
  • : Click to delete this group (does not delete group members from the database, just the group)

The default groups:

  • Administrators: serves as a container for all administrators of this forum. Assign a user to this group and he will become an admin.
  • User Managers: Can change the settings under User Configurations * new in version 2
  • Forum Managers: Can change the settings under Forum Configurations * new in version 2
  • Users under these three groups will have Admin privileges for the entire user aspects of the forum (calendar, forum, member list, etc.)
View Users in Group
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This displays all users in the groups you selected, as well as:

  • Ban all users: Click to ban all members in this group
  • Unban all users: Click to unban all members in this group
  • View Group Definition: Click to view group settings * new in version 2
  • Synchronize User Title: Assign a group-wide custom title to the entire group. Will overwrite titles set up in the User Ranking panel. (see User Ranking)
  • Lookup* new in version 2 : input a login name (% as wildcard character) to perform search within the group. Once a match is found, you can perform one of the three actions:
    • Set this member as Group Manager
    • View user details
    • Remove this member from the current group
  • : Click to delete the member from this group (does not delete the members from the database, just remove him from the group)
Group Definition
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This section allows you to change the group definition: * new in version 2

  • Group Name: Required and must be unique.
  • Group Description: Description that will be shown to the public.
  • Group Type: Choose one of the three settings:
    • Public: Public group will be shown to everyone except Guest
    • Private: Private group and the users under this group will be shown only to group members. If membership application is enabled (see below), the group name will be shown to everyone except Guest so that other users can apply for membership (user list is still hidden from other users).
    • Hidden: This group and its members are only shown to admin.Use this setting if you just want to use this group to manage users.
  • Group Manager: Use the Browse/Remove button to assign/remove group manager. Group Manager can do the following tasks:
    • Change Group Name, Group Description, Enable/Disable Welcome Message, change Welcome Message, Enable/Disable Membership Application, approve/disapprove Membership Application.
    • However, Group Manager cannot remove users from or add users to this group. Only User Manager and Administrators have this privilege.
    • You can set up a group based calendar to allow only Group Manager to post events.
  • Welcome Message: This message will be sent to users automatically when they join the group. You can choose to disable or enable it. Use the following parameters to customize the message:
    • The first line will serve as the subject of the message.
    • #name# -> member name
    • #groupName#
    • #groupLocation# -> the URL of the group user list.
    • #forumtitle#
    • #forumdir#
    • #today#
  • Allow membership application: Allow/Disallow other users to apply for membership.If checked, other users will see a "join" button in the group list interface (memberlist.asp?view=groupinfo)
Add user group
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Input the name of the group (max. 50 characters) into the box and hit OK.

Clicking on Back will bring you back to the user group list

Calendars Configuration
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This displays all calendars you have (number in parentheses indicates the # of members) * new in version 2

  • Is Private Calendar: if yes, it is hidden from everyone except users in groups that have access permission.
  • Is Active: Whether this calendar is active (enabled).

Calendar Subscription Notification:

  • This is the message that will be sent to users when a new event is posted. Use the following parameters to format the message:
    • The first line you input into the text box will serve as the subject of the notification message.
    • #author# ->event author
    • #subject# -> name of the event
    • #body# -> description of the event
    • #calendarname# ->name of calendar
    • #eventlocation# ->URL of the event
    • #discussionMsgLocation# -> Event Discussion Message link
    • #forumtitle#
    • #forumdir#
    • #today#
Add/Edit Calendar
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Add/Edit a calendar * new in version 2

  • Calendar Name: if yes, it is hidden from everyone except users in groups that have access permission.
  • Private Calendar (purely group based)?: Whether this calendar is a group based calendar (hidden from the public).
  • Can Member add events: Choose whether to allow member to add events. The 3 choices are:
    • No - Only admin or qualified user group members can create events
    • Yes non-recurring - users can view events and create one-time events only
    • Yes recurring - users can create both one-time and recurring events
  • Can Member Delete Own Events: Choose whether to allow member to delete their own events.
  • Can Member Subscribe to Calendar: Choose whether to allow members to subscribe to this calendar (to receive notification when new event is posted)
  • Event Discussions should take place in: Choose a forum as a container for all event discussions in this calendar. You can disallow event discussion for this calendar by selecting no discussion allowed.
  • Upload: Choose whether to allow member to upload file along with event. Specify the size and extension allowed.
  • Is this calendar active: You can disable this calendar temporarily, instead of delete it
<% if request("page")="editcal" then %>

Group Permission:

  • You can create group permission for this calendar. Click on the button to see the group permission table.
<% end if %>
Calendar Group Permission
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* new in version 2

  • Current User Group(s) in Permission Table: Shows which user groups are currently in the setup. Clicking on Remove will bring the group back to user group pool. You can click Edit to change the permission setting
  • Current User Group(s) not in Permission Table: Other available user groups that can be assigned as moderators / private users. Clicking on Add will complete the assignment

Don't forget to click on Done when you are done.

Calendar Group Permission Setup
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* new in version 2

  • General Permission:
    • Member can create event
    • Only Group Manager can create event
      • Group Manager is defined in User Group
    • Read-only
    • No Access
  • Can Create Recurring: Choose to allow members to create recurring events
  • Is Moderator: Select this option to make this group the moderator of the calendar. Moderators will have all the permissions enabled.
  • Can Delete Own Events: Whether to allow members in this group to delete events posted by themselves
  • Can Subscribe: Whether to allow this member to subscribe to this calendar (to receive event notifications)
  • Upload
  • Is this setting active:
    • You can create a permission setting, but disable it temporarily by clearing the box.

Because of the fact that one person can be assigned to multiple groups, the group permission setting for that person in this particular calendar follows the rules below:

  • a person's permission will be that of a group that has higher permission. E.g. If group A has Create Event under General Permission and group B has Read-Only under General Permission , and person A happens to be a member of the two groups respectively, person A's permission will inherit the permission from group A.
  • If the two groups have the same setting under General Permission, we will compare the other settings in the order shown in the layout and find out which group is higher up in terms of permission.
  • If person A happens to be assigned to a group that has No Access under General Permission, person A will have no access to this forum at all, regardless of the permissions he might have from other groups.
  • If this calendar is a private calendar, make sure you add at least a group here. Otherwise calendar will only be viewable to admins (Administrators, User Manager, Forum Manager).

Examples:

  • I want to grant Add Event permission to certain groups, but all other members can only read the events:
    • Add the groups and assign "Member can create event" permission
    • In the Edit Calendar interface, select "No - Only admin or qualified user group members can create events"
  • I want to disallow access to certain groups, but all other registered members should be able to read:
    • Add the group and assign No Access permission
    • In the Edit Calendar interface, select "No - Only admin or qualified user group members can create events"
User Ranking
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This is where you set up the user ranking system as well as a few default values:

  • User Ranking
    • Rank Representation: Input the name of the image that will represent this rank. Remember, you can change the default suffix of the image.
    • Post Limit: Specify the upper limit of # of post for this rank.
    • or / and: You can specify whether you want to use # of posts and/or score for your ranking system.
    • Score Limit: Specify the upper limit of score for this rank
    • Title: Title of this rank.

  • Default values
    • Default Admin Title: Default admin title, as the name suggests. Will be overwritten by custom user title specified in either "user detail" or "group title".
    • Default Moderator Title: Default moderator title, as the name suggests. Will be overwritten by custom user title specified in either "user detail" or "group title".
    • Admin Star: the full name of the image that represents Administrator of this forum
    • Moderator Star: the full name of the image that represents Moderators of this forum
    • Default Star Suffix: the default suffix of the images for all ranks. This does not affect Admin star nor moderator star.

  • You can delete a rank by clicking on

  • HINT:
    • If you only want to use score as your ranking method, input negative values in the "Post Limit" box, and then select "or"
    • If you only want to use # of post as your ranking method, input extremely negative value in the "Score Limit" box, and then select "or"
    • If a user's # of posts and/or score goes beyond your highest ranking, he will be assign the highest rank in your system
    • All ranking images (user, admin, and moderator) has to reside in the folder, "/image", under your forum directory
    • You can see if the images you specified are valid images. If not, then a red X will be shown beside the box.
News Announcement
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News Announcement will be displayed on your forum's home page (admin_default.asp). You can have as many announcements as you want.

News announcement is like post/reply/edit => all formatting are going to go through PGD Code. The preview button can be used to preview your news announcement before you hit on "OK".

You can schedule the announcement as well. Just enter the desired start date and end date for the announcement and it will be displayed according to your configuration.

Dynamic Css
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You can use this system to style your forum. Default CSS classes are:

  • .c2: For links.
  • .head: Forum title or Topic in message listing or message content pages.
  • .subhead: Table title, often used to indicate important information (e.g., in the registration page)
  • .titlehead: Used in default header provided with this software (the forum title).
  • .high: Highlight the search term in messages
  • .info: Often used to display information (small text)
  • .msg: Used in message body
  • .quote: The default style for PGD Code, [quote][/quote]
  • pre: The default style for PGD Code, [code][/code]
  • .ultrasmall: Used in tree structure to display # of hits and # of replies, as well as the navigation links in message list and message content (all forum >> the category >> the forum >>)
  • td.cat: Forum category cell background image
  • th: Forum title cell background image

You can specify additional HTML element styles as well. Just add one class and then specify the properties of that class. You can also have duplicate class, one for 4+ browsers (IE 4, NN4) and one for 5+ series browsers (IE 5+, Mozilla 1.0, NN 6+).

A tutorial is provided in our private forum at: http://forum.aspplayground.net

Color Scheme
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You can use this system to color your forum. You can have as many schemes as you want.

  • SchemeName: The name of the scheme
  • tableTitle: The color for the title cell of a table (<th>)
  • tableBorder: Table border color
  • tableInside: One of the two colors for table cell (<td>)
  • Titlefontcolor: The font color in table title cell (<th>)
  • tableAlternate: One of the two colors for table cell (<td>)
  • insideBG: Specify an image name to display as the backgroun for table cells. The image has to reside inside image/ folder * new in version 2
  • altBG: Specify an image name to display as the backgroun for table cells. The image has to reside inside image/ folder * new in version 2

Remember, in Dynamic CSS, we have a default cell background specified for <th>, so if you keep the value there in dynamic CSS, the color you specify for tableTitle will not show.

Configure Category
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There are a few options in this panel:

  • Click on the title of the category to go to forum configuration interface under this category.
  • Click on "Add Category" button to add a category.
  • Move the category one level up
  • Move the category one level down
  • Edit the name of this category.
  • Delete this category.
    • A confirmation box will appear so you need to hit on OK to delete the category.
    • This forum maintains strong referential integrity, and therefore, all forums, all messages under this category will be erased.
    • A better solution to delete a category will be to move the forums under it to another category first, and then delete the category (all forums and messages will be saved).


Add / Edit Category
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Input the name of the category (max. 50 characters) into the box and hit OK.

Newly created category will be placed on top of the category list.

Clicking on Cancel will bring you back to the category list

Add / Edit Forum
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  • Add/Edit Forum
    • Forum Title: The title of the forum (required)
    • Forum Description: Short description of the forum (optional)
    • Display topics from last ? of days: Setting the default time filter of the forum. User will be able to change it by selecting different time filter, and the selection will be remembered in cookies. This day filter should be delimited by a comma, and you can surround the default day by two pipe characters. E.g. "0,1,3,5,7,|30|,90" (without quote) => filter topics with All Topic (0 = no filter), 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days.
    • Default Sort Order: Setting the default Sort Order and message filter of the forum. User will be able to change it by selecting different order and filter on their owns.
      DESC = Descending , ASC = Ascending
    • Private forum: Decide whether this is going to be a private forum (hidden from the public). You will need to select private user/private user group later on. (see Moderator/Private User Assignment)
    • Private User Right / Member Right / Guest Right: Selecting desired right to the three different classes of users
    • Allow Subscription in this forum: Decide whether to allow subscription to the entire forum/threads only. This option may increase the load on the server as with each new post/reply an e-mail has to be sent out to subscribers (via BCC)
    • Allow Poll Creation: Choose from the three possible configuration options.
    • Vote Permission: Decide which privilege level has the right to vote in the forum.
    • Allow post deletion: Decide how post/thread deletion right is granted to those who has access to the forum.
    • Enable post rating: Decide whether to allow users to rate the posts. An additional column and sorting option will appear in the message list interface.
    • Enable Group based Permission (slow): * new in version 2 Enable group based permission. A new button will appear for you to configure the group permission for this forum. This setting will slightly decrease the performance of the forum. Use it only when necessary.
    • Allow PGD Code in post: Decide whether to allow PGD Code formatting.If no then all formatting will be disabled.
    • Disable IMG Code in post: Decide whether to allow IMG Code linking.If yes then all linked images will be disabled.
    • Does new posts require moderation: Decide whether you want to have strong moderation on each posts. Admin's or moderators will need to review and click on to approve each post.
    • Allow Upload: Whether to allow user to attach file to his post.
      • upload size: To limit the attached file size
      • file extension: To limit the attached file extension. Only allowed extension will be uploaded.

  • Moderator Setup / Private User Setup / Group Permission Setup * new in version 2: Only appears in Edit Forum interface (not shown when you create a new forum). Clicking on the button will take you to Moderator/Private User interface or Group Permission Setup interface. (see Moderator/Private User Assignment ; Group Permission Setup)
Group Permission
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* new in version 2

  • Current User Group(s) in Permission Table: Shows which user groups are currently in the setup. Clicking on Remove will bring the group back to user group pool. You can click Edit to change the permission setting
  • Current User Group(s) not in Permission Table: Other available user groups that can be assigned as moderators / private users. Clicking on Add will complete the assignment

Don't forget to click on Done when you are done.

Group Permission Add/Edit
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* new in version 2

  • General Permission:
    • Post & Reply
    • Post
    • Reply
    • Read
    • No Access
  • Can Create Poll
  • Can vote
  • Can Rate Post
  • Upload
  • Is this setting active:
    • You can create a permission setting, but disable it temporarily by clearing the box.

Because of the fact that one person can be assigned to multiple groups, the group permission setting for that person in this particular forum follows the rules below:

  • a person's permission will be that of a group that has higher permission. E.g. If group A has Post&Reply under General Permission and group B has Reply under General Permission , and person A happens to be a member of the two groups respectively, person A's permission will inherit the permission from group A.
  • If the two groups have the same setting under General Permission, we will compare the other settings in the order shown in the layout and find out which group is higher up in terms of permission.
  • If person A happens to be assigned to a group that has No Access under General Permission, person A will have no access to this forum at all, regardless of the permissions he might have from other groups.
  • If this forum is a private forum, make sure you add group A to the private user list before assigning permission for group A. Otherwise the permission setting for group A under this forum won't be effective.

Examples:

  • I want to grant Reply permission to certain groups to answer questions Guests have, but all other members can only read the messages:
    • Add the groups and assign Reply permission
    • In the Edit Forum interface, select read permission for all members
    • In the Edit Forum interface, select post permission for guests.
  • I want to disallow access to certain groups, but all other registered members should be able to read:
    • Add the group and assign No Access permission
    • In the Edit Forum interface, select read permission for all members
    • In the Edit Forum interface, select No Access permission for guests.
Moderator / Private User Setup
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Both Moderator and Private User setup use the same interface:

  • Current User Group(s) in Moderator / Private User Setup: Shows which user groups are currently in the setup. Clicking on Remove will bring the group back to user group pool.
  • Current User Group(s) not in Moderator / Private User Setup: Other available user groups that can be assigned as moderators / private users. Clicking on Add will complete the assignment

    - Or -

  • You can search a single user based on login/e-mail/first name/member ID and then assign him individually. Current users will appear in Current Users in Moderator / Private User Setup table. You can remove individual users as well.

Don't forget to click on Done when you are done.

Configure Forum
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This is where it shows all your forum under the specific category:

  • Move forum to another category drop down list: You can use this drop down list to move the forum to another category. One purpose is to move away all forums before you delete the category.

  • Merge posts to another forum drop down list: You can move all the posts to another forum in the same category. One purpose is to move away all messages before you delete the forum.

  • Copy Forum button: You can use the setting of one forum to create a new forum. * new in version 2

  • Move the forum one level up

  • Move the forum one level down

  • Edit the properties of this forum.

  • Delete this forum.
    • A confirmation box will appear so you need to hit on OK to delete the forum
    • This forum maintains strong referential integrity, and therefore, all messages under this forum will be erased.
    • A better solution to delete a forum will be to merge the messages under it to another forum first, and then delete the forum (all messages will be saved).
Forum Filters
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These are the security features of the forum.

  • Bad Word Filter
    • You can input a list of bad words into the box. All matched bad words will be filtered and will become *** regardless of the length of the word. One thing you will need to keep in mind: This is not an exact science. For example, if you filter "poo", the word "poor" will become "***r".

  • IP Filter
    • You can disallow a person or a group of person from accessing your forum. Always input valid IP otherwise this filter will produce unexpected result.
    • Valid IP includes
      • Single IP: 169.254.100.3
      • IP Range:
        • Valid Inputs (e.g.):
          • 169.254.*
          • 16*.25*.9.***
          • 169.254
          • 169.254.
          • * -> blocks everyone
        • Invalid Inputs (e.g.):
          • .254* (begins with a dot)
          • 16*9.254.* (each segment can contain only 3 digits)
  • E-mail Filter: * new in version 2
    • Enter the domain name you wish to restrict access from. User cannot register an account with e-mail address from the domain listed here. e.g. free mail account provider: hotmail.com; yahoo.com
    • You can also type in the whole email address.
    • Filtering expression: *[domain.com]
    • E.g.
      • I want to block all users to register with e-mail from 'hotmai.com': hotmail.com
      • I want to block user whose e-mail contains 'yahoo': .*yahoo.*
      • I want to block this exact e-mail address 'ads@ads.com': ^ads@ads.com
      • I want to block this e-mail address that ends with '12345@email.com': 12345@email.com

  • Restricted User Name * new in version 2
    • Enter the name you don't want people to register with.
    • Filtering expression: [name]*
    • E.g.
      • I want to block user whose name contains 'admin': .*admin
      • I want to block this exact name 'porn': porn$
      • I want to block names that contain space: .*\s+
      • I want to block login names that begin with 'damn': damn


Stats / Shrink Log Files
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  • Basic Statistics
    • General DB info: Displays basic information of your SQL Server database. It shows your db name and size as well as other db specific information (how your database is configured).
    • Specific DB info: Displays the data and log file of your db. It shows location, file group, sizes, and other specific information. The most important one is the log size which you can shrink to preserve your database space (db size = data size + log file size).
    • Forum General Usage Report and Last 30 Day Usage Report: Displays the general forum usage and that during the last 30 days.

  • Shrink Database/Data/Log Online
    • You can shrink the Data/Log files to 1MB (minimum). If you enable online user tracking or are maintaining a busy forum, chances are your data/log file size increases exponentially every week and may cause trouble if you are using a shared server.
    • You can also shrink the whole database by percentage. This option gives you a more balanced choice in that it will shrink both data & log files at the same time by the percentage you specified. This option if different from the other two in that you specify the desired % of the database after the action instead of the desired space (in MB) for the individual files.
    • SQL Server will not allow you to shrink the data/log/database to a size smaller than the data/log/database currently occupies.
Member Import
class="msg"> You may have several other application which you already have a list of subscribers. This script allows you to import your members from any applications to this forum. All you need to do is prepare a comma delimited file (or other delimiters) and copy & paste them into the text box below. Our importer will verify the identity of your list and prevent any duplicate records automatically for you.

The information required will be member name (unique), password, and member's e-mail (unique). The format of the file is like the following:

Name|E-mail|Password

Only the first two parameters are required. If you do not have password, please select an option from below. Therefore, you will need at least the first two parameters like:

Name|E-mail

Server Message Help
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*New in version 2*: For all the server messages that will be sent to users via e-mail (subscription, PM notification, etc.), the first line you put into the text boxes will be used as the subject for the e-mail. The subject can be configured without touching the ASP code, and the parameters below can also be used to format the subject.

  • Forward Message
    • Forward message.
    • Available Parameters
      • #sender#
      • #body#
      • #author#
      • #msglocation#
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #today#

  • E-mail Notification (Subscription)
    • E-mail sent to subscribers of forums or threads.
    • Available Parameters
      • #replier#
      • #subject#
      • #body#
      • #msglocation#
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #today#
      • #incat# => the category the message is in *new in version 2
      • #incatlink# => the link to the category *new in version 2
      • #inforum# => the forum the message is in *new in version 2
      • #inforumlink# => the link to the forum *new in version 2

  • Private Message Notification
    • E-mail sent to notify member of new private message.
    • Available Parameters
      • #sender#
      • #subject#
      • #body#
      • #msglocation#
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #today#

  • Forum Agreement
    • Presented when user register.
    • Available Parameters
      • #forumtitle#

  • Forum Shutdown Message
    • Presented when you shut down forum.
    • Available Parameters
      • #forumtitle#
      • #today#

  • Registration Confirmation
    • If you specify "Email Confirmation" in your registration type, you need to send an e-mail to let new registrants to confirm.
    • Available Parameters
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #confirmlink#
      • #login#
      • The following three parameteres have to be used together
        • #confirmlinkalt#
        • #email#
        • #temppass#

  • Registration Approval
    • If you specify "Administrator Approval" in your registration type, you need to send him an e-mail once you have approved their registration.
    • Available Parameters
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #login#

  • Disapprove Registration
    • If you specify "Administrator Approval" in your registration type, you can send a message to a user who has been disapproved.
    • Available Parameters
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #email#
      • #login#


  • No Registration Message
    • Presented when you decided not to accept new registrant.
    • Available Parameters
      • #forumtitle#

  • Request Password E-mail Message *new in version 2
    • E-mail sent to password requester. For confirmation only
    • Available Parameters
      • #login#
      • #confirmlink#
      • The following three parameteres have to be used together
        • #confirmlinkalt#
        • #email#
        • #temppass#

      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #today#
  • Send Password E-mail Message *new in version 2
    • E-mail sent to password requester. For users who have confirmed password request (see above)
    • Available Parameters
      • #login#
      • #pass#
      • #forumtitle#
      • #forumdir#
      • #today#
Basic Configuration
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  • Home Page URL

    • This is the URL where the forum will redirect users once they click on the logout link.

    • Forum will automatically add the trailing "/" if you forget to input it.

  • Forum URL

    • This is a very important URL in the forum software, which is used throughout the script and is also used for security purposes. Only user who visit the forum via this URL will have access to post/edit/reply/delete/rate/vote on the forum.

    • Forum will automatically add the trailing "/" if you forget to input it.

  • Administrator E-mail

    • This is the account that will appear in the "FROM" field in e-mails sent out to members. This does not have to be a valid address because all this address does is to send out Server Messages .

  • Server Time Offset

    • See description. The "current server time" is for your reference and will not change according to your Server Time Offset value, but the format of the time will change according to your "Server Time Format" value (see below).

  • Server Time Format

    • This is the setting for setting up International time format. Leaving the area blank if you just want standard US Long Date, like.
      <%=now()%>

    • Leaving the area blank may increase performance slightly (because it frees up the time to format the date), but in most cases (if not all) you won't notice any slow down at all.

    • The available parameters are as follows:
      • For year:
        • %sy = two-digit year representation
        • %ly = four-digit year representation
      • For month:
        • %m = month in number (1 for January, 2 for February)
        • %0m = month in number with leading 0. (01 for January, 02 for February, 12 for December)
        • %sm = short hand for month (Jan for January, Feb for February)
        • %lm = full name for month (January, February)
      • For day:
        • %d = date of the month (29 for 29th of the month)
        • %0d = date of the month with leading 0 ( 05 for 5th, 29 for 29th of the month
      • For time:
        • %12t = time represented with AM / PM
        • %24t = time represented in 24-hour time convention
    • You can use any combination to represent the time with any additional characters to delimit the parameters you like, for example:
      • Jan-12th-1998 :
        • %sm-%dth-%ly
      • January 12, '98 :
        • %lm %d, '%sy
      • 1998-12-31, 6:02:09 PM :
        • %ly-%m-%d, %12t
      • 25.12.98, 16:02:09 :
        • %d.%m.%sy, %24t
      • on January 12th, at 6:02:09 PM
        • on %lm %dth, at %12t
    • This setting doesn't change the date stored in the database, it just changes the presentation of the date you want to output. This allows greatest freedom + total data integrity.

  • Default Session Timeout

    • Do specify the value bigger than 10. If someone is trying to write a long message, or reading a long message, his session could timeout and the forum will turn him into Guest if he does not save login information in cookies.

  • Forum Character Set

    • It is very important that you specify the correct and valid character set for your forum. This character set will be used to encode/decode form value, and therefore should be set to the character set of your language. If you do not know the correct value of your character set, use "UTF-8" (unicode) .

  • Topics per page; Messages per page

    • Like the names suggest, it is for paging purposes.

  • Name Field Width

    • This is the width in pixel of the member info column in the message page (tm.asp; m.asp).

    • This value - 5 is the dimension limit of user uploaded avatars (both width and height).

    • (This value - 5) * 2 is the dimension limit of user profile photo (both width and height).

  • E-Mail Components

    • It is the e-mail component you wish to use.

    • "No Mail" means you do not want to use any of the e-mail capability of the forum (a global setting). Select "No Mail" will disable all e-mail related server messages, and message forward capability. (not recommended)

    • "CDONTS" comes with all Windows Server installation. We recommend you choose this if you do not have any of the supported component installed.

    • "CDOSYS" requires Windows 2000 Server and up. If you are running Win NT, do not use this option. We support sending mails with both IIS SMTP Service AND external SMTP server using CDOSYS. Make sure you specify the pickup directory path in the option below if you decide to use "CDOSYS using pickup directory".

  • SMTP IP Address (and port) OR pickup directory physical path

    • Ignore this setting if you specify CDONTS as your mail component.

    • IP: Specify the address of your SMTP server. Can be the URI or IP of the server.

    • Port: If your SMTP Server is listening on a port other than the standard (25), enter it here. Otherwise, leave this box blank.* new in version 2

    • If you are using "CDOSYS using pickup directory", make sure you enter the physical path of the pickup directory. With the default IIS installation, pickup directory path should be: "C:\Inetpub\mailroot\Pickup" (without quote). You don't have to enter port number in the Port text box as it will not be used.

  • For SMTP Server that requires authentication: * new in version 2

    • If your SMTP Server blocks anonymous relay, enter the username and password (both) into the textboxes.Usually this is not required. Consult your ISP for more information.

    • Note: the username and password for SMTP may not necessarily be the same as your hosting username and password.

    • JMail v.3, ASPMail, and ASPQMail do not support SMTP Authentication.

  • Upload Component

    • If you would like users to upload avatar, upload profile photo, upload attachment, use "PGDUpload", otherwise use "No Upload" to disable upload capability.

    • "PGDUpload" is a super fast script based uploader that outperforms ASPSimpleUpload binary component.

  • User Registration Restriction

    • There are four levels of restriction you can specify:
      • No Restriction: Once member register, he can post right away.
      • E-mail Verification Required: An e-mail will be sent to the newly registered member to verify his e-mail address (see Server Message).
      • Admin Approval Required: An e-mail will be sent to forum admin (see Server Message).
      • Do Not Accept New Registrants: If you use an external registration mechanism, or just simply do not want anymore registrants, select this option (see Server Message).

    • Each level of restriction will be displayed in the registration page so member will know the setup in the forum.

    • You can also set up registration agreement in the Server Message panel (see Server Message).

  • Use Domain Checking

    • To prevent cross-site post, you should enable this feature. It is too dangerous if you disable it.

  • Auto Login Cookies Domain and Path

    • Domain: you can set cookies to be accessible from the domain you specified. e.g. aspplayground.net -> both forum.aspplayground.net and mail.aspplayground.net can get the cookies' value

    • Path: similar to Domain, but this time you set the virtual path for the cookies. e.g. /

  • Search Methods:

    • You can switch on Full-Text index search method if your SQL Server has this feature.

    • Please use build_fulltext.sql in the /SQL folder to create your index before turning on full-text search.

    • The normal query method can be used by anyone. It is very slow, however. It is recommended that you use full-text whenever possible.

  • Search Engine Friendly Version: * new in version 2

    • Search Engines normally refuse to index dynamic web pages (i.e. URL with querystring appended at the end). In version 2, you have the ability to create "Search Engine Friendly URL" for your forum home page and the message list.

    • This feature requires you to create a custom error page for your forum:
      • Under the forum's root directory, there is a file named pgdrewrite.asp
      • Use IIS MMC, or your host control panel, to point the HTTP 404 error handler to pgdrewrite.asp:
        • Enter this absolute path for the error handler: <%= replace(Request.ServerVariables("SCRIPT_NAME"),"admin_help.asp","",1,-1,vbTextCompare) & "pgdrewrite.asp" %>

    • This modification will remove the ability for your server to record HTTP 404 error (file cannot be found error), and therefore, we have built in a custom 404 error logging mechanism as well.
      • The error log can be found here: upfiles/404.log
      • By default, this logging mechanism will record ALL 404 errors for your site, but if you want to use this mechanism to log 404 errors for the forum only, make sure you create an Web Application for your forum, and only point the error handler for your forum Web Application to pgdrewrite.asp.

    • There are 3 options to choose from:
      1. Disable Search Engine Friendly Version: prevent search engine to index your site.
      2. Convert file extension to htm: this will convert the URL to forums and messages from xxx.asp into xxx.htm.
      3. Convert file extension to htm + embed link name into the URL: this will embed the name of the URL in the converted URL.
      • E.g. if you have a forum titled "Chit Chat", the generated URL normally looks like: <a href="tt.asp?appid=5">Chit Chat</a> . When you select one of the above options, the link will now become
        • Option 1: <a href="tt.asp?appid=5">Chit Chat</a> (not friendly)
        • Option 2: <a href="/forum/appid_5/tt.htm">Chit Chat</a> (friendly, but not meaningful)
        • Option 3: <a href="/forum/Chit_Chat/appid_5/tt.htm">Chit Chat</a> (friendly and meaningful)

    • Option 3 is the best for search engines to index, as it produces meaningful texts for links. However, as links become longer, the produced HTML files grow as well.

    • Option 2 will still slightly increase the HTML file size, as the forum has to produce absolute URL's (this applies to Option 3 as well) for all the HTML elements that contain file references (img, a, etc.).

    • Both Option 2 & 3 will allow Search Engine Bots to index your forum, and this will cause bandwidth usage to increase. If you are running a busy forum, your ISP may force you to leave/upgrade your hosting package due to the excessive use of their bandwidth. You have to decide which option is best for you.

    • As search engine bot will be seen as "Guest" by the software, make sure you select flat/simplified flat viewing style as your (Default Viewing Style)

    • Make sure your Dynamic Header/Footer have absolute URL's for all the links as well.

  • Recompilation Threshold: * new in version 2

    • The forum can auto-recompile the paging stored procedures (9 stored procedures in total) to improve performance.

    • Specify the threshold value in seconds. For example, if it takes 0.7 seconds (kind of longer than normal) to generate the message list, and you believe that it is due to an outdated execution plan cached by SQL server, you can specify 0.7 as the threshold value.

    • Normally, the message list should be generated in 0.1~0.3 second depending on the forum traffic and the number of messages your forum holds, so a logical threshold value should be within 0.2~0.5.

    • If the forum finds that recompilation does not improve performance, it will stop recompiling the stored procedures the next time the message list is generated.

    • You can disable this feature by setting the threshold value to 0 (not recommended). Default value is 0.25.

    • If this feature cannot improve your forum performance, you should re index your message table. "Re-index" feature can be found inside "Basic Maintenance Tasks".

  • Default Viewing Style

    • This is the global setting for guest. This will also be the setting for new registrants.

    • User can change this in his own profile.

  • Alternate Color By

    • In Color Scheme Management, there are two colors you specified as the alternating colors to show your table cells: tableinside + tablealternate.

    • You can choose to alternate the two colors by column, or by row. Experiment this setting to know which you like the best.

  • Show Moderator Column on home page; Show Post Permission on home page

    • Decide for yourself whether you want to display these on home page. Post Permission is shown beside forum title, and Moderator Column is an additional column that displays moderator names or moderator group names for that specific forum.If you decide to enable the Moderator Column a link will be displayed that points to either the user's profile or the user list of that particular group.

  • Hide unselected category on forum homepage?

    • Decide whether to display a collapsed menu for unselected categories.

    • Yes = Show only the selected category and all the forum under it.

    • No = a collapsed list for the unselected categories will be shown.

  • Allow Online User Tracking

    • Tracks online users and display their names on home page, message list, and message content pages.

    • Also, this is required to notify member of new Private Message with Pop-ups.

    • This setting will slightly decrease the performance of the forum + increase the log size of the database (see Shrink Log Size Online).

    • Allow hiding from online list: when enabled, users can choose not to be shown on the online user list in his profile setting. However, admins can still see all the users regardless of users' preferences. * new in version 2

  • Allow Users to Hide Profile? * new in version 2

    • Decide whether to allow users to hide their profiles (an option will be shown to users in their profile setting). If a person chooses to hide their profiles:
      • his name will be hidden from the member list.
      • his public profile page will be hidden
      • his info will be hidden when he posts messages


    • Admins can still see the person's info regardless of user's setting.

  • Disable IMG Code in Signature

    • This is useful if you don't not want your users to use [img] or [image] codes to link image files in their signatures.

  • Show parent message author when viewing messages in flat style?

    • When "yes", a reference (a link with the name of the author of the parent message) will be shown beside each message's subject which can bring users to the exact position of the parent message.

    • This setting only applies to Flat and Simplified Flat viewing styles.

    • When "yes", performance will slightly decrease.

  • Show a short version of message when mouseover on topics link? * new in version 2

    • When "yes", a short version of the message body will be shown beside to user when mouse over the topic link in topic list interface.

    • When "yes", bandwidth usage will slightly increase.

  • Preference for "today's posts" and "posts since last visit" * new in version 2

    • Choose either to display all posts or threads only. If you are running a very busy forum you should choose "threads only".

  • Poll Creation; Poll Tracking

    • Select the method you wish to use the poll function. These are global settings.

  • Allow forum subscription

    • Whether or not to allow members to subscribe to forum and/or thread.

    • Subscription level can be modified in the forum management interface (forum/thread/both).

    • As already noted, you need to use at least CDONTS in the e-mail component setting to enable this feature.

  • Max. Private Msg

    • It is like "<%= PMInbox %> size limit" in Hotmail.

    • User will store PM in his <%= PMInbox %> or his own folder, and over time PM's can be pretty database space consuming. Use the setting here to prevent space waste.

    • 0 means you want to disable this feature.

    • Message stored in <%= PMSentBox %> is not affected by this limit.

  • Allow Upload in PM

    • Choose whether or not user can attach files in PM.

    • You can also set the size + file extension limit here.

    • To set file extension limit, use "/" to delimit different extensions; e.g. "txt/gif/jpg" (without quote).

  • Flood Control

    • Prevents users to post continuously to the forum (a global setting).

    • This is for security purposes, and normally "1 min" is a good choice.

    • User will be notified when he violate this restriction.

    • Moderators and Admin's are not limited by this setting (hopefully you choose your mod's wisely).

  • Time limit for message Edit and Delete

    • 0 = member can edit and delete at any time

    • Specify the duration in days before a member can still manage his message (edit or delete)

  • Allow avatar

    • This refers to admin specified avatars in the /avatar folder (the small picture displayed in member info column in the message content page).

    • If no, then user won't be able to choose avatars in that particular folder. Even if user already chose an avatar, it won't be displayed.

    • It is better to enable this feature than to allow members to upload their own avatar (see below).

  • Allow Users to upload avatar

    • Specify whether to allow users to upload their own avatar.

    • Uploaded avatars are stored in member's own folder in the /upfile directory.

    • Remember, "avatar" will be displayed under member info column in the message content page, whether uploaded or admin specified.

    • Current upload Image Dimension limit: (<%= (Application(dbName&"leftframe")-5) %> x <%= (Application(dbName&"leftframe")-5) %>) (width x height).

    • You can change the size and the extension restriction for uploaded avatars here. * new in version 2

  • Allow Users to upload their profile photo

    • Profile photo is shown in his public profile page.

    • You can choose to disallow, allow linking from URL, allow upload, or allow both.

    • Current upload Image Dimension limit: (<%= (Application(dbName&"leftframe")-5)*2 %> x <%= (Application(dbName&"leftframe")-5)*2 %>) (width x height).

    • Linked photo will be scaled to the above dimension limit and may be distorted; however, if user use linked option (he can specify in his profile) a link to the original image will be provided in his public profile page.

    • You can change the size and the extension restriction for uploaded avatars here. * new in version 2
Mozilla 4+ Browser Body Attributes
class="msg"> If your clients are using older browsers (NN 4.X), you may want to set the attributes for the body tag separately from the CSS definition. This is an optional setting which means it depends on what kind of body style you want.

One common use is to set page margins, e.g.

leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"

Notice: You do not have to write the body tag; only the desired attributes.
class="msg"> No Help Topic at this moment

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