Extension Key: chc_forum
Copyright 2000-2002, Zach Davis, <zach@crito.org>
This document is published under the Open Content License
available from http://www.opencontent.org/opl.shtml
The content of this document is related to TYPO3
- a GNU/GPL CMS/Framework available from www.typo3.com
The CHC forum aims to be a full-featured discussion board plug-in for typo3 users. It was created for the City University of New York Honors College and it is designed to serve both large groups (entire student bodies, for example) and small groups (10 or 20 students enrolled in a class, for example), and consequently contains a flexible permissions system. This extension is in active development as of January 20, 2004.
Almost all development for the CHC forum is done by Zach Davis and Lucas Thurston of Cast Iron Coding. We are committed to continuing development of the forum as a way of giving back to the TYPO3 community. We hope you'll consider us for your typo3 development projects.
A few users have been kind enough sponsor the development of the forum with small contributions or with code additions. If you've used the forum in one of your sites, or for a client, please consider making a small donation to the developer or to Kasper, the guy who makes it all possible.
Many thanks to those of you who have made donations, given gifts, or contributed a significant amount of time to the development of the forum:
Gregory Remington, mediatech.netVincent Picou, Dassault SystemsBen Van 't Ende, netcreators.nlSacha Vorbeck, unlimited-vision.net
Thanks as well to those of you who have reported bugs (especially Janno Schouwenburg for his help bug testing), translated the forum into other languages, sent me patches, made suggestions, and been generally supportive! Please report any bugs on the TYPO3 bugtracker (http://bugs.typo3.org) and join the forum newsgroup (news://news.netfielders.de/typo3.projects.forum) to discuss forum development.
The CHC Forum is a frontend plugin that adds an integrated discussion board to your website. This extension was written to be used in an academic setting, although word has it it's being used in other environments as well. The following features are currently included in the extension:
Threaded discussion board: the forum is organized in terms of categories, conferences, threads, and posts.
Backend Module: use the backend module to configure the forum, manage categories and conferences, setup forum usergroups, and run maintenance on forum tables.
Flexible Permissions: the CHC Forum adds an access management layer on top of typo3's page permission system. Conferences can be completely public, or restricted to one or more frontend groups or users (or a combination of the two). This flexible system means that a conference can be set up for anywhere from a handful of users to all users on a site. It is also possible to grant anonymous read and/or post access.
Community Features: includes an interface that allows users to edit their user profile to include a website address, IM screen names (including custom messaging services defined by the forum admin), a photograph (which is displayed next to their posts), and their preferences for the forum mailer. These community features can be disabled, should you prefer a trimmed-down forum. The forum can also output a searchable user list, although this particular feature is still in development. I plan to add private messages and the ability to email users in the next version.
Internal Templating System: the CHC forum uses a templating class to separate logic from presentation. In theory, users should be able to “skin” the forum to server their needs. Furthermore, thanks to the hard work of Ben Van 't Ende, who generously revised the forum stylesheet and default templates, the forum output validates as XHTML.
New Post Tracking: the CHC forum tracks which posts users have read and includes notices of new posts when users return to the forum.
Search Interface: users can search messages in any or all conferences and/or categories; searches can be limited by author username.
Receive New Posts Via Email: users can opt to receive new posts via email. The CHC forum includes a php mailer script which can be set to run via a cron job. This script will mail copies of new posts (and a reply link) to users who have asked to receive new posts via email (configurable on a conference by conference basis)
Post features: the CHC forum incorporates a modified version of PhpBB's post form, which allows users to quote previous messages, include images and links, and apply some formatting to post text (bold, italic, underline).
Moderator Functions: one or more users can be assigned to “moderate” a conference, which gives these users the ability to edit and delete other users' messages.
Ability to include attachments: groups of users can be given the ability to attach files to conferences. Files are checked against a list of allowed extensions and mime types.
Auto-maintenance: using the back end module, it is possible to quickly repair any inconsistencies in the forum tables, which might happen if records are deleted in the backend.
Pruning: the forum can be configured to delete all posts that are older than a user-defined number of days.
As far as I know this forum works in languages other than english and it is compatible with simulate static documents. Furthermore, you should be able to have more than one forum on a site.
cwt_community integration adds buddy lists, private messaging, and a user list to the forum.
The CHC forum opens with a view of all categories and child conferences to which the user has access:
When the user clicks on a conference link, the forum returns a list of threads that belong to that conference. The most recently updated threads appear at the top of the list, as well as the thread starter (author) and information about the most recent reply in the thread. The post form will also be displayed on this page (assuming the user has post access to the conference), allowing the user to create a new thread.
Threads are composed of individual posts, which look like the image below. Note that users can include some HTML formatting in their posts, as well as a picture (inserted automatically). Posts can also contain links to web pages and images.
Users can also edit their profiles to include IM account information, website URL, email address, mailer preferences, and a picture:
As of version 1.3, it is possible to integrate the cwt_community extension with chc_forum. Enabling cwt_community integration will make it possible for your users to maintain a buddy list:
With cwt_community integration, users can also send private messages to one another:
The forum also boasts advanced search functionality:
The CHC forum also installs a backend module for managing categories, conferences, and forum access groups (some people like to use this custom module, other people prefer to use the standard typo3 list view -- you choose!):
