The central elements of the mm_forum message board are the boards themselves. These are grouped in categories. Access to boards and categories can be limited to specific user groups. You can specify, which groups may read and which groups may write in a certain category or board. This allows you, for example to create an internal section in which administrators and moderators can lead internal discussions, an internal board for special work groups or a board that all user can read, but only administrators can write in, that might be used as an announcement board.
The boards contain topics. Each topic represents a discussion on a specific subject. Users' contributions to a topic are represented by posts. In the default view of a topic, all posts belonging to this topic are listed in the order they were written in. Since each topic is usually about one central point of discussion or a problem, there is a possibility to mark a topic as solved, when a solution to the problem has been found. This makes is easier for other users searching for solutions for their problems to see whether an issue has already been solved.
As you know, all posts are organized in topics. So, before writing an own post, a topic has to be created. Topics are created by clicking the “New Topic” button. You will get an input form where you will be able to enter the new topic's title and the text of the first post of the topic. After saving the new topic it will be displayed in the topic list of the regarding board.
Users can reply to other posts. If a user writes a replying post to another post, it will be appended to the same topic. To reply to a topic, you can either click the button “Reply” (who would have thought?) or the button “quote” below a specific post. If you hit the “quote” button, you will quote this post in your new post. This will prove useful if you want to refer directly to something another user wrote.
In any case, you will see an input form that is similar to the one you see when you create a new topic. However, you will not be able to specify a title, since only topics have titles.
In both the topic creation and post creation form you will have access to some predefined so-called BBCodes. These allow you to apply some formatting to your post's text (see the regarding chapter).
If you have completed your post, you can hit either “Preview” or “Save”. If you hit “Preview”, you will see a preview of what your post will look like, but the post will not yet be saved. You can save your post by hitting the “Save” button.
Users have a limited possibility to edit their own posts. A user can edit his/her post, until nobody replied to this post. If you edit a post, you will see the same form you see when you create a new post.
Moderators and administrators have the authorization to edit all users' posts at all times, even if they have already been answered.
The mm_forum extension offers so-called BBCodes allowing users who write posts to format their posts. The advantage of this system is, that on the one hand it is easier to use than a direct input of HTML code, which frightens a lot of inexperienced users. On the other hand, the use of BBCodes is much more saver than allowing HTML codes, since now HTML in posts can be completely disabled, preventing that a user disrupts the page's layout using defective HTML or even attack the visitor's system using implemented Java Script code. All this is not possible.
The most common BBCodes, as they are used for example in other message boards, are already included in the mm_forum extension. Usually, you wrap the passage you want to format with a specific opening and closing tag. Closing tags are marked with a slash ( / ). For example, to print a text in bold type, you might use the following BBCode:
[b]This text is written in bold print.[/b] This text isn't.
The following table presents an overview on the BBCodes that come along with the mm_forum extension. Using the mm_forum backend module, you can configure your own BBCodes (see the Administration ► Tools).
BB code | Description | Example |
[b]...[/b] | Bold | [b]Bold text[/b]. Normal text. |
[i]...[/i] | Italic | [i]Italic text[/i]. |
[u]...[/u] | Underlined | |
[color=COLOR]...[/color] | Prints a text in color. For COLOR you can either specify a color (like “red”, “green”, “black” etc.) or give an hex code like #FF0000 | [color=red]Red text[/color] [color=#00ff00]Green text[/color] |
[url]...[/url] [url=...]...[/url] | Applies a hyperlink to another web page to the text. You can either just wrap the link with the [URL] tags or specify the link inside the opening tag and give a link text inside the two tags. Also links to email addresses. | [url]http://www.typo3.net[/url] [url=http://www.typo3.net]Click me[/url] |
[link]...[/link] | Same as [URL] | [link]http://www.typo3.net[/link] |
[img]...[/img] | Includes an image to your post. For IMAGELINK you have to specify the image's URL. | [img]myimage.jpg[/img] |
The mm_forum extension has got its own private messaging system and you can insert it as a regular page content. In order to do this you must insert the Plugin mm_forum :: Private messaging on your selected page. After this you can go to the frontend and you are now ready to use the private messaging system. In this system you have the following opportunities:
Read private messages: Of course, you can read private messages that other users have sent to you. You will see the message's sender and the message text.
Write new messages/Reply to messages: You can write new messages to other users or reply to messages that other users have sent to you. A pop up search window that updates itself in real-time will help you to find your message's recipient.
Move messages to archive/Delete private messages: To keep your inbox clearly arranged, you can delete messages. If you do not want to delete messages, although they are not current anymore, you can move them into an archive directory.
In order to read a PM you must click on the message you want to read. Now you have the opportunity to answer the message or delete the message. If you want to answer, click on the button “reply”. Then you will get a input form with prefilled input fields. It is the same input form as the new PM form. If you want to change the recipient, click on the button “Search” and you will get a list with all registered users. Now you can click on the user you want to send the PM. If you know the recipients name you can input it in the input field directly. With an AJAX function you will get a recommended list where you can select the requested user name (it is required that you have Java Script enabled for this).
Provided that polls are enabled in the mm_forum configuration tool and that the user that is currently logged in is authorized to create polls, you can attach a poll to each topic. A poll consists of a question and several answering possibilities. Users can vote for one of these answering possibilities. Of course, every user can only participate once on a specific poll. If a user has already participated on a poll or if the poll has expired (see later), he/she will see the poll results, even with a graphical representation.
You can create a poll either on topic creation or afterwards, when editing the first post of a topic. The poll creatino form is part of the post creation form and looks like this:
As you can see, the number of answering possibilities is not fixed. You can add additional answering possibilities to the existing ones or on the other hand delete already existing answering possibilities. Only fields that are filled out will be regarded, meaning, if you leave an answer field empty, no regarding answer will be created.
If you set the poll expiration date, the poll will expire after this date and no one will be able to participate on it any more.
Besides from creating a poll together with a new topic, you can also create polls afterwards. To do so, just edit the topic's first post and you will have the same options as you have in the new topic form. In order to edit or delete an existing poll, you also have to edit the topic's first post. To delete a poll, just uncheck the “Attach poll” checkbox.
Users have the possibility to upload files to the server the mm_forum extension is installed on and to attach them to their posts. Of course, this feature has to be enabled in the mm_forum configuration.
In order to attach a file to your post, select a file from your computer in the file attachment field in the post creation form. Notice the maximum file size for attachments. The default value for the maximum file size is 1 megabyte, but the actual value may depend on the forum configuration. The forum extension will not accept any files that are bigger than allowed. Furthermore, there are some file types that are not accepted by the forum extension. However, these denied file types also depend on the forum configuration. If the file type of a file you want to upload is not accepted, you will notice.
Just hit the “Save” button and your file upload will take place. Notice that, depending on the file size, the upload may take a moment.
If you have uploaded an image file, the mm_forum will display a preview image in the post listing view allowing users to take a look at attached image files before downloading them. However, this is another feature that depends on the forum configuration.
As of version beta 0.1.2, you can set the mm_forum to the moderated mode. In this mode, postings made by users will not appear instantaneously in the forum, but will rather be stored in an inactive status until they are published by a moderator. The idea behind this feature is the possibility for moderators to be able to better control what their users write.
To be able to publish the post that are stored in the so called „post queue“, you have to insert a „List post queue“ content element (see section „Getting started“). You should protect this page against unauthorized access using the TYPO3 internal access control functionalities.
The moderator panel for publishing posts looks like on the following screenshot.
The moderator has different options on what to do with the queued posts. The posts can either be marked to be
published (P): In this case, the queued post or topic will be inserted into the public area of the forum. At the same time, the post/topic will be removed from the post queue so that it disappears from this list view. The post/topic will be visible as any regular post in a usual (non-moderated) mm_forum instance.
ignored (I): If a moderator does not know what to do with a post, maybe because the post's content is, although it does not violate any board regulations directly, highly questionable, while at the same time he wants to publish the remaining unquestionable posts, he can select a queued post/topic to be ignored. The post/topic will neither be published nor deleted and remains in the post queue list.
deleted (D):If a posts violates board regulations or any laws, the moderator can decide to just delete the post without publishing it. The post will not be published and not appear on the post queue list any more.
The moderated mode can be enabled using the mm_forum configuration module.
If you have defined moderators and administrators in the backend they will have some more possibilities in the forum. For example, members of the moderator or administrator group see a special administrator panel on the top of every topic they visit, where a moderator has got some special options:
Topic title: Here you can change the topic's title.
Topic prefix: You can apply a specific prefix to a topic. A list of predefined prefixes is defined in plugin.tx_mmforum_pi1.prefixes. In the prefix listing special view, users have the possibility to have only topics with a certain prefix listed.
Move topic: Moderators can move a topic from one forum to another.
Close topic: If a topic is closed, regular users will not be able to write in it anymore. However, moderators and administrators will still be able to reply to this topic.
Fix topic: Regularly, in the topic listing view, topics are ordered descending by the time the last reply was written. Topics marked as fixed will always be displayed on the top of the topic list, no matter when the last reply was written.
Delete topic: Ok, this should be self-explaining...
Each user is allowed to report a post to the moderators and administrators. He/she must input a reason for this post being reported.
Regularly, this feature is used for users to report posts that violate either the board rules or even laws so that these posts can be deleted and the authors be warned or banned.
If you create the content element Plugin: mm_forum :: Forum and select Reported posts in What to display, all moderators and administrators get a list with the reported posts and check the reported posts.
NOTE: Since the mm_forum extension does not check the user authentication in the post alert listing, it is necessary that you protect this page using the TYPO3 internal user authentication functionality.
The mm_forum extension has got its own search module and you can put it as a normal page content element. But at first you must index your board. For this you must logged in as a administrator into the frontend and go to the page with the search form. There you will find a link to start the indexation process. To make the search indexation automatically, you will have to write your own CronJob which starts the indexation function.
This link is only shown for administrators. After you indexed your board, you can input your search word in the input field and click on button “Start search”. The mm_forum search brings various filter options. These are explained in the mm_forum search quick guide.
