Forum Blog

BuildSitesNow provides an option to create a discussion forum  or weblog on any page of your site. The difference between the forum and blog is mainly in the visualization, so you can easily switch between the two layouts. Each forum/blog is a 2-level hierarchical structure where on the first level we have Postings or Threads (in forum) or Entries (in blog) and the second level are just Comments. In each forum/blog you can have an unlimited number of Postings and each Posting can have an unlimited number Comments to it. The number of comments can be displayed next to each posting.

 

Each forum/blog has options for defining access permissions which allow you to set the level of access you want to give to users. You can provide just read-only access, allow visitors to post messages, or set up each message to require approval before becoming publicly available.  You can define different access to both Postings and Comments for the two types of users: registered and anonymous. Registered are the users that own accounts at BuildSitesNow. They are required to sign in to your forum/blog with BuildSitesNow user name and password. Alternatively, anonymous are those users that do not own BuildSitesNow accounts and post only with their name and e-mail

 

The forums/blogs can be moderated by the site owner and/or an assigned list of moderators. The moderators can approve messages, move or delete postings, as well as edit the postings content.

 

BuildSitesNow forum/blog comes with many other advanced features such as:

  • RSS feeds
  • Notification (digest) on the comments in a given thread.
  • E-mail (cell-phone) based posting
  • Ability to Pin Postings/Comments on the top
  • Word censoring
  • Search
     

Here is how you can land all these great features on your web site. Just like Hits Counter, HTML Snippet and Mailing List the Form/Blog is an advanced element and you will need to enable it before being able to add it on a page. In order to do this roll-over the Control Panel icon in the top right corner in Admin view and select Advanced Elements.

 

Check the box in front of "Forum / Blog" and press Update. The option for adding a Forum/Blog will now appear within the menu of any Area or other object icon. Note that Advanced elements are enabled per working session. So, the next time you login and wish to be able to add an Advanced Element - you should repeat these steps.

 

In order to add a Forum/Blog to a page, just select Add > . The "Add Forum/Blog" form will appear.

 

The forum/blog is a complex element that comes with many options, and it may be difficult to configure them all at once. That's why we have identified the most basic settings and positioned them on the top, placing all secondary and advanced options in three drop-down section panels that can be open by clicking on the "View Options" links.

 

The most common options are:

 

Layout - defines the visual layout of the Forum/Blog. Currently we have just two layouts (Forum and Blog) but will be providing more soon. Some of the options in the display panel are available only for one of these layouts. Title - defines the title of the Forum/Blog. From the Navigation dropdown you can select the type of navigation displayed if the number of messages in your blog/forum becomes more than the Items per Page.

 

In the Display panel you can tweak the appearance of the messages in your Forum/Blog. Some of the options here may not be enabled in the particular layout you have selected.

 

In the Access Permissions panel you define the access to your blog as well as the list of moderators. The Add Posting dropdowns defines the access for adding Postings to Registered users in BuildSitesNow and Anonymous users. If you select Allow - Instant Publish, any posting will be available for all other viewers momentarily. If you select "Allow - Requires Approval" each posting has to be approved by the site owner or moderator in order to become available for the public. The moderator / site owner can decide to delete or edit the posting. If you select Disallow, adding of postings will not be available for the selected user group.

 

The Add Comments dropdowns are the same as Add Postings, but refer to Comments.

 

In Edit Own Postings dropdown you can allow/disallow editing of own postings for registered users. (Anonymous users cannot edit postings)

 

Next in the Access Permissions panel you can select the list of Moderators that will have access to Approve, Edit, Delete, or Move the messages inside this Forum/Blog. The moderators don't have access to edit the forum properties or assign other moderators. In the Look Up field you can fill in a part of moderator's name/email and look for it in BuildSitesNow users listings. The found users will be displayed in Users List, and you can select the moderators in Current Moderators using the  (Add) and  (Remove) interface. All moderators need to be registered users in BuildSitesNow in order to appear in the Users List. They will have to use their BuildSitesNow user name and password in order to moderate the forum.

 

In the Special Features section you can change many of the Forum/Blog advanced settings.

 

The Date Format defines the format in which the date of postings will appear in the forum/blog.

 

The Search checkbox enables the search interface in all the forum/blog postings and comments.

 

The RSS Feed enables RSS feed from the postings in this blog/forum. When selected you can define the Visibility, Mode, Number of postings, Max length of posting and Sorting.

 

Word Censoring is a very powerful feature allowing you to filter or block postings with obscene content. You can define the list of Forbidden Words (put each word on a separate line) and select the Action to be taken when such words are found. Word filtering is applied to postings over the web as well as by email.

 

The Posting by Email allows you to syndicate content to a Blog/Forum by sending messages to a pre-defined email address. The email address you can use will appear next to the checkbox once selected. The rest of the options are related to import of messages. You can drop the lines starting with ">" and limit the number of lines to import to the value defined in "Import only the first [     ] lines" field. In the Authorized Emails list, you can specify all the emails (one per line) from which this forum should accept postings. If this field is left empty, any email address will be able to post content by email to this forum/blog (not recommended). The incoming email messages are treated as anonymous postings. Each posting by email sends confirmation with the status of the posting to the sender.

 

Once all the fields from Forum/Blog properties are set up, you can press [Add] and then publish the page by clicking on message.

 

Now visitors will be able to view/post information on your forum/blog.  In order to post a message click on New Entry (blog) or New Thread (forum).  This will open a new message panel, where you can enter your login/password (or just a name and optional URL/email address if you want to post anonymously). If you use your BuildSitesNow login name and password you will have an option to subscribe for email notification on all comments in this thread (the options are every 6h, daily and weekly digest). Then you have to enter the title of your posting and the posting itself. The posting can be edited by a simplified version of a text and image editor, where apart from basic formatting controls you have an option to add smiley faces and comment text (by selecting the text you wish to comment and press  button.

 

If you want to post more messages using the same username/password, you can check the remember password checkbox.

 

If enabled in the forum/blog settings your photo will appear in the comments. In order to upload your photo, select Personal Info from Control Panel menu. Your photo will be automatically resized.

 

BuildSitesNow provides a PermaLink interface to each posting. This link will remain active even if the posting has been moved. In order to get it, right click over PermaLink and select Copy ShortCut (IE) or Copy Link Location (FireFox)

 

If enabled in the preferences, each forum can have a public RSS feed. The location of the RSS feed is available at the end of the forum on "RSS Feed" link.

 

If you have a custom domain name setup for your BuildSitesNow web site, the RSS and PermaLinks will show up under your custom domain (for example: http://mydomain.com/fb_rss_123456 and http://mydomain.com/pc_url_123456).

 

If you are a moderator / site owner, you need to login in order to enable the use moderator's interface. After login you will see a tool icon in front of each posting. Postings which are awaiting approval will be marked with red icon. Pinned postings will have icon. When you roll-over this icon you will see the options for approve / disapprove, edit, delete and copy-paste postings.