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This is a quick "Getting Started" guide for the Simplest Forum versions 1.4.2 and later. Following these instructions directly after installation should have you up and running with the Simplest Forum in five minutes or so. These instructions take place in the Joomla! site administration.

Installation

Beginning with version 1.4.2 of the Simplest Forum, there are two downloads per release. One package is the the fresh install package, named something like com_simplestforum_1_4_2.zip, the second is an UPGRADE package named something along the lines of com_simplestforum_1.4.1-1.4.2.zip. The fresh install package should be used if a previous version of the Simplest Forum has never been installed. The UPGRADE version should be used if an existing version of the Simplest Forum is already installed. NOTE: If you are running a version prior to 1.4.x, you MUST install 1.4.1 BETA prior to installing 1.4.2. There are some database changes that 1.4.1 takes care of that 1.4.2 assumes. ALSO NOTE: You should not uninstall the Simplest Forum when using the UPGRADE install - it will install right over the top of the existing installation.

DO NOT STOP YET. You must complete the Configuration Settings to ensure that your forum security is set properly.

Configuration Settings

To get started, simply go to 'Components'->'Simplest Forum' and select 'Parameters'. There are four "basic" options and four "advanced" options. Simply altering the "basic" settings and leaving the "advanced" settings alone with give you the traditional behavior of the Simplest Forum. Editing the "advanced" settings will enable post approval process and post name restrictions.

Basic Settings

The "Date Format" field is obsolete and will disappear in the final release of 1.4.0, so ignore it. Next the "Default View Group" drop down list determines which types of users will be allowed to view the forums by default. The "Default Post Group" determines which users are able to post to the forums by default. The "Default Moderator Group" determines which users are capable of modifying / editing posts and deleting posts if necessary by default. All three of the permission groups may be overridden for individual forums in the Forum Edit Screen.

Advanced Settings

Entering a comma separated list of partial words in the "Disallowed Names" field will restrict user's posted names from containing those partial words. This restricts users from spoofing administrative names, moderator names, etc. Leaving this field blank will match EVERY NAME and make your forum useless. Selecting "Yes" for "New Topics Require Approval" will cause new topic posts to be hidden until a moderator approves the post. A "No" setting will cause topic posts to be published directly after being submitted. Selecting "Yes" for "New Topics Require Approval" will cause all posts to be hidden until a moderator approves the post. When "Yes" is selected, this overrides the "New Topics Require Approval" setting. When "No" is selected, this setting is overridden by the "New Topics Require Approval" setting. The final option is a "please leave checked yes" option...Leaving this option as "Yes" will display the "Power by Simplest Forum" indicator at the bottom of the forum which links back to the Simplest Forum website. This helps us keep a large user base with help on our forums and sometimes donations. Selecting "No" will remove the back link completely, but will also keep novices from seeing who powers your forum and consequently lose potential users for our forum.

Save Settings

Once the desired preferences are set, select "Save" from the menu bar to save the preferences.

Creating Forums

Go to 'Components'->'Simplest Forum' and select 'New'. Fill in the "Name" field with the name of the forum, and the "Description" field with a summary that will be displayed on the front end when this forum is viewed. The "Ordering" field will default to the forum being set as #1, which can be modified later from the Forum List screen or from future edits of the forum. To the right is an "Options" section which allows the permission groups for the forum to override the defaults (see the Configuration Settings above).

When finished, click "Save" from the menu bar. Repeat this process for as many forums as you wish to create.

Adding Menu Items

There are three views available for the Simplest Forum, a "Forum List" which lists all of the forums, a "Topic List" which provides a list of topics (the first post in a post thread) for a given forum, and a "Post List" which displays all posts for a given forum. There is also a "Post Edit" view which shouldn't really be there at all - it's totally useless and will be removed from future versions - it is actually there by accident.

Forum List

To add a menu item for a list of available forums, select the desired menu from the Menu Manager, go to the Menu Items page and click 'New'. Select the 'Simplest Forum' component, then the 'Forum List' layout. Supply a page class suffix as desired, introduction text for the entire page, whether or not the "Topic List" should be the default view when selecting a forum or whether the "All Posts" view should be the default view, and a page title as desired. Save the menu item.

Topic List

To add a menu item for the "Topic List" of a specific forum, select the desired menu from the Menu Manager, go to the Menu Items page and click 'New'. Select the 'Simplest Forum' component, then the 'Topic List' layout. From the "Parameters - Basic" section, select the forum to show. Finally supply a page class suffix and page title as desired. Save the menu item.

Post List

To add a menu item for the "Post List" of a specific forum, select the desired menu from the Menu Manager, go to the Menu Items page and click 'New'. Select the 'Simplest Forum' component, then the 'Forum Detail' layout. From the "Parameters - Basic" section, select the forum to show. Finally supply a page class suffix and page title as desired. Save the menu item.

Customizing Forum Display

An example CSS style sheet has been supplied in /components/com_simplestforum/assets/example.css. This file shows how to customize the appearance of the forum list and forum detail views.

Forum Moderation

Deleting and editing of forum posts is limited to users belonging to the permission group set as the "Moderator Group" (see Configuration Settings above). The moderation consists of only three options: (1) approve a post; (2) delete a post; (3) and edit a post.

If "New Topics Require Approval" or "New Posts Require Approval" is set in the configuration settings, a moderator may have to approve posts as they are submitted before they will be displayed to the public. To approve a post:

1. Log in to the FRONT END as a user that is a member of the Moderator Group.
2. Navigate to the forum post that requires approval. The post will appear (by default) in a light red color. There will be a link labeled "Approve this Message" at the foot of the post.
3. Click the "Approve this Message" link. The message will be approved and will become visible to all users with permissions to view the forum(s).

To delete a post:

1. Log in to the FRONT END as a user that is a member of the Moderator Group.
2. Navigate to the forum post to be deleted. There will be a link labeled "Delete this Message" at the foot of the post.
3. Click the "Delete this Message" link. The message will be deleted (Note that child messages will not be deleted).

To edit a post:

1. Log in to the FRONT END as a user that is a member of the Moderator Group.
2. Navigate to the forum post to be edited. There will be a link labeled "Edit this Message" at the foot of the post.
3. Click the "Edit this Message" link. A post editor will appear below the Edit this Message button and the fields will be populated with the values from the post. Enter the new values for the post and click the "Submit" button. The message will be saved and marked with a "Modified" note.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA