Invision power board 2 a user guide your guide to creating forums with invision power board

Invision Power Board 2: A User Guide David Mytton BIRMINGHAM MUMBAI Invision Power Board 2: A User Guide Copyright © 2005 Packt Publishing All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information First edition: June 2005 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK ISBN 1-904811-38-8 www.packtpub.com Cover Design by www.visionwt.com Credits Author David Mytton Technical Reviewer Rikki Tissier Commissioning Editor Douglas Paterson Technical Editors Paramita Chakrabarti Niranjan Jahagirdar Layout Paramita Chakrabarti Proofreader Chris Smith Indexer Niranjan Jahagirdar Cover Designer Helen Wood Illustrator Dinesh Kandalgaonkar Foreword Invision Power Board is the culmination of nearly six years worth of work from me and the other developers at Invision Power Services My ideas and designs have developed over this time in different products, but the desire to create a product that is not only feature-rich, but also easy to use, has remained constant My formative years with the Internet began in 1999, and I joined a few discussion boards to help further my knowledge The ability to communicate with other like-minded people from around the world fascinated me The discussion boards of the time were fairly primitive and I began writing enhancements for them My combined background of design and programming gave me a good foundation for improving on the basic formula Invision Power Board is the result of those first tentative steps I have always believed that the best way to develop a product is to garner the thoughts and ideas of the end user and our thriving community of customers is vital to our success Some of the best concepts have developed from a nucleus of an idea contributed by a user of our products This symbiosis is at the very core of our development ideals and this book cements this relationship For the first time, a comprehensive book is available to guide and instruct fledgling administrators on how to get the best out of their Invision Power Board—a product developed in line with the wishes of our customers who are seasoned administrators Although the Internet is a great resource for information, I don’t think that you can beat a good book to hold in your hands to consume the knowledge contained within This book will take pride of place on my bookshelf, fitting in neatly between programming references and instructional guides I hope it finds a place in your bookshelf, too Matt Mecham Cambridgeshire, UK C.E.O & C.S.A Invision Power Services, Inc About the Author David Mytton is a young web developer based in the UK Although he spends much of his time programming for the Web, he is also a keen writer having written articles for web development resource SitePoint.com and International PHP Magazine, as well as his own website These articles included interviews of famous personalities such as Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski (PHP architects and Zend Founders), Matthew Mecham (Invision Power Services CEO and Lead Developer), and Nick Lindridge (ionCube Founder) He does all this in between running his software development company, Olate Ltd (www.olate.co.uk), scuba diving, and fencing Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Invision Power Board What Is Invision Power Board? History Development What is New in IPB2? The IPB Advantage Performance Customizability Maintenance Ease Versatility Example Websites 6 7 8 9 10 Chapter 2: Installation and Configuration Minimum Requirements Licenses Purchasing and the Client Area Installation Step 1: Uploading and Setting Permissions Step 2: Web-Based Installer Your Server Environment Your Database Environment Your Administrator Account Step 3: Post-Installation Conversion Other Downloads Summary 13 13 13 14 16 16 18 19 19 20 21 21 22 23 Table of Contents Chapter 3: Tour: User Front End The Index Page The Member Bar Forums and Categories The Footer Bar Lo-Fi Version Viewing Forums Topics Creating a New Topic BBCode and Smilies Post Options Attachments Post New Topic/Preview Post Add Reply Fast Reply User Control Panel/My Controls Control Panel Index Messenger Subscriptions Personal Profile Edit Profile Info Edit Signature Edit Avatar Settings Change Personal Photo Options Manage Your Attachments Manage Ignored Users E-Mail Settings Board Settings Change E-Mail Address/Password Moderator Tools Searching Private Messaging Compose New Message Message Folders (Inbox, Sent Items, and Saved) Edit Storage Folders ii 25 26 27 27 28 28 28 31 34 34 36 36 37 37 37 38 38 40 40 41 41 42 42 44 44 45 45 45 46 46 46 47 49 49 50 50 Table of Contents Empty PM Folders 50 PM Buddies/Block List Message Tracker Calendar Moderation Summary 51 51 51 52 52 Chapter 4: Administration Panel Tour: Settings Admin CP The Menu ACP Home System Settings Important Settings Settings: Board Guidelines Settings: Board Offline/Online Settings: Calendar and Birthdays Settings: Converge Set Up Settings: Cookies Settings: COPPA Setup Settings: CPU Saving and Optimization Settings: Date and Time Formats Settings: E-Mail Setup Settings: Full Text Search Setup Settings: General Configuration Settings: News Setup Settings: Personal Message Setup Settings: Search Engine Spiders Settings: Security and Privacy Settings: Topics, Posts and Polls Settings: The Trashcan Setup Settings: User Profiles Settings: Warn Setup Summary 53 53 55 56 56 58 59 59 60 60 61 61 62 64 66 67 67 68 68 68 69 71 72 72 72 74 iii Table of Contents Chapter 5: Admin Panel Tour: Forum Control New Forum Quick Setup Basic Settings Forum Redirect Options Permission Settings Postable Forum Settings Allow HTML to be Posted? Allow BBCode to be Posted? Turn on the Quick Reply Box? Allow Polls and Vote Bumping? Posts in this Forum Increase Member's Cumulative Post Count? Moderation Password Protection Sorting Permission Access Levels Create this Forum Manage Forums Categories New Forum Permissions, Edit, and Delete Ordering Forums Settings Permissions Forum Rules Skin Options Resynchronize Delete and Empty Forum Ordering Permission Masks Create New Mask Edit Preview Moderators Add Moderator Multi-Moderation Summary iv 75 75 76 76 77 77 77 77 78 78 79 79 79 79 80 80 82 82 82 82 82 82 83 83 83 83 83 84 84 84 84 85 86 87 87 88 90 90 Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites ISBN: 978-1-904811-80-0 Paperback: 284 pages How to setup, configure and customise this powerful PHP/MySQL based Open Source CMS Install, configure, administer, maintain and extend Drupal Control access with users, roles and permissions Structure your content using Drupal's powerful CMS features Includes coverage of release 4.7 Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal ISBN: 978-1-847192-97-4 Paperback: 380 pages Build your own professional blog, forum, portal or community website with Drupal Set up, configure, and deploy Drupal Harness Drupal’s world-class Content Management System Design and implement your website's look and feel Easily add exciting and powerful features Promote, manage, and maintain your live website Please check www.PacktPub.com for information on our titles A Files and Directories This appendix outlines the Invision Power Board directory structure with a brief description of the contents Directories File/Directory Description cache/ To be used in the next releases of IPB for caching files, images, and content install/ Contains the files used during the installation process ips_kernel/ This contains the PHP source files for the classes, core to application functionality This includes Converge functions in class_converge.php, which allow you to integrate the IPB member system into your own applications on your website The kernel classes are composed of converge, MySQL, image, template, upload, xml, and xmlarchive functions jscripts/ Contains JavaScript source files that are used throughout the templates lang/ The language files used throughout the board lofiversion/ The files that control the design and functions of the lo-fi version of the forum This is a cut-down version designed for use by search engines Files and Directories File/Directory Description modules/ The base for creating your own IPB modules This directory contains an example mod file to help you get started, as well as the subscription manager retail/ Contains the functionality for the licensing of the software and the chat add-on skin_acp/ The skin files (including images) for the Admin Control Panel skin_cache/ To enhance performance, the templates system generates static copies of the skin; these are stored in this directory This improves response times sources/ Contains all the key functions and PHP code Also contains all the functions, with the exception of the seven classes in ips_kernel/ style_avatars/ Contains the avatar packs style_emoticons/ Contains the emoticon packs style_images/ Contains all the images for the main user front-end skin upgrade/ Contains the files used during the upgrade process uploads/ Contains all files, photos, and avatars that are uploaded Avatars are prefixed with av-[memberid], photos with photo-[memberid], and file uploads to post with post-[postid]-[timestamp] 164 Appendix A Files Here is a list of the main files in the root directory of your Invision Power Board installation: Filename Description admin.php Loads the Admin Control Panel functions conf_global.php Contains the information needed to access your database and several other essential configuration options index.php Loads all the forum functions when requested by users ipb_templates.xml Contains all the template code for the templates used on your forum ipchat.php Script used to bridge IPB with the new IP Chat application (www.invisionchat.com) 165 Learning Drupal Module Development ISBN: 978-1-847194-44-2 Paperback: 328 pages A practical tutorial for creating your first Drupal modules with PHP Specifically written for Drupal development Program your own Drupal modules No experience of Drupal development required Know Drupal 5? Learn what's new in Drupal Integrate AJAX functionality with the jQuery library Packt donates a percentage of every book sold to the Drupal foundation Drupal Themes ISBN: 978-1-847195-66-1 Paperback: 312 pages Create new themes for your Drupal site with clean layout and powerful CSS styling Learn to create new Drupal themes No experience of Drupal theming required Techniques and tools for creating and modifying themes A complete guide to the system's themable elements Please check www.PacktPub.com for information on our titles B Further Resources Invision Power Services runs its own 'Community Resource Program'— an approved list of resource sites and third-party resource sites You can obtain modifications, skins, tools, and support from these websites: • • • • • Invision Resource Directory—invisionpower.com/ resourcedirectory/: The official Invision Power Services controlled resource directory for IPB and other IPS products Invision Resource Center—www.invisionresource.com: This site is a full resource and support site providing technical support, skins, and modifications, and lets you upload your own creations as well IBUnique—www.ibunique.com: This site focuses on providing high-quality skins for all versions of IPB as well as other add-ons and modifications Invisionize.com—www.invisionize.com: Apart from unofficial member-to-member technical support, you can download modifications, skins, graphics, and add-ons Invision-It-All—www.invision-it-all.com: IIA focuses on skins and supporting members who create their own skins for IPB It has a wide range of free and commercial skins for you to download Further Resources • • • • 168 Invision Board Essentials—www.ibessentials.com: IBE provides itself on being able to help IPB users get the best support when they need it Apart from advertising your forum here, you can also download graphics, skins, and modifications, and chat with other IPB users Invision Board France—www.ibf-french.com: This site aims to offer support, services, and resources for IPB users who speak French It provides a fully translated IPB version for the French language, and includes support for installation and all aspects of the use of the software It is an official IPB reseller Invision in Russia—www.ibresource.ru: Created specifically for Russian/Slavic languages, Invision in Russia is an IPS-approved reseller providing a Russian/Slavic language version of IPB as well as add-ons, graphics, skins and templates, and technical support IPB SDK—ipbsdk.sourceforge.net: IPB SDK is a library of PHP functions that allow you to maximize the use of the membership system built into IPB without needing to create all the functions yourself It allows full integration, including the PM, avatars, and login and registration systems Appendix B PHP/MySQL Resources The following resources will help you with PHP/MySQL development: • • • • • • • • • Codewalkers: www.codewalkers.com DevShet: www.devshed.com MySQL Developer Resource: dev.mysql.com Olate: www.olate.com php.net: www.php.net PHPBuilder: www.phpbuilder.com PHP Freaks: www.phpfreaks.com Sitepoint: www.sitepoint.com Zend: devzone.zend.com 169 Drupal Views Recipes ISBN: 978-1-847196-96-5 Paperback: 420 pages 94 recipes to develop custom content displays for your Drupal web site Display particular types of content in unique and compelling ways on your Drupal web site Enhance your web site with calendars, timelines, galleries, maps, podcasts, Views Fusion, and more Indispensable resources for Drupal Administrators – Drupal Administration Menu, Views Bulk Operations, ModuleInfo, and Editable Fields modules More than 90 recipes – pick the ones that work best for your web site Drupal Themes ISBN: 978-1-847191-82-3 Paperback: 260 pages Create a new theme for your Drupal website with a clean layout and powerful CSS styling Learn to create new Drupal Themes No experience of Drupal theming required Set up and configure themes Understand Drupal 5's themeable functions Please check www.PacktPub.com for information on our titles Index A active users, tracking, 63 admin.php file, 165 Administration Control Panel board statistics, 117 filters, 116 forum control, 75, 124, 155 forum, recount and rebuild, 127 home, 56 launching, 151 Post Office, 107 profile fields, 157 skin tools, 147 SQL management, 128 starting, 151 statistics, 117 subscription manager, 111 system settings, 56 user management, 92 usergroups, 91 See also users and groups, administration, forum control, administration, and system settings, administration Administration Panel navigation, 55 Advanced Mode, 131 announcements, 68 attachments, 36 avatars, 42 B backups, 128 badword filters, 116 ban filters, 116 BBCode about, 34 adding, 115 allowing, 78 working, 114 block list, 51 board statistics, 117 bot list, mod, 160 buddy list, 51 C cache directory, 163 calender, 51 categories, 27, 82, 138 chmod command, 18 class_converge.php file, 163 composing, 49 conf_global.php file, 165 Converge user authentication, 60 cookies, 61 COPPA, 61 CSS, 131, 141, 143, 147 E e-mailing See Post Office emoticons, 35, 164 F fast-reply option, 37 filters, 116 font, changing default, 131 forum announcements, 68 backups, 128 categories, 27,82,138 creating, 75, 82, 155 deleting, 84 filters, 116 footer bar, 28 jump list, 63 Index maintenance and administration, 115, 127 management, 162 managing, 82 moderators, 87 modifications, 159 online/offline board, 59 ordering, 84 permission masks, 84 promotion, 161 recount and rebuild, 127 resynchronizing, 84 rules, 83 search, 30 statistics, 117 tips, 116 topics, 31 topic listing, 29 viewing forums, 28 See also forum control, administration IPB moderation tools forum control, administration basic settings, 76 BBCode posting, 78 categories, 82 categories, ordering, 82 creating, 155 deleting, 84 forum rules, 83 forum, ordering, 84 HTML posting, 77 moderators, 87 password protection, 79 permission access levels, 80 permission masks, 84 permission settings, 77 permissions, 82 polls, 79 quick reply, 78 quick setup, 76 redirect options, 77 resynchronizing, 84 settings, 83 skin options, 83 sorting, 80 See also forum control, 172 administration and IPB moderation tools FTP, 17 G global actions, permission masks, 87 global permissions, 100 groups See users and groups, administration H hot topic, 71 HTML, posting, 77 I IBUnique, IPB resource website, 167 ignored users, 45 index.php file, 165 inline moderation, 123 install directory, 163 Invision Board Essentials, IPB resource website, 168 Invision Board France, IPB resource website, 168 Invision in Russia, IPB resource website, 168 Invision Resource Center, 167 Invision Resource Directory, 167 Invision-It-All, IPB resource website, 167 Invisionize.com, IPB resource website, 167 IPB Administration Panel tour, 53 Advanced Mode, 131 advantages, components, converting packages to IPB, 21 development, directory structure, 163 history, installation, 13, 16 language support, 114 licensing, 14, 152 purchasing, 14 Index server environment, 19 support, 14 upgrade, 14 user front end, 25 website examples, 10 IPB installation admin account, 20 database environment, 19 permissions, 18 post-installation, 21 prerequisites, 13 server environment, 19 uploading, 17 web-based installer, 18 IPB moderation tools about, 122 inline moderation, 123 multi-moderation, about 124 multi-moderation, adding, 125 multi-moderation, editing, 126 multi-moderation, removing, 126 multi-moderation, using, 126 topic, moving, 126 See also forum control, administration IPB SDK, IPB resource website, 168 ipb_templates.xml file, 165 ipchat.php file, 165 ips_kernel directory, 163 J jscripts directory, 163 jump list, 63 L lang directory, 163 language support, 114 licensing, 14 lofiversion directory, 163 logo, 130 M macros, 143-144 master template, 148 member bar, 27 members See users and groups, administration message tracker, 51 messaging See private messaging moderation moderator groups, 89 moderator tools, 46 moderators, 87, 153 moderators, adding, 88 post-moderation tools, 33, 79 topic-moderation tools, 34 moderator tools, 46 moderators, 87,153 modifications, 159-161 modules directory, 163 multi-moderation, 124-126 MySQL resources, 169 O optimization, 62 ordering, 84 P payment gateways, 111 permission masks creating, 85 editing, 86 global actions, 87 previewing, 87 personal messaging, See private messaging php resources, 169 PHP time formatting, 64 PM See private messaging polls, 79 Post Office bulk-mail management, 110 e-mail, creating, 108 e-mail, filters, 109 e-mail, logs, 110 e-mail, options, 108 e-mail, sending, 109 posting about, 31 access restrictions, 94 173 Index actions, 33 attachments, 36 BBCode, 34 body, 32 fast-reply option, 37 HTML, 77 multiple actions, 124 post icons, 36 post-moderation tools, 33 preview, 37 reply, adding, 37 topic, creating, 34 topic, moving, 126 topic, pruning, 126 tweaking, 71 previewing posts, 37 private messaging about, 49, 68 block list, 51 buddy-list, 51 composing, 49 messenger, 40 message folders, 50 message tracker, 51 storage folders, editing, 50 pruning, 126 R ranks adding, 97 creating, 157 deleting, 98 editing, 98 managing, 97 types, 97 replacement macros, 144 resynchronizing, 84 retail directory, 163 Robots.txt, mod, 159 S searching, 47, 68 signature, 42 Skin Manager, 132 skin_acp directory, 163 skin_cache directory, 164 174 skins board wrapper, 135 CSS, 131, 147 CSS editing, advanced mode, 143 CSS editing, easy mode, 141 editor preferences, 140 exporting, 149 font attributes, changing, 131 images, 147 importing, 150 logo, changing, 130 macros, adding, 144 macros, editing, 144 master templates, 148 search and replace, 149 Skin Manager, 132 skin options, 83 skin set cache, 148 skin settings, 146 skin tools, 147 template, 137 template, categories, 138 template, editing, 137 template bits, 139 template bits, editing, 140 wrapper, 135 smilies, 35 sources directory, 164 SQL management, 128 statistics, 117 style_avatars directory, 164 style_emoticons directory, 164 style_images directory, 164 subscription, 110 subscription packages, 112 supermoderators, 102 suspending, 96 system settings, administration announcements, 68 board guidelines, 59 calender, 60, 63 converge setup, 60 cookies, 61 COPPA setup, 61 date and time formats, 64 e-mail setup, 58, 66 forum jump list, 63 fulltext search, setup, 67 general configuration, 58, 67 online/offline board, 59 Index optimization, 62 personal messaging, 68 posting, 71 private messaging, 68 search engine spiders, 68 security, 69 trash can, 72 user profiles, 72 users, tracking, 63 warning members, 72 T templates See skins topic subscription, 40 topics, 31, See also posting tracking users, 63 U upgrade directory, 164 uploads directory, 164 User Control Panel attachments, managing, 45 avatar settings, 42 email settings, 45 index, 38 messenger, 40 moderator tools, 46 personal photo, 44 profile, editing, 41 signature, editing, 42 topic subscription, 40 user profiles, 72 users, ignoring, 45 users and groups, administration access restrictions, 94 contact information, 94 group options, 94 member settings, 107 password, resetting, 96 profile fields, 157 ranks, 97 security settings, 93 supermoderators, 102 user benefits, 118 user, adding, 97 user, deleting, 97 user, editing profile, 93 user, posting permissions, 102 user, suspending, 96 user, upload permissions, 100 user, warning, 72 usergroups, adding, 99 usergroups, deleting, 104 usergroups, editing, 103 usergroups, global settings, 99 usergroups, moderating, 153 usergroups, promotion, 102 usergroups, types, 98 username, changing, 96 usergroups, 98-104 V validation management, 104 W warning members, 72 wrapper, 135 175 ... Author David Mytton Technical Reviewer Rikki Tissier Commissioning Editor Douglas Paterson Technical Editors Paramita Chakrabarti Niranjan Jahagirdar Layout Paramita Chakrabarti Proofreader Chris... Personal Profile Edit Profile Info Edit Signature Edit Avatar Settings Change Personal Photo Options Manage Your Attachments Manage Ignored Users E-Mail Settings Board Settings Change E-Mail Address/Password... and how to systematically assess your requirements Introduction to the major CMSs including Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, Plone, Magento, Alfresco, and more A hands-on, easy -to- read guide that