Phorum
http://www.phorum.org

***********************************
***  Creating a forum or folder ***
***********************************

 1. Select 'New Forum' or 'New Folder'.

 2. Fill out this form completely and hit 'Update'.  If you are unsure of
    some information, consult your systems admin.

    Field                  Description
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Name                   This is the name of the Forum that user will see.  This
                           is a required field

    Description            This will appear under the forum name and will tell
                           users about the subject matter of the forum.  This is a
                           required field

    Config Suffix          This is used to allow seperate header, footer,
                           censor and bad* files.  See Other Features for more.

    Folder                 This is the folder under which this forum will be
                           listed.

    Table Name             This is the table name that will store the messages
                           for this forum.  This is a required field, and if it
                           is a new table, it must not collide with any existing
                           table names

    Table already exists   Check this if the table name already exists for this
                           forum.

    Moderation             This determines the level of moderation the forum
                           will have.

    Moderator Email        This is the email address of the forum moderator.
                           This should be given even if there is no moderation.

    Moderator Password     This must be given even if there is no moderation.
                           When filled into the email box of the post form, the
                           moderators post will be bolded and HTML will not be
                           stripped.  This is a required field.

    Mailing List Address   If you would like all forum messages to go to an
                           email address, supply it here.

    Mailing List Return    If you would like all emails sent from forum to come
                           back to a specific address, enter it here.

    Duplicate Posts        Phorum can eliminate some duplicate posts.  This does
                           require and extra couple of queries.

    Messages Per Page      This numer determines the minimum messages that are
                           shown on a page.  Phorum stops displaying messages
                           when this number is met and the last thread is
                           completely displayed.

    Thread Type            Select between multiple level nesting fo messages or
                           single level of nesting.  single is faster but can
                           be confusing.

    Thread Display         Select between collapsed threads or expanded threads.
                           Collapsed is faster.  This only sets the default.
                           Users can select how they want it viewed.

    Read Messages          Select between one message per page or all messages
                           in a thread on a page.  Again like above this is only
                           the default.

    Moderator Host         When moderators post using the moderator password
                           their IP is replaced with this value.  This gives the
                           moderator more anonymity.

    Language               Select the language for the forum.  More files can be
                           found at the Phorum web site.

    Phorum Code            You can allow HTML in your posts through the use of
                           Phorum Code.  See Features below for more information.

    Table Width            This value sets the table width of all tables with
                           exception of the post table.

    Table Header Color     Color in hex value of the table headers.

    Table Header Font Color  Color in hex value of the table header font.

    Main Table Body Color  Color in hex value of the main table bodies.

    Main Table Body Font Color  Color in hex value of the main table fonts.

    Alt. Table Body Color  Color in hex value of the alt table bodies.

    Alt. Table Body Font Color  Color in hex value of the main table font.

    Navigation Background Color  Color in hex value of the navigation background

    Navigation Font Color   Color in hex value of the navigation font.

 3. Before you can see the forum in the forum list, it must be activated.
    Select 'Activate Forum/Folder' and hit 'Continue'.  The forum should now be
    active.  Select the link 'forums' at the top of the page.

Follow steps 1-3 to add more forums.


***********************
***  Features ***
***********************

 1. Multiple forums on one engine.  You can create different header, footer,
    censor, and bad* files for different forums.  Simply fill in 'Config Suffix'
    when creating your forums with a string and then create files named
    header_suffix.inc where suffix is the string you gave the admin when
    creating the forum.

 2. Database independence.  Phorum currently supports MySQL and PostgreSQL.
    To support your databse, convert abstract.php to work with your db.  To
    change the db engine used by Phorum refer to step 1.2 above.

 3. Multi-leveled threading.  This is enabled by default, but can be set off if
    desired on a forum by forum basis.  Select the forum you want to enable it
    for, then select 'Edit Properties'.  Change Thread Type from Multiple Levels
    to Single Level

 4. Emailing readers when replies are posted to a thread.

 5. Phorum Code and automatic URL linking.  As of Phorum 3.3.2, users can
    use Phorum Code to spice up their posts.  Phorum Code is much like the
    standard way many message board systems mark up posts.  Examples:

    [url]http://phorum.org[/url]

        Creates a url that is linked.

    [url=http://phorum.org]phorum.org[/url]

        Links the text 'phorum.org' to http://phorum.org.

    [email]email@address.com[/email]

        Creates a linked email address

    [img]http://phorum.org/logo.gif[/img]

        Creates an image tag that will show that image.

    [b]Bold Text[/b]
    [u]Underlined Text[/u]
    [i]Italicized Text[/i]

        Makes the text bold, underlined, or italicized.

    [center]Centered Text[/center]

        Centers text.

    [quote]Does this quote text?[/quote]

        This will indent the text inside the tags.


    Tags can be combined:

        [url=http://phorum.org][img]http://phorum.org/logo.gif[/img][/url]


    Phorum will also automatically link urls that are inside <>.

        <http://phorum.org/>

 6. Take Phorum up and down from the admin.  This is great for maintenence.
    Select 'Down Phorum' from the main menu, enter the master password and hit
    'Login'.  All requests to the Phorum will now be sent to down.php.  To
    bring Phorum back up, select 'Up Phorum' from the main menu, enter the
    master password and hit 'Login'.

 7. Moderator Privileges.  When the master password or the forums moderator
    password is entered in place of the email address, the message is given
    moderator priveleges.  This includes: the message will be bolded in the
    message list; the host/ip will be replaced with the string specified by
    the moderator under 'when moderator post, replace host with' in the admin
    section for that forum. The post will also be given full HTML privileges.

 8. index, list, read, post, down, and violation file names as well as the
    extension are defined as variables.  This can be changed in the
    'Master Settings' section of the admin.
    NOTE: THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE FILE NAMES.  YOU MUST DO THIS MANUALLY.

 9. User Banning.  You can ban users by email, name, or their IP/HOST.  See
    bad_*.inc for details of use.  These can be created for each forum.  See
    number 1 for details.

10. Allows for censored posting.  There are instructions in censor.php as to how
    to use it.  By default the f word and sh-t are censored for example.

11. Allows for disallowing service to a given author, email or domain.
    Entries in bad_names.inc, bad_hosts.inc and bad_emails.inc will be
    checked for when a message is posted.  If any are present, the user will
    be forwarded to violation.php.  There are instructions in those files
    as to how to use them.

12. Localized text (Multi-lingual).  Additional language files are available at
    http://www.phorum.org/local.php

13. Ability to quote text from original message.  This is not available if
    viewing the messages in "Flat View".

14. Colors, table sizes configurable in Admin

15. Control number of messages displayed in main list.

16. Edit a post or delete entire threads or individual messages.

17. Search Engine (needs improvement)

18. Collapsible threads.  This can be defaulted on or off in the forum admin
    section.

**********************
*** Add-on Scripts ***
**********************

There are several scripts in the scripts dir.  Instructions are included in each
file.

*********************
*** Upgrading     ***
*********************

Upgrading from Phorum 1.x.

There is no direct path from 1.x to 3.1.  If it appears to be in demand, it may
be developed.

Upgrading from Phorum 3.x

Read docs/upgrade.txt for instructions.

