Probably the most important new areaand the first thing you should look at after installing YATis the Users Configuration screen. This page offers a number of configuration options:
Allow User Registration. If set to No, this prevents users from registering for your site.
Require Admin Approval. If set to Yes, this requires you to manually approve all new registrations.
Allow User Self-Deactivation. If set to Yes, this allows users to deactivate their own user accounts via the aforementioned new button in the Your Account module.
Server Can Send Mail? Set this to Yes if your server is capable of sending e-mail; most are.
Notify Admin of User Registration. Set this to Yes to receive an e-mail each time someone registers for your site. This is a good idea if you're requiring manual approval for new accounts so that you know someone's asked to join your site.
Notify Admin of User Deactivation. If this is set to Yes, you'll receive an e-mail when users deactivate themselves. You might use this as a prompt to follow up and find out why that user decided to leave.
Use E-mail Activation? Set this to Yes to enable PHP-Nuke's default confirmation technique, which requires users to receive and respond to an e-mail to activate their new account on your site.
Allow User E-mail Change. If set to No, users won't be permitted to change their registered e-mail address on your site. Generally, that's not a good idea: You'll want your users to be able to stick with you even if they change e-mail addresses.
Validate E-mail Changes. I recommend setting this option to Yes so that any user e-mail address changes can be automatically verified by your site.
Allow User Theme Selection. Set this to No to prevent users from selecting their own theme for your Web site. Doing so forces them to use the theme you've selected, which can help preserve your site's look and feel.
Use Security Code? This refers to the graphical security code PHP-Nuke uses by default. The idea behind the code is that humans can read the code and re-enter a short number, but automated processes (like hacker utilities) trying to access your site will have a tougher time doing so. You can set the security code to be completely off (No Checking) or to be used at registration, login, or both. I do recommend the Registration Only option, since it helps keep automated processes from signing up for accounts on your Web site, which can then be used to post spam in your forums or other content areas.
Suspend Users After. Set this to 0 to keep registered users active forever; set it to another number to automatically suspend accounts that are inactive after a specified number of weeks.
Temp Accounts Expire After. This controls how long PHP-Nuke waits for users to respond to the confirmation e-mail sent to new account registrations. I recommend setting this to a reasonable value, such as 14, so that users who don't respond after two weeks are removed from the database without being activated.
# of Users to List Per Page. Several of YAT's functions allow you to see lists of users on your site; the more users you list per page, the longer it will take PHP-Nuke to construct the list. A setting of 50 or 100 is usually sufficient.
Blocked Username Strings. This sets a list of strings, one per line, that cannot be used as usernames on your site. You might include names or words you find offensive, for example, or that might mislead other users.
Blocked Mail Domains. This sets a list of domain names, one per line, that cannot be used in the e-mail addresses of registered users. You might, for example, block mail domains like hotmail.com if you don't want users signing up with a hotmail.com user account. That'd be an unusual case, though; typically, you wouldn't block any domains.
Username Min Length, Username Max Length, Password Min Length, and Password Max Length. These all set minimum and maximum lengths for usernames and passwords. I recommend that usernames be between 5 and 25 characters (25 is the max PHP-Nuke can handle), and that passwords be between 6 and 20 characters. Shorter passwords will be easier for hackers to figure out, allowing them to log on to your Web site under someone else's account.
Phew. What a list! Actually, some of those optionslike when to use the graphical security codearen't unique to YAT; they're part of PHP-Nuke itself. YAT simply provides a Web-based user interface to set these options; PHP-Nuke, by default, requires you to edit the config.php file located at the root of your PHP-Nuke Web site.
