| The Forums module also contains its own search feature, accessible through the Search link at the top of most pages in the module. This search function is quite advanced, allowing users to search for specific keywords, a particular author, and so forth. Searching can be restricted to a particular forum or category, to posts within a certain time range, and so forth. The search can also look at topic titles and text, or just the text, and results can be sorted in a variety of ways. The Forum FAQ is prepopulated with answers to frequently asked questions regarding the Forums module. Unfortunately, most of these FAQs are more applicable to the standalone phpBB software from which the Forums module is derived, not to PHP-Nuke itself. Personally, I went into my site's theme files and found the Forum FAQ link by searching for that text, and then I deleted the link, thereby removing the functionality. Users can also access their forum profile, which extends the normal PHP-Nuke profile normally accessible through the Your Account module. In addition to the normal Your Account profile data, the forum profile allows users to configure a number of forum-specific options: Users can elect to be notified via e-mail whenever someone replies to a topic to which the user has posted. Users can be notified when new private messages are received and can elect to receive those notifications in a pop-up window (which is disabled by most browsers' pop-up blockers, unless the browser is told to allow pop-up windows for your site). Users can configure a signature and have it automatically appended to their posts. Users can individually disallow HTML or BBCode, provided you've allowed one or both in the forum configuration. Users can select an avatar image for themselves, by either uploading one, selecting one from the gallery, or providing the URL to one, depending on which avatar method you've allowed in the forum configuration.
 | Sidebar . FAQWhy would I allow HTML or BBCode? HTML is a great way for experienced users to produce better-formatted messages, meaning they can add boldface and so forth to their posts. However, HTML can also be used to include client-side scripts in posts, despite PHP-Nuke's attempt to filter out the script-related HTML tags. BBCode was invented to provide basic HTML-like formatting, without the potential dangers. If you use PHP-Nuke's built-in formatting buttons for boldface, italics, and so forth, you'll see BBCode. It produces text like [b]this[/b] (which would make the word this boldface). What are avatars? Avatars are small graphics (usually about 80 pixels wide and 80 pixels high) that represent a user. Users might choose from an appropriate cartoon, use a small photo of themselves, or even display something that represents a favorite hobby, like a football or a chef's hat. While avatars can make your forums more personable and fun, they do have a potential downside: Nobody gets to preview the avatar graphic, so it's possible for users to upload a graphic that's offensive or inappropriate. If that happens, ask the user to change her avatar, or disable her user account. |
|
|
