Discussion Forum Management
Installation
Select the portal you wish to add a discussion forum too from your dashboard or list of portals.
Then select the Edit button for the discussion board and the page will expand.
Use this form to create your discussion. Note that once the discussion is created all maintenance is peformed from the forum Administration Panel and not here. After creating the forum the only task this form can perform is to remove the discussion forum.
Administrator
After creating the discussion forum you can login as administrator and add individual forums and administer them in the same way as the traditional online forum.
To login to the forum select your forum from the Help Menu in the portal.
(Note the "Help Forums" menu option in the above goes to the Secure Portal Help forums and only appears if the user is an owner or editor for the portal).
Using the password you entered and the username "admin" you can login to the forum administrators control panel (ACP). It is not recommended to use the admin account as your own, if you would like your account to be an administrators account you can upgrade it from the user management screen in the forums administrators control panel (ACP).
Click the login button and enter the admin username and password your provided above.
The submit the form by pressing the Login button and you will be returned to the forum home page again but notice a new menu option on the top right hand side.
Click this link to login to the Administrators Control Panel (ACP) from where all administration of forums, users and features can be performed.
User Accounts
Depending on your selections at the time of creating the forum a number of user accounts will be included. If you chose to have an account created it will operate like any other user account. A good reason for keeping the Adminsitrator account and your own seperate account is so you can see and operate the forum like any other user.
To login to a user account logout as adminsitrator and use the login form to login with the same username and password you have for the portal.
Usernames and passwords are synchronised only at time of forum creation, this means someone can change their password to the forum and it will be different to their portal password. There is a "forgotton password" facility should they need to recover their password.
Forum Administration
Now that you have created a forum with users you will want to create your own forums for discussions and rename or remove the example forum. To do that login to your ACP. (to be continued....)
