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miniBB®Complete User and Administration GuideMost Recently updated on November the 18th, 2019.Important NoticeThis Document contains almost everything you should initially know about miniBB, however it was composed in the earliest years of miniBB project, and during the next few years only minor changes were made. That's why we must warn you: this version of the Guide doesn't cover absolutely every function and possibility of miniBB, as there's required the big time to review them all. We apologize in advance for possible grammar defects you may discover during your reading, and we hope you'll be patient and understand, that preparing a comprehensive Manual is even a bigger task than coding the Program itself. If you are not sure if some feature exists, or how this and that works, do not hesitate to ask us on our forums. We are always willing to help the people in all questions, which affect miniBB software. |
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Terminology used in this Manual
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CopyrightsminiBB is a GPL project (read more on Free Software Foundation about GPL License), programmed by Paul Puzyrev and Sergei Larionov. You are allowed to copy/distribute/modify all scripts under terms of GPL. You may edit every opened source file which is present in miniBB core package or its extension. Still, if you are using the software under the free GPL License terms, according to the sections 1 and 2c of this License, you are not allowed to remove miniBB copyright attribution link from the template "main_footer.html" (even you may edit it's look or location) and offer miniBB as "your" product or part of website, putting just your own copyright over all forum pages. For removing the link and/or any copyright information, you need to buy miniBB commercial license. If you have removed miniBB attribution link without allowance, it means you have stolen and pirated the software itself. Do you know any good examples of web projects which were successful using a pirated software?.. Before being a thief, think about what it brings you, or rather what it won't bring you. If you want to integrate miniBB into your own software, there are two ways of doing that: a) distributing your software for free with the proper license, you should mention miniBB's authors copyright intact in every script, and you can do that without any persmission from us, since GPL license covers that; b) distributing your software commercially, you should either to keep all miniBB copyright notices as in the free software's case, but if you want to remove all references to us, we need to sign a special commercial agreement, which is discussed individually for each case. |
IntroductionminiBB (an abbreviation of "minimalist bulletin board") is a flat-type (not threaded) bulletin board, discussion forums software, written in PHP and using mySQL or another PHP-compatible database as data backend. "Mini" doesn't mean "nothing". Specially developed for small and medium forum communities, which have less than 100 unique posts per day, miniBB also could be, and used in much larger projects. If you take a look at miniBB settings file, or this manual, you'll find a lot of options, both for users and administrator, which allow full and in-time control over the board. This guide refers to almost all miniBB features and possibilities. It is created both for user and administrator, and is included in miniBB package as the "default" FAQ document. You can use this manual as basic user FAQ for your page under GNU Free Documentation License described below. If you are using this guide as FAQ in your forums, remove all administration and developers guides. Regular users should be informed only about related options. Some options described in this manual require basic HTML and PHP knowledge. If you are on beginner-user level, study it very carefully before applying any modifications to the miniBB package. Remember: this software comes free, but with no warranties. |
RequirementsThere are no specific requirements of the server type, OS, PHP or mySQL version. Every system that supports PHP/mySQL combination, should also support miniBB. We've got reports that miniBB was successfully up & running on Unix, Linux, Windows, Novell, MacOSX servers, with Apache or IIS, or other typical web-server installed. As about PHP or database version, we recommend to use only final and stable versions of these products. It's the question of your own security at first. However, since PHP is growing fast, we may also recommend to study the most up-to-date requirements page at miniBB.com. Before installing miniBB, make sure you have PHP installed on your server, and you have mySQL host, login and password information which you'll need to put into the configuration file. |
InstallationFiles listThe current miniBB version has the files & folders structure mentioned below: |
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You could not rename forum's root folders, else the software won't function properly. Depending on the installed add-ons, optionally, there may be also various plug-in script files located under the abovementioned folders. |
Setting up the software: Step #1Doesn't matter the miniBB version or the add-ons you're going to install, at first try the miniBB Compiler, taking care of your time and health. This tool allows to automate the process of manual installations, making miniBB setup possible in a minute. Whatever package you have on output, will be compatible with everything listed in this chapter below. Before you are going to install miniBB, at first, you already should have a web-hosting space and the registered domain, under which your forums will reside. One copy of MiniBB could be executed on one domain only. Hosting package should support PHP and mySQL. * Check miniBB requirements page to make sure your hosting has everything to run the forum. There should be a mySQL database available, and you should know its name, login, password and host name where it resides. This data is required for the miniBB installation. If you don't know what is a mySQL database, try to search the web first. On many hosting plans, there are available administration tools like cPanel, where you could create a database on your own. In most cases your database should be set in UTF8 encoding; for making it sure you could execute this SQL command: alter database DB_NAME character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci; where DB_NAME stands for your Database Name. Read more about configuring the Unicode database properly below. mySQL's user name, password, host and database should be known and well-working in advance. According to the mySQL's access privileges, it must be a "super-user", which is allowed to create tables. Many users don't know a lot about these values, and get errors like Database/configuration error. or Database/configuration error (DB is missing)., and are filling our support staff with the same type questions all related just to improper setup of mySQL. miniBB doesn't use anything specific for connection to database - they are only regular PHP/mySQL functions. If you will get such errors via Installation, it will mean you have specified wrong settings. Unpack 'minibb.zip' package somewhere on your disk, where 'minibb.zip' stands for the basic free version, or for the compiled package. Be sure you are unpacked all files and folders match the original folders structure on your disk as it's provided in the package. Make sure you have [IMG], [LANG], [TEMPLATES] folders extracted, and they are contained with proper files. You should transfer all miniBB package files and folders to the place under your hosting, where you would like to see your forum running. Use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client for that; hereby you should have FTP access (login and password) to the server. If you don't know what is FTP and how to use it, try to search the web first. Use a qualified FTP client program for this purpose, because files should be not broken or binary-converted when transferring on the server. Our FTP client recommendation is Total Commander. When all files are transferred, make sure you have uploaded them all, and the files/folders structure matches the original. Compare all uploaded and original files by size, one-by-one, to the original package. It is a very common mistake, when some file has been not uploaded in full (during the connection error, or FTP client reset error), and all that may give an additional error report when executing miniBB, so it will not execute partially or in full. For example, this is a reason for common error reports like "TEMPLATE NOT FOUND", "Fatal error.", "...failed to open stream: No such file or directory in...", "Failed opening ... for inclusion..." etc. By default, in the basic mode, MiniBB doesn't require special file permissions. On your disk, locate the file called setup_options.php which contains almost every common option of miniBB. Open it for editing in some plain text editor. Here and further, modify all miniBB files with a qualified text editor! Our recommendation is Notepad2. This editing program, or similar are not storing additional newlines, spaces or breaks before <?php and/or after ?> tags, and it doesn't change the original structure of the file. Having something extra in the file may cause problems with your forum program. For example, you will be unable to log in, and kind of such error will appear: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at.... Under the settings file, you will find a lot of settings, but it is not required to edit all of them in this 1st step. We will edit only some of them, and will explain the others later. Let's begin.
Also, pay attention also to the option $pathToFiles, which is described below. It's not a subject of changing if your miniBB program is running smoothly. However on some operating systems like Windows, and under some server configurations, it will be strongly required, that you set full absolute path to your scripts, so they can be included via PHP's include function properly. Also, many third party libraries functions available in PHP, may require this option to be set as full path (GD or Aspell, for example). After you've done editing of setup_options.php, save it and update on your server. Then proceed to the Installation itself. |
Automatic InstallationInstallation of miniBB is very simple and takes less than a minute. After you did the basic configuration described above (did you?..), locate http://yourdomain/forums/_install.php (this URL stands for your own URL) in your browser. If you have configured everything properly, it should open miniBB installation screen, where some of your server's security options will be automatically detected. Read everything carefully and continue installation, following instructions on that screen. Usually, it takes couple of seconds to create all database tables and admin account on forums. MiniBB is also possible to install manually. This is recommended only for professionals having troubles or limitations with mySQL database. For manual installation, execute commands located under _install_mysql.sql file and reset admin's account in the admin panel, clicking the proper link. After installation is completed, delete _install.php and _install_mysql.sql files from the forums folder directory for security reasons. |
Creating forumsminiBB engine is using cookies for registered users and admin log in. PHP sessions could be used optionally, but we don't recommend it because of weak search engine mechanisms on sessions. Please refer to "logging" section for more info. So, turn on cookies in your browser for that stuff. Do a login to your admin page. Usually is "bb_admin.php", but since your are renamed this file (did you?..), only you know what is admin panel URL. So, go to that panel, and probably you will be prompted for your admin login and password. Enter them, and you must go into admin panel. If the trouble appears and you're not able to login, double check your cookie path, domain and name, probably change them and, on IIS servers, try to uncomment "$metaLocation" option (see below). There you will see a bunch of options for your miniBB forums. We will describe them later, but now we need to create some forums. So, click on "Add forum" link and... follow instructions on the screen! We guess, it will be very easy to create some forums. Refer to "Supertitles" secton - supertitles are actually replacement for subcategories. Also, we don't recommend to give forums "large names". Be as laconic as possible. First, it is more rememberable, second, large names do not fit in topics or threads listing pages. Search cralwers like Google also don't like them. When you enter miniBB as administrator, you are also logged in as simple user. You can make posts under your name, edit other posts, make deletions etc. We'll talk about it later. Only one: by default, you should also see "admin panel" link beneath every page. And you can automatically reach your panel following this link, each time you are signed in as admin. |
CustomizationConfiguring the software: 2nd stepAt this moment, your miniBB should be running already! Go to index.php and check this. But, there is a lot of other options that probably you want to change. Let's refer to setup_options.php again. Note for PHP newbies: //$a='b'; string actually means nothing, and this setting will not work in any case, because this statement is COMMENTED (two slashes before). Removing slashes means UNCOMMENT or ENABLE this setting. For changing setting, change its content between apostrophes (''). Numerical settings may also not contain apostrophes.
That's mostly all in making an advanced miniBB setup. After that, your forums should work in all aspects, you could create some test accounts and proceed to the verifying of database charsets and configuration described below. |
Setting up your forums & database encoding properlyInitially miniBB has been planned to run in native 1-byte encodings only, which suppose ISO- or Windows-oriented. Even by now, if your forum runs only in one language, which has its own 1-byte encoding, like for example 'iso-8859-1' for purely English forums, and there's supposed that it would not contain messages and usernames on any other international languages having non-latin symbols (if we don't suppose spam of course), and if it's not supposed the other interface language but English, it's still better to have it running in this encoding. Because: running forums in a native encoding means all records in the database are kept in 1-byte char mode, even if these chars are non-latin. Also, if whatever non-latin is posted on your board, it will be automatically converted to an HTML entity containing this char in the HTML table. So, besides taking double less space, 1-byte strings are faster in searching/finding in database; also earlier versions of PHP, which your hoster may have installed by now, may only support 1-byte string by default when executing string functions like 'substr_count', 'strlen', 'strtolower' which all are extremely important in how the forum script handles strings and texts. However the world is going out to new areas each day, and sometimes you may experience your content still needing non-latin symbols and text present; also if setup your forums to have different language interfaces, specially those languages having non-latin characters, UTF-8 is the only way to go on. In this case, you may switch to UTF-8 encoding, or simply called "Unicode", which is often called as "de-facto" in the web industry nowadays, and often considered as the only proper one by HTML code validation robots. UTF-8 has it pros and cons. On one hand, it allows to handle mostly all encodings which exist in the world languages, making your forum opened, literally, to anyone. However every non-latin symbol present in the database, will take 2 bytes instead of one; such records are more heavier in search, specially if we talk about case-insensitive search. You have to set up UTF-8 database on your hosting server properly to make it work even after restoration of your backup, which also should be very carefully installed and executed. Note that pure latin symbols are still present as 1-byte even in UTF-8, so there could be a mix of records which are easily found and which are not found at all. Also, some earlier PHP versions do not have default string functions to work with UTF-8, like it's mentioned in the above paragraph, but your hoster may also not support the special "mb-" library functions which do this. That's why in the miniBB script we use sort of complicated functions, which are based on regular expressions for this case. It's very important to start and continue running your forum in the initial encoding only. If you start in let's say 'iso-8859-2' or 'windows-1251' and then decide to switch to 'utf-8', it's first of all related to the database conversion difficulties, which could be not an easy thing at all, 'cause mySQL database is very capricious regarding this case. So, whatever encoding you're going to run on, the following steps are must-have to verify at first before your forum goes public:
Note #1: if you'd like your forum having no problems with non-latin chars in usernames, always allow only Alpha-Numerical chars in usernames, with possibly some extra encoding-independent chars - like it's allowed in the $userRegName option in the default configuration. Putting extra non-latin chars in this option (you simply need to listen all possible one-by-one to allow them in username), make sure you save setup_options.php in UTF-8 encoding with no signature, like mentioned here. The last step to check if you have properly setup an UTF-8 mode, is to create a backup of your current "test" forum database; save it on your local computer, unpack if necessary, and open the data file in a default text editor for editing. You should see all UTF-8 chars present 'as is', naturally you should read them amongst the mySQL commands. If you will see kind of garbled characters, that doesn't work for good; however it's not terribly bad either. The most important thing, is that in this case you should have a backup which you could restore later on the database with a similar configuration like yours. I.e. this database should have all character sets and collations like your current one has. Note#2: if something doesn't work (on Registration/Login/Search/Backup stages), before you submit the next step, you could try to enable 'mysqli_set_charset' option which is present in miniBB 3.4 and later versions (mysqli module only). Before the closing ?> tag of setup_options.php try to put one of the following: $mysql_set_charset='utf8'; OR: $mysql_set_names=array('utf8', 'utf8_general_ci'); This sets the default character set to be used when sending data from and to the database server. This or that may work on various version servers; however the first method is preferred. In most cases, this should stricty enable utf8-mode for databases even having 'latin1' on 'client', 'connection' or 'results'. Having this set up, execute dbs_check.php like mentioned above, and it should show:
character_set_database: utf8
These are enough settings for running the database in UTF-8 mode; all other settings may be even 'latin1' (but of course, if you make it all 'utf8'/'utf8_general_ci' it's the most proper way. Note#3: it's important to check how mySQL handles the 'lower' function applied to strings or text, specially this affects usernames which could contain unicode characters. Only if mySQL is properly configured to handle lowercase, this will protect you from accounts which look very similar, but are different by just one uppercase or lowercase letter. Sometimes mySQL couldn't handle it properly, so the Registration script couldn't compare the common usernames in lowercase, this may bring sort of undesired results on some forums. It also affects case-insensitive logins. If your mySQL doesn't support case-insensitive mode for mySQL, most likely you should set $loginsCase option to FALSE to avoid confusion amongst members. The FALSE value of this option forces anyone to enter their username considering lowercase and uppercase letters, as they were registered. If $loginsCase is set to TRUE, and mySQL doesn't support lowercase comparision, unicode-based usernames will fail on ignoring the case. Also, in this case most likely you have to make your forums for registered-members only ($allForumsReg=TRUE;) - so Guests couldn't manipulate the lowercase or upperase to imitate existing accounts. The same affects the search function. If a unicode phrase is searched, a special mySQL configuration is required for case-insensitive search; if it's not configured, the unicode search will only return results which are recorded 'as is' in the original message, regarding the original transcription. |
TemplatesTemplates are used to separate HTML code from PHP. They are located in "templates" folder and are regular HTML files (or TXT files - if we talk about email templates - read below). Similarly to PHP scripts, templates are free and opened to modify and customize. And similarly to PHP scripts, for templates modification you have to use a plain simple text editor like Notepad2. Avoid WYSIWYG editors, as they could add something unnatural to what is purely "hand-made". All templates are coded with the W3C recommendations and standards in mind. If you decide to modify templates, refer to the current page building principles. Customizing templates, try to leave all variables in their positions, as they all are important. Variables format is similar to the regular PHP "variable variables": {$...}. Templates parser transforms all such variables to their values (HTML content or anything else). Follow the same format, when plugging-in a new variable. Some templates are used in different scenarios. For example, user_dataform.html is used both for registering a new Profile and editing Profile, main_post_form.html appears on all posts, topics and editing pages, also in Private Messages. Pay attention to email templates (filenames beginning with "email_" and ending with ".txt"). These templates are used in sending automated forum messages. They have a special format: the first line of every template should be SUBJECT>>...<<. Between "SUBJECT>>" and "<<" there should be put the Subject of a certain email message. Avoid removing this line, and keep the proper format of it! If you add or modify email templates, translating into your own language, make sure to save them with Unix-type line endings (LF). Editors like Notepad2 allow to check it easily; go to the menu "File" -> "Line Endings". Other text editors could provide a similar feature. It is important to keep such type of linefeed, because some server-side mail transfer agents (like Postfix) dislike something other than Unix-type line endings, and will add junk to messages. If you check the miniBB option named $eeol, above it describes more of this subject. In main_header.html, you will find page title defined as <title>$title</title>. Avoid removing or changing this. The Title is changing dynamically according to the page, f.e., on the topic page it becomes Topic's name, and on topic lists it becomes Forum's name. For some other forum pages, it is also automated. This is a very important feature, which helps search engines to index your forum properly. That's why we recommend to think about the "valid" forum names: as short and descriptive they would be, as it's better. in the header template, also take care about other search-engines-related META-tags like "keywords" and "description". |
Custom templatesThere is possibility to make a custom template and call it from the script. For example, you need to create separate page before user registration (agreement): you can add any custom template, which is not included in miniBB. Design your template as usual (all script pre-defined variables also work), put it in "/templates" directory and call from the script like: index.php?action=tpl&tplName=custom_template where tplName is a name for your created template (in this case, "custom_template.html"). In that way you can also create stuff like "Most loved topics and answers" with the direct list of topics, any FAQs, manuals, description pages, agreements etc., etc., as like as the whole site! |
Language packsFor international (non-english) users, we offer "language packs" feature. You can get them from our "Downloads" page. If you have not found a pack for your language, please translate it basing on the English (or other) translation, and send back to us. This way you may help many users from your country, which also choose miniBB. Language packs can be found in forums "lang" directory. Usually, only "eng.php" pack is included for default english language on the board. Language pack name is changed in options file. Language pack simply contains PHP variables with their values. Note for editors: use ` instead of ' in the sentences, or use slashed apostrophe \'. Technically, it is better to use apostrophes (' ') instead of quotes (" "), because of the engine's speed increase. We hope, it is pretty simple to understand, what's going on inside of language pack, if you want to change it. Despite there are more notes (and any language pack should contain these settings):
Other variables are in assorting order. While working on miniBB, we have added them in "order of appearance". If you will see a string looking like "Language variables miniBB vX.X", it means that, variables after this string were added or changed for corresponding version. If we add more features, we will also add variables, and for better finding they will be added in another section. Language packs describe ALL language used in board, incl. admin panel. Important: language pack's filename can have only of 3 letters (examples: eng.php for English, ger.php for German, fre.php for French etc.). On a multilingual forum where more than 1 language is installed, and if you are using board's emailing features, you will probably need to create emailing templates for each language separately, naming them with corresponding prefix. For example, if you want English and French interfaces available, and make it possible for registered users to change their preferred language in Preferences, do the following:
Having multilingual forums, be always sure you have installed additional, or other than English languages successfully. Specially test any processes related to the email notifications: new user sign up, notification about new post made, password's restoration. If your language is installed improperly, it may cause the software working wrong. If you have multilanguage forum, it would be a good idea to create many manuals on each language, naming it manual_LNG.html, where LNG is the prefix for your language pack. By default, only manual_eng.html is included. If there is no manual for user's language, empty page will be displayed. Please note: some variables specified in language pack, are both used in PHP scripts and JavaScript interface notices. That's why in some places it is not suitable to use apostrophes in your custom translation. This specially affects 3rd party language packs not checked by miniBB team, or for example, the variable called $l_accessDenied, which could be edited upon special rules on forums, and some other variables from the premium add-ons, which are mentioned in plugins instructions. If you are experiencing troubles posting a messages or getting a JavaScript error on page, it could be the reason of the wrong interpretation of apostrophes. Check the JavaScript Error Console of your browser for errors. Important: if you create a new, or modify an existing Language pack, make sure you save it with Windows-type line-endings (CR+LF). Editors like Notepad2 allow to check it easily; go to the menu "File" -> "Line Endings". Other text editors could provide a similar feature. This is necessary for auto-recognition of the Language title in the Profile (the script: bb_func_inslng.php). |
Skins: CSS fileCSS (cascading style sheet placed in /css/default.css) is designed to fit all font colors, table borders and sizes on the page in one file. It is included only once in main_header.html. It is W3C compliant. You can edit it as you wish, to fit your forums design to your page's design. Even if you don't know CSS, it is very easy to change mostly a couple of colors in HEX, fonts and sizes in pixels/points. Some example CSS skins downloadable from our site can also contain icon packages and image backgrounds and it's easy to add your own background to any CSS skin. You can find skin parameter description in CSS file itself - all main parts of it have small notes explaining the meaning of subsequent font/color/border and other parameters. |
Administrative options |
Admin panelYou can go to the admin panel manually typing in your browser admin panel's filename which you have entered in options file. But usually, you only need to login as admin into forums, and you'll see admin panel link at the bottom of each page. Admin panel is very small and very simple. Here is the list of options:
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"Hidden" admin forums options |
Private (closed from public) forumsOnly site owner can define private forums and users which are allowed to post and view them. Edit bb_specials.php file, find variable $clForums=array(); and add $clForumsUsers[]=array();. $clForums array defines closed forums ID(s), and $clForumsUsers[] elements defines users which are allowed to post in this forum. Here is an example:
$clForums = array(1,3,6);
That means: forums with IDs 1,3,6 are private. Users with IDs 2 and 5 are allowed to post and view forum under ID 1, users with IDs 10 and 11 are allowed to post and view forum under ID 3, users with IDs 12 and 22 are allowed to post and view forum under ID 6. If you are able to think logically, it must not be difficult for you to set these arrays, and it be more simplier for you to edit this file once, else for us to write giant interface, which would be out of concepts of miniBB. If you don't want to have private forums, leave these arrays blank (but don't remove them!). Note 1: when setting $clForums array without $clForumsUsers array, you won't get any results, and these forums will be available to anyone, until you define user IDs, which have access to a private forum. Specify empty $clForumsUsers array for some forum, even if it has no users allowed. Another words, these settings are working only together, not separately. Note 2: it is not necessary define admin ID (1), because admin can enter any private forum and has full access to it. Note 3: topic titles from private forums don't appear on statistics, last discussions, user info and search pages, and first forums page, too. Anyway, if allowed user or admin is logged, they will appear everywhere automatically. Archived (read-only) forumsSite owner can create so called "archive" forums. In read-only forums, nobody except admin or defined moderator can make or edit posts. Edit bb_specials.php with array variable $roForums in it. Like in private forums (see above), add read-only comma-separated forums IDs into this array. Replies-only forumsSite owner can create so called "post-only" forums. That means, users can do anything except for creating new topics in these forums. It is very useful, if you combine your forums with guestbook or administrative news flash, for example. Edit bb_specials.php with array variable $poForums in it. Like in private forums (see above), add read-only comma-separated forums IDs into this array. In post-only forums, nobody except admin can make or edit topics. Example: $poForums=array(1); That means, forum with ID 1 is "post-only". If you have "post-only" forum as guestbook, for example, or just want to redirect user to some thread exactly when he is clicking on forum's title to view topics, you can define it in bb_specials.php as $redthread array. Example from our forums: $redthread=array(8=>355); means when user visits some forum with ID 8, he will redirected to the topic with ID 355, so the full URL will be like action=vthread&forum=8&topic=355. This is optional feature, it is not necessary to include this array if you don't need it. Custom member titlesBy default, miniBB doesn't use ranking system (user ranks like 'Administrator', 'Member' are displayed only, and if it is anonymous user, nothing is displayed). We have special solution addon for displaying user ranks basing on their posts amount, but it is possible to define special user rankings, for "special" members (for example, most-active-poster-of-all-time). Open bb_specials.php for that, find $userRanks array, and edit it. $userRanks=array(1 => 'Boss', 17 => 'Team member', 9 => 'Team member'); That means, user's rank with ID 1 is Boss (of course! :), and users with IDs 17 and 9 are "Team members". These rankings will be displayed under nickname in every post. In this way, you also can define so called "special avatars", when image is displayed instead of rank. Just provide full image URL as the rank's description. Registered-users-only forumsThese forums mean, that only registered (and logged correspondly) users can make new topics, new posts and edit their messages here. Use this setting only if you want to separate some forums for all and registered only members at the same time. Use general setting variable $allForumsReg (see above), if you want to make registered-users-only forums for everybody. Variable $regUsrForums=array(); in bb_specials.php means array of forums IDs which are protected. Example: $regUsrForums=array(1,2); That means, forums with ID 1,2 are only for registered users. In a case of registered-user-only forums, the post-topic or post-thread box with login information WILL APPEAR even if user is not logged in. User will be able to enter his login/pass to make a post. Anonymous or incorrectly logged users will be informed with "Access denied" message. In many cases, they can loose the information they typed, so please warn users of your board someway, that they must register before making any post! In the latest releases, we have defined language pack's variables for it, they are called $l_anonAllowed, and $l_anonDisallowed, and contain the text appearing near each message form, if user is not logged in. Moderators definitionModerators are people helping admin in managing the forums (read more in moderators section. Array of bb_specials.php named `$mods` defines the the set of forums/user IDs of members, which are allowed to be moderators in these forums specifically, or have some other moderator functions in other sections. Example:
$mods=array(
means that user with ID = 9 is the moderator for forums with IDs 1 and 2, and user 996 is moderator for forum 1. Moderators have only access to a specified forum. Displaying list of moderators is available on the first forums page. In default version, it is hidden. If you want this list to be shown under each forum's row, modify templates/main_forums_cell.html if you have a "regular" forums layout (having set $statsPageModern=FALSE;), or templates/main_modern_fcell.html (having set $statsPageModern=TRUE;), and paste {$moderatorsList} (for example, directly after {$forum_desc}). It will display usernames of moderators for the current forum. If there is no moderator specified, nothing will be displayed. Excluding certain forums from recent discussionsIf you want to exclude some forum from "Recent discussions" list, you can set it in the bb_specials array $lastOut. For example: $lastOut=array(6); excludes forum with ID 6 from "Last discussions" list on the first page. It's not necessary to add this new value if you don't need this. Sorting specific thread in DESCENDING orderYou can specify the ID of the thread (topic), which messages can be sorted in DESCending order. By default, every thread is sorted in ASCending order. Specially useful for questbooks. For this, set new array in your bb_specials.php file: $themeDesc=array(THREAD_IDs); where THREAD_IDs can be array of IDs of topics. For example: $themeDesc=array(355,11); will set DESC order for topics with ID 355 and 11. Note that this option will not affect page listing in last discussions and topics list. When some topic is splitted by pages, last replies will be available when you click on topic's title. If you have such kind of sorted thread (like guestbook), it is better to exclude it from last discussions and set the exact redirect from forum's title (see "Post-only forums" and $redthread). When you set this kind of topic, near its title, users will see an icon from /img/topic_reverse.gif. Deleting messagesOnly admin is allowed to delete user messages. Admin needs to be logged into the system. For deleting any message, go to the topic/thread list and click on "Delete" on the top of the message. JavaScript alert should appear; click "Ok", and the post will be deleted. After delete, message is not available for recovering. We are not keeping Recycle Bins. NOTE: you can not delete FIRST message of the topic. That's because the first message in thread list is TOPIC TEXT in reality. If you want to delete first message, it means you want to delete the WHOLE TOPIC. For this, see "Deleting topics". Deleting topicsAdmin or moderators are allowed to delete all available user topics (moderator - for each specified forum); also if $userDeleteMsgs setting is defined, this is possible for regular members, too (for their own topics/replies). Login, go to the bottom of topic page. You will find the link "Delete topic". Click on it. JavaScript alert should appear; click "Ok", and topic will be deleted, with all associated posts, too. Click on "Cancel", and you'll keep the old things. After delete, topic is not available for recovering. No Trash Cans. "Cleaning up the board" solution. When your board runs for a big time, you'll probably want to remove some old necessary topics. miniBB has a smart solution build-in, how to do it easy (beginning from version 2.0 RC2). Login as admin and in your Preferences, set default sorting to "New topics", then go to some forum, which you want to clean-up, and go to the last page of topics within this forum. Another words, begin the cleaning from the oldest topics to the newest topics. Go inside some topic, review it, and if you find it unnecessary, delete it as described above. After that, you will be redirected to the page where topic was previously found; near next topic that you need to check, you will find a little mark '»'. This will help you to not lose the last topic you stayed on. Editing messagesBoard administrator can edit any message from the forum at any time, plus, if it is "new topic text", he can edit also topic title. Moderator can edit any message within allowed forum at any time, and also change topic's title. For editing the message, click on "Edit" link on the top of each message in posts list (it appears when allowed person is logged in). When editing message, admin or moderator can choose, either this message could be edited by user after, or not. Beginning from version 2.0 RC2, by default, all messages become opened for further editing; however, checking the box marked as " If you want to override "strike through Edit" text near checkbox, when editing a message as admin or moderator, just add $l_editLock='Mark as edited and lock post'; in your language pack (if $l_editLock variable is set, it will overwrite default setting). Message author can edit topic's title only, if administrator has set necessary option (see above). When admin or moderator edits his own message, "Edited by" string will show his name instead of simple "Admin" or "Moderator" title when editing/disabling another's message; at the same time, if admin or moderator do not check " Moving topicsOnly administrator can move topics from one forum to another. Moving topics is a specific operation, we don't recommend to do it often (since many users will not understand what's going on). Do it only if topics thematics is not the same as the one of a forum. After decision, login as admin, go to the bottom of the topic page, click on "Move topic" and move topic correspondly to the forum you want. You can move topic only to the "another" forum, else there is no sense for this action (don't move topic to the same forum). When moving topics, only forum info is updated, nor datetime or anything. If topic is moved from one closed forum to another, and subscribers are NOT in this forum, their subscriptions will be DELETED. Locking topicsThis is very smart "censorship" operation, which prohibits users from making new posts in special topics. For locking topic, log in as admin, go to the bottom of each page. You will find kinda "lock topic" link. When you press it, topic will be locked. On an old place instead of "lock topic" you should see "unlock topic" link. Click on it, and topic will be unlocked. Both topic's author (if he is a registered user) and admin can lock/unlock topics. Even if admin has locked this topic, registered author can unlock it - if the corresponding value not set in your options (see $userUnlock option above). Beginning from version 2.0 RC3, it is also could be prohibited, that topic's author can not lock his topic at all (see $userUnlock option above). At the same time, when topic is locked, nobody from participants of topic is not able to edit his message anymore. "Stickying" topics"Sticky topic" means the topic, which will be shown on the top of the topics list every time. This is useful for some announcements or really hot discussions, which you want to present first. Sticky topics appear ONLY in topics list. Last discussions page stays untouched! Last discussions is actually fresh meat, there is no necessarity to show sticky posts every day, in the time when new stuff is going. Sticky topics are available for setting both for admin and moderators. For stickying topic, go to the bottom of the thread and find the "Make sticky" link. Just click on it. When the topic is already sticky, you will find the "Make unsticky" link. Sticky topics also can be locked. If you lock sticky topic, and then unlock it again, the sticky status will be kept, and vice versa. Viewing subscriptionsEntering topic, logged admin can view which users are subscribed to this topic ("Subscriptions" link). Entering view panel, admin can also delete unwanted subscriptions, checking boxes near user's email. Note: if there are no subscriptions, link will not appear. "Preferences" for adminActually, admins preferences doesn't change anything special. As usual user, Admin can go to that panel and edit something, but all forums-working datas (Admin email, login and password) are taken from options file. In the admin panel, you will find operation called "Restore Admin data in database", clicking on it, you will automatically copy (or insert) your options data to corresponding Admin field in database. Then you can choose another email and other stuff (ICQ, for example) that will be shown on the "about user" page. So, your email shown in the above mentioned user info page can be independent on the email in the setup options file. If you are using "Direct email" plugin, you can set another email for emailing admin, so you can have 2 different emails for system messages and direct user emailing. |
ModeratorsIn miniBB concepts, moderators are digital persons who are allowed:
Moderators have no admin's privileges and have no access to the administration panel. Moderators privileges are splitted by forums. Each moderator can be defined only by administrator in bb_specials.php file (see above). Each moderator has special description near his nickname (defined in $l_moderator variable in language). If moderator has special rank, his rank will be displayed instead of it. |
Forums-wide user options |
Users hierarchyThere is "liberal" users hierarchy in miniBB. Topics can be made both by anonymous users and registered users. Let's see what happens.
User info is displayed on the separate page. On the threads page, you'll find only user's nick and, if this user is registered, a "member" beneath. Clicking on it, you'll get all possible info about user, which either is specified/allowed or not (see below). NOTE: by clicking on user's nickname, you "quote" his nickname in the reply form! User's loginUser login form is located on every topics or threads page, as well as on the first page. On the topic page, you are able just to log-in without posting any text. Login and password credentials are stored as a cookie in encrypted format (MD5 by default, but possible to recode in bb_cookies.php for custom secure algorithms). Depending on the forums setup, user login can expire in a different time (this is set in $cookie_expires option). Cookies renewing algorithm also allows users to stay logged for a longer period of time even after the browser is closed (this is set in $cookie_renew option - as soon as an expiratiod period becomes smaller than this time, and if a user is logged in at that time, then the cookie is reset for another expiration period). If you are aware of your account, do a manual logout before leaving the forums. Guest name is remembered in a cookie during the expiration period. Starting with miniBB v3.4, there is possible to use a forum's account Username, or Email as a 'login name'. Previous versions of miniBB support only Username as a 'login name'. User's languageRegistered users can change their board's interface language in their profile, choosing from dropdown list. However, administrator of multilanguage board also can set some links for anonymous users, so they will be able to view the board on desired language. For this, you need to put the link containing variable "setlang" and the value corresponding to the language file name. Example: http://.......index.php?setlang=rus will display board in Russian; however this setting will not affect logged-in user. User's registration (Sign Up)For registering, just click on "Registration" menu and fill in the form. Necessary fields are:
Depending on what option current forum has, you can be registered just after filling the form, and can login to forums straight forward after it. Otherwise, if administrator has set avoiding of open registration, you'll need to check for the password your email first. When open registrations are forbidden, your password will be generated by the system, that's why you need to enter the correct email-address. Beginning from the version 2.0 RC4, it is allowed for admin to disallow user registrations (set $enableNewRegistrations=FALSE; in setup_options.php), but at the same time, to register them, logging as admin and visiting the link under ?action=registernew. For example, paste in your templates/admin_panel.html: <!-- Register new user --><li><a href="{$indexphp}action=registernew">New user Sign Up</a></li> this link will drive you in registration form. Enter necessary user data, click "Submit" button - you will see regular registration message, and your new user will be created with the data you provided. An implementation for those who want to open forums only for REALLY trusted users! |
New topics and repliesNew topic form is placed at the bottom of each topics listing page. You need to type topic's title ("New topic") and body ("Message"). At least, "New topic" field must be filled in. If you write in it and don't write in "Message", message will be automatically equal to topic's title. New post form is located at the bottom of each threads page. Note: if the anti-spam protection is enabled (usually it is), you can make posts and topics only once-per-defined-time. Usually, this time is 1-2 minutes - and it means, you can make posts not often than 1 per 1-2 minutes as well. Email notificationsEmail notifications can be enabled or disabled by forums admin. Usually, on large forums they are disabled. If enabled, every user who makes a post, can subscribe to them. Alternatively, there us also a way to make notifications available without posting some text. Notifications are sent to user's email when someone replies to the topic after this user. Users can subscribe to notifications even if they are not topic authors. Users can also unsubscribe from notifications. For that, got to the desired topic and find "Unsubscribe" link instead of notifications checkbox, and just click on it. According to the setup, user may receive notifications on custom language (in multilanguage forums). Admin receives notifications on default board's language. Automatic links highlightingIf you are using links like http://www.minibb.com (beginning with "http://", "https://", "ftp://", "www" or "mailto:"), they are automatically converted to the clickable hyperlinks. But, when checking "Disable" box, links ARE NOT automatically highlighted, both as BB-codes (see below). |
BB CodesminiBB doesn't support straight HTML code, it is displayed like you type it. However the message text can contain so called "BB-codes" - special codes which are transformed to the allowed HTML code upon submission. Currently, miniBB supports the following codes: |
| Codes |
| [url=http://SOME_URL]HYPERLINK TEXT[/url], [url]http://SOME_URL[/url] |
| Transformed to |
| <a href="http://SOME_URL" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HYPERLINK TEXT</a> |
| Explanation |
| Puts the text between URI tags with "nofollow" attribute. |
| Special Notes |
| Guests are not allowed to use this tag; registered members are allowed to use it only if amount of their postings is greater than specified under $allowHyperlinks option. This limitation doesn't affect the admin. |
| Code |
| [urlc=http://SOME_URL]HYPERLINK TEXT[/url] |
| Transformed to |
| <a href="http://SOME_URL" target="_blank" >HYPERLINK TEXT</a> |
| Explanation |
| Puts the text between URI tags with no extra attributes. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to admin only. |
| Code |
| [nourl]SOME URL or ANYTHING ELSE[/nourl] |
| Transformed to |
| SOME URL or ANYTHING ELSE |
| Explanation |
| Removes the link attribute from any kind of URL which can be transformed into link. Useful if you would like to provide an URI but without the referenced tag. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. |
| Code |
| [imgs=http://SOME_URL]ALTERNATIVE TEXT[/imgs] |
| Transformed to |
| <a href="http://SOME_URL" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://SOME_URL" alt="ALTERNATIVE TEXT" title="ALTERNATIVE TEXT" style="width:150px" /></a> |
| Explanation |
| Puts the tag for the external picture which can be enlarged when you click on it. Available extension of the images are gif, jpg, jpeg, png. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. |
| Code |
| [img=http://SOME_URL]ALTERNATIVE TEXT[/img] |
| Transformed to |
| <img src="http://SOME_URL" alt="ALTERNATIVE TEXT" title="ALTERNATIVE TEXT" /> |
| Explanation |
| Puts the tag for the external picture which is displayed in the thread with no applying to size. Available extension of the images are gif, jpg, jpeg, png. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. This tag is also used for the smilies add-on. |
| Code |
| [b]SOME TEXT[/b] |
| Transformed to |
| <strong>SOME TEXT</strong> (SOME TEXT) |
| Explanation |
| Puts the Bold attribute for the text. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. |
| Code |
| [i]SOME TEXT[/i] |
| Transformed to |
| <em>SOME TEXT</em> (SOME TEXT) |
| Explanation |
| Puts the Italic attribute for the text. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. |
| Code |
| [u]SOME TEXT[/u] |
| Transformed to |
| <u>SOME TEXT</u> (SOME TEXT) |
| Explanation |
| Puts the Underline attribute for the text. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to admin and moderators only. |
| Code |
| [font#HEX_CODE]SOME TEXT[/font] |
| Transformed to |
| <span style="color:#HEX_CODE">SOME TEXT</span> |
| Explanation |
| Puts the color attribute for the text. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to the admin and moderators only. HEX_CODE must consist of 6 chars numerical color code in Hex format, for example red is FF0000. |
| Code |
| [quote=SOME NAME]SOME TEXT[/quote], [quote]SOME TEXT[/quote] |
| Explanation |
| Puts the quoting block in the text which differs from the main text by another background, font style and possibly other attributes. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. |
| Code |
| [hl]SOME TEXT[/hl] |
| Explanation |
| Puts the highlighting block in the text which differs from the main text by another background and styling (for example, programming quote, special excerpt etc.) |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everyone. |
| Code |
| [alignleft|right|center]SOME TEXT[/align] |
| Explanation |
| Aligns the block of the text by the left, right or center. |
| Special Notes |
| Available to everybody. |
|
The codes could be properly nested, for example you can put a Bold tag for URL; however you should follow the order of the code. If the Bold code opens first, it should be closed last. The codes could be typed in UPPERCASE or lowercase; but there should be no spaces in tags themselves (for example [ b ] text [ /b ] will not work, [b] text [/b] will). Above the message form, when you compose new topic, new reply or edit the message, there are buttons which help to apply the styling to your message in BB codes format quickly. Highlight the text you have wrote in the form, then click the button to apply the attribute. In some cases, like for URL or IMG tag, you will be asked to enter additional attributes. In Internet Explorer, scripted windows must be enabled to use this feature. Quoting messagesTopic posters can quote other messages. There is no "quote" BB-code included, as on some bulletin boards. Instead of it, you can use "italic" style to separate quotes. For better comfort, there is a "quote" link near every post made. For making a quote, you need to select some text and press this link. Selected text will be automatically inserted into reply box at the bottom of the page. This feature is based on JavaScript code and works only in newest browser versions. Specific or old browsers users may experience some troubles with it. Locking topicsTopic authors can lock their topics, if they think it is correct. In order to do it, topic author needs to be logged in. At the bottom of the topic's page he must see small "lock topic" link. Clicking on it, topic becomes closed. Nobody except topic author or administrator can lock the topic. If topic was locked by admin, topic author can unlock it ONLY if it is defined in forum options (in most cases it's not). Editing messagesRegistered users (and only registered) can edit THEIR messages, but only if they are cookie-logged and only if the time of the message is not expired. For this, just click on "Edit" near each post (if it is your message, you'll see the link, else not). When editing message, "automatic highlights" are replaced with "real" BB-codes, so there is no need to delete them once again. Also, "real" HTML tags are replaced back to codes. Via editing, user can add new BB-codes, links etc. - like in any new post or topic. User can edit only his POST, not topic's title, even if he is the author of the topic. After message is edited by user, info about that is displayed near each post. There is no way to delete your message (and if not allowed, to edit topic's title), if you are topic's author. Only admin can do this. In some cases, after administrator has edited user's message, for user, it is no way to edit it once again. Editing preferencesFor editing user preferences, you need to log in and go to the "preferences" appearing in menu. You can type new data for your account, except login, that can not be changed. If you don't want to change your password leave the password field and go next to the fields you want to edit, you don't need to write your password once more, 'cause are already logged. Then done just press submission button below. This action works exactly like registration: you need to type grammatically correct data. Thus, you can not change your email to the one of someone who already registered (incl. admin's email ;) ). Updating preferences, you don't need to enter password, if you don't want to change it. Just leave these fields blank. Exceptions:
Changing user passwordLogin, go to the preferences, type new password 2 times in "password" fields. Your password will be updated to the new one. Note: after changing password your old password will not be valid, and you will need to re-login on the login page. If you will edit more settings, you'll get the message "not allowed" or something similar. Resetting forgotten passwordminiBB passwords are encrypted using MD5 algorithm. You can decode MD5-hash only with special hacker tools, using forces or dictionaries; it is impossible to decode it in "easy way". As longer password you have, as it more difficult to encode it. If you have forgotten your password, PHP-script can't restore it anymore, but instead, it generates new random password. Follow these steps to get new password:
|
Forums search panelYou can quickly search forums for keywords. Search panel is placed under the "Search" link in menu. You can search text in topics and posts, in topics only, in poster names, in specified forums, by all words, any words or the whole phrase. Newest messages are shown first. Search phrase length can't be more than 100 chars. Minimum length of any word is 3 symbols. As more search parameters you specify, as more longer by time and specific by content will be search results. Search within specified forums is also available. You can either search in all forums or choose a forum you want to search in. Search algorithm tries to perform a search on a comprehend words. By fragment, we mean here fragment of the whole word from the beginning. For example if you search for a word "fox", it will be found in the sentense "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.", also as the word "jump" will be found. But the word "foxy" will not be found, also as "row" won't be found. Searching by whole phrase, script will find "fox jumps over", but won't find "fox dog" - use "Words or fragments" criteria for finding many words in the text at the same time. StatisticsUnder "Statistics" menu, you can get all available information about forums. This is the most "not needed" part of a forum. In statistics, you will find:
You can define period of days which will be used in calculating stats (this setting affects only most popular topics and most viewed topics, username stats are NOT affected). Setting $l_stats_popular, $l_stats_aUsers, $l_stats_viewed in language pack to empty values (for example, $l_stats_aUsers='';), will remove corresponding panel from Statistics page. |
Notes for developersPlease, don't study this section if you are unfamiliar with PHP, mySQL and programming at all, more so - don't even try described below. We are not giving additional support on these topics. They all are working like described; if something is not working on your side, miniBB is not the reason here. Database modulesDefault version of miniBB is supported only by mySQL database. Anyway, we have developed special SQL-functions module which contains basic SQL-functions, which could be extended by another databases, supported by PHP. We plan to work on it in near future, but every developer who can help us in making another DB module is welcome. You'll get all necessary credits. Making a DB module is average simple. Since SQL functions are mostly the same (at least, by logic), in many cases you just need to make another database connection which is supported by PHP, and design database request if necessary. SQL requests mostly are parsed into array pointers, which can be accessed, f.e., via mysql_fetch_row() function. Probably, most databases can support this operation. In other words: just look, how mySQL parser works, and include other commands. Note: don't change names of variables, like $result or $sus, because some are called from the outside script. Below are described miniBB general/universal functions available in setup_mysql.php and prepared for programmers who want to extend plugins via this SQL-module separately. string makeLim (int page,int numRows,int viewMax) Returns SQL-string like "limit 10,20" prepared for inserting in SQL-request. If page=0, returns only single like "limit 10" string. numRows is the amount of total database request rows received via request. vieMax is the maximum amount of rows should be displayed (set in setup_options.php). string getClForums (array closedForums, string more, string prefix, string field, string syntax, string condition) Returns SQL-string like "where id=1 or id=2 or id=3" prepared for inserting additionally in SQL-request. "closedForums" must be a simple array of values which request will be compared to. "more" could be 'where' or simply ''. "prefix" inserts a point "." after table name. "field" is field name which values are compared to. "syntax" is alternatively 'and' or 'or'. "condition" is '=' or '!='. Example: if $closedForums=array(6,7) $xtr = getClForums ($closedForums, 'where', '', 'forum_id', 'and', '!='); returns: where forum_id!=6 and forum_id!=7 resource db_simpleSelect (boolean sus, [string table, [string fields, [string uniF, [string uniC, [string uniV, [string orderby, [string limit, [string uniF2, [string uniC2, [string uniV2]]]]]]]]]) Returns resource identifier on successfull SQL-request or FALSE on failure. "sus" determines either we need to make a first request (if 0) or just go through request rows (1). "table" is table name, "fields" are request fields separated by comma. "uniF", "uniC", "uniV" describes correspondly unique values which is used in additional request like "where id=1", if set. "orderby" specifies field name which is used in ordering result, and "limit" adds 'limit' statement (could be set via makeLim() function). "uniF2", "uniC2", "uniV2" are another set of additional unique fields. Example: db_simpleSelect(0, 'minibb_topics', 'topic_id, topic_title','topic_id','>','10', 'topic_id DESC', 20, 'topic_id', '!=', 25') returns resource ID for the following request: select topic_id, topic_title from minibb_topics where topic_id>10 and topic_id!=25 order by topic_id DESC limit 20 int insertArray (array insertArray, string tabh) Returns SQL error-number after executing the request like "insert into users (id, name) values (1, 'Paul')". "insertArray" must be prepared simple array of variable names which MUST correspond to their values. In the given example, it should be array('id','name'), and in that case, in the script itself, there must be variable $id and $name, and their values correspondly must be 1 and 'Paul'. "tabh" is table name where values must be inserted ('users' in the given example). int updateArray (array updateArray, string tabh, string uniq, string uniqVal) Returns affected rows amount after executing an update request. In many cases similar to insertArray(). "updateArray" must be the same type array, and "tabh" is table name. "uniq" is unique field's name, and "uniqVal" is it's value. Example: if we have $updateArray=array('id','name'), and variable names, $tabh are the same as in the insertArray() example, and $uniq='user_id' and $uniqVal='2', SQL-command will be the following: update users set id=1, name='Paul' where user_id=2 int db_delete (string table, [string uniF, [string uniC, [string uniV, [string uniF2, [string uniC2, string[uniV2]]]]]]) Executes DELETE request in SQL-query, return amount of affected rows. Field names mean the same as in db_simpleSelect. int db_calcAmount (string tbName, string tbKey, string tbVal, string setName, string setField) Function to get amount of values from table $tbName by criteria $tbKey='$tbVal'; then update another necessary table's $setName field $setField by this amount. Call this function after deleting reply, topic, user, or moving topic, or inserting new reply. Another functions in SQL-module are specific. They either don't fit to described universal functions or are too complex for designing something special for them. You can make your own specific functions, identificating them with prefix "db_" at the beginning. Including in your own PHP scriptIf you are the creator of your own PHP site, you probably have the same header and footer for the whole site, or just want to use another functions that fit into your project and miniBB together. As usual, they are .php files, and are included in, for example, index.php. Since miniBB owns the same index.php in its structure by default, you can change the name of miniBB's index.php to something else, afterall setting $indexphp option in setup_options.php. Including forums from your own script requires a knowledge of PHP and things what are happening inside of miniBB. If you simply include your board using include(); you will get errors like "Headers already sent" or similar. This could happen when user loggs in to the forums, and cookies are set (they can not be set in that case, because some of your HTML stuff goes before include(); ). In this case, miniBB is a stick on two ends. The most efficient solution is to include your board this way:
<?php
where echo 'header'; stands for the output of your common header, and echo 'footer'; stands for the output of your common footer. Most probably you will have completely another paths and filenames; we hope you are able to turn your thinking on for changing them. You may also change $pathToFiles setting in setup_options.php, which will make your life easier with including files from different paths. Keywords-rich and user-friendly URLs using Apache's mod_rewrite engineIf you have Apache server with mod_rewrite module turned on, you probably already know what benefits it could bring you. Bundling miniBB in mod_rewrite mode means overriding default URLs. They won't look like ./index.php?action=vtopic&forum=4 or ./index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=75, but: 4_0.html or 1_75_0.html, or even containing keywords related to topic titles. Such kind of links will be more likely interpreted with search crawlers when referrencing to your website from the other external webpages. It is very important to understand what such kind of URLs would be useful for. URLs could be user-friendly or keywords-rich. Those are different things. "User-friendly" means a very short URL, which could be written manually on paper without mistakes, and that way re-typed easily on the other computer. It also could be remembered fast (depends on your brain's memory resources of course). "Keywords-rich" stands for the URL which contains a lot of keywords in it, related to the topic's title and actually build up on this title. Most-likely if there are more than 3 words in a topic's title, it can't be called "user-friendly" already. However such URLs are useful for SEO, specially in terms when somebody refers to your specific topic in the other website's context. In that case, the crawler gets more chances to apply some keywords to your page in its internal mechanism. miniBB supports both types of such URLs. It's only your choice, what kind of type you will use for your forums. Each of them has cons and pros. Keywords-rich-URLs are useful for SEO and they mean point of the current web context fashion. However if you change the topic's title, the forum script will automatically change the URL, too. It means if it was previously indexed in the crawler, now the crawler needs to eliminate it and reference to the new URL, which appears after 301-header redirection. A lot of redirections, i.e. if the topic title has been renamed often for some reason, means "bad" for the crawler. It is useful only for the forums which do not change their topic titles too often, and most likely 90% of such URLs will not be user-friendly at all. Additionally, such URLs may be useful for English-based forums only. International forums must either contain specific algorithms regarding special characters in topic titles, either to use encoded characters in URLs themselves, which means they have a very limited ability of being transferred via the global web. User-friendly-URLs in miniBB contain digits only (actually, forum and topic IDs). They are forever static, not depending on the topic's title change and not depending on what kind of language the forums use. They are completely user-friendly and short, and may be typed on any computer in the world. We recommend to use them for non-English communities and for those who carry about static longterm content a lot. For enabling mod_rewritten URLs, you need to uncomment and set to TRUE a $mod_rewrite option under setup_options.php. Notice that only links to threads and forums listings will be rewritten that way. There is no special need in changing links to Registration, Statistics, User profiles and other pages. Search indexers need just your content. In the user-friendly mode, hyperlinks are build under the following scenario:
When you are sure that mod_rewrite module is set up correctly on your server, you need to create .htaccess file and put under the forums folder. It should look like this:
RewriteEngine On
where index.php is your forums file (it could have other name, if you renamed it earlier). Make sure that under forums folder you don't have other .HTML files matching the above scheme. They may not be displayed properly. If you don't want index.php interpreted as index.html, remove the second line in the aforementioned code. Your forums manual could be also interpreted as a content page; if you want to avoid it, remove the third line in the code. If you would like to set up the keywords-rich mode for your forum URLs, refer to our "Keywords-rich URLs" package under the Downloads area. Such add-ons are available only for miniBB beginning from the version 2.4. There are different variations of how the URLs could be transformed, and it's very up to you how you will apply them to the forums; it very depends on the forums language, audience and marketing positions as well, not saying you should be an advanced enough coder to make such thing happen. It's very specific. Even for our default forums, we are using currently the modified version of one of the add-ons presented in such package. It is not suitable for everybody automatically - of course, if you want to achieve a really professional result with it. MiniBB is not lame in this aspect. Beginning from version 2.0 RC5, pay attention at "mdrw" variable, it must be set ONLY in .htaccess configuration, telling the script to put "NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW" tags in the HTML header. So crawlers will index your mod_rewrite-like pages, 1_0.html, for example, but not index.php?action=vforum&forum=1. These 2 different addresses point to the same page, and it could be interpreted as duplicated content. So, putting "mdrw" variable, we force the crawler not to index your .php page, if it's URL already presented as the "static" .html. If you use mod_rewrite, providing links to your forum pages from another sources, try to avoid .php addresses for content pages as well. PHP scriptsWhen developing PHP scripts for miniBB, to reduce the overall size of files and that's why speed them up a little bit, we intentionally avoid tabulation, extra spaces and commenting in the code. But the code you see in miniBB scripts, is exact and supplied "as is" right after writing it up, so it's very opened for modifications and friendly to edit. We work on the same file versions, as they are supplied in the official package, as Notepad2 editor provides the full control and easy navigation in such code. You may use extra programs to "tabulate" it on your own, if you feel comfortable to edit it that way; but please, if you provide your own modifications to miniBB community, follow the common strategy of keeping the code clean. |
Upgrading miniBBIf you want to have always up-to-date miniBB version, check for updates constantly. Our RSS feed contains any news related to miniBB new versions. When the new version is coming out, it is recommended for all users to upgrade immediately, because having the newest version you get a bigger chance to keep your forums safe, and all our plugins are tested only with the latest release. As soon you upgrade - as easy will be your next upgrade. For upgrading miniBB, you will need to do the following:
By "core script files", we mean here basic .php scripts, which in most cases are not necessary to edit. You probably could change these files only if you have heavily customized your version. In this case, you are losing possibility to upgrade easily. All core scripts in the package by default have prefix "bb_", also as "index.php", "setup_mysql.php" are also core scripts. Exceptions are:
One file you modify in any case, is called "setup_options.php". This is a settings file, and upgrading miniBB, you should never to overwrite this file, keeping your settings. Additionally, you may add new settings at the end of file, if needed. We are always adding new options at the end of this file in new version. Customizing your board, you probably always will change the template called "main_header.html". It is kept in /templates/ directory amongst other HTML templates. Upgrading miniBB, keep in mind all templates you have upgraded. If some changed template is mentioned in upgrade history, you can either overwrite it, either edit it, changing updated code or variables, and keeping your previous work. Language pack (eng.php or whatever is placed in /lang/ directory) is also subject to update in many cases. Since we ourselves are supporting only English version of the board, other language packs, created by 3rd party, most commonly need to be updated, if English pack is changed. If you have other language than English, or have made some changes even to your default English version, you shouldn't overwrite new original language pack, bud edit your own. miniBB 2.x series releases contain very detailed upgrading history. It is kept in a file called "!UPDATE.txt", which you can download in our "Downloads" section in "Update History" package. This file contains a list of all changes, which have been done from version to version. History begins from the release 2.0 RC1, the first release of 2.x series - if you're uprading from older 1.x series, start checking from this section. Before upgrade, you must get the clue how you'll upgrade (hopefully, you got it from the description above), and to know your current version of miniBB. It is hidden from public for security reasons; however, it is always kept in a file "bb_functions.php". Edit this file and notice your version at the very top. In most common cases, you should close your forums before upgrade, so users don't affect database with new postings or registrations. Rename your default forums index file, commonly "index.php", to "index_u.php", and then set the option $indexphp in setup_options.php as 'index_u.php?'. You can set another filename, of course, any filename. Create a NEW index.php file and put there simple text like "We are upgrading. Please, come again in few minutes!", then upload it to server. In that case, users visiting your forum, will see the warning message, at the time only you will know the name of temporary index file, and will be able to run it in order to see your results after upgrading. When you are ready to upgrade, download latest miniBB release, and start checking !UPDATE.txt file from the version you currently have. For example, if you're having version "2.0 RC1f", find the section "Changes comparision: 2.0 RC1f - 2.0 RC1g" and follow down below the history file content until the end. So you should pass all comparision versions: 2.0 RC1g - 2.0 RC2, 2.0 RC2 - 2.0 RC2a, 2.0 RC2a - 2.0 RC2b etc. Each section provides you detailed information, on which core files you need to overwrite, which customized files you should modify, and which SQL commands you should execute in order for upgrading your database structure. Take all newest files from the latest release, despite they are mentioned as earlier versions. If you will some way notice or remember, which files you have overwritten already, it is not necessary to upgrade them twice, if they are mentioned in the next history sections. For example, "index.php" of "bb_functions.php" are 2 files which are almost always necessary to upgrade. So you just need to ovewrite these files once, despite they are mentioned in many cases. When adding new option(s), language variables, special arrays, take a look at the default file(s) from the latest package - in most common cases, you need to paste these options the same way in your modified files. History file may also contain some non-critical updates, or just mention miniBB changes, which will not affect your old installation. They are mentioned just for your knowledge, and there is nothing to upgrade. After you have done all upgrade changes, test your board, manually pointing to the "index_u.php" file you have renamed before. If there are no critical errors shown from the first step, and you are able to login/out, post new topic and reply - the board should work ok. In any way, if some errors will be found after your upgrade, users will notice you. Create a new topic titled "Forum software upgraded" and notice the users about your software changes. Finally, rename your index file back and put it's name in setup_options.php file. Forums are ready to rock again! If upgrading process seems difficult to you, we are always ready to help you for a reasonable rate. Check our Paid Support section for more details. |
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Ok. Here comes the End of the Manual... but not the Ending! © 2001-2010 Paul Puzyrev, Sergei Larionov, www.minibb.net © 2011-2018 Paul Puzyrev www.minibb.com |
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