Nucleus .Net Core CMS

Forums module

The forums module is a message board which allows your user community to participate in discussions, post questions and answers.

Groups

Forums are always displayed within a forum group, and all forums must belong to a group. Most settings for forums can be set at the group level, but you can choose whether to use group settings or assign settings for each individual forum.

Group Properties
Name The group name is displayed to users in the forum menu and in the administrative user interface.
Enabled Groups can be disabled. Disabled groups and their forums, posts and replies are visible, but users cannot create new posts.
Visible An invisible group is not displayed in the forums menu.
Allow Attachments You can control whether users can attach files to posts. If you allow attachments, you must specify an attachments folder.
Attachments Folder The attachments folder specifies where user attachments are stored.
Moderated Controls whether new posts are visible immediately, or whether a moderator user must approve them first.
Allow Search Indexing Controls whether forum posts and replies are added to the search index. This function is not yet implemented.
Status List If specified, forum posts may be assigned a status. The status list values may contain special values to help automatic assignment of status values, see below.
Subscription mail template Specifies a mail template to use when sending a notification to subscribers when a new post is created.
Moderator mail template Specifies a mail template to use when sending a notification to moderators when a new post is created.
Post Approved mail template Specifies a mail template to use when sending a notification to a post author when their post is approved.
Post Rejected mail template Specifies a mail template to use when sending a notification to a post author when their post is rejected.

If a mail template is not selected, no email notification will be sent for the relevant operation.

Permissions

Forum groups have a set of permissions assigned to roles. When users are in any role with the specified permission, they will have that permission. Forums can be configured to inherit group settings (including permissions) or can specify their own permissions.
View View the group, its forums and forum posts.
Post Create new posts in the group's forums .
Reply Reply to existing posts in the group's forums.
Delete Delete posts, if the current user created it, or is a system or site administrator.
Lock Lock a post. Users can't reply to locked posts.
Attach Attach files to a post or reply.
Subscribe Subscribe to a post or forum in order to receive an email notification when a new post or reply is added.
Pin Flag the post so that its sort order is at the start of a forum's posts.
Moderate Moderator users receive moderator email notifications and can approve/reject new posts and replies.

Forum and Forum Post Urls

Each forum has an url which starts with the url of the page containing the module, plus the "friendly-encoded" name of the forum. The "friendly encoded" name is in lower case, and has non-alphanumeric characters replaced with a dash.

Status List

If the forum has a status list defined, users with edit rights to a post can select a status for the post. When you create a list in Manage \ Lists, you can use list item special values (you can use any text values you like, and these are what are shown on screen):

Special List Item Value
default If a list item with the value default is present in the list, new posts have their status set to this value automatically.
rejected If a list item with the value rejected is present in the list, rejected posts have their status set to this value automatically..

Forums

Use the Forums tab to add forums to a forum group. The Forums tab is not available until after you save a new group for the first time.

Forum Properties
Name Forum name, shown on screen in the forums menu and in the administration user interface.
Description Forum description, shown on screen in the forums menu.
Use Group Settings Specifies whether to inherit settings from the forum's forum group, or whether to specify settings which are specific for the forum.

The other settings and permissions for forums are the same as for forum groups (see above).

Notes

  • System administrator users do not receive moderation notification emails, because system administrators can't be assigned to a role, and roles are used to control which users can moderate forum posts and replies.
  • Users who create a reply or post are automatically subscribed to the post.
  • Users who are subscribed to a forum or post do not receive a subscription notification for their own messages.
  • The forums module includes a content meta-data (search content) provider, which provides content from forum posts for the search engine.

Email Templates

The forums module can send email notifications for:

  • Subscriptions, to inform subscribed users of new posts and replies.
  • Moderators, to inform moderators that new posts or replies require approval.
  • Users who have created a new post or reply, to inform them that their message was approved or rejected.

Email templates are managed by system administrators or site administrators in the Manage/Mail Templates control panel. Refer here for more information on mail templates. You must manually create mail templates for the forums to use. After you create the mail template(s), assign them to the forum in the forum group or forum configuration.

Scheduled Task

You must set up a scheduled task to send forum notifications. Use the Settings/Scheduler control panel to create a new scheduled task. Refer here for more information on scheduled tasks.
Name You can name your scheduled task anything you want. A good example would be 'Send Forum Emails'.
Type Name The type name is selected from a drop-down list. Select Nucleus.Modules.Forums.ScheduledTasks.SendForumsEmailsScheduledTask,Nucleus.Modules.Forums.
Enabled Set the task to enabled.
Inverval Select the interval and interval type. This is how often a notification will be sent to users. The forums subscription email is designed to be a summary of all activity in subscribed forums and posts (per forum module instance), sent as a single email, so you would generally want to set this to about 1 day.
Instance Type Select 'Per Instance'.
Keep History You can set this to whatever setting you require.

Forum Email Data

Email templates for forum messages can use the following data objects:

Site Information on the site which has forums with new activity.
Name Site name.

You can use the site as a parameter for the AbsoluteUrl() extension to create a link to the site. You must provide a UseSsl value of true (use https) or false (use http). You should only use false if your site does not support SSL.

<a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(true)">@post.Subject</a>
Page Information on the forum page.
Name Page name.

You can use the page as a parameter for the AbsoluteUrl() extension to create a link to the page. 

<a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, true)">Click here to visit the forums page</a>
Forums A list of forums with new activity.
Name Forum name.
Description Forum description.
Posts A list of posts with new activity.
Replies Specifies whether to inherit settings from the forum's forum group, or whether to specify settings which are specific for the forum.

You can use the forum as a parameter for the AbsoluteUrl() extension to create a link to the forum. 

<a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, @forum.Name.FriendlyEncode(), true)">@forum.Name</a>
Post An item in each forum's Posts list, representing a post with activity.
Subject The post subject.
Body The post body.
PostedBy A user object representing the user who posted the forum post.

You can use the post as a parameter for the AbsoluteUrl() extension to create a link to the forum. 

<a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@post.Id}", true)">@post.Subject</a>
Reply An item in each forum's Replies list, representing a new post reply.
Body The reply body.
PostedBy A user object representing the user who posted the forum reply. 
<a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@reply.Post.Id}", true)">@reply.Post.Subject</a>

Mail Template Samples

Subscriber Notification

@Model.User?.UserName,

<p>New messages have been posted to forums or forum posts that you are tracking at <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(true)">@Model.Site.Name</a>: </p>
<br />
@foreach (var forum in Model.Forums)
{
  <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, @forum.Name.FriendlyEncode(), true)">@forum.Name</a>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Subject</th>
      <th>Author</th>
      <th>Date/Time</th>
    </tr>

    @if (forum.Posts?.Any() == true)
    {
      <tr>
        <th colspan="3"><h2>New Posts</h2></th>
      </tr>
      @foreach (var post in forum.Posts)
      {
        <tr>
          <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@post.Id}", true)">@post.Subject</a></td>
          <td>@post.PostedBy?.UserName</td>
          <td>@post?.DateAdded</td>
        </tr>
      }
    }
		@if (forum.Replies?.Any() == true)
		{
			<tr>
				<th colspan="3"><h2>New Replies</h2></th>
			</tr>
			@foreach (var reply in forum.Replies)
			{
				<tr>
					<td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@reply.Post.Id}", true)">@reply.Post.Subject</a></td>
					<td>@reply.PostedBy?.UserName</td>
					<td>@reply?.DateAdded</td>
				</tr>
				<tr colspan="3">
					<td>@reply.Body</td>
				</tr>				
			}
		}
	</table>
}
<br />
<div>
You were sent this email because you are subscribed to a forum or post at <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(true)">@Model.Site.Name</a>, or are the
original poster of this forum message.  <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page.ManageSubscriptionsRelativeUrl, true)">Click here</a> 
to manage your subscriptions, or browse to @Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page.ManageSubscriptionsRelativeUrl, true).
</div>

Moderation

@Model.User.UserName,

<p>New messages have been posted that require moderation in the forums at <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(true)">@Model.Site.Name</a>: </p>

@foreach (var forum in Model.Forums)
{
  <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, @forum.Name.FriendlyEncode(), true)">@forum.Name</a>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Subject</th>
      <th>Author</th>
      <th>Date</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="3"><h2>Posts</h2></td>
    </tr>
    @foreach (var post in forum.Posts)
    {
      <tr>
        <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl( @Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@post.Id}", true)">@post.Subject</a></td>
        <td>@post.PostedBy.UserName</td>
        <td>@post.DateAdded</td>
      </tr>
    }
    @if (((IEnumerable<object>)forum.Replies).Any())
    {
      <tr>
        <td colspan="3"><h2>Replies</h2></td>
      </tr>
      @foreach (var reply in forum.Replies)
      {
        <tr>
          <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@reply.Post.Id}", true)">@reply.Post.Subject</a></td>
          <td>@reply.PostedBy.UserName</td>
          <td>@reply.DateAdded</td>
        </tr>
      }
    }
  </table>
}

Post Approved

@Model.User.UserName,

<p>One or more of your forum posts have been approved at <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(true)">@Model.Site.Name</a>: </p>

@foreach (var forum in Model.Forums)
{
  <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, @forum.Name.FriendlyEncode(), true)">@forum.Name</a>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Subject</th>
      <th>Author</th>
      <th>Date</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="3"><h2>Posts</h2></td>
    </tr>
    @foreach (var post in forum.Posts)
    {
      <tr>
        <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl( @Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@post.Id}", true)">@post.Subject</a></td>
        <td>@post.PostedBy.UserName</td>
        <td>@post.DateAdded</td>
      </tr>
    }
    @if (((IEnumerable<object>)forum.Replies).Any())
    {
      <tr>
        <td colspan="3"><h2>Replies</h2></td>
      </tr>
      @foreach (var reply in forum.Replies)
      {
        <tr>
          <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@reply.Post.Id}", true)">@reply.Post.Subject</a></td>
          <td>@reply.PostedBy.UserName</td>
          <td>@reply.DateAdded</td>
        </tr>
      }
    }
  </table>
}

Post Rejected

@Model.User.UserName,

<p>One or more of your forum posts have been rejected <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(true)">@Model.Site.Name</a>: </p>

@foreach (var forum in Model.Forums)
{
  <a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, @forum.Name.FriendlyEncode(), true)">@forum.Name</a>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Subject</th>
      <th>Author</th>
      <th>Date</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="3"><h2>Posts</h2></td>
    </tr>
    @foreach (var post in forum.Posts)
    {
      <tr>
        <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl( @Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@post.Id}", true)">@post.Subject</a></td>
        <td>@post.PostedBy.UserName</td>
        <td>@post.DateAdded</td>
      </tr>
    }
    @if (((IEnumerable<object>)forum.Replies).Any())
    {
      <tr>
        <td colspan="3"><h2>Replies</h2></td>
      </tr>
      @foreach (var reply in forum.Replies)
      {
        <tr>
          <td><a href="@Model.Site.AbsoluteUrl(@Model.Page, $"{@forum.Name.FriendlyEncode()}/{@reply.Post.Id}", true)">@reply.Post.Subject</a></td>
          <td>@reply.PostedBy.UserName</td>
          <td>@reply.DateAdded</td>
        </tr>
      }
    }
  </table>
}
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