This document contains the following information:
1, Requirements
2, Adding web parts to your page.
3, Creating a forum
4, Rich Text Editor
5, Anonymous posting
6, Adding a post
7, Topic management
8, Email subscriptions
9, Tag cloud
10, Skinning and Themes
1, Requirements
The Lightning Storm Forums (Forums) can run on either Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The forums do require Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your SharePoint server. Full setup and installation steps are included in a document included with the download and it is very important that you read it and complete all steps.
The Forums create hidden lists to store the forum data in. From time to time these lists may need to be changed when you upgrade to a future version of the forums. By de-activating and re-activating the Lightning Storm Forums Storage feature under the Site Features gallery the lists will be upgrade to the latest version, but no data will be lost.
2, Add the web parts to your page.
Once the WSP installation files have been installed and the solutions deployed through Central Administration (explained fully in the installation document) you need to activate the necessary features.
Site Collection Features:
- Lightning Storm Forum
- Lightning Storm Forum Tags
Site Features
- Lightning Storm Forum Storage.
The storage feature needs to be activated on each subsite where you wish to run the forums from, whereas the web parts only need to be activated once per site collection.
When your web part page is in edit mode you can click the link in the web part zone where you want to add the web parts so that the web part gallery opens. You can find the forums and tag web part in the Lightning Tools Web Parts group
3, Creating a forum
If a logged on user is a site collection administrator or has site owner permissions they will see the Forum Management link
Once clicking on the Management link the forum areas will be listed, with the ability to Add a Forum
When viewing the listed forums the forum administrator will also be able to delete a forum group. WARNING - if a forum group is deleted then all its content will be removed.
You can get out of the Forum Admin screen by clicking the Home Link under administration.
4. Rich Text Editor
Forum administrators get the chance to decide whether users see a Rich Text Editor (RTE) that shows the full controls available, or a simplified version with the basic functionality most people will need. The RTE starts with only the basic controls displayed
To add the full control set, put the web part page into edit mode and modify the web parts properties. Listed you will see a checkbox you need to tick. Once ticked and the settings have been saved the RTE will display with the full control set available
5, Anonymous access and posting
General anonymous read access to the Lightning Storm Forums should be configured through general SharePoint Web Application and List settings. This is standard SharePoint functionality.
If you also would like anonymous users to be able to post to your forum you have a further checkbox in the web part toolbar properties for Allow Anonymous Posters. Once this is checked people will be able to post without having to be logged in.
A name and email will be required however by anonymous posters.
6, Adding a Post
Users can choose to either add a new topic or reply to an existing topic. For users to be able to do this they need at least contributor rights within the SharePoint site.
When a post has been entered the user can add keyword tags to it. This will enable the functionality of the Tag Cloud web part which helps users see specific topics associated with a keyword
7, Topic Management
Rating - users can rate a topic when they are viewing it by clicking on the relevant star at the top. The average rating is then calculated and displayed for all users.
Edit - the user who made the original post has the ability to edit their posting. Also site owners or site collection administrators can also edit any posting.
Make Sticky - sometimes you want a topic to stay at the top of the forum topic listing page, forum guidelines may be a good example. This can be done by a site owner clicking on the Make Sticky button.
Lock a topic - if you do not want any more replies to a topic a site owner can click the Lock button.
Delete - A topic can be deleted. If a topic is deleted the all of child posts are also removed.
Mark as Answered - in a question/answer scenario, the orginal poster of a topic or a site owner can make a topic as having been answered. This will show the topic as having a green tick next to it.
8, Email subscription - a user can subscribe to an entire forum, so that they receive notifications whenever a new topic is posted, or an individual topic so an email is sent whenever a new reply it added.
9, Tag Cloud - If your users add tags to their forum posts then you can add the Tag Cloud Web Part to the same web part page. This will display the tags that have been used the most within your forum, with size of the tag text increasing the more a tag is used. If you click on a tag you will then be taken to a list of topics that have been 'tagged' with that tag.
10, The forums use a number of SharePoint css classes that are used out of the box and by the SharePoint Themes. If you change which theme your site is using you will see that the forums colours change accordingly. For more information on this please check our specific forum css article.