vForums Support > vForums :: Announcements :: > Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptions....

Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptions.... - Posted By Ross (admin) on 14th Mar 08 at 1:39pm
All Forums (excluding support) will be taken offline for approximately 10 minutes whilst they are upgraded to the latest version of our software. This will be happening at around 21:30 GMT on 14/03/2008
Details of this upgrade are as follows:

Email Validation
A number of users have requested the ability to receive topic notifications or send mass emails. These systems need to be implemented in two stages. The first of these stages is through email validation. Email validation enables users to confirm that they own the email address listed in their profile. At this time it is completely optional for users to validate their email address. Having said that though, users must validate their address to continue receiving PM notifications. The link to the validation page can be found on the modify profile page, next to the "Email Notification" option. An upgrade which will be released at a later date will give forum owners the opportunity to force users to use a valid email.

Topic Descriptions
Topics can be given a description of up to 120 characters. This description will be shown below subject when viewing the topic and will be used as the text for the tooltip when viewing a board.

New Pop-up Topic Tooltip
This is the little box which pops up when you hover over the last post of a board or the subject of a topic. This box contains the start of the post so you can decide if you want to click into the topic or not. Previously, this box had no customization and only displayed plain text. The new version will parse (most) UBBC tags and match your skins colors.

Mini-Profile Template Options
Additional tags have been added for use in the mini-profile template. These tags are:
{rank_name} → Name of Primary Group
{rank_image} → Star Images of Primary Group
{if:secondrygroup}Text{/if:secondrygroup} ← Shows the text when a user is in multiple groups
{secondrygroup_name} → Names of any additional groups
{secondrygroup_image} → Star Images of any additional groups
{if:age}Text{/if:age} → Shows the text if the users age is visable
{age} → Shows the users age
{if:member}Text{/if:member} → Shows the text when viewed by a member
{if:guest}Text{/if:guest} → Shows the text when viewed by a guest



Bug Fixes
There are a number of bug fixes included in this upgrade. The most noticeable of these are:
- "Bump Topic" now works completely as it should
- Sticky topics now keep the order in which they were stickied
- You are scrolled down to the most recent post you viewed in a topic

This upgrade also contains a number of new features as part of our "Forum Maintenance" section. These features are designed to help admins manage their forum and as such can only be used by the main admin account (the one with the username "admin")

Delete Old Topics / Posts
This feature enable you to mass delete entire topics or individual posts from your forum. You can specify a whole range of requirements in a similar way to how you'd use the "Search" feature. You can chose to delete only from specific boards, only topics which have been locked, only posts made by a specified member, only posts which are a certain age or you can delete based on a mixture of everything.
Once deleted via this feature, the posts/topics are moved to the recycle bin for safe keeping. This is done to protect your forum against someone "Cracking" your password, getting into your account and deleting all your topics. However we understand that this can cause your recycle bin to fill up very quickly which is why we've also introduced...

Purge Forum Database
As part of our commitment to ensuring your forum never loses important data we don't completely remove information from the server once it's deleted. Instead, that data is just flagged as being deleted. This purge forum database feature enables you to permanently remove these flagged posts, users, boards and categories from your forums database.
However, for your forums protection, it won't remove any files deleted recently, it'll only delete those which are at least 14 days old.

Change Users Skins
Following on from our new premade skins which were released earlier this week I found I had the need to change all the users skins. I wanted to keep the old skin available for those who have slower internet connections (or simply don't like the new skin) but I also wanted to ensure everyone saw the new skin. This is where the new change users skin feature comes in. It enables you to mass switch users skins. So you can use it to change everyone who is using the "lime green" skin to use your new "cool blue" skin instead.



Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Michael (wrighty) on 14th Mar 08 at 5:18pm
A simply stunning list of features. I can't wait to start working with these as an Admin.

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Alex Bailey (system) on 14th Mar 08 at 6:03pm
The new tags are good because ive got ranked icons and i can now get rid of the written ranks {Cheesy}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Tim (grievous) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:21pm
Very awsome Ross.

Quote:
Mini-Profile Template Options
Additional tags have been added for use in the mini-profile template. These tags are:

{rank_name} → Name of Primary Group
{rank_image} → Star Images of Primary Group
{if:secondrygroup}Text{/if:secondrygroup} ← Shows the text when a user is in multiple groups
{secondrygroup_name} → Names of any additional groups
{secondrygroup_image} → Star Images of any additional groups
{if:age}Text{/if:age} → Shows the text if the users age is visable
{age} → Shows the users age
{if:member}Text{/if:member} → Shows the text when viewed by a member
{if:guest}Text{/if:guest} → Shows the text when viewed by a guest
How exactly do we use that? I just looked in mini profile template section and didn't see anything like that.

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Michael (wrighty) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:22pm
 
Very awsome Ross.

Quote:
Mini-Profile Template Options
Additional tags have been added for use in the mini-profile template. These tags are:

{rank_name} → Name of Primary Group
{rank_image} → Star Images of Primary Group
{if:secondrygroup}Text{/if:secondrygroup} ← Shows the text when a user is in multiple groups
{secondrygroup_name} → Names of any additional groups
{secondrygroup_image} → Star Images of any additional groups
{if:age}Text{/if:age} → Shows the text if the users age is visable
{age} → Shows the users age
{if:member}Text{/if:member} → Shows the text when viewed by a member
{if:guest}Text{/if:guest} → Shows the text when viewed by a guest
How exactly do we use that? I just looked in mini profile template section and didn't see anything like that.


Wait till the update is actually done! {Smile}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Tim (grievous) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:23pm
Oh, I thought it was done.

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Michael (wrighty) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:25pm
 
Oh, I thought it was done.


By reading the first post you will realise:

Quote:
This will be happening at around 21:30 GMT on 14/03/2008

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Marc (cr0w) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:25pm
The update is taking place 1 hour and 5 minutes from now. {Smile}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Tim (grievous) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:41pm
 
 
Oh, I thought it was done.


By reading the first post you will realise:

Quote:
This will be happening at around 21:30 GMT on 14/03/2008
I'm not good with global time, only the time it is for me. {Tongue Out}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Alex Bailey (system) on 14th Mar 08 at 8:57pm
only about 30mins from now. When the upgrade is done , my new forum will be open {Cheesy}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Ross (admin) on 14th Mar 08 at 9:46pm
All forums are now back online and all the new features should be avaliable {Smile}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Marc (cr0w) on 14th Mar 08 at 9:56pm
Looks good, thanks Ross. {Smile}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Nick (nickb) on 15th Mar 08 at 12:06am
Very good features Ross {Wink} Two thumbs up. {Grin}

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Fel!x (felix) on 15th Mar 08 at 1:31am
Great updates, Ross. I really like the new Mini Profile tags =]

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By blanka (blanka) on 15th Mar 08 at 3:43pm
Sweet! I know a lot of forums would take advantage of these features.

Re: Forum maintenance features, Topic Descriptio.. - Posted By Spaz (Sonic) on 17th Mar 08 at 4:13am
Nice updates Ross. {Smile}

Certainly made it easier for me. {Smile}