SMF2.1:Attachments and Avatars

Work in progress, expect frequent changes.

Please see SMF1.1:Attachments and Avatars, SMF2.0:Attachments and Avatars or SMF2.1:Attachments and Avatars depending on the version of SMF you are using.

In Admin Center > Forum > Attachments and Avatars, administrators can manage attachments: files which have been attached to messages and uploaded to the server; as well as avatars, and thumbnails of attachments. The thumbnails are made automatically, according to settings, at upload. This is a useful area to work out how much space your server is using to store attachments and user-uploaded avatars, which over time can soon become a large figure especially if you have a large membership. Of course the decision whether to delete attachments, when, and how, is personal to every forum and admin. If you are unsure, perhaps discussing it in the Community Forum with other admins would be helpful?

There are five pages/sub-menus here: Browse Files, Attachment Settings, Avatar Settings, Attachment Directories, and File Maintenance.

Browse Files

On these pages, administrators can browse and/or view the Attachments, Avatars, and Thumbnails (of attachments) uploaded to the forum and server. At the top left area, you can choose whether to view Attachments, Avatars, or Thumbnails. The lists have six columns each:

• Attachment Name - This column shows the name of the file that was uploaded, whether attachment, avatar, or thumbnail. The name is also a text link which will open the image or file.
• File Size - This column shows the size of the file that was uploaded.
• Posted By - This column gives the name of the member who uploaded the file. It is also a link to the member's profile.
• Date - This shows the date this image or file was uploaded. Beside or below the date is the subject or topic title of the thread in which the attachment was made.
• Downloads - This column shows the number of times either the file was opened or the image was viewed, depending on the type of file.
• There is no title for this column but it is the checkboxes. By checking the boxes beside file you want to remove, and clicking the Remove Selected button, you can remove attachments, avatars, or thumbnails of attachments.

Attachment Settings

Here you can configure how your forum handles attachments, including thumbnails. Data such as number, size and type of allowed files, including security options can be set here. There are three sections: Attachmennt Settings, Attachment Security, and Thumbnail Settings.

Attachment Settings

• Attachments mode - From the dropdown menu, choose Enable attachments, Disable attachments or just Disable new attachments. These are explained in the little question mark icon to the left of the option.
• Choose the method for the management of the attachment directories - By default, SMF puts new attachments into a single folder. For most sites this is not a problem, but as a site grows it can be useful to have multiple folders to store attachments in. The five options are self-explanatory.
• Attachments directory - This displays the directory or directories of attachments, depending on previous settings.
• Maximum number of files per directory - Enter the number of files you want here, or enter zero for no limit.
• Do not show attachments under the post if they are already embedded in it. - Attachments normally appear under a posted message (either as a thumbnail or text link). But if you embed an attachment, then it will appear both within the message, and below it. This option, when the box is checked, makes the attachment show only once.
• Max attachment size per post - Set the maximum size for the total of all attachments in a single post. If this is lower than the per-attachment limit, this will be the per-attachment limit.
• Max size per attachment - Set the maximum size for a single attachment. Note that the maximum size per post and per attachment allowed by php.ini is 32768 kb.
• Max number of attachments per post - Set the maximum number of attachments per post. Set to zero for no limit.

Attachment Security Settings

• Check attachment's extension - Check this box to enable attachment filtering. If enabled, you can specify in the option below this, which extensions are allowed to be uploaded by your members.
• Allowed attachment extensions - If Check attachment's extension is enabled, you can specify here which attachments are allowed to be uploaded; for example: TXT, DOC, MP3. These three extensions would allow members to upload Text Documents, Word Documents and MP3 Audio files. Type the extensions without caps, dots, or spaces, just a comma between extensions. For the previous example, it would look like "txt,doc,mp3". Warning! - Be careful in your choice of file extension. Some file extensions, such as HTTP, PHP, or JS are a major security risk to your forum or website!
• Re-encode potentially dangerous image attachments - When this box is checked, SMF will try to re-encode potentially dangerous attachments, which offers better security. Note however that image re-encoding renders all animated images static. Also note that this feature is only possible if the GD module is installed on your server.
• Perform extensive security checks on uploaded image attachments - Warning! - The extensive security checks can result in a large number of rejected attachments. Read the details in the question mark icon on the left.

Thumbnail Settings

• Display image attachments as pictures under post - When this box is checked, if the attachment is an image, it will be displayed as an image. Otherwise, there will only be a text link, so that the reader must click on the link to view the image.
• Resize images when showing under posts - If the option above is checked, this option will save a separate (smaller) attachment for the thumbnail, to decrease bandwidth.
• Save thumbnails as PNG- Checking this creates a higher quality thumbnail.
• Adaptive thumbnail memory - When this box is checked, SMF estimates the amount of memory needed to create the thumbnail, and then requests that amount from the server. In rare cases, webhosts might not want to provide this information, so the thumbnail is not created. Or more commonly on shared servers, there might not be enough memory to create a thumbnail. If you notice that thumbnail creation fails often, even on moderately sized images, try unchecking this option. Otherwise, keep it checked.
• Maximum width of thumbnails - Set the maximum width you want for thumbnails. This is only used when Resize images when showing under posts is enabled.
• Maximum height of thumbnails - Set the maximum height you want for thumbnails. This is only used when Resize images when showing under posts is enabled.
• Max display width of posted or attached images - Set the maximum width of displayed images when thumbnail is clicked on. Set to zero for no limit.
• Max display height of posted or attached images - Set the maximum height of displayed images when thumbnail is clicked on. Set to zero for no limit.

Be sure to click the Save button in the bottom right corner, after you finish configuring all the options on this page.

Avatar Settings

This page is at Admin Center > Forum > Attachments and Avatars > Avatar Settings. These options allow you to configure avatars and set up their directories. There are four types of avatars, configured in four sections on this page: Server-stored, External, Uploadable, and Gravatars.

Server-stored Avatars

These are avatars which administrators have uploaded to their server. By default, they should go into the "avatars" directory. But if admins want to add sub-folders, they can create categories of avatars. Members will be able to browse them, and choose an avatar for their profile.

Note that when searching for avatars to use in their forums, administrators should be mindful of copyrights and licenses, and only provide avatars to their forum, which they have permission to use.

• Membergroups allowed to select a server-stored avatar - Choose which membergroups can or cannot use server-stored avatars.
• Avatars directory - The path for the base directory where server stored avatars are kept.
• Avatars URL - This is the URL for the avatars directory.

External Avatars

These are avatars which exist on a third party website or host. The downside of using this feature is that administrators cannot control from which site their members get the avatars, whether the avatars are appropriate for their site, or whether their member has permission to use them.

• Membergroups allowed to select an external URL - Choose which membergroups can or cannot use externally stored avatars.
• Download avatar at given URL - Specify whether external avatars are downloaded onto your own server. Once this box is checked, and the member enters the URL, the external avatar becomes like an uploaded avatar. If it is not checked, the avatar becomes essentially hot-linked, once the member enters the URL. Checking this box may speed up the handling of these avatars. Read the question mark icon window for more details.
• Maximum width of external avatar - Set the maximum width of externally linked avatars. Set to zero for no limit.
• Maximum height of external avatar - Set the maximum height of externally linked avatars. Set to zero for no limit.
• If the avatar is too large... - If the avatar is over the specified size, there are three options in this dropdown menu: Refuse it, Resize it in user's browser, and Download and resize it on the server. See the question mark icon window for the pros and cons for each option. Note that either the GD Library or ImageMagick are needed on the server, for this option to work.

Uploadable Avatars

These are avatars which have been individually uploaded to the forum's server by the forum's members. This feature has the same risks as external avatars, but gives administrators a little more control. Also, these avatars could potentially take up more space on the server.

• Allow members to upload their own avatars - Choose which membergroups can or cannot upload avatars to your server.
• Maximum width of uploaded avatar - Specify the maximum width allowed for avatars that are uploaded. Set to zero for no limit.
• Maximum height of uploaded avatar - Specify the maximum height allowed for avatars that are uploaded. Set to zero for no limit.
• Resize oversized large avatars - If enabled this will resize larger then specified avatars (requires a GD module).
• Use PNG for resized avatars - PNG files are larger, but offer better quality compression. If this is unchecked, JPEG will be used instead. Although JPEG images are smaller in size they are usually a lower quality than PNG files.
• Re-encode potentially dangerous avatars - When this option is checked, SMF will try to re-encode potentially dangerous avatars, which offers better security. Note however that this will render animated images static. (This requires a GD module to be installed on your server.)
• Perform extensive security checks on uploaded avatars - Selecting this option will enable very strict security checks on avatars. Enabling this option can, however, result in a lot of safe avatars to be rejected. Read the question mark icon window for more details.
• Upload directory - This is the directory for uploaded, or custom avatars. If you want to change the default directory, the new one should be a valid and writable directory, different from the directory for server-stored avatars.
• Upload URL - This is the URL of the directory.

Gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatars)

To use this feature, members must register their email address and an avatar at https://www.gravatar.com/. After that, the same avatar will be used on every site across the internet, in which the member uses the same email address. Note that there are obvious potential security issues when using this feature.

• Enable Gravatars for forum users? - Check this box to allow this feature in the forum.
• Force Gravatars to be used instead of normal avatars? - Check this box to use only Gravatars, and no other avatars in the forum.
• Allow storing an extra email address for Gravatars? - Check this to allow more than one email address for Gravatars.
• Maximum allowed rating? - Gravatars have audience ratings. The dropdown menu has four options, ranging from G (Generally acceptable) to X (Explicit).
• Default image to show when an email address has no matching Gravatar - If Gravatars are enabled, but a member does not have a Gravatar account, a default image will be shown instead. The dropdown menu has six, self-explanatory options from which to choose.

Be sure to click the Save button in the bottom right corner, when you finish configuring all the avatar options on this page.

Attachment Directories

On this page, administrators can create additional attachment directories. If the forum's active directory is getting too large, for whatever reason, or if you have some other reason for multiple attachment directories, you can manage them here. Perhaps for example, you would like to keep a separate directory per month or per year?

This section has five columns:

• Current - In this column, there will be a filled dot beside the directory which is active.
• Path - This column contains the path to the directory, on the server.
• Size - This column shows the size, in kb, of all the files in this directory.
• Files - This column shows the number of files in the directory.
• Status - If all is well with the directory, this column will show "OK". If the directory is empty, it will say "Unused".

Remember that only one directory can be active, or Current, at any given time. To change the current directory, simply click the dot in the far left column, beside the one you want. Do not forget to click the Save button in the bottom right corner, after you click the dot.

To create a new directory:

• Click the Add Path button in the bottom right corner of the page.
• Copy the path from the Path column of the original directory.
• Change the name of the last folder (everything after the last / ). For example, the default folder or directory is called "attachments". You might name the new one "attachements2", or "2024attachments" or whatever.
• Click the Save button.
• Finally, be sure to tick the new path, in the Current column, to make it active.

After that, whenever members upload attachments, they will go into the new directory.

To remove a directory:

Remember that only empty directories can be removed. You can see if a directory is empty by looking at the Size, Files, and Status columns. Their values will be "0", "0", and "Unused", respectively.

• Delete the entire path from the Path column.
• Click the Save button.

File Maintenance

On this page, administrators can manage these attachment and avatar files. There are four sections: File Attachment Statistics, Attachment Integrity Check, Attachment Pruning, and Transfer Attachments.

File Attachment Statistics

This section provides some convenient statistics which can help in managing these files.

• Total attachments - This shows the total number of files that are currently (or still) attached to messages.
• Total avatars - This shows the total number of avatar files which have been uploaded by members.
• Total size of all attachment directories - This shows the total space taken up on the server by all attachment directories.
• Current attachment directory - This shows which attachment directory is currently active.
• Total size of current attachment directory - This shows the size (in kb) of the currently active attachment directory.
• Total space available - This shows the value set in Admin Center > Forum > Attachments and Avatars > Attachment Settings > Max attachment directory space. If it is set to "zero for no limit", this item will show "No maximum directory size is currently set".
• Total files in current attachment directory - This shows the total number of files in the server's 'attachments' directory.
• Total files remaining - This shows the difference between the Maximum number of files per directory setting (on the Admin Center > Forum > Attachments and Avatars > Attachment Settings page), and the Total files in current attachment directory, above.

Attachment Integrity Check

This function will check the integrity and sizes of attachments and filenames listed in the database and, if necessary, fix errors it encounters.

Attachment Pruning

With this feature, administrators can remove attachments according to their age or size. It is also possible to remove avatars of members who have not been active for some certain amount of time. Of course removing these things should be considered carefully. If admins are unsure, they might want to discuss it with other admins in the Community Forum.

• Remove attachments older than - Set the number of days to represent the age of the attachments.
  • Message to add to post - In place of the removed attachment, a comment or message can be appended to the post. Keep the default suggestion: "[attachment deleted by admin]" or type your own custom comment here.
• After you make your choices, click the Remove button to perform this function.

• Remove attachments larger than - Set the size in KB, for attachments over which size, you want to remove.
  • Message to add to post - In place of the removed attachment, a comment or message can be appended to the post. Keep the default suggestion: "[attachment deleted by admin]" or type your own custom comment here.
• After you make your choices, click the Remove button to perform this function.

• Remove avatars from members not active for more than - Set the number of days of inactivity after which members' avatars will be removed.
• After you set the number of days, click the Remove button to perform this function.

Transfer Attachments

This section allows administrators to transer files between directories.

• Transfer files from - From the dropdown menu to the right, Select directory, choose which directory contains the files you want to transfer.
• Automatically by space or file count - This means that SMF creates a new directory in the base directory that you choose in the Select base directory dropdown menu. It uses the space or file count information, from the directory you choose in the first Select directory dropdown menu.
• Or to a specific directory - If you want to transfer the files into a specific directory, do not use the Select base directory dropdown menu. Instead, from the second Select directory dropdown menu, choose the destination directory for the files.

After you have made the appropriate menu choices for your purposes, click the Transfer button in the bottom right corner.

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