SMF2.0:Features and Options

Please see SMF1.1:Features and Options or SMF2.0:Features and Options depending on the version of SMF you are using.

Features and Options is the section of the Administration Center for editing core forum-related settings.

General

Poll mode - The dropdown box offers three options:
1. Disable polls - If you select this, users will not be able to create new polls. Any existing polls will be hidden and their topics will no longer appear in the message index. Such existing polls (and their topics) are not deleted from the database though, which means that if you later choose to enable polls, any existing polls will be displayed again.
2. Enable polls - Select this if you want to enable the creation and display of polls on your forum. As mentioned above, if you are re-enabling polls, any existing polls and their topics will be displayed again on your forum.
3. Show existing polls as topics - When this option is selected, users are not able to create new polls. Any existing polls are hidden, but their topics continue to be displayed. This does not delete the polls, so you can later display them again by selecting Enable polls.

Even when polls are enabled as described above, the poll permissions of membergroups dictate who can create polls, view polls, and other similar abilities. For this reason, if polls are not working on your forum, check that the permissions are configured correctly.

Allow guests to browse the forum - If selected, guests will have the privilege of browsing your forum. Otherwise, only registered users will be allowed to browse your forum and when a guest tries to access the forum they will see a login screen with a note that the forum is only for registered members.
Enable buddy/ignore lists - If this is selected, users can choose to add members to their buddy or ignore list. Adding members to these lists helps in controlling the mail and PM traffic according to each user's profile settings. Additionally, posts from users in the ignore list are replaced by a message informing that the member is ignored along with the option to show the message.
Allow users to edit their displayed name - Enabling this separates Username from Name (also known as display name or real name) and gives users the ability to change the latter. Username will always be the one used for logging in.
Allow non-administrators to hide their online status - With this option enabled, all members will be able to hide their online status from other users (except from administrators). If disabled, only users who can moderate the forum can hide their presence. Note that if a user chooses to hide their online status, their status will continue to be hidden even if you later disable this feature. Such users will not have the option to display their online status either. Disabling this feature just removes the option from the profile, thus preventing anyone from selecting it.
Enable custom titles - Enabling Custom Titles will allow members with the relevant permissions to create a special title for themselves. This will be shown underneath the display name in posts made by that member.
For example:
Jeff
Cool Guy
Enable buddy lists - Allows members to add buddies.
Default personal text - Sets the default text a user will have as their personal text. This will be shown underneath their avatar when posting.
Search engine friendly URLs - When enabled, queryless URLs are used for forum pages. This means they look like ../index.php/topic,1.0.html instead of ../index.php?topic=1.0. This option was introduced in order to help search engines index forum pages, but there is no longer any reason to use it, as search engines are now capable of indexing both formats. The queryless URL format only works for Apache and Lighttpd.
Meta keywords associated with forum - These keywords are sent in the output of every page to indicate to search engines the key content of your site. There should be a comma separating the list of words, and HTML or BBCode should not be used. (Example of meta keywords and how they should be placed: forum, discussion, free, fun, social, all, ages).
Default time format - Administrators have the power to adjust how the time and date are displayed on the forum. Registered users can also set a different format in their profile. The conventions follow PHP's strftime function and are described as below (more details can be found at PHP.net).
The following characters are recognized in the format string:
%a - abbreviated weekday name
%A - full weekday name
%b - abbreviated month name
%B - full month name
%d - day of the month (01 to 31)
%D* - same as %m/%d/%y
%e* - day of the month (1 to 31)
%H - hour using a 24-hour clock (range 00 to 23)
%I - hour using a 12-hour clock (range 01 to 12)
%m - month as a number (01 to 12)
%M - minute as a number
%p - either "am" or "pm" according to the given time
%R* - time in 24 hour notation
%S - second as a decimal number
%T* - current time, equal to %H:%M:%S
%y - 2 digit year (00 to 99)
%Y - 4 digit year
%Z - time zone or name or abbreviation
%% - a literal '%' character
* Does not work on Windows-based servers.
Default number format - You can use this setting to format the way in which numbers on your forum will be displayed to the user. The format of this setting is 1,234.00. Where , is the character used to split up groups of thousands, . is the character used as the decimal point, and the number of zeros dictate the accuracy of rounding.
Overall time offset - Not all forum administrators want their forum to use the same time zone as the server upon which it is hosted. Use this option to specify a time difference (in hours) between the desired time zone of the forum and the time zone of the server. Negative and decimal values are permitted.
Server timezone - The server timezone tells PHP where the server is located. Forum administrators must ensure this is set correctly, preferably to the country/city in which the server is located. More information can be found on the official PHP website.
Enable who's online list - This option allows a forum administrator to turn on or off the ability for users to see who is browsing the forum and what they are doing.
User online time threshold - Sets the number of minutes to show the people who are active during x number of minutes on the board index. The default is 15 minutes.
Track daily statistics - This will allow users to see the latest posts and the most popular topics on your forum. It will also show several statistics, such as the most members online at a time, recent new members, and recent new topics.
Track daily page views (must have stats enabled) - Adds another column to the stats page with the number of hits (viewers) on a page on your forum.
Allow users to disable announcements - This will allow users to select not to receive e-mail announcements (newsletters) from the forum. Even when this is enabled, administrators can override this user setting, but it is not advised. For more information, please see Newsletters.
Don't allow post text in notifications? - This feature removes the option to receive the text of replies and posts in notification e-mails. Members are often tempted to reply to the notification e-mail, which, in most cases, means the webmaster receives the reply.

Layout

The Layout page has settings specific to the layout of your forum, such as whether to show the "Go Up" and "Go Down" links inside topics and whether to show "Today" and "Yesterday" in place of the actual date when those conditions are true.

Limit number of displayed page links - This will just show a selection of the number of pages.
Contiguous pages to display - This affects the way in which page numbers are displayed
Example:
"3" to display: 1 ... 4 [5] 6 ... 9
"5" to display: 1 ... 3 4 [5] 6 7 ... 9
Enable shorthand date display - This will show "Today" or "Yesterday" instead of the date.
Enable Go Up/Go Down buttons - This will add "Go Up" and "Go Down" buttons, so that users can go to the top and bottom of a page without scrolling.
Show online/offline in posts and PMs - This will show an image to indicate whether the member is online or offline.
Show a quick login on every page - This will show a more compact login menu on every page of the forum for guests. It works only if SP1 stats is off.
Members per page in member list - This shows how many members per page you would like to show in the member list.
Display time taken to create every page - This will show at the bottom of each forum page the time (in seconds) SMF took to create the page. For example, "Page created in 0.132 seconds with 7 queries."

Karma

Karma is an optional feature that shows the popularity of members. The administrator can enable this feature from Core Features section. When members are allowed, they can applaud or smite a member to raise or lower that member's karma.

Karma mode - This option is to select how the karma feature will be used in the forum:
- Disable Karma - Disables the use of this feature.
- Enable Karma Total - Makes SMF show only the total of points received.
- Enable Karma Positive/Negative - Shows the positive points as well as the negative points for the user.
Set the minimum posts needed to modify karma - Administrators can set a minimum number of posts that a user must have before they can raise or lower someone's karma.
Set wait time in hours - This is the time that an administrator specifies before a user can modify karma again.
Restrict administrators to wait time - This specifies whether the forum administrators are restricted by the time limit.
Karma label - Here administrators can define the label that is shown for the karma field in the profile and posts (default karma:).
Karma applaud label - The text that appears in the link to increase the karma of a user (default [applaud]). If you leave this field blank, the applaud link will be hidden.
Karma smite label - The text that appears in the link to decrease the karma of a user (default [smite]). If you leave this field blank, the smite link will be hidden.

Signatures

The Signatures page allows you to configure restrictions on what is allowed in signatures. Settings include the BBCode that can be used in signatures, as well as the maximum allowed dimensions of various parts of the signature, such as the maximum allowed width and height of images, and the maximum number of characters that are allowed in the signature.

The following is a complete list of the settings found on this page:

Enable signatures - This allows administrators to set whether signatures are allowed in the first place.
Maximum allowed characters - The maximum number of characters that a user can have in their signature (0 for no max.).
Maximum amount of lines - The maximum number of lines that a user can have in their signature. A line is measured with the effect of hitting the "Return" key to start a new line (0 for no max.).
Maximum font size allowed in signatures - This allows you to specify how big the maximum font size can be in a signature, the number must be expressed in pixels (0 for no max.).
Allow smileys in signatures - This allows administrators to set whether smilies are allowed in signatures.
Maximum smiley count - The maximum number of smilies allowed in the signature (0 for no max.).
Maximum image count- The maximum number of images allowed in the signature, excluding smilies (0 for no max.).
Maximum width of signature images (pixels) - The maximum width allowed for any image in the signature (0 for no max.).
Maximum height of signature images (pixels)- The maximum height allowed for any image in the signature (0 for no max.).
Enabled BBC tags - Here administrators can decide which BBcode tags will be allowed in signatures.

Profile Fields

In the Profile Fields section, administrators have the option of creating and modifying custom profile fields as well as modifying some basic settings for the built-in profile fields.

Note: This section will not appear until Advanced Profile Fields are enabled under Core Features in the admin panel.

Standard Profile Fields

At the top of the page there are the standard fields where administrators can enable and disable them as desired by checking or unchecking the checkbox under the Active column. Right next to that column there are additional checkboxes which allow you to select whether the profile fields should be displayed during registration. Once you have finished making changes, clicking the Save button will apply them.

Custom Profile Fields

You are not limited to the standard profile fields as mentioned above; you can also create your own. These custom fields act in the same way as the standard fields. Navigate down to the table with the heading Custom Fields. Here you can view your existing custom fields, as well as add a new one, by selecting the New Field button at the bottom of the page.

The list of custom profile fields includes the following information:

Field Name - The name that was given for the field. This is used for identification.
Field Type - The type of field. For information on the different types of fields, see the explanation below.
Active - Shows the status of the field, whether it is active or not. If the field is not active, it will simply have no effect on your forum and will not be shown.
Placement - The position where the field will be shown.
Modify - Simply a link to modify the field.

Adding/Modifying Custom Fields

When creating a new custom field or modifying an existing one, you will come to a screen with the following options:

Name - This is the name that will be displayed anywhere this field is used.
Description - This is a short description explaining what the field is for, and it also indicates to members what to put in the field. For example, if it was for an instant messenger program then you could enter an explanation about how to obtain the program, and also what information has to be entered for the field to function correctly.
Profile Section - This is the section of the profile where the field will be placed. You have four options: None, Account Settings, Forum Profile, and Look and Layout. The option None can be useful when used in conjunction with Show on Registration (see below), whereby users would be able to enter the information for the field during registration, but they would not be able to modify this field later.
Show on Registration - This option will show this field during the registration process and allow the user to fill it in while registering.
Show on Topic View - Checking this box will show this field in the user's posts. For example, if you are using Phone Number as the name of the field, and the member has this field filled in, it will show Phone Number: <phone number>. All fields that have this checked will be displayed below the user's post count in their posts.
Choose Placement - This defines where the field will be displayed: in the standard position (at the end of the "poster information" section), with the icons (Profile, email, PM, etc.), or above the user's signature.
Show Enclosed Within Text (Optional) - Encloses the user input between some text or HTML. This allows you to add more instant message providers or images. For example:
<a href="http://website.com/{INPUT}"><img src="{DEFAULT_IMAGES_URL}/icon.gif" alt="{INPUT}" /></a>
The following variables can be used:
- {INPUT} - The input specified by the user.
- {SCRIPTURL} - Web address of the forum.
- {IMAGES_URL} - URL to the images directory in the user's current theme.
- {DEFAULT_IMAGES_URL} - URL to the images directory in the default theme.
Field Type - You will see the following options:
- Text - This is a simple text field, similar to the one that you use when you log into your forum. You only have one option, the maximum length. The default is 255, but you can set your own, or use 0 for no limit.
- Large Text - This is what is known as a text area, or the bigger text boxes. You have several different options here. Maximum length is the maximum number of characters in this box. Dimensions, in rows and columns, represent the height and width (in characters) of the box. Select Allow BBC if you want to permit the use of Bulletin Board Code.
- Select Box - With a select box you can add multiple options. Users will be able to select only one option. The page will display three fields which you can fill in, with a link to add more. Empty fields will not be added. Select boxes are good to use if you have many options to choose from, similar to the time zone select box.
- Radio Button - With a radio button you can add selections similar to how a poll works. Users will be able to select only one option. The page will display three fields which you can fill in, with a link to add more. Empty fields will not be added. Radio buttons are good for 2-4 options, but if you need to add more it is recommended to use a select box.
- Checkbox - Checkboxes are just like the boxes you saw next to the standard fields. Members may check multiple checkboxes.
Input Mask - The default option for input masks is No HTML. There are three other options: Valid Email, Numeric, and Regex (advanced). Valid Email will require an "at"(@) symbol and a period(.) or the member will get an error message. Numeric will only allow numbers. For more information please see Regular expressions (Regex).
Privacy - Selects who can see and edit this particular field.
Searchable - Determines whether the contents of this field can be searched for in the memberlist.
Active - This box must be checked or the field will not be displayed anywhere and it will not be editable. If it is unchecked, the data will still remain in the database, but it will not be displayed. It is recommended to just uncheck boxes to deactivate fields instead of deleting them. That way, if you want to bring them back then the members will not have to reinsert their data.

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