/** * $Id: README.txt,v 1.5.2.1.2.7.2.2 2008-12-17 17:40:19 paulbooker Exp $ * @package OG_Forum * @category NeighborForge */ This module extends the forum module to allow for Organic Groups to have their own forums. When viewing groups, only forum discussions for that group are displayed. This module does not hinder the creation of site-wide forums in any way. You can have both OG forums and site-wide forums. There are a multitude of settings for customizing how these forums work which are detailed below. --CONTENTS-- REQUIREMENTS INSTALL SETUP FEATURES USAGE (Example) UNINSTALL THEMING CREDITS --REQUIREMENTS-- This module requires both the OG module and the Forum module from Core to be installed. --INSTALL-- Before you post an issue to the queue with installation problems, be sure you did all of these things in this order: FOR A NEW SITE/ONE WITHOUT OG ALREADY INSTALLED 1) Install the forum module through the regular Drupal means. 2) Trigger the forum vocabulary creation routine by visiting admin/forums - this is the part most often overlooked. 3) Install OG through the regular Drupal means. 4) Install this module, again through the regular Drupal means. FOR A SITE WITH OG ALREADY INSTALLED 1) Install the forum module through the regular Drupal means. 2) Trigger the forum vocabulary creation routine by visiting admin/forums - this is the part most often overlooked. 3) Install this module, again through the regular Drupal means. 4) Go to admin/og/og_forum and click on "Update old groups" to have forum containers and default forums created for existing groups. See the FEATURES section for options. --SETUP-- There are two permissions that you can assign to roles: 'make forums public' and 'admin own group forums'. The former is to allow non-group-owners the ability to set the publicity of forums in groups. Usually, you will want to reserve this for admins. The latter is to allow group owners all priviledges for administering forums of their groups. --FEATURES-- At admin/og/og_forum there are a bunch of options divided into five groups, three of which are fieldsets. The groupings are: -Retroactively update old groups -Default forum name -Group forum container -Forum publicity administration -Limit number of forums per group RETROACTIVELY UPDATE OLD GROUPS This is a single button which adds containers and forums to each existing OG and is to be used if you install og_forum into a site where groups already exist. You may wish to change some settings below before pushing this button. DEFAULT FORUM NAME When a new group is created, or during the retroactive forum creation function, each group is given a forum container with the term name of the group's name as well as one default forum. Normally, the default forum is called "General discussion". You may change that name here. CAVEAT - Having the container name the same as the group name makes it easy for people to find the group's forum in a site-wide listing of forums like at the 'forum' URL. This container's name will change as the group's name is changed. GROUP FORUM CONTAINER Rather than have all groups' containers and forums show up at the site-wide level, you may designate another (pre-existing) container for all group containers to be placed in. This alternate container may be any number of levels deep in the forum structure. To use this feature, check the box and select the container. FORUM PUBLICITY ADMINISTRATION This section has several controls which work together as follows: -AUTOMATIC FORUM PUBLICITY This turns on/off the automatic publicity of group forums. If a group forum has at least one post which is public, than entries will be made in the database to indicate that the forum and its container are also publicly browsable. If a group forum does not have any public posts, then that forum will not be publicly browsable except as noted below in conjunction with other settings. NOTE: The automatic setting uses two values for storing the forum and containers' states - PRIVATE_DEFAULT and PUBLIC_AUTO. -ALLOW PUBLIC CHOICE This allows group owners to decide which of their forums are public or private, but can also work with the auto setting above. First an explaination without the auto setting: In each forum, the group owner (or admins) will see a link in the context menu to 'Administer group forums' which presents a table structure whereby they may edit forums' names or delete them, add forums to the container, make them public, make them private, or rest them. The publicity settings enter these values into the database - PRIVATE_SET_BY_OWNER, PUBLIC_SET_BY_OWNER, and PRIVATE_DEFAULT. The 'set by owner' values take precedence over the 'auto' and 'default' values. With the auto setting: Forums and containers will appear or not in any browsable listing per the standard automatic rules unless overridden by the group owner or an admin. As mentioned above, the 'set by owner' values take precedence over the 'auto' and 'default' values when determining publicity or browsability. -MAKE ALL FORUMS PUBLIC Checking this does not mean you can't check the options above. However, the effects of any settings made under the above settings will not be appearant unless this feature is later turned off. This is either an easy way to ensure that all forums are always browsable by the public, or may be used to temporarily open the site for something like an 'open house'. Turning it off would keep in-tact any settings made before its use. -MANAGE PUBLICITY OF OLD GROUPS Similar to the other retroactive control above, this one manages publicity settings in the database for the case where you are upgrading from a version of og_forum without these features. As noted on the admin page, it should only be used once. -SWITCH TO AUTOMATIC PUBLICITY Although this may sound like simply turning off the 'Make all forums public' check box and ensuring that the 'Automatic forum publicity' checkbox is set, that is NOT what this feature does. Should you use the 'Allow public choice' feature, but later decide that as site admin you would like total control of the forums' publicity, you may push this button and change all entries in the database to reflect a state as though they had always been managed by the 'Automatic forum publicity' feature. In other words, PUBLIC_SET_BY_OWNER will be changed to PUBLIC_AUTO and PRIVATE_SET_BY_ OWNER will be changed to PRIVATE_DEFAULT in all database entries. Make sure that you uncheck the 'Allow public choice' checkbox, or else group owners will continue to be able to make their own settings. LIMIT NUMBER OF FORUMS PER GROUP Here you can set a three digit number (0 - 999) to limit the number of forums that may be created by group owners. This limit does not apply to user 1, nor to those with the 'administer forums' permission. --USAGE-- I couldn't think of anything not already covered by the FEATURES section. If anyone has a special use-case or combo of settings they think need special mention here, let me know. --UNINSTALL-- As of version 2.2 (for 5.x), this module has a proper uninstall routine which will remove the og_term table from the database and all variables from the variable table. You do this through the usual Drupal means. --THEMING-- NOTE: This module overrides the theme functions from Drupal core's forum module. There are three theme functions that are overridden. It would be best for you to copy the functions from this module to your theme files, rather than use the originals from the forum module as starting points. --CREDITS-- Ryan Constantine (Drupal ID rconstantine) & Paul Booker (Glaxstar) are the current Maintainer and the fellow who got OG forums working with site-wide forums, and made OG forums publicly viewable based on Admin and Group Owner settings. Darren Oh is the previous maintainer and current co-maintainer. Historical thanks to: Evan Leeson of Catalyst Creative for sponsorship of 4.7 port and improvements. Gavin Mogan for http://drupal.org/node/63379 which was a huge help in porting the module.