Phorum 3!
http://www.phorum.org

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*  READ security.txt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!           *
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Contents:

1. Installation
2. Features
3. Support
4. Upgrading
5. Known Issues

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*** 0. PRE-Installation  ***
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 1. Read security.txt.

 2. Make sure you have PHP (www.php.net) installed.  We recommend version 3.0.9
    or higher.  Phorum has been known to work with 3.0.6, but we have also seen
    problems with this version.

 3. Make sure you have one of the supported databases installed.  At the time
    this was written they are MySQL (www.tcx.se) and 
    PostgreSQL (www.postgresql.org).
    
 4. If you do not have a database already, create a database.  In MySQL you
    use the "mysqladmin" program like this:
    
    mysqladmin -uuser -ppaswword create mydb

 5. Be sure that you have a user for that database which has the rights to
    select, insert, update, delete, create, alter and drop.  A MySQL Grant
    statment for this user would look like this:
    
    GRANT
      select, insert, update, create, alter, delete, drop
    ON
      database.*
    TO
      user@localhost
    IDENTIFIED BY
      'password';
    

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*** 1. Installation  ***
************************

 1. Read security.txt.

 2. Edit common.inc.  Change $inf_path to the dir where you will put
    forums.inf.  See security.txt for more on why you should move it.

 3. Configure Phorum to interface with your DBMS.  If you are using MySQL do
    nothing, it is the default.  If you are running another supported DBMS,
    rename abstract.php3 to mysql.php3 and copy {yourdbms}.php3 (e.g.
    postgres.php3) to abstract.php3.

    NOTE FOR POSTGRESQL USERS:  If you are using PostgreSQL 6.5 or newer use
    the postgresql65.php3 file.  Others use the postgresql.php3 file.
 
 4. Move the files onto a web server.  Be sure you move forums.inf and
    forums.inf.bak to the location you designated in common.inc.

    NOTE: If this is a first time install you will need to rename the following:
      forums.inf-dist => forums.inf
      forums.bak.inf-dist => forums.bak.inf
      header.inc-dist => header.inc
      footer.inc-dist => footer.inc
    
    For upgrades, see changes.txt to see if any changes have been made to these
    files.  If not, use the ones you have.  If there have, you may want to
    determine if the changes are neccassary ones.  In most cases, changes to
    forums.inf can be included by upgrading admin.php3 and selecting "Rebuild
    INF file".
      
 5. Secure forums.inf and forums.inf.bak according to your setup as layed out
    in security.txt.

 6. Secure the admin as described in security.txt.  Goto to the admin page from
    a web browser.

 7. Select 'Master Settings', enter your password and hit 'Login'.

 8. Fill out this form completely and hit 'Update'.  If you are unsure of
    some information, consult your systems admin.  NOTE: PHORUM DOES NOT
    CREATE THE DATABASE ONLY THE TABLES.

 9. Next, add a forum.  Select 'New Forum', enter your password
    and hit 'Login'.
   
10. Fill out this form completely and hit 'Update'.  If you are unsure of
    some information, consult your systems admin.

11. Before you can see the forum in the forum list, it must be activated.
    Select the forum you just created from the menu, enter either the master
    password or the moderator password for that forum and hit 'Login'.
    
12. Select 'Activate Forum' and hit 'Continue'.  The forum should now be
    active.  Select the link 'forums' at the top of the page.
    
Follow steps 9-12 to add more forums.

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*** 2. Features      ***
************************

New Features:

All editing of forums.inf should be done through admin.php3.

 1. Multiple forums on one engine.  See steps 10-13 in Section 1,
    Installation, to add forums.  You can create different header, footer and
    censor files for different forums.  Simply name the files
    header_tablename.inc where tablename is the table name you gave the admin
    when creating the forum. Table names were selected because they are more
    compatible with file naming conventions.

 2. Database independence.  Phorum currently supports MySQL and PostgreSQL.
    To support your databse, convert abstract.php3 to work with your db.  To
    change the db engine used by Phorum rename {yourdb}.php3 to abstract.php3.
    
 3. Multi-leveled threading.  This is enabled by default, but can be set back
    to the old 2 level way if desired on a forum by forum basis.  Select the
    forum you want to enable it for, then select 'Edit Properties'.  Uncheck
    the box under 'multi level threads' and hit 'Update'.    

 4. Emailing readers when replies are posted to a thread.
 
 5. Limited HTML/URL linking.  The following text decoration tags are allowed
    in all posts: <b>,<u>,<i>,<ul>,<ol>,<li>.  Plus any URL surrounded by <>
    will be linked.  Full HTML use is allowed and can be enabled in the admin
    on a forum by forum basis.  Select the forum you want to enable it for,
    then select 'Edit Properties'.  Check the box udner 'allow HTML' and hit
    'Update'.
    
 6. Take Phorum up and down from the admin.  This is great for maintenence.
    Select 'Down Phorum' from the main menu, enter the master password and hit
    'Login'.  All requests to the Phorum will now be sent to down.php3.  To
    bring Phorum back up, select 'Up Phorum' from the main menu, enter the
    master password and hit 'Login'.
  
 7. Moderator Privileges.  When the master password or the forums moderator
    password is entered in place of the email address, the message is given
    moderator priveleges.  This includes: the message will be bolded in the
    message list; his host/ip will be replaced with the string specified by
    the moderator under 'when moderator post, replace host with' in the admin
    section for that forum. The post will also be given full HTML privileges.
 
 8. index, list, read and post file names as well as the extension are defined
    as variables.  This can be changed in the 'Master Settings' section of the
    admin.  NOTE: THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE FILE NAMES.

 9. User Banning.  You can ban users by email, name, or their IP/HOST.  See
    bad_*.inc for details of use.
    
    
Other Features:

 1. Reactive moderation.  By checking the box in the admin section for a
    particular forum under 'email moderator', all messages will be emailed
    to the address entered in the admin section of that forum under
    'moderator email'.
  
 2. Allows for censored posting.  This had been in a table.  To lessen the
    load on the db servers, this has been moved to an included file called
    censor.inc.  There are instructions in that file as to how to use it.
    By default the f word and sh-t are censored.
 
 3. Allows for disallowing service to a given author, email or domain.
    Entries in bad_names.inc, bad_hosts.inc and bad_emails.inc will be
    checked for when a message is posted.  If any are present, the user will
    be forwarded to violation.php3.  There are instructions in those files
    as to how to use them.

 4. Localized text (Multi-lingual).  Additional .lang files are available at
    http://www.phorum.org.
 
 5. Ability to quote text from original message.
 
 6. Colors, table sizes, and fonts configurable in Admin 

 7. Control number of messages displayed in main list.
 
 8. Edit a post or delete entire threads or individual messages.
 
 9. Search Engine (needs improvement)

10. Collapsible threads.  This can be defaulted on or off in the forum admin
    section.

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*** 3. Support       ***
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Mailing Lists
------------------------------

You can send all support questions to phorum@phorum.org.
This list is the support mailing list. It is for general support, questions
and answers. If you are familiar with the PHP list then this is much like
that. To subscribe to this list, send and empty email to:

    phorum-subscribe@phorum.org

There are also two other lists for Phorum. The first is the announcements
mailing list. This is a moderated list and no spam will be sent through it. If
you would like to receive mailings about new releases or bug fixes, send an
empty email to:

    phorum-announce-subscribe@phorum.org

The last is the developers list. It is for discussion of development issues.
This is a new list. To subscribe send an empty email to:

    phorum-dev-subscribe@phorum.org


Phorum Mailing List Archive
------------------------------

The good people at Progressive Computer Concepts, Inc have started archiving
the phorum mailing lists. The URL's are:

Phorum Support List:

http://www.progressive-comp.com/Lists/?l=phorum&r=1&w=2#phorum

Phorum Developers List:

http://www.progressive-comp.com/Lists/?l=phorum-dev&r=1&w=2#phorum-dev

Phorum Announcement List:

http://www.progressive-comp.com/Lists/?l=phorum-announce&r=1&w=2#phorum-announce


Online Support Phorum
Once the technology is developed for communicating with Phorum via email,
there will be a support Phorum tied into the mailing list above. We have found
that better support is received via email.

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*** 4. Upgrading     ***
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Upgrading from Phorum 1.x.

There is a file included called upgrade.php3.  Once you have Phorum3 up and
running, load upgrade.php3 in a browser and follow the Help section.

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*** 5. Known Issues  ***
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 1. Some servers do not like sending mail with the To: field empty.  If you get
    errors on posting about email, you will have to edit post.php3:
    
      mail("", "$subject", $forum_url."$r.....
      
      change to:
      
      mail("some@address", "$subject", $forum_url."$r.....
      
    The bad part is that that email has to go somewhere.  If you can setup some
    address that can be auto deleted do that.  Otherwise you may want to comment
    out the lines following in form.inc:
    
      <tr>
        <td <?PHP echo bgcolor($TableBodyColor1); ?>
         colspan=2 width="100%" nowrap align="left">
         <input type="checkbox" name="email_reply" value="Y">
         <?PHP echo $lEmailMe; ?></td>
      </tr>

    This is actually only 3 lines in the code but has to wrap here.

 2. When adding new forums with forum sorting turned on, the forums do not
    appear sorted at first.  However they are.  Sorting is off by default.