Bulletin Board Enhancements (v7.1)

Board Manager Memo

Your message board at:
view.cfm?comcode=foils
has been upgraded to Version 7.1.

This memo describes Enhancements associated with Version 7.1.
All enhancements are installed and available.

Over the last 5+ years we've released upgrades, usually every 4-6 months, with most enhancements driven by user requests for additional capabilities or changes. This upgrade incorporates user requests received over the last 6-12 months.
There's no charge for any of these enhancements.

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Version 7.1 includes the following new capabilities:

Most of these options can be turned on/off or modified via your Board Management Panel.

New Board Manager Options
o 1. Forum Summary Page (Non-Threaded & Semi-Threaded Boards)
o 2. Customize "Visited Links" color
o 3. Customize background color of message text box
o 4. Additional Immediate Email Notifications
o 5. Enhanced Backup Utility
o 6. UnArchiving Messages By Category

New User capabilities
o 7. Ability to send immediate email notifications
o 8. Designate messages as Private (Password Protected Boards)
o 9. Quote capability when replying to message (Semi-Threaded & Threaded Boards)
o 10. Member List Profile Page (Password Protected Boards)
o 11. Image/Photograph attachment to messages (Boards with FTP enabled)
o 12. "Total Msgs" - "Last Msg Creation Date" (Non-Threaded & Semi-Threaded Boards)
o 13. MsgId now a hotlink to Modify/Delete form
o 14. Speed Enhancements


1. Forum Summary Page Top
  (Semi-Threaded & Threaded Boards)
This option applies to boards utilizing the Non-Threaded or Semi-Threaded format.
In the past all active messages, for all forums, were displayed on one page. Users could not control which forum they were interested in viewing, i.e., all messages for all forums were displayed. A board's display time could be significantly slowed, if there were a large number of messages on the board.
In order to speed up display times, the default open configuration has been changed. Boards now open up displaying a Summary page, listing only the Board's Forum Names. Clicking on a Forum name, displays all messages for that forum. This gives users the option to view only forum(s) interested in. Users can still view a board using the old format by clicking on a link at the top of the Summary page, labeled "ExpandAllForums". Clicking on that link, causes all messages, for all forums to be displayed on one page. This allows users wanting faster response time to achieve it, while users wanting to view all messages on one page, will still have that capability.

As the board manager, you can change the default open configuration back to the old format if you like. To do so, go to your board management page and answer "Yes" to the option in the "Main Settings" section labeled:
"Open board with message topics displayed for all forums?".

2. Customize "Visited Links" color Top
This is a new option in the "Advanced Settings" section of your board management page. This option allows you to change the default color used, when displaying links users have previously visited.

3. Customize background color of message text box Top
This is a new option in the "Advanced Settings" section of your board management page. This option allows you to specify a custom background color for the box messages are displayed within.

4. Additional Immediate Email Notifications Top
Previously, immediate email notification of newly posted messages, could only be sent to the board manager. You can now specify up to 12 other individuals to receive Immediate email notification, in addition to the board manager. This capability can be used to allow board moderators to receive immediate email notifications of new messages added to forums they're moderating.
To turn this feature on, go to the Main Setting section of your board management page and click on the link labeled:
"Click here to View/Modify current email notification list"
Once your email notification list is displayed, click on the email address that is to have Immediate email notification enabled, and then click the "Yes" checkbox in the resulting display, beside the link labeled:
"Should this user receive Immediate Email Notification of New messages? "
For more info: Click Here

5. Enhanced Backup Utility Top
The Backup Utility in the "Board Utilities" section of your board management page was enhanced to allow use of Search criteria when creating a backup. Previously, a backup could only be made of all messages on the board. You can now create a comma delimited, text, backup file of subsets of your messages based on user defined search criteria, such as creation date, category, name, etc..

6. UnArchive Messages By Category Top
A new utility was added to the "Boaard Utilities" section of your board management page allowing "Archived" messages to be "UnArchived".

7. Ability to send immediate email notifications Top
An email notification link was added to the acknowledgement display a user sees after posting a message. Clicking on this link allows a user to send an immediate email copy of the message he/she just posted.

8. Designate messages as Private Top
  (Password Protected Boards)
A new feature was added to the Post Message Form allowing a user to specify that the message being created is to be viewable only by himself and the board manager. A user enables this feature by clicking on the checkbox on the Post Message Form labeled:
"Click here to make this a 'Private' message."
This feature is only available to boards utilizing password protection, i.e. users have to register/enter a password to gain board access.

9. Quote capability when replying to a message Top
  (Semi-Threaded & Threaded Boards)
This feature only applies to Semi-Threaded and Threaded boards. A new link is now displayed on the Post Message Form, labeled: "Quote".
When a user is Replying to an existing message, and clicks on this link, your board automatically inserts a copy of the message being replied to, into the Message Text box used to compose a message.

10. Member List Profile Page Top
  (Password Protected Boards)
This option only applies to boards utilizing password protection, i.e. users have to register/enter a password to gain board access. A new report is available, allowing users to view user profiles of other board members. The type of user profile information available, includes Login Name, email addresse, last visit, total posts, total visits, and registration date of each board member. Clicking on a new link, located near the top of your board labeled: "MemberList" will cause the report to be generated. This feature can be turned on or off via your board management page => main settings.
This report can also be generated by the board manager, to include login passwords, by clicking on the link in Password section of your board management page labeled:
" View List of User Login Passwords - Click Here"

11. Attach/Embed Images/Photographs within messages Top
  (Boards with FTP enabled)
The file attachment feature has been enhanced to allow for photographs/images to be directly uploaded from a user's PC and displayed within a message. The embedded photo/image can now be viewed by clicking on the image icon located at the bottom of the message. The file attachment option can be enabled by clicking on the link in the "Main Settings" section of your board management page, labeled:
" Enable board with FTP Capability?"

12. "Total Msgs" - "Last Msg Creation Date" Top
  (Non-Threaded & Semi-Threaded Boards)
This feature has been added to Non-Threaded and Semi-Threaded boards.
The Number of Messages and the Date of Last Message created is now displayed to the right of each forum/category name.

13. MsgId now a hotlink to Modify/Delete form Top
The msgid, displayed at the bottom of messages, has been converted to a hotlink. Clicking on the MsgId now, causes a form to be displayed allowing for quick deletion or modification of the message.

14. Speed Enhancements Top
Several hardware and software performance enhancements have been implemented in the last month to upgrade response times on all servers.


Hope you find these features helpful.

As usual, Any feedback from board managers, good or bad, is always welcome.


best regards,

=============================================
Al Bennett
P.A. Corp. dba: BulletinBoards.com
[email protected]
Voice (321) 984 9080 Fax (772) 594 0682
9-5 EST Mon-Fri
http://www.bulletinboards.com
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Links to other recent upgrades:
V8.2
V8.1
V8.0