Getting started

If you are new to Simple:Press, this is likely where you need to be to quickly access information on configuring your system.  Straight out of the box, you should already have some sensible defaults, especially if you installed the demo data.

But, you might need to create at least one forum group and a forum or rename the demo data forums and maybe set up welcome messages.

Creating a Group

You need to start by defining a forum Group. You will find the Create New Group menu item in the Forum section of the Simple:Press admin.

In Simple:Press, a group is a container for one or more forums. There must always be at least one Group.

Think of it as a way of organizing and structuring your overall forum. In most respects, it has a similar role to the categories you probably use in your blog – a way of grouping items that have a common thread.

You can create as many groups as you wish but plan these and the forums they will contain out first to save later reorganising.

When you create a new group, you can give it a name and a brief description. You may also provide each Group with a unique, custom icon and a special message to display between the Group heading and the forum list below it.

You must also select it’s display position from the options provided in relation to the other Groups.

Note that the User Groups and the assigned Permission Sets selected for a Group will then be inherited by each Forum in the Group although these can be adjusted at Forum level.

Creating forums

Once the Groups structure is in place you are ready to create your forums. If a group is a container for one or more forums, a forum can be viewed as a container for the topics – sometimes known as ‘threads’ – pertaining to that forum.

The forums are the principle place where your users will create topics and as with groups, it is worthwhile to spend a little time giving some thought to the best layout and sequence. Most forums will place the important and, perhaps, busiest forum near the top descending down to the less well used.

Simple:Press also supports sub-forums or child forums. These offer the user finer granularity in organizing their structure. Sub-forums act like a nested level of categories within the umbrella of their parent forum.

When you create a new forum you first select the Group it belong to. For a sub-forum, you select the forum that will be it’s parent. You can give it your Forum a name and a brief description. You may also provide each Forum with a unique, custom icon and a special message to display between the Forum heading and the topic list below it.

You must also select it’s display position from the options provided in relation to the other existing forums.

Carefully set the User Groups to the correct Permissions. If none are selected, the default permissions set for the Group will be used.