Marc

In any community there will always be information you want to capture about your members which is not provided within the core product. These may be information needed for administration purposes, or items which you wish to have displayed within profile, or content items. In the IPS Community Suite, we provide the ability to set up many of these, grouping in a way in which is appropriate to your site. Setting Up Profile fields can be set up within the following location within your ACP Members -> Member Settings -> Profiles -> Profile Fields Profile field list Clicking on the Create New button in the top right will allow you to set up a new grouping for profile fields, similar to what you see above with the Personal Information section. To add a new field to a group, select the + at the side of the relevant group. Clicking to add a new field will show you the following screen. You will see I have selected text as the field type on this occasion which will let a user enter information into a text box. New profile field entry You can see settings here you can use to set up a maximum length and even using Regular Expressions to validate the data that is entered. You will note that there is no "Required" element shown here. This is because we have profile completion set up. If you do not have quick registration set up to use profile completion, you will also see a "Required" checkbox which can be selected. In addition you can set up where the information is shown, how it is shown, and its behavior with regards to being filled in. Do you want this to be edited once it is filled in? No? Not a problem, just de-select the "Member can edit value" and it will only allow this to be entered once. New profile entry What is important to note on the screenshot above, is the "Display Format for..." sections. These will appear only if you have the corresponding settings to make these viewable, and were introduced in version 4.4 of the Invision Community platform. So for example, above we have "Show to staff" set for the "Show with members content submissions". If we switched this not to show, then you would not see the "Display format for topics" option. Display Formatting The display formatting sections by default will display just the field contents. However you can display the item stored in the field in any way you wish, by selecting "Use Custom Formatting". You will then be shown the following field for adding your own formatting code Display Formatting This is where you can enter HTML along with the placeholders provided to display the information in any manor that you choose. This is how they will then be displayed in that area (Profile or topic). Note: Prior to the 4.4 version, this is a single field named "Display Format" and applies to both areas. {title} and {content} should be used instead of the ones below. If you add the following code to the example field we set up, the placeholders {$title} and {$content} will be replaced with the title of the custom field, and the content that is entered by the user <strong>{$title}:</strong> {$content} User Side You will see once you have set up your profile fields the members can then add the information from within their profiles. Profile Field Completion Depending on if you have setup of your profile fields to be searchable, these can also be searched using the member search form on your site Profile Field Search And of course, they will show up in various areas of the site, using the formatting in which you have set to your own liking. Formatting on Posts

Reputation & Reactions are an important part of communities across the internet. IPS Community Suite gives you the flexibility to set these up in a way which is suites your own community needs. Basic Settings Reputation settings can be managed in the following location in your ACP Members -> Member Settings -> Reputation & Reactions From the basic settings screen, you can set up various overall settings, related to how reputation and reactions work on your site. You can switch the system on and off, as well as assign which groups are allowed to use this, and how to display the reputation items. Example Reputation Settings One important item to note here, is the "Highlight content with positive reputation. When this is set, topics will be highlighted when they reach the set reputation level, along with being given a reputation symbol in the top right to highlight the post has high reputation. Denotes High Reputation Post Reactions Reactions settings can be managed in the following location in your ACP Members -> Member Settings -> Reputation & Reactions -> Reactions On the reactions tab you will see a list of all the reactions that a user can give on your site. Each of these is given either a positive, a negative, or a neutral value. These are the reputation points in which a user will receive for a particular reaction. You can reorder these using the anchors on the left of each item. You can create new reaction items using the button in the top right of the screen. Default Reaction Set You will note that the 'like' item has no ability to delete. This is the default reaction, and is what is shown at in the reaction placement area on posts. Your users point at this icon in order to show other reactions, or click to give this reaction. Of course you can use the pencil icon to edit this to be anything you wish. Pointing at the like icon shows other reactions Leaderboard The new Leaderboard is designed to better highlight your most active members and content based on reputation and other metrics. The Leaderboard will greatly enhance both member and content discovery on your community. Winners being highlighted within the profile when 'winning the day', and being added to the past members list. In turn, this can improve member participation on your site. IPS Community Leaderboard Leaderboard settings can be managed in the following location in your ACP Members -> Member Settings -> Reputation & Reactions -> Leaderboard From here, you can change various settings to determine what and how the leaderboard will display, or indeed if it will display at all. This can be helpful if, for example, you wish to exclude staff, or specific items, from being counted. Leaderboard Settings Reputation Levels Reputation levels can be managed in the following location in your ACP Members -> Member Settings -> Reputation & Reactions -> Reactions Here you will see levels that can be gained upon reaching a set number of reputation/reaction points on your site. These can be given a reputation name and optionally an image. Reputation Levels Clicking on "Create new" will give you the opportunity to add a new reputation level. The one I have created below as an example will give people the superstar reputation level with a star image upon hitting 1000 reputation points. Example Reputation Level Note: Within each member group, you can also set whether that group can see who has given reputation and the amount of reputation they can give in any one day.

The warning system allows you a system in which to warn your members of unwanted actions on your site, and act upon those warnings automatically via the system, or by moderator action. Setting Up Warning Setting up warning system on your site has 3 sections. Reasons, actions, and settings. Each of these will be discussed below. This section can be access from Members>Content Moderation>Warnings within your admin area. Reasons When you first enter the area above, the first tab you will see are reasons. In here you will see a list of all the reasons for warning a member which are currently set up. This will look similar to the below. Warning Reasons You can add to these reasons by selecting the create new button in the top right, or edit existing reasons by using the pencil icon at the side of any existing reason that is set up the name, number of points, expiry and other options related to warning actions. Tip You can also copy or delete reasons using the other 2 icons next to the description Adding/Editing a reason will give you the following screen where you can Reason Creation Actions Actions compliment the warning reasons, by allowing you to process an action such as restricting a user from posting after a set amount of points. You can see the list of actions from within the actions tab. Action List By editing or adding new actions, you can set up what happens to the users on x points. So in the example below, I have chosen to moderate the users content for 1 day upon reaching 10 warning points. As you can see below, you can easily restrict posting and ban using the warning system should you wish to do so. In addition you can choose whether or not the moderator giving these warnings can override the automatic action. Action Creation Settings The settings tab will allow you to enable/disable the warning system completely, along with set up who cannot be warned and various other items. The "User must acknowledge" setting will be discussed in further detail below. Warning Settings Using Warnings You can warn an area from both their profile. either in the mini-profile or in the full profile on the left. Warning From the Member Card You will notice you can also see any warnings a user has already been given within the full profile as you can see in the image below Warning From Profile When clicking to add a warning to a member, you will be presented with a popup dialog which will allow you to choose one of the set reasons, or set your own if permissions allow. You can leave notes for both your members, and indeed other moderators. These will only be viewable to the relevant people, so moderators can see these in the warnings and a member will be shown the detail added the 'Note for Member' section only. Warning Options Once you have given a warning you will be shown the details of the warning in which you have given the member. From here (as well as by selecting the warning in their profile) you can also revoke the warning should the need arise. Warning View If a member has been given a warning, and your settings are set so that the member has to acknowledge that warning before they continue, they will be presented with a red bar at the top of the site, which will allow them to click and accept the warning in question. Member To Accept the Warning Clicking Shows The Warning Content Warning is Applied To the Member Manual Actions While we would hope these to be a last resort, there will be times where it becomes necessary to manually apply restrictions to an individual users account, or in some cases ban members from the site altogether. This can be done from the users account in the ACP Members -> Members Restrictions While within a members account in the ACP, you will see a section for 'Warnings & Restrictions'. Here you will see any items which have already been applied to the account, along with the warning level, and more options that can be used such as flagging as spam, or banning the user. Restrictions on the Member Account Selecting edit in the top right of this section, will allow you to add and remove items of restriction from the users account. There are various items you can apply from restricting posting, to the restriction on adding statuses. Restriction Editing Banning & Ban filters A last resort to situations on your site, be it through spam, member misbehaviour etc, would be to ban offending accounts, IP addresses, or emails from your site. You can ban a member using the ban button within the restrictions section of a member account (See above section on restrictions. On using the ban button, you will be given the option to also ban the IP address if you wish, move the member to another group, and set the length of time to ban the account for. Member Banning Options When opting to add the IP to the ban, this adds the IP to your ban filters. These can be found in the following location in your ACP Members -> Member Settings -> Ban Settings In this section, you can restrict access to your site from IP addresses, as well as restricting the email addresses and names that can be used on your site. This can be helpful if for example you wished to block registration by temporary email hosts, or stop people using the words 'mod' in their username. To add to this, simply use the 'Add Ban Filter' button in the top right. Ban Settings and Filters You will note from the above screenshot that there are wildcard(*) characters that have been used in some places. Where there are used, they will be match anything in that location. So for example, in the above you have *admin* . So if someone tried to register with I_am_admin_user then it would not be allowed when registering, as we are disallowing admin with anything prefixing or suffixing this. Adding a Ban Setting

The moderator CP can be accessed by clicking on your name and selecting ModeratorCP on the front end of your site. This is a central place for the moderators on your site to manage items which need attention, along with other useful moderation tools. Reported Content The reported content section will show you any content that has been reported by your members on the site. You can click into any of these to view the content of the report or select them for mass processing. Reported content The approval queue The approval queue gives your moderators a workable queue of content that needs to be actioned and approved by a member of your site staff. You can then step through each item and action as appropriate. You can start the approval queue by selecting the button provided. Click start to start the approval queue Each item in the queue will show you the content and give you the option to quickly delete, skip or approve the item. Once an item is actioned you are automatically moved to the next item in the queue. Select what to do with each item Deleted Content When you delete an item on the system, this will by default be 'soft' deleted. These deleted items will show up within your Moderator CP in the deleted content section for 30 days. You can change the number of days these are kept for at the following location in your ACP System -> Settings -> Posting Item that was deleted and can be restored From here you can select to restore items, should you or one of your staff make a mistake in deleting an item. IP Address Tools The IP Address tools will allow you to look to site related information on a specific IP address. To use this, enter an IP address into the box provided as below, and select continue. Alternatively you can check all IP addresses by a member on the site. IPs or members can be searched In the example below I have entered by own local IP. As you can see there is various information related to how that IP has been used on the site, along with location information if it is available. Information related to an IP Tip This tool can be handy if you see an IP address of a user who is causing issues on your site and you would like to see if there are any other related members of related content with the same IP address. Member Management You can quickly manage members from within the moderator CP from the Member Management section. Entering members name will then allow you to edit the member (subject to permissions). You will also see some useful lists of information below this on members who are banned, restricted, queued, or banned from chat for quick access to these. If the moderator searching can see email addresses, they will also be able to search by email in this section. Searches show Banned, Restricted and Queued information for a user Alerts Alerts allow you to quickly bring information to the attention of users on your site. Whether this be an individual member, or an entire group when a simply PM or a warning may not be appropriate. For example, quick information to be given to new members, getting information to a member of staff straight away, or even sending out a promotional message to a specific group. Searches show Banned, Restricted and Queued information for a user Clicking on the alerts area will show you a list of alerts that are already set up on the system. Alerts list Select "Create Alert" to create a new alert on the system, adding your criteria for who to show the alert to, as shown below. Alerts setup Recent Warnings Clicking on the recent warnings area will give you a list of all the recent warnings on the site, so you can quickly get a view of who has recently been warned. Warnings list Selecting any of the warnings will show you more information and give you the opportunity to revoke these warnings should you need to do this. Warning information Announcements This section of the moderator CP will allow your moderators to set up and manage announcements attached to different areas of the site. You can see which area active at a glance with the active flags which are set here. To set up a new announcement on the site, simply click on the Add Announcement button. Announcement list Announcements can be shown in any of the following locations Top of the page Above the page content In the sidebar Announcement locations Each location has some slightly different features; the page top banner is dismissible by the member if they no longer want to see it, whereas the banner above the content and the sidebar announcements cannot be dismissed. Each application has the ability to select which applications and pages you wish to show announcements, along with which member groups will see these. You can also select a color in which to use for your announcement Announcement set up Announcements can be either Title Only - This just shows the line of text and is not clickable Content - This is clickable, and will show the content you add into the editor when this option is selected Link to URL - This is clickable, and will visit the URL you have entered when clicked. When an announcement is tapped to open, and the content type is select, it will show a modal window with any further details you have entered. Announcements clickable to show further information Hidden Content Finally in the moderator CP, you can view a list of hidden content on the site. You can view all of these at once or you can limit this by area of the site. This gives you a one click location to view all hidden content, rather than clicking into individual sections to find these. All hidden content can be seen within the moderator CP

Within the IPS4 Community suite, you will be adding attachments within posts, blogs, and many more areas. These items are stored within your own attachment area, and can be reused throughout the site. My Attachments By clicking on your name and selecting "My Attachments" you can view a list of these. This will let you know where these documents are attached if you need to find then and you can also download these direct from the page. My Attachments Your users can also see their current attachment quota, if you have set up any limitations for their group. Reusing Attachments Attachments, and other items such as gallery images, calendar entries and more, can be reused when posting. To do this, select the 'Other Media>Insert Existing Attachment' button at the bottom of the editor Insert Existing Button Selecting this option will show you all the items you have inserted on the site, so you can select any you wish to use in the current post or topic Insert Existing Attachment Administrating Files Within the admin CP, you also have a similar area for all files that have been attached throughout the site. You can access this by visiting the following area: system->Overview->Files From here you can do the same as you can on the front end of the site, but for all files. You can also remove these from the system completely if you need to do so. Admin Files

With all the content that you can follow in the IPS community suite, it is important that you can manage this easily and in one place. You can manage your followed content in this way by selecting your name in the top right, then selecting "Manage Followed Content" Manage Followed Content When clicking on this option, you will be presented with the following screen. You will notice that you can filter through different types of content using the menu on the left of the page Followed Content List To change the way in which you follow (or indeed remove completely) you can select the Change Preference button provided next to a given item. This will then present you with the various options you can change. Change Notification Type In addition to this method, you can also do this with multiple items at once. To do this, you select the checkboxes next to each item that you want to change. On clicking one or more of these checkboxes, you will be shown a menu at the bottom of the screen to change the options as you wish. This is shown in the screenshot below. Multiple Selection Change

Sending messages between members in IPS4 is a simple but powerful tool you can use to communicate with your members (or they can communicate with each other) away from your community. When receiving a message, you will see a number appear next to your inbox icon showing the number of unread messages that you have. This would be similar to the image below. Message Notification Sending/Receiving Clicking on the notification icon will show you the messages you have received. You can click on these to view any of the message or visit your inbox. You will see that you can also compose a new message from the same dropdown menu if you wish to do so. Message Box In addition to being able to sent messages from the "Compose new" button, you can also send a message to a user from anywhere on the site, direct from the users name. You would do this by hovering over the username and selecting the message button Send Message Composing a message is very similar to composing a topic on the site. You can send messages to multiple recipients by typing their names within the "To" box. This field will suggest names by filtering through the member list as you type. Compose Message Managing Your Messages When entering your inbox you will be presented with a screen similar to the below. From here you can search you messages, click on them to view, reply to your messages, filter and more. Manage Messages Clicking on the button in the top right will allow you to add folders to organise your messages. Clicking on this button will present you with a text box in which to enter a new folder name. You can move messages to another folder using the button in the top right of any message. Move folders or Add Recipients Add Folder

By selecting your name and then notification settings on the front end of your site, your users will be presented with a screen similar to the below where they can change various settings related to their account as seen and illustrated in the image below. Account Settings Overview On the overview page you will see the accounts you are connected to such as facebook, google+ and more, along with links to the other settings in which you can access from this page. You will also notice various tabs where you can change your email address, password, display name and any linked accounts. Linked Accounts When clicking to link an account on any of the available you will be given the relevant options that you can select relating to this. For example, below you will see the Facebook settings which allow you to syncronise various elements of your site and facebook. Linked Accounts Notification Settings Selecting notification settings on in the "Other Settings" section of the overview page will present you with all the options for how notifications are create for you by default when creating or replying to content, along with other events on the site. Notification Settings Clicking any of these options will show you the notification options that can be selected for that type. For example here, I have opened the options for profile related items. Expanded Notification Settings Ignored Users You can get to the Ignored users list by clicking this item in the "Other Settings" section of the overview page. Ignored users is a facility on your site where you can (depending on permissions) set a member to ignored in order to not see any content from that member. So if they post within a topic and you are ignoring them, you will not see that ignored content. This can be useful for filtering out people who you have no interest in reading the content of. To do this you would simply add their name into the box provided and add them to the list. Ignored Users

Profiles can form a key part of your community. Each member of your site will have one that can be viewed by other members (should they have permission to do so) and can be customised to the members liking. A members content and other important information relating a member can be found in this area. Editing your profile information To get to your profile you can select your name at the top of the page and select "Profile" as seen in the image below. Profile Link Once you have entered your profile, you will see a screen similar to the below. At present you will see there is only activity showing, however if you have gallery albums, blogs and more, you will also see tabs for these with each having your own albums, blogs etc. To edit your profile information, select the "Edit Profile" button in the top right. Profile Page Once clicked you will be presented with the edit profile screen. From here you will be able edit your Birthday, Enable and disable status updates on your profile, and change your "About me" information. In addition to this information, you may see custom profile fields that have been added within the admin CP. Edit Profile Changing your cover photo On IPS 4 you can change your own cover photo (subject to permissions) by selecting the "Cover Photo" option in the top right. Change Cover Photo Changing your profile photo Profile photos are shown on your profile, and throughout the site as your 'avatar' within posts and other community content. You can add a photo by upload or from another URL on the internet, then resize and position this as appropriate. Change Profile Photo Viewing content From any members profile, you can see all the activity of that member by selecting the "See My Activity" button in the top right of the profile. This will then present you with a filterable list of content that the member has posted on the community. Viewing Content Profile Privacy You can choose not to show your recent profile visitors on the page by disabling that block from being shown to other users by clicking the link provided for that purpost within the "Recent Profile Visitors" block on the left of your profile. Profile Privacy You may also choose to disable the ability for users to be able to follow you. This can be achieved by changing the options within the followers block, as per image below. Allowing Follows

Creating a staff directory for you community can be useful for all sorts of reason. Maybe just so that your members can see the staff just at a glance, or maybe you run a gaming community where the Staff may actually be staff within your game. Whatever the reason, you can create a staff directory with ease in the IPS4 Admin CP. Creating a Directory To add a staff directory, visit Members>Staff>Staff Directory, from within your admin CP. By default you will first see this (if you expand the 2 groups) with the administrator and moderators groups already added. Directory List You can add either groups or individual members to a category within this page by clicking on the plus icon at the side of any group. To add a new category click on Create Category. Once you have clicked the plus to add a member or group to a category. You will be presented with one of 2 sets of information to enter. If it is a group then you would simply select the group. If a member then there are also other items you can select here New Directory Entry You will note that you can change what you display for the member if you are entering an individual into the staff directory. This is handy if for example you wish to show someones real name or something different. So I may have a member called X2201 and want to show them as Dave (X2201) so its clear who the person is. This is the same with the user title, so they may have "Happy Guy" where I may want to put "Clan Leader" for example. Directory Display You can change the way in which the directory is displayed my changing the display of each category. You can change these by selecting the pencil icon at the right of any category in the list. Once selected you will be shown a screen similar to the below. Directory Display You can choose from any of the layouts provided, and can even create more layouts if you are a more advanced user. Using these options you can create some great layouts Staff Directory Example Advanced Layout Usage It is possible to create custom layouts for the Staff Directory page. You will need to write the templates using HTML, so to do this you will need to be familiar with HTML, as well as basic PHP logic. In the AdminCP, go to Customization -> Themes and click the "Edit HTML and CSS" button for your default theme. Then, from the "New" dropdown, choose "HTML Template". You can name the template whatever you like, and fill the rest of the form out with the following details: Variables: $users Location: Add to an existing location Existing Location: front Group: Add to an existing group Existing Group: staffdirectory Application: System You will then need to navigate to your newly created template within the many on the left (it will be under core -> front -> staffdirectory) and here is where you write the HTML code for your template. The template will be passed a $users variable which is an array of \IPS\core\StaffDirectory\User objects. Your code can include template logic and template tags You can use one of the existing templates as an example. After this you will also need to create another template with the same name (and settings above) but with "_preview" appended to the name (for example, if the template you just created is called "myCustomLayout" the template you create now will be "myCustomLayout_preview") which contains the HTML to display on the form when creating a Staff Directory group in the AdminCP. Since you know what the layout will look like, you can make this quite simple. You will need to repeat these steps for every theme you have installed (except child themes which will inherit the templates of their parents). Once this is done, when creating a Staff Directory group, you will see the template you have created as one of the available options.

Administrator and Moderator logs are an important part of your IPS Community Suite. These will allow you to check who was responsible for an action within your community, for example someone hiding a post or deleting a member. Where to find them You can find the moderator and administrator logs by visiting "Members>Staff" and either Moderators or Administrators within that section. Within each of these you will see a button for logs in the top left of the page.

On the front end of your community, moderators can moderate your site depending on the permissions that you have given them to do so. Moderation can be done at an item level, or the level of its container. For example you may moderate individual posts from the topic screen, or moderate topics from the forum screen. Content Moderation Whilst within a post or topic, if you hover over the topic or post you wish to moderate you will see a checkbox appear in the top right of that item. Selecting this will add this to the items that you are currently moderating. Once you have selected at least one item, you will see the moderation menu appear at the bottom where you can select the action you wish to perform. You can see this in action in the animation below. Moderator Bar In some of the other areas of the community, you may find moderator actions under a button, such as you can see here in a gallery image. Moderation Menu Items Tip Within each item of content you will see a moderator actions menu. You can perform similar actions from here, and also see the moderation history for that particular item. Depending on where you are within the system, the moderation menu will show different actions. Below is another example where posts in a topic are being hidden from the end user. Inline Selection Post Approval There may be times when you need to switch on approval for replies within an individual topic. You can select this option from the 'Moderation Actions' menu, which will then mean each reply will need to be approved before being seen Post Approval Automatic Moderation There comes a time when your community is so successful that it can be a little tough to keep up with all the content and reports. To help with this, you can make use of our automatic moderation feature, which performs actions when an item of content is reported by a user of your community. This feature leverages your member reports to automatically remove objectionable content from public view. You as the admin will define thresholds for the content. For example, you may say that to hide content, a post needs 5 reports. This reduces the workload for your moderators and enables you to crowd source moderation. Community Moderation When a member reports a piece of content, they now have the option to set a type, such as "Spam" or "Offensive". These options can count towards the threshold. Once the threshold has been passed the item is hidden. Options when a user reports This threshold can be set up by creating rules in the Admin CP as shown below Report Types Before you can create your own rules for automatic moderation, you must create 1 or more report types from the following location. Once you have done this, you can then continue to setting up rules for auto moderation. Members -> Content Moderation -> Automatic Moderation -> Manage Report Types Any report type can be added here Creating Rules At its heart of the system are the rules. You can create custom rules within the ACP from the following location Members -> Content Moderation -> Automatic Moderation Rules set within the ACP For example, you may decide that: A member with less than 10 posts only needs 5 reports to hide the content. But you may want to give more experienced members a higher threshold as there is more trust. You simply add a new rule: A member who joined over a year ago with over 500 posts needs 10 reports to hide content. You can do that easily with the rules system as it will scan them all and pick the one most suitable for this member. Notifications Once an item has received enough reports to match the threshold, it is automatically hidden from view. Meaning it can then be dealt with by a moderator at an appropriate time, without the reported post being an issue to your members. Post is hidden on auto moderation A notification is sent to all moderators who opt in for notifications. This notification shows inline in the notifications center. Inline notification It can also optionally be sent via email for those who want to know without checking the site. Notification sent via email Of course, a moderator may decide that the content is fine and un-hide it. Once a piece of content has been un-hidden, automatic moderation will not hide it again. Preventing Abuse The system will only count a unique member as one point towards the threshold. This is to prevent a single member can reporting an item 5 times, as they are only counted once towards the threshold. You can also set a time limit between reporting the same item. This will prevent a member reporting a single item multiple times in succession. These settings can be found within the following area Members -> Content Moderation -> Automatic Moderation -> Settings Set limits to prevent abuse of this feature Of course, the member can delete their report if it was in error. Clicking report again gives the option to delete

Tagging and Prefixing content is a quick and easy way to categorise and highlight the content of content within your site. Users can then use these to quickly filter by similar tags or prefixes. Tagging Content Tagging when creating content can be done by entering comma separated values into the tag box. The system will check for tags which have been used previously, and automatically suggest these as you type. Once you have added your tags, you can choose one of these items to be a title prefix should you wish to do so, as seen below. Tagging Once tags are created, they can be seen within the topic list or indeed on the item of content itself. Clicking on any of these will do a search for other items with the same tab or prefix Tags are clickable for quick searching Tag Setup The setup for tags and prefixes can be found within the following location of your ACP System -> Settings -> Posting Clicking on the tags tab you will see many options which you can change to restrict the use of tags and prefixes to a predefined set, set minimum and maximum lengths and more. Tag Settings Restricting use You can also restrict whether or not tags and prefixes can be used within a forum or by a particular member group, by editing the appropriate forums/groups. Restrictions

Notifications are a great way for your users to be notified when things happen around your community. This may be that a user has been quoted, someone has mentioned them in a post, someone has commented on a photo and more. Notification Icon Settings by default When a member signs up to your community, they will have default settings for notifications based on what you set up within your admin cp. If you visit Notifications you will be presented with the following screen. Notification Defaults From here you can set default notifications when a member signs up by editing each type and setting as appropriate, along with what type of notification they will receive and whether or not they can edit the setting themselves on the front end. Default Settings Clicking on the "Prune Settings" button at the top, you will also be given the ability to set limitations as to how long these will be stored, along with being able to automatically remove follows after a set period. This may be important in large communities to ensure there are not large volumes of un-required notifications being sent out. Prune Settings Members and settings On the front end, your members will see notifications based on the criteria either by default, or in which they have set up for themselves. Clicking on the notification icon will show the notification list as below. Notification Sent to a User From here you can view all of your notifications, change your notification settings, and subscribe to then using the RSS feed should you wish to do so. Notification Management Selecting notification settings will allow the member to set up their own options for what they are notified for. Any items which are not allowed to be changed will be greyed out. You can change any item by clicking and editing accordingly. User Notification Settings If you need to check what settings a member has set up already, you can do this by editing their account in the AdminCP, and clicking any of the notification types. Group Settings This is useful if a member is querying about receiving notification emails. Browser Notifications Browser notifications are items which will show within the browser, upon certain actions on the site. These show items such as when you receive a personal message, or if another comment has been to a topic you are currently reading, without you having changed page, or even on some occasions (such as notification sounds), when you are even on the same tab. Browser Notification When someone first logs onto your site, they will likely be asked by their browser if they would like to allow browser notifications. Without allowing these, no browser notifications will show Example on Chrome If a user disallows browser notifications, they will be shown that this is disabled within their notification area on the site. From here, they can click to enable them if they wish to do so. Option to Activate

The search facilities within your community, allow your members to find specific content that they are looking for on the site, using words and other known criteria. How to use A simple search can be achieved by typing into the bar on the top right of the site. When selecting the box, you will see there are options appear which will allow you to change what criteria you are using. Options for search Selecting search icon (magnifying glass) with no search criteria entered, will take you to the advanced search screen so you can select to filter by other criteria, such as by author, searching through tags, and many other criteria including custom fields you have set in your applications. Advanced Search Administrator Options Basic Settings You can find all of the admin settings related to search within the following location System -> Content Discovery -> Search From here you can change the type of search and the way in which searches are processed by the system. By default search is set to MySQL. You should leave your system set to this default unless you are comfortable in setting up advanced server functionality on your hosting. For most people MySQL search will be sufficient. MySQL Search Options In the top right, you will also see a button to rebuild your search index. This can be used if you find any issues with search, you change any settings which require a rebuild, or any other reason you may wish to rebuild the indexing of the search itself. Elastic Search When switching to elasticsearch you will need to enter the details relating to your elastic search server. If your hosting company has set this up for you, then you will need to obtain the address for this, along with the index name that has been used. These will then need to be entered this into the fields provided. Elasticsearch Settings Additional options such as time decay and author boost settings can also be set when using elastic search. These should be left at their default settings, if you are unaware of what to set these too, or you are informed of what values to use by your elasticsearch service provider.

In addition to the standard search functionality of the site, there will often be content in which you wish to be able to search on a constant basis, without the need to have to create an advanced search for content items. An example of this would be 'Unread content' or 'Content I have started'. For this, we have Activity Streams. These provide you with the ability to set up lists of content based on a criteria that has been given, either by yourself, or user defined. All Activity Stream The 'All Activity' stream which is available in the activity menu by default, will give you a rundown of all activity on your site. Unlike other streams on your site, this will notify you of any new items since viewing the page. You can view this in either a condensed view (one line per item) or the default expanded view you see in the screenshot below. Live All Activity Screen If you wish to switch off some items from showing within 'All Activity' such as when members register, these can be switched off from the following location in the ACP System -> Content Discovery -> Streams -> Activity Stream Settings Activity Stream Settings User Defined Streams New Streams Within the default menu structure, under the 'Activity' menu item, you will see a 'My Activity Streams' option. Here you will see any admin defined activity streams, and also the ability to create your own stream (on a per user basis). Default Stream Menu When selecting to create new stream, you will be presented with the filters you wish to use for your new stream. Here I have created a new stream for a news forum on the site. Note you can select the cog icon at the side of any content type to select specific items under that content type. In this instance, a specific forum. New Stream Creation Any new streams that are created, are then shown under the 'My Activity Streams' menu, beneath the default set of streams. User Defined Streams Editing Existing Streams When viewing any existing streams, you will see a set of filters at the top of the page, in which you can change to your liking. Changing these will change the data shown in real time. Often there are times where you will wish to save a small change to an existing stream, rather than creating one from scratch. After making an edit to any of the filters, you will see a save button, which will then allow you to create a new stream from your changes. Save From an Existing Stream Admin Defined Streams Creation In the activity menu, you will see there are some streams in which are defined by default within the system. These items can be changed or added to within the following location in the ACP System -> Content Discovery -> Streams -> Activity Stream Settings You can filter by all areas of the site when creating a new stream in this area, or edit an existing stream. New Stream Creation Default Stream You will see at the bottom of each stream, there is a 'Default' selection box. Only one item can be select, which by default is the 'Unread' stream. If you change the default, it will change 'unread' link on the front end of your site to point to that new stream. In the image below, I have changed this to statues Default Stream

Share Icons You can place links to share content to other social media such as Facebook and twitter. You will see these links below any content on the site. Here is an example from a topic. Share icons Share Permissions If you visit Sharing you will see all of the sharing sites that you can currently use. You can disable any of these completely at any time. Simply click the "Enabled" button and this will change to "Disabled" Shares Available If you click on the pencil icon at the side of any of these, you will be presented with options for which user groups can use any individual share link, along with any other options which may be relevant to that share link. Below is an example of the options for Twitter. Edit Share Option Social Sign In You can enable social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and more as an option for your visitors to register or login on your Community. Existing members can choose to link their accounts to one or more social media platforms to enable a more integrated experience. Setting up social media integration varies by network. Facebook Twitter Microsoft LinkedIn Another Community Instance Wordpress External Database

There are several methods of adding advertisements on your Community both in HTML and as image-based ads. They are placed automatically in areas of your choosing. Create Ads Advertisements can be placed on you site in either image or plain HTML in Advertisements in the AdminCP. You can add a new advertisement by clicking on the "Create new" button shown in the image above. Once you have done this you will be presented with the various options for creating an image. You can either enter HTML code or you can click "Upload Images" in order to upload an ad image. In the example below, you will see you can chose to enter separate HTML code to appear on secure pages. Once you have added your image or advertisement code, you can then choose the location and permissions for your advert to be shown. You can select more than one location for an ad to show and criteria for when and how long to show the ad. When using Google Adsense adverts you may notice that page navigation no longer works as expected. This is caused by Google requiring that adverts are not loaded using AJAX. To resolve this issue you can disable AJAX pagination using the built in theme settings. Ajax Pagination Should you wish to disable an advert at any time, you can do this by clicking the "Enabled" text in the list, which will then change to "Disabled" Disable/Enable Manual Ad Placement You can put advertisements in several pre-defined locations but it is also possible to create additional locations which you can insert by modifying the HTML code for your community or use in the Pages application. First, create your advertisement as normal. For the "Show the advertisement" setting, select "Define your own location" and enter a key into the box (it can be whatever you like). You can then later use the same key for other advertisements that you want to show in this location. Now you will need to insert a special tag in the HTML code where you want the advertisement to show. The code to insert is: {advertisement="KEY"} Replace "KEY" with whatever key you used. In your theme Go to Themes and click the "Edit HTML and CSS" button for your default theme. The specific template you need to edit and where to make the change depends on where you want the advertisement to show. For this example, if you wanted the advertisement to show in the profile under the header, go to the core -> front -> profile -> profileHeader template and insert the code at the very bottom. Since each theme has its own HTML templates, you will now need to repeat this for each theme. In pages or blocks The tag can be inserted in a page, block or template within the Pages application. Simply insert the tag wherever you want the advertisement to show. Control when Ads Show Using the responsive CSS classes available in IPS4, it is possible to set your ads up so that different content displays depending on the device size. This only applies to ads you create yourself. If you use an ad service (such as Google Adsense), you should find out how that service supports responsive ads. For example: <div class='ipsResponsive_showDesktop ipsResponsive_showTablet ipsResponsive_block'> This ad shows on desktop and tablets, but *not* phones </div> <div class='ipsResponsive_showPhone ipsResponsive_block'> This ad shows on phones, but *not* desktop and tablets </div> Ads in email Introducts in version 4.4 of the Invision Community platform, is the ability to show your ads within your community emails, as well as on your site. Within the same email section, you will see an Email Advertisements tab, where you can ad advertisements which will only show within emails. Ads within Emails can be restricted to only show within specific email types. As you can see in the image below, I have changed this ad only to be sent when the email is from a Topic, such as a topic reply notification. Email Ads