Threaded Bulletin Board Documentation

by Tzu-Mainn Chen

Contents

Introduction

The threaded bulletin board module allows users to read and post threaded messages. Its style of presentation is highly flexible, allowing for easy customization. Bulletin boards can be public (accessible to all users) or limited to groups of users. Users can also subscribe to bulletin board email alerts based on topic, thread, contributing author, and keyword. Finally, the module features the ability for users to reply to messages through email.

User Experience

Display

The user index page contains links to the bulletin boards that the user is allowed to access. In addition, the user can see the total number of messages and new messages within a bulletin board and search all accesible messages. A user can also subscribe or unsubscribe from a bulletin board with one click.

After a user selects a bulletin board, he is taken to a page which lists all current threads, along with the creation date and author of the thread, and a count of new and total messages within the thread:

The user can also click on the Post a new thread link to create a new thread.

Administrators of the bulletin board recieive one additional link which regular users do not see: in the upper-right hand corner of the page there is a link, Administrate Bulletin Board, that takes an administrator to an administration page.

When a user clicks on a thread, he is taken to a "closed" thread display, so that only the initial message is displayed:

From there, the user can "open" and "close" message branches, revealing additional replies:

This particular look-and-feel was customized for Sloan; in fact, the original display was similar to that of the administration pages, shown later. The module allows considerable flexibility in displaying messages.

Once a user decides to reply to a given message, he is taken to a page where he can decide upon his subject heading and message content. After he submits his reply, he is taken to a confirmation page:

If he is satisfied, he can then submit the message, and the message is either immediately displayed to users, or shown only to administrators, who have the option to approve or disapprove the message content.

Alerts

A user can receive email alerts when new messages are posted by subscribing to a bulletin board, a thread, a contributor, or a keyword. The user has access to a simple page which allows him to easily add and remove these alerts.

Reply By Email

Once a user receives an email alert, he can then reply to the message post by simply replying to his email.

Portal Support

The module is coded to work with the ACS portal system, with portlets ranging from a list of user-accesible topics to a display of all messages posted within the last n days.

Administrator Experience

There are two types of administrators: site administrators, who administrate the entire site, and group administrators, who have administration privileges over specific group-related items.

In this module, both administrator experiences are essentially the same; the only difference is that a site administrator can access every single bulletin board administration page, while group administrators can only access the administration pages related to their group.

When an administrator creates a bulletin board, he has the option of limiting access to a group or granting access to all users.

Afterwards, an administrator can change permissions however he desires, using a system called general permissions, implemented elsewhere in the ACS.

The administration page for a specific bulletin board is simple, with a threaded display of all messages within that bulletin board:

From this page, an administrator can approve and disapprove messages, delete message branches, and edit messages for inappropriate content. He can also change a variety of other properties, including auto-subscription for group bulletin boards, which automatically subscribes new members of a group to that bulletin board.

Future Improvements

  • Ability to rate bboard messages, on site or through email. Ability to filter and feature messages based on rating.
  • Ability to subscribe to digest version of messages.

tzumainn@arsdigita.com