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(Editor's note: This is part 2 of a tutorial on how to add the open-source domBulletin to your Lotus Domino-based intranet. Check part 1 here.)

In this second part of the tutorial, I list more configuration options in the Access Control List. Remember that domBulletin is available at OpenNTF.org. For this article, we are using domBulletin 1.2.

More configuration options:

Allow User Autologin: Set to yes to allow the user to autologin to the applicaton. The database will store the user's username and password in clear text however, so I would recommend setting this to no and making users enter their username and password each time.

Allow Authenticated Users to Edit their Own Posts: Setting this to yes allows a logged in user to go back and edit their posts.

Allow Authenticated Users to Delete their Own Posts: Setting this to yes allows a logged in user to delete their own posts.

Enable Polls: Set to yes to enable the polling feature, no to turn it off.

Allow Anonymous to Answer Polls: If polls are enabled, this toggles whether or not an anonymous user is allowed to answer a poll.

Allow User Registration: This will normally be set to no in most environments as you wish to keep more control of your user accounts. Setting this to yes allows a user to register a new username and password that will be inserted into your Domino directory.

Security Mode: You can set this to Standard or More Secure. For our purposes we will set it to Standard. You can set it to More Secure if you wish to tighten things down a little more.

Forbidden Usernames: This field allows you to enter usernames (separated by a semicolon) that are not allowed. For example you may not want to allow Administrator.

Forbidden Words: This allows you to enter a list of "bad" words not allowed in posts. You need to separate them with a semicolon.

Convert Smileys to Images: Set this to yes to allow emoticons to be converted to images or no to leave them as text.

Allow UBB Code: UBB is a fairly popular Web bulletin board that uses certain markup conventions to format text. Saying yes to this allows your users to use UBB codes in their posts.

Allow File Attachments: Set to yes or no based on preferences.

Max Attachment size: Maximum attachment size per post you will allow (in kilobytes).

Allow Image Upload: Set to yes or no to allow or disallow users to upload images in their posts.

Max Image Upload Size: Maximum image size (in kilobytes).

Syndication and Emails

Server URL: The base URL of your server. For example http://www.intranetjournal.com

Enable RSS: Set to yes to enable RSS feeds of topics and the database to be available for end users.

Enable Newsletter: Set to yes to enable an email newsletter to be sent based on user preferences

Enable Emails: Set to yes if you want users to be able to receive emails when people respond to their posts.

Email Footer: Text to add to the bottom of your emails. It could be your website or application address.

Send Email "From" this Address: This is the address the newsletters and emails will come from. It can be set to anything, for example DoNotReply@intranetjournal.com

Mailbox Filename: This is your server's mail router database. 99 percent of the time, this will be mail.box. Talk with your admin to make sure.

Users and Profiles

Each authenticated user can have a profile where they tell things about themselves. They could give out their IM usernames, their website information, and set up avatars and signatures. This section just toggles each option on and off and is pretty self-explanatory so I won't go into each choice individually.

Sametime Integration

This section allows you to set up a connection to IBM Lotus Sametime within your organization. It's for simply displaying their status on their profile or on the web board views. Unless that is particularly important to you, set it to No.

Advanced Options

When users first connect: This section allows you to choose whether you want to have the same look and feel for each user, or allow the user to view the discussions the way he or she wants. You can play around with these options to figure out the best fit for your environment.

Display Mode: These are the various looks discussed above. You can place check marks to any you wish to allow an end-user to be able to choose themselves via preferences. If you want a consistent look for all users, you would only check the one you want to allow them to use.

HTTP Options: These are server settings that can help reduce network bandwidth and serve up the application faster. These will require you to get your administrator involved as these are settings only they will be able to make.

Miscellaneous

Hide "domBulletin powered" logo: Allows you to hide or show the Powered by domBulletin logo.

Enable user feedback to the webmaster: Toggles a link to allow users to leave feedback to the webmaster.

Disable searching: If you have an exceptionally busy database, you may want to disable searching to get better performance.

Categories

Categories are the main sections of the site. These are what your users will have to choose from on the main page. For example if this was a discussion forum for your salespeople you could do it by task, or you may separate the categories by Customer name. The categories are up to you.

To create a category, click the Categories link on the left. Then in the view pane on the right, click Create, Category.

You'll give your Category a name, a short description, the order in which is should appear in the list, as well as other color and icon customizations.

Once you're done, hit save, and then repeat the process to enter the rest of the categories you need.

Skins

A skin is the overall color scheme and look of your site. It's based on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in your skin form. To create a new one, click the Skins link on the left of the Admin pane. In the view pane on the right, click Create, Skin.

When you create a skin for the first time, it has all of the default information in it. You could simply save the document as a default skin if you wish.

When you want to customize it, the skin page has four tabs. CSS, Masterhead, Footer, and Resources.

CSS covers all of the colors and fonts in your system.

Masterhead is the HTML that shows up above your discussion area.

Footer is what shows up below the discussion area.

Resources is the tab where you can attach graphics that you wish to use and reference in the skin itself. For example, you could attach your logo, and then you could reference that logo in the Masterhead tab.

Signing on for the first time

Now that everything is set, you can access the database via a Web browser. The first time a user logs on, they will get a preferences screen. They can pick their preferred skin, their language, and how they want the database displayed. Active Webboard is generally the most popular, but you have five choices to account for different tastes.

This is all dependant of course on whether or not you allowed end users to customize their experience in the configuration documents.

Once the user has clicked the Display mode, they are taken to the main forum screen and they are ready to go.

Conclusion

It may seem like there are a lot of configuration options, and even though that is truly the case, the choices are very straightforward and easy to understand. Don't be overwhelmed. Just fill out the configuration details, create some categories and create a skin and you're good to go.

Once you've completed those steps, you'll have a fully featured web discussion board for your Domino-based intranet.

About this Series

This series of articles on intranet solutions with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino is intended to help readers understand the fundamental methodology and capabilities of the product and how to utilize it to deliver a feature-rich, secure, and functional corporate intranet solution. It will include implementation strategies, case studies, industry-tested tips and tricks, and, with your input, true value to the administrator or developer who wants to utilize IBM Lotus Notes/Domino technologies to deliver winning intranet solutions.

If you have any questions on the series, Lotus Notes/Domino, or if there's something you'd like to see addressed, visit the Intranet Journal Discussion Forum.

About the Author

John Roling is the Senior Groupware Administrator for a North American trade-show exhibit company and a certified Lotus Notes Administrator, Developer and all-around geek. You can keep up with him at his blog or drop him an e-mail at jroling@gmail.com.

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