5. Admin control panel
5.1. What is the Admin CP?
The admin control panel is where all of the interesting processes happen with your site. From here you can modify almost anything you see on your pages, including the layout, and colors, and allows you to have complete control over the members of the site. The admin control panel although very powerful in also very flexible and easy to use. You can only access the sites admin control panel if you are the God Admin or if the God Admin has given you access.
5.2. How do I access the Admin CP?
By default if you have access to the admin control panel then you will have all the sections you have access to underneath the main navigation. If the site has a custom layout, then there may or not be a link to the admin control panel. If there isn't, then you can still access it by going to the address: http://www.acornrack.com/<site_name>/admin/index.html.
5.3. Your Admin CP main pages.
The admin control panel is split into 9 sections; each section may have more than one sub-section within it. These sections make it easier for you to navigate your way around. An important point to make is that if you click a section with sub-sections within it, a drop down menu will appear which you then make your selection from. You will go directly to the sections page if the section does not have any sub-pages.
5.3.1. General options.
This section has two sub sections, one called 'General options' and one called 'News manager'. The 'General options' page controls certain aspects of your site, below is a short description of each item:
- 'Site display name' determines what the premade variable [site_name] displays.
- 'Site description' is displayed when people search for your site in the site directory. This is limited to 500 characters.
- 'Site type' gives users a chance to focus in on a particular category when searching in the site directory. Your site is automatically not set in the directory to attempt to reduce the amount of inactive sites.
- 'Auto-signup' is a feature that allows people who apply to your site to automatically be accepted. The userlevel that you specify here is what the user will be assigned to, so make sure you don't give them too many access levels - if any!
- 'Members per page' specifies how many members will be displayed on each page of the member list.
- 'Allow promotion requests?' allows you to decide whether users can make promotion requests or not.
- 'Allow guest access?' enables you to let users take a 'sneak peak' at your site. Guest access has no permanent access, so they cannot post, vote, message people etc. To login as a guest, the username is "guest" and the password is "guest".
- 'Enable who's online?' lets you turn on your sites who's online code which will log users into a who's online table. An additional code (found here) will need to be used in order to display who is online on your site.
- '[whos_online_location] text' allows you to change the output of [whos_online_location] variable. You can use any characters for this, but are limited to only three variables, [page_name], [area_name] and [thread_name].
- 'Threads per page' lets you choose how many threads to show on each page of the forum.
- 'Posts per page' lets you choose how many posts to show on each page of the thread it belongs to.
- 'Enable date rewrite' allows you to shorten the [date] variable if it exceeds a certain amount of characters. Instead of using the default [date] variable, you will need to use [site_date].
- 'Only enable the `Date rewrite` function if the users date is over `x` characters long' is pretty self explanatory. Here you can select the number of characters that the [site_date] needs to be over before it displays a new date representation.
- 'New date representation' is the new date type that if the [site_date] variable is over 'x' amount of characters. Click on the link to the left of the input box to understand what letters you can use.
The 'CSS management' page allows you to change your sites color scheme in a matter of seconds. If you don't know what one item does, change it and see what happens, but be sure to make sure you know what it was before! If your CSS becomes pretty messed up, you might find it easier to just reset it to default. For this, just check the 'Return CSS to default' checkbox and submit the form, but beware, this is irreversible.
The 'News manager' page allows you to make news announcements which by default are displayed on the home page - but this can be moved to anywhere you desire. To add a news item, click on the 'Add a news item' link just above the news table. The 'Allow commenting' checkbox enables you to let users either post comments or not. This option is only enabled an upgraded site.
The 'Newsletter manager' system, which is only for upgraded sites allows you to send a newsletter (an email) to everyone on your site. If the site is a Professional edition then you can send a newsletter every month. If you have an Enterprise site then you may send one every week. You are able to preview the newsletter to how it would look by instead of clicking the send button, clicking the preview. By previewing the newsletter, you are still able to edit it and send it.
The 'Help system' is only for upgraded sites, and allows you to get help from the administrators of Acorn Rack in a prioritised and direct way. Once you submit a help request, you can see whether or not it has been answered as unread responses will be highlighted in red. All answered requests have 'Answered on' and a 'Answered by' information. Please note that this system is for help with the Acorn Rack system, we will not be able to provide help with making a site for you.
Through the 'Custom smilies/swear' page, you can choose whether or not to enable the custom smilies. This means that you can disable them, and replace them with your own smilies which will maybe match the layout better. You can also use this function as an anti-swear script, similar to that on the public forms. Simply enter in the word you want to filter out, and show what to replace it with. Because all of this is done on the server, even if users have Javascript turned off, they will still see the end results as you want them to.
5.3.2. Forum management.
This section is where you can manage all the forums on your website. The structure of the forums are:
- A page holds forums.
- A forum contains areas.
- An Area contains threads.
- A Thread contains posts.
You first need to create a Forum by entering the order number of the forum and a forum description. For example, you could create a forum called 'General board' with an order number of 1 (The lower the number, the highest it will appear on the page).
Once you have created a forum (you can create as many forums as you like) you are ready to make areas within this. You will notice that you now have a new table, with 2 input boxes. The first input box, 'Area name' is what the area will be called, and the second box is the description of this area, 'Area description'. You could, for example create an area called 'Random chat' with a description of 'Talk about random information.'. If you submit the form, you will notice that it adds it to the table.
You can delete the area you just made by checking the 'Delete' checkbox to the right of the area and submitting the form. If you want to delete the forum, or change certain aspects of it, then click on the title of the forum, our example would look like this: '1 - General board [edit]'. Below are the options you will be faced with:
- 'Order' - use this to change whereabouts on the page the forum is located.
- 'Name' - to change the name of the forum.
- 'Restrict view access' - this option is presented in a drop down menu and any userlevels that are highlighted will not be able to see the forum. Press and hold the 'Ctrl' key whilst selecting the userlevels to select more than one.
- 'Restrict post access' - same as the 'Restrict view access' option except it restricts posting access rather than viewing access.
- 'Delete' - delete the forum, but beware, this is irreversible.
5.3.3. Voting management.
This area is where you can control the various polls you have created on your site. This page allows you to create polls and lock them to prevent your users from voting in them.
Once you have made a poll, you can edit it by clicking on the title. Here you can change the order of the voting poll, change the title and the description. You can also state who you want to 'Restrict voting from', holding down 'Ctrl' whilst clicking userlevels will enable you to select more than one. You can also delete and add new options for the polls.
5.3.4. Messaging centre.
The Messaging Centre lets you keep a track of your users private messages. It lets you search the messages for any inappropriate messages, such as excessive swearing and then choose to delete them if they are too offensive for your liking. All the messages are scaled on a point scale and given a number of points. The higher the point score the more offensive the message is. From this page you can search for messages on a given point scale as well as define how many results per page. This can be a very useful tool if checked regularly. It can help make your community a safe place for everyone.
5.3.5. Statistics.
The Statistics section allows you to quickly look at how often people have logged into your site. This is done via the Entree Log. On this page all your members are listed as well as a date and time on when they last logged in. This can be used to 'weed' out inactive members. The other page in this section is Site Statistics this gives you a quick and easy view of the main statistics you, as an admin may need. It tells you when your site was created as well as information on your forums and how many members you have registered. There is also a breakdown of userlevels, telling you just how many of each userlevel you have.
5.3.6. User management.
If your site is a popular site then this will be one of the most frequent places you will come. On the pages in this section you can modify virtually every element about your users, such as userlevels, suspended users and promotions.
The 'Userlevel management' page allows you to create userlevels with different admin access levels, and to delete userlevels that you no longer need. Please note however that you cannot delete userlevels if they have users assigned to them. Please note that you cannot modify the 'God Admin' userlevel. Below is a guide to what the access levels mean:
- 'General' gives users access to the 'General options' section, and the 'Upload files' section if the site is upgraded.
- 'Moderator' does not give the user any admin control panel access, but does allow the user to move/edit/delete posts/threads from the forum.
- 'Voting' allows users access to the 'Voting management' section.
- 'Messaging' gives the user access to the 'Messaging centre' section.
- 'Users' gives users access to the 'User management' section.
- 'Pages' allows users access to the 'Custom pages' sub-section.
- 'Layout' gives users access to the 'Update pages' sub-section.
- 'Stats' allows users access to the 'Statistics' section.
- 'Forum' allows users access to the 'Forum management' section.
The userlevel system depends on the number of each userlevel in a special way. If you are #5, and there are 10 userlevels, then you can only edit peoples userlevel, or accept people that are below your own userlevel. For example:
- God Admin
- Moderator
- Helper
- Member
- Suspended
'John' is #3 (A Helper) on the userlevel list, and he has the user management admin permissions. When `Paul` applies to the site, 'John' can only accept him as a 'Helper', a 'Member', or a 'Suspended' user. 'John' will not be able to accept them as a 'God Admin', or a 'Moderator'.
In the userlevel management screen 'John' can only change peoples userlevels to his userlevel ('Helper') or below ('member', and 'Suspended').
As you can see, this will stop people trying to "take over" a site without the necessary admin powers.
Please note that God Admins (The user that created the site) cannot have their userlevels changed by any other member, and cannot be deleted.
The 'User management' section lets you modify the users of your site. You can change the userlevel, the username and also suspend/unsuspend the user. From here you can also search the members on your site (useful if you have a lot of members) and you can delete individual members. Please note that you cannot assign people to higher userlevels than yours as a security procedure, and the 'God Admin' userlevel cannot be modified.
The 'Access management' section is one of the most powerful sections of the admin panel. It lets you restrict access to normal pages by userlevel (useful if you have setup custom userlevels and want to restrict access). To select more than one userlevel, hold down the 'Ctrl' key whilst selecting userlevels. Please note that you cannot block the 'God Admin' from any pages.
The 'Suspension centre' allows you to quickly view who is currently suspended from your site and gives you the option of keeping them suspended or to unsuspend them.
The Promotion Centre lets you see if any user has applied to become promoted. Whether users can apply for promotion is set in the General Options of the admin control panel. From the Promotion centre you can see what position the member applied for as well as their reason. You can also choose what userlevel to assign them to and what action to take with them (accept, deny, do nothing).
Edit user variables allows you to either update a single users variable(s), or update ever users variable(s) at once. When you click on the link, you will be faced with two options:
- Search for a user to update.
- Update a variable for all users.
'Search for a user to update' option lets you search for a user to update, so put the users name in the input box (or a rough name which will give you a list of possible matches). If your search successfully finds one or more user, it will display them to you. Click on the user that you want to update. You will then be faced with all the variables for that user. Click on one of these links and it will display what the user (or you) last entered for the variable. You can then change this variable to how you want. Submit the form, and the text you entered will replace what was originally there. Please note that you cannot update the God Admin's variable this way.
'Update a variable for all users' is probably the most powerful function that is on the admin control panel. It allows you to change every users variable value at once. This can be incredibly useful if you want to create a 'market script' where you give users money every day/week/month etc.
When you click on the 'Update a variable for all users' link, it will display every variable that is associated with your site. Click on one of these variables. You are faced with three input boxes:
- A drop down box.
- An input box.
- A checkbox.
The drop down box informs the script how to execute the form. There are 4 different options:
- 'Change old value to' simply changes the old value of each users variable to a whatever you write in the input box.
- 'Add to old value' is a mathematical operator. If you select this option then it assumes that the variables old value is a number, and so tries to add the new value to it.
- 'Subtract from old value' is a mathematical operator. It assumes that each variables value is a number, and so subtracts the new number from the old value.
- 'Multiple old value with' multiplies the old value with the new value that you enter into the input box.
- 'Divide old value with' divides the old number with the new value that you enter into the input box.
The input box is where you enter the new value for the variables, or the number which you wish to perform on the old numbers.
The checkbox 'Add a record for each user that does not already have the variable automatically?' allows you to create a new record in the database for users that do not currently have the variable you are working with. For example, if you want to update the 'money' everyone has by '5', but 'Joe' does not have the variable 'money' assigned to his account, then you can tell the database to create the 'money' variable, and add '5' to that variable.
Please note that if you execute this form, then the effects are irreversible. If you choose to use a mathematical operator (Addition, subtraction, multiply, or division), then any current values that are plain text (Not an integer) will be overwritten as a number.
5.3.7. Update pages.
The Update pages section gives you a list of all the default pages on your site. They are split into Non-membership and Membership only. To edit the HTML you can click on the link of the page you want to edit then modify the html in the box which appears on the next page. From the edit HTML page you can also restore the page to default if you think you have made any major mistakes. We recommend that you take your own backups of the pages if they are important to you.
Acorn rack also uses the idea of a 'header' and a 'footer' so that you can update all of your pages easily without having to edit any of the pages content. There are two sets of headers and footers, one for the non-membership pages and one for the membership pages. You can choose whether to include the header and footer on all pages via checkboxes on the bottom of each edit HTML page. We recommend that you use these as it will save you a lot of time.
The Create pages section lets you create, as the name suggests, custom pages. The first page gives you a list of all the pages you have created. This page also give you information on when it was created and also what the Status is. The status of Visitor means anyone can access it, and the status of Member means its for members only. If you want to view the page you can click on the Location link. If you want to edit the page you can click the Name link. To add a page click the 'Add custom page' link. From there you can choose the Order it is displayed, the name of the page, the address, the status and whether or not u want to restrict the page to any userlevels.
5.3.8. Upload files.
Uploading files is restricted to upgraded sites only, Professional editions have 2MB of storage and Enterprise has 10MB of storage. This is plenty for image files and any other files you choose to host. Enterprise edition sites also have the ability to upload 10 files at once which will speed up development.
To upload a file, click (one of) the 'Browse' button(s) and a File management window will open. Browse for the file you want to upload. Click on the file and press 'Open'. If you are sure that you want to upload the file, click the upload button, your file will then proceed to be uploaded to the server. You can delete files that no longer want with ease. Please note that if your site is downgraded, you will still have access to the files you uploaded, but will no longer be able to edit or delete them.
We currently support the following file formats:
.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .png, .txt, .html, .htm, .css, .js, .pdf, .doc, .zip, .xml.
5.3.9. Backup pages.
This section is again only for upgraded sites. This is a great feature for a site where the html on the pages are very important. It lets you restore a backup of each file which you have backed up. You can obviously backup the page as well with just a few clicks. Just click the restore or backup links. You will then have a chance to confirm whether or not you want to perform the action. You can view the current code which is backed up by clicking on the page name. Also, the date when the page was last backed up is displayed in red next to the page name.
5.4. How can I update my pages?
You can update the pages that you see within your site by going to 'Update pages' within the admin control panel. Once you click the link you will notice a sub menu drop down from it. There are two options:
- 'Update pages' allows you to edit all of the pages that were premade when the site was made.
- 'Custom pages' allows you to not only edit the pages that you have made, but also to make and delete them.
All of your pages use HTML (Hypertext markup language) but you can use any client side scripting language, such as Javascript, and VBScript. You may also notice the [variables] throughout your HTML, these are the tags that make Acorn Rack function. For more information on them, please visit the online manual: '5.5. What are these [variables] I see in my code?'. Acorn Rack does not allow server side languages such as PHP, ASP, and Perl.
5.5. What are these [variables] I see in my code?
These [variables] you are seeing are the fundamentals of your site; they hold the codes that will make your site work. Variables are parsed if they begin with one (1) A-Z character or underscore, followed by any string of A-Z characters, underscores (_) and colons (:). Below are a couple of examples of correct, and incorrect variable declarations:
[var] - correct.
[1var] - incorrect, the number one (1) is not permitted at the start of the variable.
[var1] - correct.
[_var] - correct.
[i] - incorrect, variable must be at least two (2) characters long.
[ii] - correct.
There are two types of Acorn rack variables, premade and custom. They look the same, but are very different, and are available in the following styles (the '...' signals where you can insert HTML/CSS/client side languages):
- Start/stop: [start:variable]...[stop:variable]
- If/endif: [if:variable]...[endif:variable]
- if/endif/elseif/endelse: [if:variable]...[endif:variable][elseif:variable]...[endelse:variable]
- Ifnot/endnot: [ifnot:variable]...[endnot:variable]
- Normal: [variable]
- Unexecuted: [variable/]
Start/stop
The start/stop variables are the main premade variables, they cannot be used as custom variables. They contain code which either initiates a certain event, or they initiate a loop. If you use a start variable, it must also have a stop variable, otherwise they will not be executed.
If/endif
The if/endif variables are used to perform comparative checks and can be used in conjunction with custom variables. If the statement equals true, then the code in-between the two variables are executed, otherwise they it is left alone. An example of using the if/endif variables for both premade and custom variables can be found below:
[if:logged_in]You are currently logged in.[endif:logged_in]
if/endif/elseif/endelse
The if/endif/elseif/endelse variables is very similar to the if/endif variables, but with a slight extension. The if/endif variables allow you to execute some code if the statement is true, but what happens if you want to execute a piece of code if the statement is true, and a different piece of code if the statement is false? This is where the elseif/endelse extension comes into it. Below is a example of how you could use it:
[if:logged_in]You are currently logged in.[endif:logged_in][elseif:logged_in]You are not currently logged in.[endelse:logged_in]
Notice how we use the same piece of code as the if/endif statement with a slight extension? Acorn Rack variables follow the same procedure as any other scripting language uses them, you cannot have code in-between the endif and the elseif. The code below is wrong (notice the <b> tag?) and will not result in the desired effect:
[if:logged_in]You are currently logged in.[endif:logged_in]<b>[elseif:logged_in]You are not currently logged in.[endelse:logged_in]
Ifnot/endnot
This is the opposite of the if/endif variables, if the statement equals false then the code will be executed. Please note that this is a custom variable statement only, and will not work with premade variables.
[ifnot:location]You have not yet entered your location.[endnot:location]
Normal
A 'normal' variable is one that contains a value, and if given a chance to, will execute it's contents. A 'normal' variable can be premade variables as well as custom variables. Below is an example of how to use a 'normal' variable:
[location]
Unexecuted
There maybe times when you need to use a string of text surrounded by square brackets ( [,] ), this could happen for presentation, or when scripting with array's. If you find yourself in this situation, all you need is to 'escape' the variable by adding a forward slash before the closing square bracket ( ] ). This will tell the parser to not to try and execute it, instead display it as plain text. Below is an example of how you could use this (please note that when the variable is outputted to the browser, the forward slash will not be visible):
The contents of [location/] is: [location].
If we say the value of [location] is "UK, England", we will see the following when the script is executed:
The contents of [location] is: UK, England.
5.5. Variable roundup
Premade variables are stored in the system; they cannot be edited by users sites.
Custom variables can be made and modified by each user on a site. Only the user can modify their own variables, save for administrators on Enterprise edition sites.