Geeklog Forums

1) How to Install

You need to manually create the plugins program directories and copy the files to their appropriate directories.

If you are new to installing a geeklog plugin, I recommend that you review the background documentation on how to install a plugin here

Step 0 - Backup your Database

* Make a backup of your current geeklog database using the built-in admin feature. Verify your backup feature is configured correctly and backup file is not 0 bytes. This is worth the time to verify your backup

Step 1 - Restore the plugin Archive

* Uncompress the archive files into your <geeklog_dir>/plugins directory. It will create a forum subdirectory for the files.

Step 2 - Create the required plugin directories

* Create a directory called forum under your public_html directory
* Create a directory called forum under your public_html/admin/plugins directory

Step 3 - Copy the the required plugin files

* Copy the files (contents) from the new plugin's public_html directory to the forum directory you just created under your sites main public_html directory
* Copy the files (contents) from the new plugin's admin directory to the forum directory you just created under your sites main public_html/admin/plugins directory

Step 4 - Copy the the required theme files

* Copy the directory called forum and contents from the new plugin's themefiles directory to your sites theme's directory. Assuming your site is running the professional theme this would be public_html/layout/professional. You would then copy the themefiles/forum directry from the plugin archive so that you create a professional/forum directory with all the new layout files from the plugin archive

Step 5 - Update or copy the lib-portalparts.php file

* The plugins from portalparts use a number of common functions that are placed in the lib-portalparts.php file. Copy the file from the plugin archive to your system folder where there are other lib-xxxxx.php files

Step 6 - Run the plugin install

* Logged in as 'admin' you can access the installer from the plugin editor [admin -> plugins]
* If the files have been copied correctly in step 3 and 4, you will see the new plugin to be installed

Step 7 - Update your themes css - style.css file

* The forum is using the plugin CSS that is distributed with the GL 1.4.1 professional theme. If you are running a GL 1.4.1 site and using the stock professional theme or a 1.4.1 certified theme, you will only need to add a few new CSS styles declarations for the codeblock and quote formatting feature.

* If you have a GL 1.4 site or using a beta release of GL 1.4.1, then update style.css file using the pre1.4.1_forum.css file in the archive under the themefiles folder. Backup your current style.css file for reference and for many sites, they can just replace all the plugin like CSS declarations. They should all be grouped together in your style.css file.
* Pre 1.4.1 themes will also need to add missing navbar images. Add the images found in archives themefiles/navbar/images folder to the same folder under your site's theme.
Add the CSS declarations from the forum.css file in the archive under the themefiles folder.

* If you have a GL 1.4.1 final site, then you will only need to add the few additional CSS styles for the codeblock and quote formatting.
Add the CSS declarations from the forum.css file in the archive under the themefiles folder.

Step 8 - Setup your forums and review Admin Settings

* Create atleast one category which will contain one or more forums
* Create a forum within this category. A forum will then contain many topics which are created by your community of users. The forums are created and so named to organize your topics.
* The forums can be setup to be restricted to site-members only or public access as well other options can be set to control the access to the forums
* Review the optional plugin config.php settings