Groups
You will probably want to start by creating a Forum Group. In Simple:Press, a group is a container for one or more forums. There must always be at least one Group.
Think of it as a way of organizing and structuring your overall forum. In most respects, it has a similar role to the categories you probably use in your blog – a way of grouping items that have a common thread.
The illustration to the right shows part of the Simple:Press support forum which we will continue to use as example. You will see that there are two groups defined – in this case a group for support questions on the most recent version and a second group covering older versions. You can create as many groups as you wish.
Creating A Group
When you create a new group, you will need to provide the following information.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The Group Name is used as the main heading for each group in Group View and when the group's forums are displayed in Forum View |
| Description | You can supply an optional description which will be displayed in a smaller font beneath the name. This provides the opportunity to display some explanatory text of what the group is all about |
| Display Position | Possible locations for the new group will be displayed for you to select from. Remember, when a group is moved, it takes it's forums with it. |
| Custom Icon | The 'skin' you choose for your forum will contain a default Group icon but you can optionally supply a custom icon for each group. See Configuration Panel for details on where to store custom icons |
| Special Message | There is an optional special message area between the group heading and it's forum list. Text and HTML can be entered for this message and it can be styled in your forum skin |
| User Groups and Permissions | We will discuss these later in User Groups and Permissions |
Please note that after the group is created you may edit any of the above data. In addition, an RSS feed for the group will be created which you can optionally redirect to a feed service such as FeedBurner. By default Group RSS feeds encompass all of the posts in all of the forums belonging to a group although individual forums can be excluded.
