Indiana University

IU Webmaster

Web Bulletin Boards

Table of Contents
Important Notice

This bulletin board system is being retired and will not be available on the central web servers after migration to the new Linux web servers. We do not recommend that you install this BBS in your account but instead research other available bulletin board systems.

For accounts that currently use this BBS, once the migration has begun you will need to download the application into your account on the new servers in order to continue using it. You may obtain the necessary files by going to the WebBBS web site. We will no longer provide support for this application. If you have questions or encounter problems you should refer to the online user documentation on the WebBBS site.

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Using the Bulletin Board Manager

Once you've installed the Bulletin Board Manager in your account, you're ready to use it to create, customize, and delete bulletin boards. To get started, use your Web browser to open the URL that the bbs_install program pointed you to. It should look something like this (with username replaced with your Web account name):

    http://www.indiana.edu/~username/bbs_manager/bbs_manager.cgi,
    http://www.iun.edu/~username/bbs_manager/bbs_manager.cgi,
    http://www.iuk.edu/~username/bbs_manager/bbs_manager.cgi,
    or
    http://www.iupui.edu/~username/bbs_manager/bbs_manager.cgi

When you are prompted for authentication, enter your Web account name (your personal username will not work) and your web account's network password. The network password for your account is not always the same as the web server or e-mail password. For security reasons, only these credentials will allow you to access the Bulletin Board Manager.

    Note: Bookmark this page. You may want to return to your BBS Manager often.

Bulletin Board Manager options

When you get to the Bulletin Board Manager, you'll have five options:

  1. Create: Click this button if you want to create a new bulletin board for your Web account.

  2. Customize: If you've already created a bulletin board, and want to customize it further, highlight the board name from the list of boards and click the "Customize" button.

  3. Delete: If you want to delete a board you've created, highlight the board name and click the "Delete" button.

  4. Go To Board: If you'd like to go to a board that you've created, highlight the board name and click the "Go To Board" button.

  5. Administration: If you'd like to set up the administrative password for a bulletin board or would like to delete individual postings to a bulletin board, highlight the name of the board and click the "Administration" button.

  6. Refresh: If the list of bulletin boards looks incomplete, click the "Refresh" button to regenerate the list.

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Options for Creating or Customizing a Bulletin Board

When you choose to create or customize a bulletin board, you will be presented with a form to complete. Below are descriptions of the form fields:

  • Board Name: This is the name that will appear at the top of your bulletin board and in the list of boards in the Bulletin Board Manager.

  • Unique Word: This unique word with the suffix "_bbs" added to it will be the directory name where your bulletin board's files are stored within your www directory. For example, if you use the unique word eng101, the directory on the web server (Veritas or Champion) where your bulletin board's files will be stored will be (with username replaced with your Web account name):

      /ip/username/www/eng101

    You will only be asked for a Unique Word when you "Create" a bulletin board (it is not an option when you choose to "Customize" an existing bulletin board).

    Except for adding headers and footers and restricting access to your bulletin board (see "Further Customizations and Administrative Tasks" below), you should not need to edit any of the files in this directory. The BBS Manager can make all other necessary changes to your bulletin board.

  • Background Color: You can choose the background color for your bulletin board from the list of available colors. The default is white.

  • Text Color: You can choose the text color for your bulletin board from the list of available colors. The default is black.

  • Default Display Type: This option determines the default way that your bulletin board displays message threads (a thread is a discussion topic and all of the responses to it). This is only a default -- users of your bulletin board can change their preferences to a different display type (see "Changing Preferences" below).

      Simple Chronological: No threading. Simply lists all postings to the board with the most recent posting at the top.

      Threaded Listing: Groups all responses to a message together (threads) and lists the most recently started threads last.

      Threaded Listing, Reversed: Groups all responses to a message together (threads) and lists the most recently started threads first. (The responses within a thread are ordered with the most recent response last.)

      Compressed: Displays only the initial post of each thread with the most recently started threads first.

  • Administrator E-mail Address: This is the e-mail address where messages related your bulletin board will be sent. If your users have questions or problems, this is the address they will be sent to.

  • Message Index Display: This sets the default age of messages in the index list. Choosing Archive will display all messages. This is only a defualt -- users of your bulletin board can change their preferences to a different option (see "Changing Preferences" below) .

  • Column Width: This is the width (measured in number of characters) of the text area where your bulletin board's users type their messages.

  • Row Length: This is the height (measured in number of characters) of the text area where your bulletin board's users type their messages.

  • Embedded HTML Preference: If you choose Allow HTML in postings, people posting messages will be able to embed HTML tags (e.g., hyperlinks, image references, formatting commands) in their messages. If you choose No HTML allowed in postings, they will not be able to do so (the tags will be ignored).

  • Auto Quote Preference: If you choose AutoQuote On, the text of a message you are responding to will automatically be quoted (set off with greater than signs) in your message. If you choose AutoQuote Off, the message you're responding to will not appear in your message.

  • Automatic E-mail Notification: If you want users to be able to request e-mail notifications whenever someone responds to their messages, set this option to Yes. Choose No if you want to require them to actually visit the BBS again to find out. This only defines whether or not people can request automatic notifications of responses to their own posts. To receive e-mail notifications whenever anyone posts to the board, users must visit the bulletin board and subscribe (see "Subscribing for E-mail Notification" below).

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Further Customizations and Administrative Tasks
Your board's Administratve Display allows you to set a password for your bulletin board and to easily delete any or all of the messages on your board. After you create a bulletin board, you should immediately access this page and use the "change password" function to set an administrator password (you wouldn't want someone else to find the page and set the password for you!). To get to the Administratve Display for your bulletin board:

  1. Go to your Bulletin Board Manager (see "Using the Bulletin Board Manager" above).
  2. Highlight the name of the bulletin board from the list of available boards.
  3. Click the Administration button.

Setting the Adminstrator Password

The first time you go to the Administrative Display, you'll want to set a password that allows you to delete messages from your bulletin board. You should do this shortly after you create the bulletin board to prevent someone else from finding the Administrative Display and setting a password. To set your password:

  1. Scroll down the Administrative Display until you see fields for entering old and new passwords.
  2. Type a password in the "New Password" field, then click the Change Administrative Password button. You will receive a message displaying the new Administrative password.

    Note: This password is not as secure as your network ID password or your passwords on central UITS computing systems. For this reason, we recommend that you choose a different password for your bulletin board.

Adding Headers and Footers to Your Bulletin Board

You can integrate your bulletin board with the rest of your Web space by adding a standard header or footer that displays graphics or text of your choosing at the top (header) and bottom (footer) or your main message page. To do so:

  1. Log into your Web server, Veritas or Champion.
  2. Change directories to the one that holds your bulletin board's files (see the Unique Word description in the "Options for Creating or Customizing a Bulletin Board" section above). For example:

      cd www/eng101_bbs

  3. Within this directory, there are two empty files named header.txt and footer.txt. You can edit these files and insert the HTML coding that you'd like to appear at the top (header) and bottom (footer) of your message board. You do not have to include HTML and BODY tags in these files because these files will be inserted into a page that already includes these tags.

Or, you can create the HTML files on your local workstation, name them header.txt and footer.txt, and FTP (file transfer protocol) them to your bulletin board's directory on Veritas.

Restricting Access to Your Bulletin Board

To restrict access to your bulletin board, you'll need to set up an HTACCESS file in your bulletin board's directory, as you would for any of your Web pages. For more information on setting up HTACCESS files on the central Web server, see the Webmaster's "Controlling Web Page Access" page.

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Using Your Bulletin Board

Once you've created your bulletin board, you can advertise it to your users and place links to it on your Web pages. The following are some brief instructions to get you and your users started using the message board.

Posting a New Message

To post a new message to your bulletin board:

  1. From the bulletin board's message index (the board's main page), scroll down to the section titled Post a New Message.
  2. Enter your name, e-mail address, and a subject for your message.
  3. In the Message box, type your message.
  4. If you want to be able to delete the message later, type a password in the Password field (the board's administrator will always be able to delete messages, regarldless of whether or not a password was set).
  5. If you'd like to see what your message will look like before sending it, scroll down and click the Preview Message button. To post your message, click the Post Message button.
You should see a message reporting that your message has been posted. Click Return to the Message Index to go back to the the board's main page.

Reading a Message

The first section on the board's main page is the Message Index, which contains a list of all of the threads on the bulletin board. To begin reading a thread, simply click the thread title. To see the next message in the thread, either sroll down to the Responses section of the page and click a message title, or click the Next in Thread link at the top of the page.

Responding to a Message

Responding to a message is similar to posting a new message, but instead of posting from the board's main page, you first click the title of the message you want to respond to. When the message is on the screen, scroll down to the Post a New Response section of the page. Fill in your name, e-mail address, and subject line, then click the Preview Message or the Post Message button.

Deleting a Message

If you gave your message a password when you posted it, you will be able to delete it. To do so, view the message by clicking on its title on the main bulletin board page. While viewing the message, scroll to the bottom of the page, enter your password in the password field, and click Delete Message.

Changing Preferences

Each person who visits your bulletin board can set preferences for how he or she would like the message index (main bulletin board page) to be displayed. To set these options, they can click Search/Personalize Display at the top of the message index page. In addition to choosing the type of message index display (see the Default Display Type description in the "Options for Creating or Customizing a Bulletin Board" section above), they can filter the entries they'd like to see in the message index by date and by keywords.

Subscribing for E-mail Notification

Your users can receive automatic notification every time a new message is posted to the bulletin board. To set up the notification:

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the main message index
  2. In the Subscribe section of the page, type your e-mail address
  3. Click the Add Address to List button, then the Send Address button.

To remove your name from the automatic notification list, follow the same procedures, but click the Delete Address From List button before clicking the Send Address button.

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