Forums widget | WebForms

Use this widget to display a forums, forum threads, and forum posts.

After you have dragged the Forums widget on your page you must configure it to display forums, threads, and posts.

1. To do this, click Edit button in the upper-right corner of the widget.
   The Forums window appears.
2. Under What forum functionality to use? you must choose how your forum will function.
   

   NOTE: If you are using multiple site management, regardless of what functionality you choose, under Settings, you must first choose the source from which you want to display forums.
   For more information, see Multisite: Manage multiple sites.

3. Choose how to display forums by selecting one of the following:

   Full forum functionality	The forums and their posts are displayed in three levels. On the first page, the system displays a list of selected forums, when the user clicks a forum, a list of all threads in this forum appear. The user is given the opportunity to create a new thread. When the user clicks a thread, a list of all posts in the thread appears and the user is given the opportunity to post a reply. In Settings, perform the following: Select which forums to display. In Display… radio button group, select one of the following: All forums All created forums will be displayed in the list of forums. Forums from selected groups: Only forums from one or more forum groups will be displayed. To select the group(s), click Select groups. A list of all created forum groups appears. Select one or more groups and click Done. Selected forums... Only one or more selected forums will be displayed. To select the forum(s), click Select forums. A list of all created forums appears. Select one or more forums and click Done. Select the page that displays the information about the author of each post. This page will be displayed when the user clicks the name of the author of a post. IMPORTANT: The page must have the Users list widget added to it. Click Select a page. Form the list of all pages, select the page that will be displaying the user profile information and click Done selecting. Choose whether you want to display a breadcrumb of the forum levels by selecting Show breadcrumb checkbox. A breadcrumb starting with Forums > Forum groups > Forums… will be displayed. If you want to display a full breadcrumb, starting from your home page, select Include full path starting from Home page checkbox.
   Forum list only	The page where you have added the widget displays only a list of forums. When you click a forum in the list, the forum threads open in another page that you have to specify. Select which forums to display. In Display… radio button group, select one of the following: All forums All created forums will be displayed in the list of forums. Forums from selected groups: Only forums from one or more forum groups will be displayed. To select the group(s), click Select groups. A list of all created forum groups appears. Select one or more groups and click Done. Selected forums... Only one or more selected forums will be displayed. To select the forum(s), click Select forums. A list of all created forums appears. Select one or more forums and click Done. Select the page that displays the threads of a forum. When a user clicks a forum in the list of forums, the threads open in a separate page that you have to prepare in advance. IMPORTANT: The page must have the Forums widget added to it. Click Select a page. Form the list of all pages, select the page that will be displaying the threads and click Done selecting.
   Threads only	The page where you have added the widget displays only a list of threads of one or more forums. When you click a thread in the list, the posts open in another page that you have to specify. Select the forums from which you want to display threads. In Display… radio button group, select one of the following: Auto: threads from the currently open forum If a user has reached this page by clicking a forum on another page, the threads of this forum are automatically displayed. Threads from selected forums only Only threads from one or more forums will be displayed. To select the forum(s), click Select forums. A list of all created forums appears.  Select one or more forums and click Done. All threads from all forums All created forum threads appear in the list. Select the page that displays the posts of a thread. When a user clicks a thread in the list of threads, the posts open in a separate page that you have to prepare in advance. IMPORTANT: The page must have the Forums widget added to it. Under Page for Posts of each thread, click Select a page. Form the list of all pages, select the page that will be displaying the posts and click Done selecting. Select the page that displays the information of the author of each thread. This page will be displayed when the user clicks the name of the author of a thread. IMPORTANT: The page must have the Users list widget added to it. Click Select a page. Form the list of all pages, select the page that will be displaying the user profile information and click Done selecting.
   Posts of one thread only	The page where you have added the widget displays only a list of posts of a particular thread. Select posts from which thread to display. In Display… radio button group, select one of the following: Auto: posts from the currently open thread If a user has reached this page by clicking a thread on another page, the threads of this forum are automatically displayed. Posts from selected thread... Only posts from one thread will be displayed. To select the thread, click Select thread. A list of all created threads appears.  Select one thread and click Done. Select the page that displays the information of the author of each post. This page will be displayed when the user clicks the name of the author of a post. IMPORTANT: The page must have the Users list widget added to it. Click Select a page. Form the list of all pages, select the page that will be displaying the user profile information and click Done selecting.

4. To edit the way forums, threads, and posts are displayed, expand Templates for forum parts.
   Using the dropdown boxes, choose which template is used to display lists of forums, threads, and posts.
   

   You can edit existing templates by selecting them and clicking Edit selected template button or you can create new templates, by clicking Create new templates button.
   For more information, see Create and edit widget templates.

5. If you are in multiple site mode and you want to configure a forum RSS feed, different than the default, you must click Advanced button in the lower-right corner of the widget and then enter the URL or the relative path of the feed in RssFeedPath field.
6. When you are finished, click Save.
   The Forums window closes and the widget is configured.

NOTE: If your site is multilingual and the page you are editing is synchronized with another translation, when you edit the widget, the Save to all translations button appears. If you click it, the current widget configuration will be saved to all translations, else, if you click Save, the widget configuration is saves only to the current translation, but the pages are still synchronized. If your pages are synchronized, you can have different widget configurations, but you cannot have different widgets.

For more information about advanced configuration options, see Add widgets on pages and templates.

The Forums widget does not allow users that are not logged in to reply to forum threads and posts. The reply buttons are visible only after the user is logged in. To display these buttons unauthorized users, you must configure the Advanced option in the Forums widget. When an unauthorized user clicks the reply button, he or she will be redirected to the frontend login page and after a successful login, redirected back to the initially forum post or thread to post the reply.

To display the forum thread and forum post reply buttons to unauthorized users, perform the following:

1. Create a frontend login page with a Login widget.
2. Place the Forum widget on a page of your website
3. Set the URL of the frontend login page, by performing one of the following:
   
   • If you have a single site, click Administration » Settings » Advanced » Project » DefaultSite and fill out one of the following fields:
     • If you know the GUID of the frontend login page, enter it in FrontEndLoginPageId.
     • If you only know the absolute URL of the frontend login page, enter it in FrontEndLoginPageUrl.
   • If you have a multisite license, perform the following:
     1. Expand the selector in the upper-left corner of the page and click Manage sites.
     2. Click the Actions button of the site and in the dropdown menu, click Properties.
     3. Expand Advanced section.
     4. Under Address for public users login, select Select a page… radio button, click Select a page button and select the frontend login page.