Forum categories can be used to group your forums on the homepage. If you have multiple forums it's often a good idea to group your forums within categories to help organize your data. An example of how categories can be used is shown below, the categories are highlighted in red; notice how they group similar forums...
Creating a Forum Category
To create new forum categories go to, Manage Forums » Add New Forum. You will be presented with a screen similar to below...
Details about the information you should provide for a new category are provided towards the bottom of this page.
Editing a Forum Category
To edit existing forum categories go to, Manage Forums » Manage Forums.
This will display a list of available forum categories, you should use the Edit Category options aligned right of each forum category to manage existing forum categories as shown below...
The editing options next to each category will allow you to edit the existing category, associate category moderators, sort the category, create child forums or if you wish delete the forum category and any child forums.
Deleting a Forum Category
To delete an existing forum category go to, Manage Forums » Manage Forums. This will display a list of available forum categories, you should use the Edit Category options aligned right of each forum category. With the Edit Category options displayed select the Delete Category option. Deleting a category will also delete all child forums and posts within any child forums.
Creating & Editing Forum Categories
The options below are available when creating or editing forum categories.
- Forum name
The name for your forum category. - Forum parent
The parent forum or category, to create homepage forum categories you should ensure the Make Root (Act As Homepage Category) option is selected. - Member groups with access
Select member groups who can see and access the forum category. Only member's who belong to the selected member groups will see and have access to the category. To ensure child forums also have the same member group associations you should tick the "Propagate member groups to all child forums" check box below the member group selection. - Should act as homepage category? (Important!)
To create a homepage category you should ensure this option is enabled. Select Yes to ensure you create a homepage forum category. Selecting No will simply create a normal forum. - Expanded homepage category?
Determines if the forum category is expanded or collapsed by default. Select Yes to ensure the forum category is expanded by default. - Description
Optional description for the forum category, if provided this will appear within the category link tool-tip. - Appearance Options
Forum skin - Optionally select a skin to use for the forum category, to ensure child forums within the category also have the same skin you should tick the "Propagate skin to all child forums" check box.
Forum wrapper - Optionally select a wrapper to use for the forum category, to ensure child forums within the category also have the same wrapper you should tick the "Propagate wrapper to all child forums" check box. - Include this forum within searches?
If No the category will not be searched and will not be available within the forum selection upon the search page.