Forum: RForum Got RForum working... now a few questions

Finally got RForum running on Ubuntu Feisty with MySQL! Now I have a few
questions about configuring some things:

1) How can I prevent users without accounts from posting? I disabled
anonymous posting, but if I put in any random name I am still allowed to
post. Also is it possible to make it so that only members can view
forums?

2) Is there something I need to do to setup sendmail? When I was testing
the "Forgot my password" feature I saw this coming up in the console:

   Processing UserController#login...
   Session ID:...
   Parameters: {"name" => ...}
   /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_view/base.rb:518:
command not found: /user/sbin/sendmail -i -t

Any idea about that?

3) Is there a place where I can find skins or is there a guide anywhere
to creating them?

4) Is there any way of creating subforums like are seen on the left side
of this forum? (i.e. with headings for different sets of forums).

5) The site I'm creating is aimed at being as simple as possible, and I
would like to have a main index page for login/displaying of forums with
some images and some slick scriptaculous effects. It is aimed at
students so I want it to be simple to navigate and also look attractive.
What is the best way to accomplish this?
   -- Edit the current RForum index to fit my needs? (Would this be
nav.rhtml in         /app/?)
   -- Create a seperate app to host my main page and then link to the
forums using straight URLs? (seems like overkill)
   -- Something else?

Thanks,
Alex Ciarlillo

Alex Ciarlillo wrote:
> 1) How can I prevent users without accounts from posting? I disabled
> anonymous posting, but if I put in any random name I am still allowed to
> post. Also is it possible to make it so that only members can view
> forums?

That is not yet implemented in the official version in the repository, 
but the changes are not very difficult. You can identify guests 
(non-members) with "@user.guest?", so everywhere where you want to deny 
access (posting form, TopicController#new, replying) you check 
"@user.guest?" and display a "please login" message if it's true.

> 2) Is there something I need to do to setup sendmail? When I was testing
> the "Forgot my password" feature I saw this coming up in the console:
> 
>    Processing UserController#login...
>    Session ID:...
>    Parameters: {"name" => ...}
>    /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_view/base.rb:518:
> command not found: /user/sbin/sendmail -i -t

Does it really say "/user", or is that a typo? That should be "/usr". In 
any case, you need to install a mail transfer agent (Exim, Postfix, 
Courier) or configure ActionMailer to use an external mail server (see 
AM documentation).

> 3) Is there a place where I can find skins or is there a guide anywhere
> to creating them?

Take a look at the directory public/skins/, there are a few examples. A 
skin basically consists of a stylesheet and maybe some images, if you 
want to make fundamental changes to the layout you need to edit the 
templates in app/views.

> 4) Is there any way of creating subforums like are seen on the left side
> of this forum? (i.e. with headings for different sets of forums).

I did that manually in app/views/sidebar.rhtml.

> 5) The site I'm creating is aimed at being as simple as possible, and I
> would like to have a main index page for login/displaying of forums with
> some images and some slick scriptaculous effects. It is aimed at
> students so I want it to be simple to navigate and also look attractive.
> What is the best way to accomplish this?

Create a new controller and templates, open config/routes.rb and change
  map.connect '', :controller => 'forum', :action => 'list'
to
  map.connect '', :controller => 'your_new_controller', :action => 
'index'


Andreas

Alex Ciarlillo wrote:
> Finally got RForum running on Ubuntu Feisty with MySQL! Now I have a few
> questions about configuring some things:
> 
> 1) How can I prevent users without accounts from posting? I disabled
> anonymous posting, but if I put in any random name I am still allowed to
> post. Also is it possible to make it so that only members can view
> forums?
> 
> 2) Is there something I need to do to setup sendmail? When I was testing
> the "Forgot my password" feature I saw this coming up in the console:
> 
>    Processing UserController#login...
>    Session ID:...
>    Parameters: {"name" => ...}
>    /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_view/base.rb:518:
> command not found: /user/sbin/sendmail -i -t
> 
> Any idea about that?
> 
> 3) Is there a place where I can find skins or is there a guide anywhere
> to creating them?
> 
> 4) Is there any way of creating subforums like are seen on the left side
> of this forum? (i.e. with headings for different sets of forums).
> 
> 5) The site I'm creating is aimed at being as simple as possible, and I
> would like to have a main index page for login/displaying of forums with
> some images and some slick scriptaculous effects. It is aimed at
> students so I want it to be simple to navigate and also look attractive.
> What is the best way to accomplish this?
>    -- Edit the current RForum index to fit my needs? (Would this be
> nav.rhtml in         /app/?)
>    -- Create a seperate app to host my main page and then link to the
> forums using straight URLs? (seems like overkill)
>    -- Something else?
> 
> Thanks,
> Alex Ciarlillo
I am trying to setup RForum-0.2 on Debian using MySql.  I have not been 
able to get past the command
RAILS_ENV=production rake migrate
as described in the readme file.  I get the error message

/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.13.3/lib/action_controller/routing.rb:8 
85:in `assign_route_options': Regexp anchor characters are not allowed 
in routin g requirements: /^[0-9]+$/ (ArgumentError)

Did you see this problem? or do you have any idea what it means or how 
to fix it?