Features

Tetra WebBBS Documentation

Features

Tetra-WebBBS is a Web-based bulletin board system. Unlike most other such boards, Tetra-WebBBS lets users define how they display the message index and the messages. They can tailor the index based on date and/or subject. They can view the index as threaded or unthreaded lists. They can view the messages in single message or "guestbook" style. A wide variety of options are available both to the administrator and to the users. Many features are optional, especially those that affect performance.

General

TetraBB forum software (Tetra-WebBBS and TetraBB PRO) is released under the TetraBB License.
- Tetra-WebBBS is freeware. Registration is required at no charge.
- TetraBB PRO extension is work-in-progress. It's available on request.
Programming Language: Perl
Installation is extremely easy. All you need is FTP access to your website!
Running on any operating system where Perl is installed.
Running on any hosting account or server where you're allowed to install your own CGI scripts.
No SQL required! - Tetra-WebBBS uses DBM databases. - At least one DBM module should be available on any server with Perl. Tetra-WebBBS automatically uses the best available.
Easy translation to languages other than English
Optional TetraBB-PRO extension

Basic Features

Unlimited number of multiple forums (categories)
Optionally allow access to forums through differently configured entry scripts allowing for completely different presentation and configuration
UTF-8 support
Configurable declaration of 'doctype' and 'charset' in HTML output
Cookie support
Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional
Valid CSS
Styling via stylesheets (CSS)
Site integration via templates and custom HTML inside the forum pages.
Easy translation to languages other than English
Read-only boards for archives or announcements
Configurable navigation bars
Display benchmark running times (optional)
Allow for separate default settings applied to registered vs. unregistered visitors
Anti-Spam features
.... won't be listed here - wonder why?

Message Index

Threaded or non-threaded
Expanded or compressed listing
Configurable threaded listing style using either of DL, UL, OL lists
CSS styling of threads via class attributes for threads vs. responses and odd vs. even threads
Index sorted by date chronological, reverse or mixed.
Optional alphasorted index listing
Configurable message flags for
- New messages (posted since last visit began)
- Admin posts (for messages posted by administrator)
Configurable telltales for
- "No message text"
- "Link"
- "Picture".
Display posters' IPs to visitors or to administrator only (optional)
Display the number of times each message has been read (optional)
Configurable date/time display
Display message teasers (optional)
- for all messages listed
- only for new messages since last visit
- optionally display of image associated to the message
- optionally displays the teaser on demand (load-saving AJAX technology)
Display configurable "pseudo-"sticky messages allowing to link to forum posts or any other page on the internet (optional)
Display configurable "Adspacers" for advertisements or any other custom HTML (optional)

Message Display

Single message or "guestbook" display style
Displays list of all messages in a thread for easy navigation on single message display
Configurable date/time display
Links the poster's name to the poster's profile
Allows to contact posters by email
- Displays poster's email address to visitors or to administrator only
- Optionally displays "show e-mail" link instead of the email address (Emailcaptcha Plugin)
- Optionally displays "send e-mail" link instead of the email address to maintain privacy of email addresses, yet allows visitors to email posters (BlindEmail feature)
Auto-link of URLs or email addresses in posts
Displays link or picture associated to the message (optional)
Displays uploaded, embedded images, videos, audiofiles and attachements (TetraBB-PRO extension)
Allows users to delete their own messages (optional)
Allows users to edit their own messages within a configurable time after posting (optional)
Allows visitors to report abusive posts to administrator (optional)
Allows visitors to notify friends about a post (optional)
Display social bookmark links (optional)

Post / Reply page

Allow new threads to visitors or to administrator only (optional, to run announcements board or blogs)
Allow responses to visitors or to administrator only (optional, to run blogs or FAQ-like boards)
Optionally restrict ability of posting to registered users (those having created a profile)
Optionally require poster's email address
Provide a list of "mandatory" subjects for posters to pick one to precede the subject of a new thread (optional)
Automatic quoting of message text (optional)
Auto-link of URLs or email addresses in posts (optional)
Allow users to include a URL link and/or a graphic image with their messages (optional)
Allow graphic file upload with messages (optional)
Allow users to uploaded multiple embedded images, videos, audiofiles and attachements (TetraBB-PRO extension)
Configurable smileys (optional)
- Inserted by manually
- Clickable smileys (Smiley-Format-Plugin)
- Combine smileys insertable manually with a set of clickable smileys
Various alternate formatting options (optional)
- Format code can be used to allow users certain basic formatting functions even if you don't want to let them use HTML code directly (optional)
- Clickable format code buttons (Smiley-Format-Plugin)
- Integration of third-party WYSIWYG editor (Tetra-WebBBS plugiin for TinyMCE)
- Allow HTML to visitors or to administrator only (optional)
- Convert HTML-tags to readable text for boards dealing with programming (optional)
Email notification of responses - selectable by posters for each message posted (optional)
Spellcheck-ready: optionally interfaces to third-party WBOSS spellchecker installed on your server
Post preview (optional)

Users / Profiles

User preferencies for each forum (optional)
Allow visitors to create a user profile (registration)
Allow registered users to edit their profile at any time
User verification while registering a profile. The startpassword will be sent to the email address provided in the profile (optional)
Configurable default moderated status of newly created profiles
Optionally autoreset profiles to a moderated status if users update their profiles
Boardsecurity: Disallow users to delete their profile if user-verification is activated.
Profile recovery in case of forgotton password (Profilehelp plugin)
Verification of updated email addresses (Profilehelp plugin)
User profile page
User profiles list (configurable)
User passwords stored encrypted
Maintain user privacy
- Optionally disallows indexing of userprofiles by search engines
- Enable visiblility of user profiles to the general public, registered users only or administrators only
- Email-addresses stored in the profile are not visible to search engines even if indexing of profiles is allowed
- Display email addresses to visitors or to registered users only
- Protect visibility of email addresses by a CAPTCHA (Emailcaptcha plugin)
- Optionally displays "send e-mail" link instead of the email address, yet allows visitors to email posters (BlindEmail feature)
Allows users to include a URL link and/or a graphic image with their messages
Allows graphic file upload with user profile
Various formatting options
- Smiley code (optional)
- Formatting code (optional)
- Allow HTML (optional)
Allows visitors to report abusive profiles to administrator (optional)

Administrator

Separate entry script for administrator for improved security
Optional separate entry script for moderators where some more profound features are not visitble to moderators.
Admin portal for each forum (Tetra-WebBBS)
Optional shared admin portal for maintenance of multiple forums through one entry script (TetraBB-PRO extension)
One-click open/close public access to all forums (maintenance mode)
Post/reply to the forum(s)
Edit/delete posts/threads
Move posts/threads to the archive
Temporarily deactivate posts (move to parking-folders) and reactivate (move back to the live forum)
Reparent threads/subthreads/posts to split or merge threads
Maintain lists for accesscontrol and filtering
Moderate posts caught in the moderated bin
- fast one-click approve/delete of individual posts without reloading the llist (AJAX technology)
- display dynamic teaser
- read, edit, approve, delete individual posts
- bulk approve/delete/deactivate posts
Create, edit, delete user profiles
Set individual user profiles' status to "moderated" or "unmoderated"
View a list of all registered users
View/edit list of subscribers to each forum
Rebuild index databaes
Backup/restore viewcount databases
View statistics
Rebuild RSS/Atom feeds (TetraBB-PRO extension)
Rebuild PRO searchindex (TetraBB-PRO extension)
Maintain PRO stopwords for searchindex (TetraBB-PRO extension)
View most frequently indexed searchterms (TetraBB-PRO extension)

Customisation

Site integration via templates
Custom HTML inside the forum pages
Styling via stylesheets (CSS)
Easy translation to languages other than English
Easy integration of custom code - e.g. for filtering or reconfigation on-the-fly

Email, Notifications and Feeds

Email notification to posters when others reply to their message (optional)
Email notification of new messages (optional)
Email digest subscriptions (optional)
Email notification available to visitors (all optional):
- send trouble ticket to administrator to ask for help
- report abuse posts or profiles to administrator
- send notification to frends to inform them about a certain post
- send emails to posters (BlindEmail feature)
Feed-like displays of recent posts on other pages of your site
Cross-site display of recent posts on other websites
RSS and Atom feeds (TetraBB-PRO extension)

Accesscontrol and Filtering

Record remote username on boards which are passwordprotected by .htaccess
Optional force usage of configurable domain name and autoredirect false requests
Censor words ("Naughyword" filtering)
- 3 alternate levels of censoring
- ability to use Perl regular expression
Banning by IP
- 3 alternate levels of banning
- ability to use Perl regular expression
- optionally resolving IPs
Banned email addresses
Configurable list of banned email addresses taking effect whenever the email address might be used for outbound email.
Autosensing for searchengines and bots

Search System

Native search, separated for each forum.
Visitors may search by keywords, date range, and poster name.
Extended search by IP address or domain name available to administrators.
Optional PRO search:
Very fast multiple forum full-text search feature.
Optional integration of third-party search facility.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine friendly URLs (configurable)
SEO configurable URLs pointing to message display pages (optional)
SEO redirects for inbound requests using non-SEO URLs (optionall)
Load optimized presentation on indexing by search engines in accordance to common guidelines required by major search engines.
Further load optimisation settings configurable by site administrator
Restrict access of search engines and bots. E.g. keep email addresses and forms from being indexed.
Optionally restrict access to user profiles for search engines and bots