Administration Panel

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The Administration Panel is the hub of all XMB configuration and management features. Users must have the status of Administrator or Super Administrator to access this area of XMB.

General

  • Attachments
    • This menu gives you direct access to the management of attachments.
    • Easily find and delete attachments by size, date, author, and/or download counts.
    • Warning: Attachments removed directly from the database and cannot be recovered except from previous backups.
  • Censors
    • This menu gives you the ability to modify your censors, thus making the board restrict more or less content.
  • Newsletter
    • This menu allows you to create a newsletter which can be sent to members by email or by the built-in U2U messaging feature.
    • You can choose to send it to your all members or certain staff groupings.
    • There is an optional built-in delay that can be imposed after a certain number of messages have been sent.
  • Search
    • This menu allows you to search for members or posts by IP and keywords in members user profiles, plus censored words in posts.
  • Settings
    • The Settings menu controls most of the single features that can be turned on, turned off, or configured.

Forums

  • Forums
    • This menu allows you to add categories, forums and sub forums to your board.
  • Moderators
    • This menu allows you to assign a moderator or moderators to individual forums.
  • Prune
    • This menu allows you to prune (or delete) posts from your forums by age of post or post count.
    • It can be done against all forums or a particular forum and can be made to include normal, closed and topped threads.
    • Warning Note: We strongly recommend that you backup your forums database before proceeding to use the prune feature as pruning cannot be undone, without restoring a backup.

Members

  • IP Banning
    • This section allows you to block specific user IP addresses, completely blocking them from the board.
    • After a normal ban this is generally the next step, although it can easily be circumvented, either by using a different computer (and therefore a different IP address) or by using a proxy.
    • Additionally, users with dynamic IPs will be able to avoid this relatively easily.
  • Members
    • This section allows you to changes a members status/password, allow/ban them from posting or the u2u system or assign them a custom status.
  • User Ranks
    • In this section you can add or modify the ranks which users can attain, including the post count required to gain the rank, the number of stars associated with the rank and if an avatar is attached to the rank.
    • Certain ranks which are compulsory cannot be deleted, for example, Super Administrator.
  • Restriction Manager
    • In this section you can prevent users from signing up with a specific username or email address, thus preventing abuse or exploitation.
    • The parameters "partial match" and "case sensitive" can also be set to increase or decrease the flexibility of the restriction.
  • Rename user
    • In this section you can quickly rename a user by entering the current username followed by the new one.

Look & Feel

  • Smilies
    • A selection of smilies are provided by default. However, you can add more smilies by uploading them to the /images/smilies folder via ftp or using File Manager.
  • Templates
    • This feature allows you to edit existing templates or add new ones if you are modifying/customising your forums.
    • You may also backup or restore existing templates, especially useful before modifying any of them.
  • Themes
    • There are several default themes provided with XMB. You can upload more to use, if you wish.
    • As well as editing existing themes, an import tool for adding released themes is also available to you.
  • Translations - New in XMB 1.9.11
    • Language files will be uploaded and downloaded through this section of the Admin Panel starting with version 1.9.11.
    • When you have a new language file to add, or want to overwrite an existing language with updates, use the Install New Language area.
    • The other features enable you to view and edit the translation entries for each language.

Logs

  • Moderator Logs
    • Shows a detailed log of the usage of all moderation tools (such as moving or deleting threads). Note that this log will include actions performed by Super Administrators, Administrators, Super Moderators, Moderators and unauthorized personel (ie. warnings).
  • Control Panel Logs
    • Shows a detailed log of all Administrative actions (most of which happen within the Administration Panel. This log shows only actions performed by Super Administrators, Administrators and unauthorized personel (ie. warnings)
  • Clear Control Panel Logs

Tools

  • Fix Forum Totals
    • This tool recalculates the amount of stored threads and posts in each forum, and updates the figures shown on your index page. Use this tool if the figures appear skewed or incorrect.
  • Fix Last Posts - Forums
    • This tool updates the 'lastpost' field in all forums to the (current) last post made in that section. Use this tool if you see lastposts filled incorrectly, or with the wrong data.
  • Fix Last Posts - Threads
    • This tool updates the 'lastpost' field in all threads to the (current) last post made in that section. Use this tool if you see lastposts filled incorrectly, or with the wrong data.
  • Fix Member Post Totals
    • This tool recalculates the amount of posts made by each user and automatically updates the postcount for those users. Basically this resets the postcount for all members.
  • Fix Thread Totals
    • This tool recalculates the amount of replies in each thread and updates each thread-entry with the correct number. Use this tool if threads show incorrect numbers of replies.
  • Fix Orphaned Threads
    • This tool takes 1 argument 'fid' (the forumId, fid) to the forum that all found threads should be re-assigned. This tool basically looks for any threads it can find that do not belong to a (currently) existing forum, and then moves them to the forum idenfitied by the fid given. This is useful if you removed forums and some posts stayed behind (otherwise, you would not be able to find these threads via the xmb interface).
  • Fix Orphaned Attachments
    • This tool deletes any attachments which still reside in the database, not belonging to any existing thread. This should be used occasionally to make sure no orphaned attachments clog up your database-space. This should never happen in XMB, but occasionally, things go wrong and orphaned attachments suddenly appear.
  • Reset Blank Moods
    • This tool resets the 'mood' for all users to 'no mood'.

Database Tools

  • Insert Raw SQL
    • A useful tool to alter/ammend/edit existing tables of your database. You can also run queries to your database.
  • Analyze Tables
    • This tool will check all the tables in your database and check they are okay.
  • Check Tables
    • This tool will check to see if you have any broken tables, or if any tables need to be updated.
  • Optimize Tables
    • This tool will optimise your tables to keep the database optimum and running efficiently.
  • Repair Tables
    • Damaged tables can be repaired using this option.
  • Clear All U2Us
    • The u2u table can quickly become very large, so it can be useful to run this occasionally. Be aware that all u2us will be deleted, so warn your members first so they can save any they need to.
  • Clear Whos Online
    • There may be times you wish to empty the current online visitors that are visiting your forums. There is a warning provided before doing so. All this does is force all members of your site to re-login again after you submit it.