Solved Newbie - with several questions!

[strike]I have added kunena_report.txt as attachment.[/strike] (amended by moderator) These questions relate to Kunena 3.0.5 installed on lallans.co.uk running under Joomla 2.5.20

The website is concerned with Scots language/s and is unlikely to have a huge amount of traffic. Inclusion of a forum is felt to be a good thing as likely to boost interest in the website by enabling users to express views etc. The number of categories routinely covered will be limited. I anticipate a max from 6 to 10.

1. Somewhere I think I ticked a box saying 'allow Joomla login' but can't find where that was! as I think I need to reverse it. The effect I would like is to enable registered users of the website to be able to post without further login if that's possible.
2. The categories I have created have a 'locked' symbol but I can't see anywhere to 'unlock' them, nor see what if any point there is to having them locked?
3. Is there a basic online tutorial or demo for Kunena? I have looked at the FAQs.
4. The website already uses the EasyCalcCheck captcha plugin. Will it be ok to use this or should I use the Kunena's own captcha options?
5. Do I need reCAPTCHA public and private keys? I have no idea what they are! and the same with the API key?
6. Any other glaring errors would be good to hear about!

So far, the component seems just what is wanted on the website - so long as I can keep it relatively free of spammers!

Many thanks for any help and a huge pat on the back and thank you for the developers.

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Kunena menu details:

Warning: Spoiler!

ID	Name	Menutype	Link	Path
297	Forum	kunenamenu	view=home&defaultmenu=298	forum
298	Index	kunenamenu	view=category&layout=list	forum/index
299	Recent Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=replies	forum/recent
300	New Topic	kunenamenu	view=topic&layout=create	forum/newtopic
301	No Replies	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=noreplies	forum/noreplies
302	My Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&layout=user&mode=default	forum/mylatest
303	Profile	kunenamenu	view=user	forum/profile
304	Help	kunenamenu	view=misc	forum/help
305	Search	kunenamenu	view=search	forum/search
306	Forum	mainmenu	Itemid=297	kunena-2014-05-22

Joomla default template details : Atomic-Lallans | author: Duncan Linklater | version: 2.5.0 | creationdate: Unknown

Kunena default template details : Blue Eagle | author: Kunena Team | version: 3.0.5 | creationdate: 2014-03-09

Kunena version detailed: Kunena 3.0.5 | 2014-03-09 [ Invecchiato ]
| Kunena detailed configuration:

Warning: Spoiler!

Kunena config settings:
board_offline	0
enablerss	1
threads_per_page	20
messages_per_page	6
messages_per_page_search	15
showhistory	1
historylimit	6
shownew	1
disemoticons	1
template	blue_eagle
showannouncement	1
avataroncat	0
catimagepath	category_images
showchildcaticon	1
rtewidth	450
rteheight	300
enableforumjump	1
reportmsg	1
username	1
askemail	0
showemail	0
showuserstats	1
showkarma	1
useredit	1
useredittime	0
useredittimegrace	600
editmarkup	1
allowsubscriptions	1
subscriptionschecked	1
allowfavorites	1
maxsubject	50
maxsig	300
regonly	0
pubwrite	0
floodprotection	0
mailmod	0
mailadmin	0
captcha	0
mailfull	1
allowavatarupload	1
allowavatargallery	1
avatarquality	75
avatarsize	2048
imageheight	800
imagewidth	800
imagesize	150
filetypes	txt,rtf,pdf,zip,tar.gz,tgz,tar.bz2
filesize	120
showranking	1
rankimages	1
userlist_rows	30
userlist_online	1
userlist_avatar	1
userlist_name	1
userlist_posts	1
userlist_karma	1
userlist_email	0
userlist_joindate	1
userlist_lastvisitdate	1
userlist_userhits	1
latestcategory	0
showstats	1
showwhoisonline	1
showgenstats	1
showpopuserstats	1
popusercount	5
showpopsubjectstats	1
popsubjectcount	5
usernamechange	0
showspoilertag	1
showvideotag	1
showebaytag	1
trimlongurls	1
trimlongurlsfront	40
trimlongurlsback	20
autoembedyoutube	1
autoembedebay	1
ebaylanguagecode	en-gb
sessiontimeout	1800
highlightcode	0
rss_type	topic
rss_timelimit	month
rss_limit	100
rss_included_categories
rss_excluded_categories
rss_specification	rss2.0
rss_allow_html	1
rss_author_format	name
rss_author_in_title	1
rss_word_count	0
rss_old_titles	1
rss_cache	900
defaultpage	recent
default_sort	asc
sef	1
showimgforguest	1
showfileforguest	1
pollnboptions	4
pollallowvoteone	1
pollenabled	1
poppollscount	5
showpoppollstats	1
polltimebtvotes	00:15:00
pollnbvotesbyuser	100
pollresultsuserslist	1
maxpersotext	50
ordering_system	mesid
post_dateformat	ago
post_dateformat_hover	datetime
hide_ip	1
imagetypes	jpg,jpeg,gif,png
checkmimetypes	1
imagemimetypes	image/jpeg,image/jpg,image/gif,image/png
imagequality	50
thumbheight	32
thumbwidth	32
hideuserprofileinfo	put_empty
boxghostmessage	0
userdeletetmessage	0
latestcategory_in	1
topicicons	1
debug	0
catsautosubscribed	0
showbannedreason	0
version_check	1
showthankyou	1
showpopthankyoustats	1
popthankscount	5
mod_see_deleted	0
bbcode_img_secure	text
listcat_show_moderators	1
lightbox	1
show_list_time	720
show_session_type	0
show_session_starttime	0
userlist_allowed	0
userlist_count_users	1
enable_threaded_layouts	0
category_subscriptions	post
topic_subscriptions	every
pubprofile	1
thankyou_max	10
email_recipient_count	0
email_recipient_privacy	bcc
captcha_post_limit	0
keywords	0
userkeywords	0
image_upload	registered
file_upload	registered
topic_layout	flat
time_to_create_page	1
show_imgfiles_manage_profile	1
hold_newusers_posts	0
hold_guest_posts	0
attachment_limit	8
pickup_category	0
article_display	intro
send_emails	1
fallback_english	1
cache	1
cache_time	60
iptracking	1
rss_feedburner_url
autolink	1
access_component	1
statslink_allowed	1

| Kunena integration settings:

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Kunena - AlphaUserPoints Disabled
Kunena - Community Builder Disabled
Kunena - Gravatar Disabled
Kunena - JomSocial Disabled
Kunena - Joomla Enabled: access=1 login=0
Kunena - Kunena Enabled: avatar=1 profile=1
Kunena - UddeIM Disabled

| Joomla! detailed language files installed:

Warning: Spoiler!

Joomla! languages installed:
en-GB	English (United Kingdom)

Third-party components: None

Third-party SEF components: None

Plugins: None

Modules: None

G'day, feste, and welcome to Kunena.

It is really helpful to other people who use this forum if you keep a few basic things in mind:

1) Choose a meaningful topic name: the subject that you chose "Newbie - with several questions!" is not very meaningful because I'm sure that this could apply to anyone. I suggest that you read How to ask questions - the "smart" way . It's not only a courtesy to others, we have locked topics in that past that don't follow this basic guideline.

2) Learn how to post your configuration report. I do not "speak" or "read" BBcode (which is essentially what you've given us by attaching your configuration report as a text document). When you attach your configuration report in plain text, there are some things that probably should not be publicly viewable to guests and visitors to this forum. It also means that, as a moderator, I have had to remove what you attached, edit your original message and paste the BBcode into it. It's more work that I have to do before I can begin to answer your question. I suggest that look at the FAQs page to find out how to submit your configuration report in such a way that saves our time editing your posts in order to protect you.

3) It's a really good idea to search the forum to find answers to your questions. This is a self-help resource where people should expect to find answers to common questions about Kunena for themselves. Although we are happy to answer one, six or sixty questions from anyone, the first thing that we do is search the forum to see what has been written in the past. Therefore either you do it or someone else has to do it for you ... and it would save us all a lot of time if you do these things for yourself.

I will reply again very soon when I have repaired the damage you caused yourself when you gave us your configuration report as an attachment that no-one can make much sense of.

In response to the last question that you asked about "glaring errors", I assume that you would like us to review your configuration report to see whether anything stands out prominently as something we wouldn't recommend. I'll get back to you on that after I have edited your original post.

Cheers

Initial comments - in relation to "glaring errors":

I do not see anything glaringly wrong with your configuration report. If you would like me to give you a detailed professional appraisal I am willing to do that for a small fee.

I'll get back to you in relation to other matters you asked in this topic when I have researched them for you.

feste wrote: 1. Somewhere I think I ticked a box saying 'allow Joomla login' but can't find where that was! as I think I need to reverse it. The effect I would like is to enable registered users of the website to be able to post without further login if that's possible.

I think the answer to this issue is covered (in extensive detail) in the topic User registration and/or general login issues .

Basically the situation is this:

1. Kunena is a Joomla extension.
2. Access to the forum is controlled by Joomla.
3. When people create an account at your site they login to your site with some kind of login process. Whatever login process they use to login to your website will also give them access to your forum.

And that's pretty much it. I'm not quite sure what you meant by wanting to "reverse" whatever you did but it doesn't really matter. If you give your users a place on your website where they can login then they're "logged in" to the forum.

Looking at your configuration report, you've set the option Plugin Manager » Kunena - Kunena » Allow Joomla Login = No. If you want to turn it back to it's origial setting, use the Plugin Manager in the backend, find the integration plugin I mentioned, and change the option.

feste wrote: 2. The categories I have created have a 'locked' symbol but I can't see anywhere to 'unlock' them, nor see what if any point there is to having them locked?

Locking and unlocking forum categories is handled with the Kunena Category Manager in the backend.

You can also read about this in the topic Locked categories and "You do not have permissions to start new topic!" - (locked categories)

I hope this helps

feste wrote: 3. Is there a basic online tutorial or demo for Kunena? I have looked at the FAQs.

That's a pretty broad question. I am sure that there are many tutorials (text-based as well as videos) that people have produced over the years.

When you ask if there is a basic tutorial/demo, do you mean for the end user or do you mean for the forum administrator?

From the end user's perspective, you might find A basic forum help page for beginners suits your purposes.

From the administrator's perspective, I would suggest that you start with Simple forum setup instructions

I hope this helps