How to Customize Top Navigation

The top of every Community Central page includes navigation to the main sections of the Community Central Home site. The top navigation is configured using Bamboo SharePoint Navigators, and includes links to the Community Central Home page, the Forums Home page, and the Blogs Home page. Click a navigation link to go to that area of the site.

Default Top Navigation

The top navigation is shared with all pages in the Community Central Home site. To customize the top navigation and change link names, add or remove links, and even include links to sites outside Community Central, follow the instructions below.

NOTE: Navigation changes will apply to all pages in the Community Central Home site, but not pages in individual forum and blog sites. Top navigation must be changed separately for each site. For details, see Customizing the Forum Site Top Navigation and Customizing the Blog Site Top Navigation.

Step	Action	Result
1.	In a Community Central Home site page, go to Settings > Community Central Control Panel.
2.	In the Community Central General Settings section, click Manage top navigation menu.
3.	Make the desired change to the navigation menu: To change the name of an existing menu option: Select it. Click Edit Item. Change the Menu Title Click Save. To change the destination link of an existing menu option: Select it Click Edit Item. Change the URL. Click Save. To add a new menu option: Click Add new item. Enter a Menu Title, URL, and a Sort Order to define where the new item will be displayed in the menu. Click Save.

How to activate a Bamboo Site Feature

NOTE: In order to activate a site feature, you need to have at least the Manage Hierarchy level of permission for the site.

Step	SharePoint 2007	SharePoint 2010/2013
1.	From a page on the site where you want to activate the feature, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify All Site Settings. In the Site Administration columnn of the Site Settings page, click Site features.	From a page on the site where you want to activate the feature, click Site Actions > Site Settings. In the Site Actions section of the Site Settings page, click Manage site features.
2.	Find the appropriate feature. If it hasn’t yet been activated, click the Activate button. The features available depend on the Bamboo products installed on your farm and deployed to your web application.

Step

SharePoint 2007

SharePoint 2010/2013

From a page on the site where you want to activate the feature, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify All Site Settings. In the Site Administration columnn of the Site Settings page, click Site features.
sp2007 site features.jpg

From a page on the site where you want to activate the feature, click Site Actions > Site Settings. In the Site Actions section of the Site Settings page, click Manage site features.
site settings - site actions2010.png

Find the appropriate feature. If it hasn’t yet been activated, click the Activate button.
sp2010 site features.jpg

The features available depend on the Bamboo products installed on your farm and deployed to your web application.

How to Add a web.config Modification Using PowerShell

Background

Please see How to modify a web.config file using PowerShell for some additional background information about why you should modify your web.config file(s) programmatically.

Many Bamboo products implement Telerik controls and install a specific version of Telerik.Web.UI assembly to the SharePoint farm. If the farm already has a different version of Telerik.Web.UI assembly, this may cause a conflict and you may see errors on SharePoint pages where you use these controls.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, we need to add an assembly binding to the web.config to specify which version to use. However, adding text by manually editing a web.config file is not recommended because it is not synced across the servers in the farm and is not saved in the SharePoint configuration database.

The best way to modify a web.config file programmatically is via PowerShell.

NOTE: Be extra careful when making changes to the web.config. Backup your file before changing it. Do not add or remove something unless you are absolutely sure what it is.

To demonstrate, we will use an example with Telerik controls. Consider this scenario:
Before a Bamboo product is installed, a server has Telerik.Web.UI version 2012.3.1016.35 previously installed. During the Bamboo product installation process, Telerik.Web.UI version 2011.2.915.35 was installed. Although it is OK to have multiple Telerik versions on a single server, it may cause a conflict in SharePoint.

We need to add an assembly binding to the web.config to tell the assemblies looking for version 2011.2.915.35 to use version 2012.3.1016.35. The assembly binding addition to the web.config file will look like this:

<dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name "Telerik.Web.UI" publickKeyToken "121fae78165ba3d4" culture "neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion "2011.2.915.35" newVersion "2012.3.1016.35" />
</dependentAssembly>

NOTE: Always redirect all versions found to the newest version of Telerik.Web.UI on the system, for backwards compatibility of functionality.

Step	Action
1.	First, open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell. From the Start menu, select All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
2.	Next, create the SPWebConfigModification object for the assembly binding Where: Path: A string that contains an XPath expression that specifies the node. If the Type property specifies EnsureChildNode, the Path property contains the XPath expression for the parent node under which the node is created. In this example, the runtime element of the web.config file is placed in another xml-namespace, so we have to identify the namespace. Otherwise, that element will not be found. Name: A string that contains the name of the attribute or section node. When the type of web.config modification is EnsureChildNode, the Name property refers to an XPath expression that uniquely identifies the node under the parent node, as identified by the Path property. Sequence: A 32-bit unsigned integer between 0 and 65536. This property throws an InvalidOperationException if the number is outside this range. A sequence is used only if there is more than one modification of the same type to the same node or attribute. In this case, modifications with lower sequence numbers are applied first. Owner: A string that specifies the owner of the modification. You can use the Owner property to track ownership of modifications. Type: An SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType value that specifies the type of modification. There are 3 types: EnsureChildNode: Specifies that the web.config modification must ensure the existence of a child node of the node to which the XPath expression points. Value = 0. EnsureAttribute: Specifies that the web.config modification must ensure that there is a value for a particular attribute. Value = 1. EnsureSection: Ensures a singleton node. This node is only written once, even if multiple entities register multiple instances of EnsureSection to ensure the existence of a section. Value = 2. Value: If the Type property specifies EnsureChildNode, the Value property contains an XML string that represents the node to be populated as a child of the specified parent node. If the type is EnsureSection, Value contains the name of the section. If the type is EnsureAttribute, Value contains the value set in the attribute.
3.	Then, apply the modification to the Web application (replace ‘WebApplicationURL’ with the actual URL of the Web application). NOTE: Bamboo products are only tested with the Telerik version that they install. Therefore, if a newer Telerik version is used, there might be some unexpected problem.

Step

Action

First, open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell. From the Start menu, select All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

Next, create the SPWebConfigModification object for the assembly binding

Where:

Path: A string that contains an XPath expression that specifies the node. If the Type property specifies EnsureChildNode, the Path property contains the XPath expression for the parent node under which the node is created. In this example, the runtime element of the web.config file is placed in another xml-namespace, so we have to identify the namespace. Otherwise, that element will not be found.
Name: A string that contains the name of the attribute or section node. When the type of web.config modification is EnsureChildNode, the Name property refers to an XPath expression that uniquely identifies the node under the parent node, as identified by the Path property.
Sequence: A 32-bit unsigned integer between 0 and 65536. This property throws an InvalidOperationException if the number is outside this range. A sequence is used only if there is more than one modification of the same type to the same node or attribute. In this case, modifications with lower sequence numbers are applied first.
Owner: A string that specifies the owner of the modification. You can use the Owner property to track ownership of modifications.
Type: An SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType value that specifies the type of modification. There are 3 types:
- EnsureChildNode: Specifies that the web.config modification must ensure the existence of a child node of the node to which the XPath expression points. Value = 0.
- EnsureAttribute: Specifies that the web.config modification must ensure that there is a value for a particular attribute. Value = 1.
- EnsureSection: Ensures a singleton node. This node is only written once, even if multiple entities register multiple instances of EnsureSection to ensure the existence of a section. Value = 2.
Value: If the Type property specifies EnsureChildNode, the Value property contains an XML string that represents the node to be populated as a child of the specified parent node. If the type is EnsureSection, Value contains the name of the section. If the type is EnsureAttribute, Value contains the value set in the attribute.

Then, apply the modification to the Web application (replace ‘WebApplicationURL’ with the actual URL of the Web application).
apply mods.jpg

NOTE: Bamboo products are only tested with the Telerik version that they install. Therefore, if a newer Telerik version is used, there might be some unexpected problem.

Highlights of Community Central

The main benefits in Community Central are the features and functions of the forums/discussion boards. Out-of-the-box Discussion Board allows organization and team to collaborate, to share information, and discuss topics with other people.

Community Central takes the out-of-the-box Discussion Board to the next level with Discussion Board Plus. Discussion Board Plus provides additional features such as lock topic, view count, reply count, suggested answer, or statistics.

Forum Sites and Blog Sites Link Names

Top

Return to User Display Overview

Forum sites are sub-sites of the Community Central Home site and collect related forums. The main forum site page rolls up information from all individual forums in the site. It contains general information about forums in the site and links to individual forums. Access a forum site by clicking on its name in the Forum Sites list on the Community Central Home page or in the list of forum sites on the Forums Home page.

The main content area of the forum site or blog site home page contains a list of all forums or blogs in the site.

When a new forum or blog is created in the site, the list is automatically updated. To view a forum or a blog, click on its name in the list.

The following information is displayed for each forum in the list:

Forum Name: Click the name to read the forum.
Subscribe Link: A link to subscribe to the RSS feed for the forum.
Topics: The number of topics in the forum.
Posts: The number of posts in all topics. When a new forum is created in Community Central, a link to the new site is automatically added to the Forum Sites list. Click a forum name to navigate directly to the site page and begin reading posts.

Blog sites are also sub-sites of the Community Central Home site and collect related blog posts. The main content area of the blog site home page contains a list of recent blog posts added to the site. When a new blog post is created, the list is automatically updated. Newer posts are at the top of the list. To view a post, click on its title. Only posts that have been approved by Moderators and have a Publish date of today or later are displayed.
The following information is displayed for each blog post in the list:

Blog Post Title: Click the title to read the post.
Preview: A preview of the post content.
User: The name of the community user who created the post. Click the name to view their SharePoint profile.
Date: The date the post was created.
Views: The number of times the post was viewed.
Comments: The number of comments for the post.

The blog site page also contains links to blog-related activities such as creating and managing blog posts. Access a blog site by clicking on its name in the Blog Sites list on the Community Central Home page.

You can edit the list of blogs and forums that appear in the Blog Sites and Forum Sites lists. Click an activity below to learn more:

Editing a blog or forum site link name
Deleting a blog or forum site link
Adding an external blog or forum site link

Editing a blog or forum site link name

The name that appears in the Blog Sites and Forum Sites list is the name of the blog site or forum site when it was created. NOTE: Changing the link name changes it everywhere the Blog Sites or Forum Sites Web Part is displayed. Follow the steps below to change the link name:
Step	Action	Result
1.	In the Community Central Home site, go to Community Central Control Panel.
2.	Access the list you want to edit: To edit the Blog Sites list, click Manage blog sites in the Blog Site Management section. To edit the Forum Sites list, click Manage forum sites in the Forum Site Management section.
3.	Click the Edit icon next to the blog site or forum site name you want to edit.
4.	Edit the Description field and click Save.	NOTE: This does not change the name of the blog or forum site. Top

Deleting a blog or forum site link name

When a blog or forum site is deleted, it is automatically removed from the Blog Sites or Forum Sites list. If you don’t want to delete the site but you want to delete the link so community users don’t see it, you can delete its entry in the sites list. NOTE: Deleting a blog or forum site entry deletes it everywhere the Blog Sites or Forum Sites Web Part is displayed. To delete a blog site or forum site link:
Step	Action	Result
1.	In the Community Central Home site, go to Community Central Control Panel.
2.	Access the list you want to edit: To edit the Blog Sites list, click Manage blog sites in the Blog Site Management section. To edit the Forum Sites list, click Manage forum sites in the Forum Site Management section.
3.	Click the Edit icon next to the blog or forum you want to edit.
4.	Click the Delete Item button. NOTE: This does not delete the blog or forum site. Top

Adding an external blog or forum site link

Blog or forum sites created in Community Central are automatically added to the Blog Sites and Forum Sites lists. You do not need to add them manually. If you want to add links to external blog or forum sites, you can add links to the Blog Sites or Forum Sites list. To add a link to the Blog Sites or Forum Sites list:
Step	Action	Result
1.	In the Community Central Home site, go to Community Central Control Panel.	SharePoint 2010 SharePoint 2013
2.	Access the list you want to edit: To edit the Blog Sites list, click Manage blog sites in the Blog Site Management section. To edit the Forum Sites list, click Manage forum sites in the Forum Site Management section.
3.	Click new link above or below the links list (depending on the version of SharePoint you are using).
4.	Enter the URL and Description for the external blog or forum site and click Save.	Top

See also:

Forum Sites

When a new forum site is created in Community Central, a link to the new site it is automatically added to the Forum Sites list. Click a forum site name to navigate directly to the site page and begin reading posts. For information about customizing this list, see Forum Sites and Blog Sites.

Also see:

Create a Forum Site

Forum Moderation Settings

Return to Overview of the Configuration Toolpane

Moderation settings control whether the Lock Topic or Mark as Sticky features are enabled in the Discussion Board Plus list.

Step	Action	Result
1.	The default for each feature is set to Yes. If you prefer not to enable a feature, change the radio button to No.

For more details about individual settings, see:

Error Log Files

Applies To

Bamboo Products
Windows SharePoint Services v3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010
SharePoint Foundation 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013—Standard Edition
SharePoint Server 2016

While troubleshooting issues, the Bamboo support team may request a copy of the log files for your Bamboo product(s). Many licensing, functionality and access issue information is captured in the log files found in the BambooSolutions file folder.

This directory is located at C:WindowsTempBambooSolutions

The log files are named in this format: bsc_bamboo_{processID}.log

where {processID} is the ID of the w3wp.exe process which was handling the request at the time of the error

NOTE: These files will be created on any farm server running the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application (on SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013) or the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application (on SharePoint 2007).

To determine which servers on the farm run these services:

SharePoint 2007:

Go to the page Central Administration > Operations > Servers in Farm

SharePoint 2010:

Go to the page Go to the page Central Administration > System Settings > Manage Servers in this Farm

SharePoint 2013:

Go to the page Central Administration > System Settings > Manage Servers in this Farm

There may be many log files. When reporting a problem to support, attach the most recent file(s) to your support ticket. If you know the time at which the error occurred, choose the file with the corresponding date/time.

Refer to Topology and Services in SharePoint Central Administration for a list of servers running this service. Learn more…

Enable Lock and Unlock Topic

Return to Configuration Overview

Within the ribbon settings, users with the required permissions can lock a thread to prevent any further replies or updates by clicking the Lock Topic button in the List Tools > Items ribbon of the Discussion Board Plus list or by selecting the Lock Topic option in the item drop-down menu for a topic.

Threads can be unlocked using the Unlock Topic button or item drop-down menu option. When this feature is disabled, the Lock Topic and Unlock Topic options are not available.

After a thread is locked, all editing actions are disabled for everyone except site collection administrators:

Existing posts cannot be edited.
New replies cannot be posted.
Answers cannot be suggested, verified, or removed.

See also:

Using Lock Topic

Enable CAPTCHA Technology

You can enable CAPTCHA technology in Community Central to protect your blog site from attacks by spam bots.

When CAPTCHA is enabled, blog readers who want to comment on a post must type the characters that appear in a randomly-generated image to prove they are “human”. If the characters do not match, the comment is not accepted.

See also:

Configuring CAPTCHA

“Do’s and Don’ts” for using SharePoint Designer to modify Community Central pages

Advanced users can use SharePoint Designer to customize the site skin by modifying *.CSS and *.XSLT files.

All files in the Skin folder can be modified, but we recommend that only users with knowledge of CSS/XSLT design make changes to these files.

Make sure to do a backup before making any changes.
In addition, we recommend that you do not modify any of the following files:

Bamboo.Central.master
Bamboo.Blog.master
Bamboo.Forum.master
Default.aspx
Search.aspx
Forums.aspx
Blogs.aspx

Do not modify ANY .aspx file in the Admin folder.

Deploying a Bamboo solution to a new Web Application

Note: Perform these steps using an account that is a member of the SharePoint Farm Administrators group.

Step	for SharePoint 2007	for SharePoint 2010/2013
1.	In SharePoint Central Administration, click the Operations link. In the Global Configuration section, click the Solution Management link. A list of installed solutions is displayed.	In SharePoint Central Administration, click System Settings link. In the Farm Management section shown on the page, click the Manage farm solutions link. A list of installed solutions is displayed.
2.	Click on the name of the solution you want to deploy.	Click on the name of the solution you want to deploy.
3.	Click the Deploy Solution link.	Click the Deploy Solution link.
4.	Select the Web application to deploy to and a deployment schedule, and then click OK.	Select the Web application to deploy to and a deployment schedule, and then click OK.

How to Customize Forum Navigation

The top navigation in a forum site is unique to that site.

The default forum site includes links to the Community Central Home page, the Forums Home page, and the Blogs Home page. Click a navigation link to go to that area of the site.

To customize the top navigation to change link names, add or remove links, and even include links to sites outside Community Central, follow the instructions below.

NOTE: Navigation changes will apply to all forum pages in the forum site but not to other forum sites or the Community Central Home site.

Step	Action	Result
1.	In the forum site home page, go to Settings > Forum Control Panel.
2.	In the Forum Site Settings section, click Manage top navigation menu.
3.	Make the desired change to the navigation menu: To change the name of an existing menu option: Select it. Click Edit Item. Change the Menu Title Click Save. To change the destination link of an existing menu option: Select it Click Edit Item. Change the URL. Click Save. To add a new menu option: Click Add new item. Enter a Menu Title, URL, and a Sort Order to define where the new item will be displayed in the menu. Click Save.	NOTE: The changes you make to the top navigation menu will be applied immediately to the forum site pages.

How to Customize Blog Site Navigation

The top navigation in a blog site is unique to that site. The default blog site includes links to the Community Central Home page, the Forums Home page, and the Blogs Home page. Click a navigation link to go to that area of the site.

Default Top Navigation

NOTE: Note: Navigation changes will apply to all blog pages in the blog site but not to other blog sites or the Community Central Home site.

Step	Action	Result
1.	In the blog site home page, go to Site Actions > Blog Control Panel.
2.	In the General Settings section, click Manage top navigation menu..
3.	Make the desired change to the navigation menu: To change the name of an existing menu option: Select it. Click Edit Item. Change the Menu Title Click Save. To change the destination link of an existing menu option: Select it Click Edit Item. Change the URL. Click Save. To add a new menu option: Click Add new item. Enter a Menu Title, URL, and a Sort Order to define where the new item will be displayed in the menu. Click Save.	The changes you make to the top navigation menu will be applied immediately to the blog site pages.

Customizing Points Awarded for Community Central Activities

Return to Overview of the Configuration Toolpane

Top

Community Central awards points to contributors for their participation in blogs and forums. Points are tracked and used to identify Most Active Users and Top Experts.
By default, the following Scoring Rules are provided by Community Central but you can customize the number of points awarded for Community Central activities.

Points are awarded for blog and forum activities as listed in the table below:

Blog Activities
Forum Activities

To customize the points awarded for each activity, do the following:

In a Community Central Home page, go to Community Central Control Panel.
In the Community Central General Settings section, click Manage scoring rules.
To change the number of points for any item, select it and click Edit Item.
Change the Points field to the new value. For point deduction, enter “-” and the number, as in “-2”, to deduct two points, for example. Click Save.

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For Blog Activities

Action (Title)	Points	Description
Create a new blog post	2	Points are awarded to the author for either creating a new blog post or a new forum topic.
Comment on a blog post	1	Points are awarded to the author of a blog post when someone comments on that blog post.
Update a blog post.	0	Points are awarded to the author for updating their existing blog post or forum topic.
Delete a blog post	-2	Points are deducted from the author when their existing blog post or forum topic is deleted.
Delete a blog comment	-1	Points are deducted from the author of a blog post when any comments are deleted from that blog post.

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For Forum Activities

Action (Title)	Points	Description
Create a new forum topic	2	Points are awarded to the author for either creating a new blog post or a new forum topic.
Post a reply to a forum topic	1	Points are awarded to the replier for replying to a forum topic.
Update a forum topic	0	Points are awarded to the author for updating their existing blog post or forum topic.
Delete a forum topic	-2	Points are deducted from the author when their existing blog post or forum topic is deleted.
Delete a forum reply	-1	Points are deducted from the replier when their reply to a forum topic is deleted.
Suggest a forum reply as the answer	-1	Points are awarded to the replier when their reply to a forum topic is marked as the suggested answer.
Unmark a forum reply as the suggested answer	-1	Points are deducted from the replier when their reply to a forum topic is marked as the suggested answer, and is then unmarked as the suggested answer.
Verify a forum reply as the answer	2	Points are awarded to the replier when their reply to a forum topic is verified as the answer.
Remove verification of a forum reply as the answer	-2	Points are deducted from the replier when their reply to a forum topic has been verified as the answer, and is then removed as the verified answer.
Verify suggested forum reply as the answer	1	Points are awarded to the replier when their reply to a forum topic, which has already been marked as the suggested answer, is then verified as the answer.
Remove as verified answer and keep as suggested	-1	Points are deducted from the replier when their reply to a forum topic, which has already been marked as the suggested answer and verified as the answer, is then removed as the verified answer. The reply’s status returns to being marked as the suggested answer.

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Customize Community Central Banner

Return to Overview of the Configuration Toolpane

SiteAdmin You must be in the site administrator group or assigned Full Control permission to change your site banner. Also, you must have access to the picture library where you upload the image for the site.

The Community Central Home site includes a default banner image for the Community Central Home, the Forums Home page, and the Blogs Home pages. To replace any of these banner images with an image customized for your company, perform the following steps:

Step	Action	Result
1.	In a SharePoint 2013 Community Central Home site, go to Settings > Site Contents. In a SharePoint 2010 Community Central Home site, go to Site Actions > View All Site Content.	SharePoint 2013 SharePoint 2010
2.	Click the Pictures library.	SharePoint 2010 SharePoint 2013
3.	Upload your new images to the Banners folder in the Pictures library.	After you upload the file to the library, right-click on the file name and save the shortcut in your clipboard to use when you get to Step 6 below.
4.	Navigate to the Community Central Home, Forums Home, or Blogs Home page—whichever contains the banner you want to replace. In the Page ribbon, click the Edit Page button.
5.	Edit the Banner Web Part.
6.	Change the Image Link location to the image you uploaded to the Pictures library. (If you saved the URL in Step 3, simply paste it into the Image Link box or you can click on the ellipsis to navigate to your picture library where you uploaded the file and locate it that way.) You can also change Alternative Text or image alignment and transparency, as needed.
7.	Click OK to save your changes.	The new banner is now displayed.

See also:

Customize Community Central

The latest release of Bamboo’s Community Central offers a host of new features and customization options. While by default, Community Central for SharePoint 2013 keeps the same stylistic components as Community Central for SharePoint 2010, our new customization options allow you to change the style of your site to meet your style needs.

With a few minor updates, you can customize the look of your Community Central site including the site’s background color.

Changing the background color:

The default style for Community Central for SharePoint 2013 is the same as the style for SharePoint 2010.

To change the background color, follow the steps below. Our example uses colors that match the default User Interface (UI) in SharePoint 2013.

Step	Action	Result
1.	Go to Site Contents and open the list named Skins.
2.	Open the Styles folder and download the following files to your local drive: custom.css and custom15.css
3.	Edit the files custom15.css and custom.css
4.	Search for and change the value of the background color from #000 to #0072C6 and apply the color code to these classes: “.bb-bodyrightzone h2.ms-webpart-titleText” “bb-bottomcontainer” “.SA15_MainBody_Footer” Search for and change the value of the border-bottom-color from #000 to #0072C6 and apply to these classes: “body #s4-titlerow” “SA15_BoxSkin2_LeftHeader1_CollapseExpand” “SA15_ForumSite_LeftHeader_Title” “SA15_BoxSkin2_LeftHeader1_Threads” “SA15_BoxSkin2_LeftHeader1_Messages” Once you have finished, save your changes.
5.	After you’ve saved your changes, upload the files from step 2 to the folder styles in the Skins list.
6.	Refresh your site page. You will now see that the style changes made above have been implemented.

Create a Top Level Community Site

After you have installed Community Central, you will need to configure your home sites for use. Follow these simple steps to start using Community Central. At the end of each section we include the next step to follow when setting up your Community Central site for the first time. It is preferable to set up your site in this order.

Step

Action

Result

Under Site Actions, click New Site.
Click the Community Central filter on the left side and click Community Central Home Site.

Title: enter the name for your new Community Central Home site.

URL Name: enter the specific URL that you would like for your Community Central Home site.

You will be directed to the new site, which includes the Community Central Home page, the Forums Home page, and the Blogs Home page.

Next: Create a Forum Site

Also see:

Create a New Forum on the Forum Site

Step	Action	Result
1.	In the forum site, under Site Actions, click Community Central Control Panel.
2.	In the Forum Management section, click Create a forum in this forum site.
3.	You may now create topics and posts in the new forum. In the forum, click the Add new discussion link in the forum view. For more information about using forums, read Forum Sites and Blog Sites.

Next: Create a Blog Site

Also see:

Create a Forum Site

This is the second step in the process if it is the first time you are creating a Community Central site.

Step

Action

Result

Under Site Actions, click Community Control Panel.

In the Forum Site Management section, click Create forum site.

Enter a Title and Description for the new forum site and select site permissions.

You can either create a new set of permissions for Community Central or inherit permissions from your SharePoint site.

Next: Create a New Forum on the Forum Site

Also see:

Create a Blog Site

Blog sites are sub-sites of the Community Central Home site and collect related blog posts. The blog site page also contains links to blog-related activities such as creating and managing blog posts.

Step	Action	Result
1.	Under Site Actions, click Community Control Panel. In the Blog Site Management section, click Create blog site.
2.	Enter a Title and Description for the new blog site and select site permissions.
3.	Click Create.	You may now create and manage blog posts and comments using the Create a post, Manage posts, and Manage comments options in the Blog Tools Web Part. For more information, read Using Blog Sites in the Community Central online documentation.

Next: Customize Community Central

Also see:

Configuring Moderation Settings

Return to Overview of the Configuration Toolpane

Community Central Forum sites use Discussion Board Plus. To access Forum Settings for a Discussion Board Plus list, click the Forum Settings button in the List Tools > List ribbon.

Moderation settings control whether the Lock Topic or Mark as Sticky features are enabled in Discussion Board Plus.

See also:

Enable Lock Topic

When Lock Topic is enabled, users with the required permissions can lock a thread to prevent any further replies or updates by clicking the Lock Topic button in the List Tools > Items ribbon of the Discussion Board Plus list or by selecting the Lock Topic option in the item drop-down menu for a topic.

Threads can be unlocked using the Unlock Topic button or item drop-down menu option. When this feature is disabled, the Lock Topic and Unlock Topic options are not available.

After a thread is locked, all editing actions are disabled for everyone except site collection administrators:

Existing posts cannot be edited.
New replies cannot be posted.
Answers cannot be suggested, verified, or removed.

For more information about the Lock Topic feature, see Using Lock Topic.

Enable Mark as Sticky

When Mark as Sticky is enabled, users with the required permissions can increase the importance of a thread in the Forum view by “sticking” it to the top of the Topic list so that it always resides on top in search results. Topics can be marked or unmarked as Sticky using the Mark as Sticky and Unmark as Sticky buttons in the Tools > Items ribbon of the Discussion Board Plus list or the Mark as Sticky or Unmark as Sticky options in the item drop-down menu for a topic. When this feature is disabled, the Mark as Sticky and Unmark as Sticky options are not available.

See also:

How to Mark as Sticky

Configuring CAPTCHA

Community Central supports the option to use CAPTCHA to protect your blog site from attacks by spam bots. When CAPTCHA is enabled, blog readers who want to comment on a post must type the characters that appear in a randomly generated image to prove they are “human”. If the characters do not match, the comment is not accepted.

To turn CAPTCHA on, follow these steps:

Step	Action	Description
1.	On the Blogs Home page, go to Site Actions > Blog Control Panel.
2.	In the Blog Control Panel, click on the Manage CAPTCHA link.
3.	A CAPTCHA image will be displayed under the Add comment section of each blog post.

Configure Community Central Ratings

Community Central blog posts and forum topics can be rated by readers. This allows other readers to easily identify the most helpful content. Rating features are provided by the Bamboo’s Rating custom column and configured by default to use a 5-star rating.

To change the rating style and to configure other Bamboo Rating options, edit the Post list Rating column as described below. For information about each Bamboo Rating column option, see How to Use a Bamboo Rating Column in a List or Library.

To edit the Rating column settings:

Step	Action	Result
1.	View a blog site by clicking on its name in the Blog Sites Web Part in the Community Central Home page or the Blogs Home page.
2.	In the Blog Tools Web Part, click Manage posts.
3.	In the List Tools > List ribbon, click the List Settings button.
4.	In the Columns section, click the Rating column to edit its properties.
5.	Configure Rating column settings as desired and click OK to save your changes.

Rating Blog Posts

Readers can rate blog posts in Community Central. Ratings determine which posts are included in the Top Rated list and help identify relevant content for other community users. To rate a post, scroll to the bottom of the post and click on the rating that best matches your opinion.

See also:

Configuring Blog Posts Content Approval

Return to Overview of the Configuration Toolpane

Community Central uses out-of-the-box SharePoint content approval for blog moderation. By default, content approval is enabled and new blog posts must be approved by a Community Central Moderator before they will be visible on the blog site. Moderators* approve blog posts using the SharePoint Approve/Reject feature for the blog post item.

Content approval settings can be customized to support the following use cases:

Restrict Members from editing posts other than their own.
Disable content approval for blog posts.

By default, SharePoint out-of-the-box content approval allows any user with the SharePoint Contribute permission level (Members) to edit blog posts, no matter who created the original post. You can change content approval settings so that Members can only edit their own posts. You must perform this change on each blog site where you want to restrict content editing.

To restrict content editing:

Step	Action	Result
1.	Sign in as a Community Central Moderator or Administrator.
2.	In the blog site page, click Manage posts in the Blog Tools list.
3.	In the List Tools > List ribbon, click the List Settings button.
4.	In the List Settings page, click Advanced settings in the General Settings section.
5.	In the Item-level Permissions section, change the Create and Edit access setting to Create items and edit items that were created by the user.
6.	Click OK.	NOTE: Moderators and Administrators* can still edit any post. This is by design. Members may be able to see the edit screen, but they will not be able to save changes.

* Community Central Permissions Needed

Disable Content Approval

IMPORTANT: After performing the steps in this section for a blog site, blog posts in that site can be published immediately by Members without approval.

By default, all blog posts published in Community Central must be approved by a Moderator
* or Administrator. If you do not require content approval for blog posts, you can disable it. You must perform this change on each blog site where you want to disable content approval.

To disable content approval:

Step	Action	Result
1.	Sign in as a Community Central Moderator or Administrator.
2.	In the blog site page, click Manage posts in the Blog Tools list.
3.	In the List Tools > List ribbon, click the List Settings button.
2.	In the List Settings page, click Versioning settings in the General Settings section.
3.	In the Content Approval section, change the Require content approval for submitted items setting to No.
4.	Click OK.

* Community Central Permissions Needed

Complementary Products for Community Central

You will find many of our products complement each other quite nicely saving you the time and trouble to write custom code. With Bamboo at the heart of your SharePoint investment, you gain access to a huge catalog of enhancements, components, and accessories that add the critical functionality your business requires.

The same components can be easily used in future applications and they all come from a single, trusted vendor, ensuring an easy purchase process and support you can count on. That’s the Bamboo Way!

Community Central Statistics

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Community statistics provide insight into community activity and enhance user participation. Statistics are calculated by Community Central timer jobs and displayed on several community pages to highlight relevant content. Some of the ways community statistics are used include:

Tracking blog and forum activity
Monitoring community feedback
Motivating top contributors
Highlighting relevant content
Showcasing community success

Click the links below to see the statistics that display on various pages:

Community Central Home Page Statistics
Forums Statistics
Blogs Statistics
Individual Forums/Posts Statistics

Community Central Home Page Statistics

Community Central Home page statistics track participation across the entire community. Statistics displayed on the Community Central Home page include:

The total number of forum topics and the number of topics added today.
The total number of forum posts and the number of posts added today.
The total number of blog posts and the number of posts added today.
The total number of comments to blog posts and the number of comments added today.
Community Central Home Statistics

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Forums Statistics

Forums Home page statistics track participation in all community forums. Statistics displayed on the Forums Home page include:

The total number of forum topics and the number of topics added today.
The total number of forum posts and the number of posts added today.
The total number of forum topics with replies.
The total number of forum topics with no replies.
A list of the Most Viewed topics from all forums in the community.
A list of topics with the Most Replies from all forums in the community.

Forum site statistics provide a more in-depth view of forum participation and are specific to forums in that forum site. Statistics displayed on each forum site home page include:

The total number of forum topics and the number of topics added today.
The total number of forum posts and the number of posts added today.
The total number of forum topics with replies.
The total number of forum topics with no replies.
A list of the Most Viewed topics from all forums in the forum site.
A list of topics with the Most Replies from all forums in the forum site.
A list of the Most Active Users in the forum site, showing their accumulated points for forum activities.
A list of the Top Experts in the forum site, showing those users with the most forum posts that were verified as answers.
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Blogs Statistics

Blogs Home page statistics track participation in all community blogs. Statistics displayed on the Blogs Home page include:

The total number of blog posts and the number of posts added today.
The total number of comments added to blog posts and the number of comments added today.
A list of the Most Viewed posts from all blogs in the community.
A list of the Top Rated posts from all blogs in the community.

On the Blogs Home page and the blog site where a post was created, the number of views and comments is displayed for each blog post.

Blog site statistics provide a more in-depth view of forum participation and are specific to blogs posted to that blog site. Statistics displayed on each blog site home page include:

The total number of blog posts and the number of posts added today.
The total number of comments added to blog posts and the number of comments added today.
A list of the Most Viewed posts from all blogs in the blog site.
A list of the Top Rated posts from all blogs in the blog site.
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Individual Forums/Posts Statistics

Individual forums and forum posts also track
certain activities, including the following:

On the Forums Home page, the total number of topics and posts for each forum.

In the forum view, the number of replies for each post and the number of views for the topic.

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See also:

Community Central Permissions Needed

Return to Overview of the Configuration Toolpane

Add users to these groups to give them permission to the site.

Community Central uses the built-in SharePoint permissions to determine what actions a user can perform in community site pages. When Community Central is installed, the following SharePoint groups are added to the Community Central Home site, or to the parent site if the Community Central Home site inherits permissions:

Community Central Group	SharePoint Permission Level
{Site Title} Administrators	Full Control
{Site Title} Moderators	Design
{Site Title} Members	Contribute
{Site Title} Visitors	Read

When you create new forum and blog sites, the new sites can automatically inherit the permissions of the Community Central Home site or they can use unique permissions; you select which permission level to use when you create a site. If the forum or blog site uses unique permissions, the groups listed above will be added to the site when it is created. The Community Central Home site’s Administrators group will also be added to the new site, with the Full Control permission level, to allow community Administrators to manage all forum and blog sites.

You can customize permissions for Community Central sites just as you can any SharePoint site. To set up your own SharePoint permission levels to use with Community Central, refer to the following information:

Edit, create, and delete permission levels (From office.microsoft.com)

To set up anonymous access to Community Central content, see Configuring Anonymous Access.

Permissions for Administrative Actions

The table below describes the Community Central groups allowed to perform certain administrative actions:

Community Central Action	Administrators	Moderators	Members	Visitors
Customize Site Pages	Yes	Yes	No	No
Customize the Top Navigation	Yes	Yes	No	No
Access the Control Panel	Yes	Yes *	No	No
Edit Forum/Blog Links	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit Scoring Rules	Yes	No	No	No
Customize Forum/Blog Links	Yes	Yes	No	No

* Moderators may not be able to perform all Control Panel actions.

Permissions for Forum Actions

Since the forums are built on Discussion Board Plus, the Community Central Forums use the default Discussion Board Plus Permissions. And in addition to the default permissions provided by Discussion Board Plus, please note the following for Community Central forums:

Administrators and Moderators can add, update or delete any forum topic or post.
Members can add topics and posts, but can only edit or delete their own topics/posts.
If a read-only account is configured in the Forum Control Panel, anonymous users can read topics and posts but cannot add new topics or posts.

Permissions for Blog Actions

Community Central uses the default SharePoint settings to determine who can perform actions in a blog site. For a list of default permissions for basic blog actions, see the table below. For information about customizing blog site permissions, see the following article:

Configure permissions and settings for a blog (From office.microsoft.com)

Blog Action	Administrators	Moderators	Members	Visitors	Anonymous Users
Read Blog Posts and Comments	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create Blog Posts	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit Blog Posts	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No	No
Add Comments	Yes	Yes	Yes	No^1.	No^1.
Edit Comments	Yes	No	Yes *	No	No
Approve Blog Posts and Comments	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
View Draft Posts and Pending Comments	Yes	Yes	**	No	No
Manage Blog Categories	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

* Members can edit any blog post or comment by default (not just their own post/comment).

^1. Allow visitors and anonymous users to add comments by modifying list permissions.

** Members can view their own draft posts and comments pending approval, but not posts/comments created by other Members.

Configuring Anonymous Access

By default, anonymous access is not enabled in SharePoint 2013. SharePoint administrators may want to enable anonymous users to have access to Community Central content without having to provide authentication credentials. Anonymous access is permitted or denied based on the permissions for the site. Additional configuration is needed for anonymous users to access Community Central content.

For example:

Viewing locked topics – In order for anonymous users to view locked topics in forums, you must configure a read-only forum access account in each forum site’s Forum Control Panel. All other forum content is visible if the site is configured to allow anonymous access.
Viewing avatars – In order for anonymous users to be able to see avatars (the SharePoint user profile picture), additional configuration steps are needed. For instructions, see this blog.
Adding blog comments – In order for anonymous users to add blog comments, the administrator must modify the list permissions for the Comments list in each blog site. For instructions, see this blog.

For more information about configuring SharePoint for anonymous access, see:

Using ideas from this article from Microsoft, decide whether to allow access for anonymous users.
This article from Microsoft covers configuring anonymous access.
For SharePoint 2010-specific configuration, see this topic.

Alternatively, you can configure SharePoint for anonymous access for forms-based authentication where the accounts can be created from the database. For more information on configuring anonymous users for forms-based authentication, see:

See also:

Community Central FAQs

Can I attach a file to a forum post?

Yes, files can be attached to a forum post.

Can I attach a file to a blog post?

No.

Who can close or lock a topic?

Community Central users with the SharePoint Manage Lists permission or above, including Community Central moderators and administrators, can lock a topic. Once a topic is locked, forum users cannot add new posts, edit existing posts, or suggest or verify answers. For more information, see Using Lock Topic and Permissions in Discussion Board Plus.

Can I set alerts for forums like I can for out-of-the-box SharePoint discussion boards?
**

Yes, Community Central forums support SharePoint alerts. For even more alert functionality, try Bamboo Alert Plus.

Can I create a blog site without creating a Community Central Home site first?

We don’t recommend it. Some blog site features will not work properly outside of a Community Central site.

Can I create a forum site without creating a Community Central Home site first?

We don’t recommend it. Some forum site features will not work properly outside of a Community Central site.

Can I make a change to List Rollup configuration lists or items?

No, the List Rollup Web Part is configured for system use only.

See also:

Choosing which farm servers to license

Bamboo products are deployed to all servers in the farm running the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service (or Windows SharePoint Services Web Application in WSSv3/MOSS), which may include servers that do not serve Web content. For most products, only servers that serve Web content need a license key (Alert Plus is an exception), but all servers that run the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service will appear on the Web License Manager Status and Activation pages by default.

If you would like to see only certain servers displayed in the Web License Manager, follow these steps:

Step	Action
1.	Click the Choose License Server(s) link on the Bamboo Web License Manager main page.
2.	Although this step is optional, it makes it easier for SharePoint Administrators to see which servers in the farm need a license key, if not all do. On the page displaying the list of servers, check the box for each server functioning as a Web Front End (WFE). Some products, such as Alert Plus or List Rollup, may include optional features that require licensing of a SharePoint application server as well. If so, these servers can also be selected.

Step

Action

Click the Choose License Server(s) link on the Bamboo Web License Manager main page.

Although this step is optional, it makes it easier for SharePoint Administrators to see which servers in the farm need a license key, if not all do.

On the page displaying the list of servers, check the box for each server functioning as a Web Front End (WFE).

Some products, such as Alert Plus or List Rollup, may include optional features that require licensing of a SharePoint application server as well. If so, these servers can also be selected.

WLM-choosing license servers2.jpg

Breadcrumbs

The Community Central header is shared with all Community Central pages, and will display breadcrumbs to help guide you within the site.

Click on a breadcrumb to return to a higher level of the site. If the page you are on includes additional views, you will be able to switch views in the last breadcrumb link, just like you can when viewing a SharePoint list.

The image below shows an example of a forum breadcrumb that includes views.

See also:

Blog Tools

The Blog Tools list contains links to common blog activities.

Create a post: Create a new blog post for this blog site.
Manage posts: Edit existing posts and approve posts submitted for publishing (Moderators only).
Manage comments: Approve and manage blog post comments.

Create a blog post

Any blog site Member can add blog posts to the site.

From the blog site page, click Create a post in the Blog Tools list.

Step	Action	Result
1.	In the editor window, enter a Title for your post.
2.	Enter the content for your blog post in the Body field. The Body field includes a rich text editor with a full range of editing options, including support for inserting images. You can enter text directly or paste from another source, like a Microsoft Word document.
3.	Choose a Category. Your post will automatically be displayed in the appropriate category on the blog site page.
4.	In the Published field, enter a date when your post should be published to the blog site. Your post will not be visible on the blog site until the Published date and time.
5.	When you are finished with your post, click Save as Draft or Publish. Published posts will be visible in the blog site at the Published date and time. Draft posts will not be visible. See the information below for more information.

Save Blog Post as Draft and Publish

When you create or edit a blog post, you will have the option to Save as Draft, Publish, or both.

Save as Draft:

Clicking Save as Draft saves the post but does not publish it to the blog site, even if the Published field date and time is reached.
Use Save as Draft if you want to submit your blog post for approval or if you want to continue editing it later.
Save as Draft is the only option available if you do not have permission to approve content for the blog site. A Moderator must review your post before it can be published.
Save as Draft is NOT available if content approval is disabled.

Publish:
Clicking Publish saves the post and publishes it to the blog site as soon as the Published field date and time is reached (or immediately, if it has passed). No one else needs to approve the content.
Use Publish only if you are finished editing your post and are ready for it to be read by the community.
The Publish option is only available if you have permission to approve content for the blog site or if content approval is disabled.

See Configuring Blog Posts Content Approval for more information about disabling content approval for a blog site.

See also:

Blog Categories List in Community Central

Creating Categories

You must create a category before you can assign blog posts to it. Any blog site Member can create new categories. To create a new category:

Go to the blog site where you want to create the category.
Go to Settings > Blog Control Panel.
In the Category Management section, click Create a new category.
Enter a category Title and click Save.

Editing Categories

After a category has been created, you can edit its name. When you edit a category name, the name is automatically updated in the Categories Web Part and in any posts assigned to the category.

To edit the title of an existing category:

Step	Action	Result
1.	Go to the blog site that contains the category you want to edit.
2.	Go to Settings > Blog Control Panel.
3.	In the Category Management section, click Manage categories.
4.	Click the Edit icon next to the category title.
5.	Update the category Title and click Save.

Deleting Categories

NOTE: Before deleting a category, check to see if there are any blog posts assigned to it. You may not want to delete the category if it helps community users find posts. However, even if posts are assigned to a category, deleting the category does not delete the post; it only un-assigns the post from the category.

To delete a category:

Step	Action	Result
1.	Go to the blog site that contains the category you want to delete.
2.	Go to Settings > Blog Control Panel.
3.	In the Category Management section, click Manage categories.
4.	Select the category you want to delete and click the Delete Item button in the ribbon.

Assigning a Blog Post to a Category

Posts can be assigned to categories when the post is created or by editing the post later.

To assign a post to a category, create or edit a blog post.
In the Category field, select a category and click Add.
You can assign a post to more than one category.

When a post is assigned to a category, browsing the category will display any posts assigned to it.

Browsing Categories

To browse categories, go to a blog site page and click a link in the Categories Web Part.

The posts assigned to the category will be displayed.

Before you uninstall

IMPORTANT: Before you uninstall a Bamboo product, make sure that it is no longer in use on any site in your farm. If a web part resides on a page and you uninstall the web part, an error will be displayed for users that visit that page. The uninstall process does not update individual pages in your SharePoint portal.

Also, if you uninstall Workflow Conductor (WFC) and some workflows built with WFC are still active, those workflows will fail.

You have several choices for how to uninstall your Bamboo product:

Option	Comment
Use the Updated Uninstall Process for Bamboo components	Based on feedback from our customers, Bamboo introduced updated install/uninstall processes for component products (web parts). Instead of the Setup.exe Installation Application, we now supply two PowerShell scripts – one for Install/Upgrade and the other for Uninstall – to be used to install, upgrade, or uninstall the product. For more information, see Overview of the Updated Installation Process for Bamboo components.
Bamboo Installation Package	IMPORTANT: As of April 2017, Bamboo no longer includes the Installation/Setup program in product download packages. You can use the Bamboo product installation package that you used to install the product to uninstall. This is the preferred method, because it performs some automated system checks to help ensure the uninstall will be successful. It also steps you through each component, so its easier to make sure everything is uninstalled. See Using the Setup program to Uninstall for more information.
SharePoint Central Administration	Many Bamboo products are deployed as SharePoint solutions, so you can retract and remove them from Central Administration. See Uininstalling from SharePoint Central Administration for more information.
PowerShell	Some Bamboo products are packaged with a PowerShell script that you can use to uninstall. See Manually uninstall using PowerShell for more information.
stsadm	If you prefer, you can use stsadm commands to retract and delete Bamboo SharePoint solutions. See Manually uninstall using stsadm for more information.
Add/Remove Programs	Some Bamboo products include components that are installed using an EXE or MSI installer. See Uninstalling a Bamboo .msi or .exe for more information.

Depending on the uninstall method you choose, there may be a solution left behind after the install. This is intentional, as several Bamboo products use some of the same components. See What is left behind after uninstalling? for more information and steps for how to uninstall completely.

Bamboo products that use Telerik

Product	Uses Telerik?
Alerts Administrator	Yes
Alert Plus	Yes
Bulk Export	No
Bulk Import	No
Calendar Plus	Yes
Chart Plus	Yes
Column Level Security	Yes
Community Central	Yes
Cross List	No
Cross Site Display	No
Custom Identifier	No
Data Viewer	Yes
Discussion Board Plus	Yes
File Share Library	No
Filters Collection	Yes
Grants Management	Yes
Group Email	Yes
Group Redirect	Yes
In/Out Schedule Board	Yes
Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator	Yes
KPI Column	Yes
List Consolidator	Yes
List Print	No
List Rollup	Yes
List Rotator	No
List Search	Yes
Lookup Selector	No
Mini Calendar	No
My Alerts Organizer	No
Navigators	Yes
Password Change	Yes
Password Expiration	No
Password Reset	No
Password Management Toolkit	Yes
PM Central	Yes
Poll	Yes
Project Portfolio Dashboard	Yes
Rating	Yes
Rich Text	Yes
Site Creation Plus	No
SQL View	No
Task Master	Yes
Team Calendar	Yes
Time Tracking and Management	Yes
Tree View	Yes¹ No²
User Account Setup	Yes
User Directory	Yes
User Manager for Sites	Yes
User Profile Plus	No
User Profile Sync	No
User Redirect	No
User Registration Accelerator	No
Validator column	No
Video Library	No
Virtual Map View	No
Visual Indicator column	No
Wiki Publisher	No
Workflow Conductor	Yes
World Clock and Weather	No

¹SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2013
²SharePoint 2010

Bamboo product releases that are supported for migration from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

The table below shows the minimum required Bamboo product version required when migrating Bamboo products from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013. If you have an earlier version installed than the one listed, please upgrade that product before migrating to SharePoint 2013.

For additional information:

Product	minimum SP2010 version	minimum SP2013 version
Alert Plus	30.2.115	30.2.121.2013
Alerts Administrator	10.4.52	10.4.62.2013
Calendar Plus	40.1.143	40.1.155.2013
Chart Plus	30.5.109	30.5.143.2013
Column Level Security	10.3.34	10.3.48.2013
Community Central	10.1.91	10.5.76.2013
Cross List	10.5.20	N/A
Cross Site Display	10.2.26	10.2.40.2013
Custom Identifier Column	10.0.45	10.0.57.2013
Data-Viewer	30.5.67	30.5.57.2013
Discussion Board Plus	10.5.22	20.0.57.2013
DWG Parser SharePoint 2007 Only	N/A	N/A
Filters Collection	10.3.25	10.3.35.2013
File Share Library	20.0.60	20.0.81.2013
Grants Management	10.5.20	N/A
Group Email	10.7.43	10.7.46.2013
Group Redirect	20.3.27	20.3.33.2013
Hello	20.1.9	N/A
In/Out Schedule Board	10.4.56	10.4.57.2013
Knowledge Base	20.2.47	20.2.75.2013
KPI Column	10.3.65	10.3.78.2013
List Bulk Export	1.4.12	20.0.18.1
List Bulk Import	2.5.105	30.0.29.2013
List Consolidator	10.0.79	10.0.107.2013
List Print	10.4.31	10.4.35.2013
List Rollup	60.0.64	60.0.70.2013
List Rotator	20.5.82	20.5.99.2013
List Search Advanced	10.8.93	10.8.121.2013
List Search Simple	20.1.140	20.1.167.2013
Lookup Selector Column	20.3.61	20.3.88.2013
Mini-Calendar	20.8.67	20.8.86.2013
My Alerts Organizer	10.4.43	10.4.51.2013
Navigators	10.3.47	10.3.57.2013
Password Change	40.1.65	40.1.68.2013
Password Expiration	10.6.43	10.6.49.2013
Password Reset	20.4.51	20.4.70.2013
Poll	10.4.53	10.4.63.2013
Project Management Central	40.1.135	40.1.109.2013
Project Portfolio Dashboard	10.8.58	10.8.80.2013
Quick Add	10.0.29.0	10.0.29.2013
Rating Column	10.2.43	10.1.54.2013
Rich Text Column	10.3.27	10.3.28.2013
Site Creation Plus	10.4.66	10.4.71.2013
SQL View	10.6.26	N/A
Task Master	30.5.117	30.5.116.2013
Team Calendar	10.7.18	10.7.36.2013
Time Tracking and Management	1.6.46	10.6.88.2013
Tree View	10.7.83	10.8.23.2013
User Account Setup	40.0.107	40.0.148.2013
User Directory	10.7.53	10.7.81.2013
User Manager for Sites	10.3.46	10.3.62.2013
User Profile Plus	10.4.39	10.4078.2013
User Profile Sync	1.6.10	20.0.20.2013
User Redirect	10.5.16	10.5.27.2013
User Registration Accelerator	10.3.24	10.3.35.2013
Validator Column	10.3.20	10.3.35.2013
Video Library	20.0.87	20.0.106.2013
Virtual Map View	10.9.46	10.9.42.2013
Visual Indicator Column	10.3.59	10.3.79.2013
Wiki Publisher	10.0.65	10.0.85.2013
Workflow Conductor	30.0.0	30.0.1.2013
World Clock and Weather	20.4.47	20.4.52.2013

Approve Blog Posts

By default, Community Central blogs are configured to use out-of-the-box SharePoint content approval. This allows community Moderators to review and approve new posts before they are published to the blog site. For details about configuring (or disabling) content approval options, see Configuring Content Approval.

When a blog post is saved as draft, its approval status is changed to Pending. Community Central Moderators can approve or reject posts.

NOTE: If you need to make changes to a post before approving it, edit the post. When you click Publish as a Moderator, the post is automatically approved and you can skip the steps below.

To change the approval status for a post, sign in as a Community Central Moderator.

Step	Action	Result
1.	In the blog site page, click Manage posts in the Blog Tools list.
2.	Click on the Title link for the post with an Approval Status of Pending to review it.
3.	Return to the Posts list and select the post you want to approve.
4.	Click the Approve/Reject button in the Items ribbon. Select an Approval Status, enter any Comments (optional), and click OK to submit the status change.
5.	If you changed the Approval Status to Approved, the item is now visible in the blog site. Items with an Approval Status of Rejected or Pending are not visible.

See also:

Announcements

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Keep your user community informed with the Community Central Announcements feature. You can do the following tasks within the announcements:

Add a new announcement
Edit an announcement
Delete an announcement

Add a new announcement

To add a new announcement, click the Add new announcement link in the Announcements section of the Community Central Home page. Enter the announcement Title and Body.

If you would like the announcement to expire on a certain date, select the date in the Expires field. When that date is reached, the announcement will no longer be displayed on the Community Central Home page.

NOTE: If you do not see the Add new announcement link, you do not have permission to add announcements to the Announcements list.

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Edit an announcement

To edit an existing announcement, click on it in the Announcements list and click the Edit Item button in the View ribbon. Click Save when you have finished making changes.

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Delete an announcement

To delete an existing announcement, click on it in the Announcements list and click the Delete Item button in the View ribbon.

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See also:

Adding Comments on a Blog Post

Community Central allows blog readers to comment on blog posts. Comments are displayed at the bottom of a blog post after they are approved by a Community Central Moderator.

To add a comment to a blog post, click on the post title in the Blogs Home or blog site page to read it.

Step	Action	Result
1.	At the bottom of the post, enter comments in the Leave a comment section.
2.	If CAPTCHA is enabled, verify that you are a person by typing the letters you see in the CAPTCHA box.
3.	Click Submit Comment.	Your comment will be marked with a status of “Pending” until a Moderator approves it. Only you will see your comment until it is approved.

See also:

How to activate a Bamboo Site Collection Feature

Product feature activations can be done automatically at the site collection level when the product is installed using the Bamboo Installation/Setup program. However, there are a few reasons why you may need to manually activate (or deactivate) Bamboo product features:

You are using the updated installation process for Bamboo components.
You opted out of automatic feature activation during installation using the older Setup program.
You added a new site collection and want to add Bamboo features to it.
You want to remove Bamboo product features from an existing site collection.

To manually activate (or deactivate) Bamboo product features, follow the instructions below.

IMPORTANT: Perform these steps using an account that is a Site Collection Administrator.

Step	Action
1.	From a page on the top level site of a site collection, click Site Actions and then Site Settings. In the Site Collection Administration section of the page displayed, click Site collection features. If you don’t see this section, you may not be a Site Collection Administrator. If you don’t see the link, you may not be on the top level site of the collection. A list of available features will be listed.
2.	Find the appropriate feature. The status column indicates if the feature is currently active. If it hasn’t yet been activated, click the Activate button. If it’s activated and you need to Deactivate, click Deactivate. For information about which feature to activate for a particular product, please see this article.

Step

Action

From a page on the top level site of a site collection, click Site Actions and then Site Settings. In the Site Collection Administration section of the page displayed, click Site collection features.

If you don’t see this section, you may not be a Site Collection Administrator. If you don’t see the link, you may not be on the top level site of the collection.

A list of available features will be listed.
SCA-Active SCFeatures.png

Find the appropriate feature. The status column indicates if the feature is currently active. If it hasn’t yet been activated, click the Activate button. If it’s activated and you need to Deactivate, click Deactivate.

For information about which feature to activate for a particular product, please see this article.

About the Installation Files

Options for Installing

image showing install files for Tree View web part When you extract the product EXE to a location on your SharePoint server, several folders are created that contain installation files and Setup program configuration files. The root level of the extracted file system includes the file Setup.bat, which launches the Setup program. The list below shows the installation files for the Tree View Web Part, as an example.

For manual installation, you will access the following folders that contain installation files:

Component.wsp: There may be several folders with names ending in .wsp, depending on your product. Each WSP folder contains the installation files for a specific SharePoint Solution. One or more SharePoint Solutions may be installed for each product component.
docs: Contains the Installation and Licensing Quick Start Guide.
misc: The MISC folder includes miscellaneous files, including PowerShell scripts for manually installing or uninstalling the product.
msi: If a MSI folder exists for your product, it could contain multiple files ending in .msi. Each is an installation executable. Some MSI installers in the msi installation folder have both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version. The 64-bit version will include .x64 in the file name. Run the version of the MSI that is appropriate for your operating system. Do not install both.
res: Contains files required by the Setup program but not necessarily needed during a manual install.

About Community Central Forum Icons

Community Central forums use the following icons to describe the status of forum topics and posts:

Icon	Description
Sticky Topic	Topic is Sticky and will always be displayed at the top of the Topic list.
New Topic	Topic has a new reply or update.
No Replies	Topic has no recent replies or updates.
Locked	Topic is Locked and can only be edited by users with specific permissions.
Private	Topic is shared privately and only users with the correct permissions may see the content..
Unanswered	No posts in the topic have been marked as a Suggestion or Answer yet.
Verified	A post in the topic has been marked as a Verified Answer.
Suggested	At least one post in the topic has been marked as a Suggested Answer.

About Bamboo product Release Numbers

Overview

Bamboo products have several releases throughout the year. To understand more about the type of releases available, see the Bamboo Solutions Upgrade Policy.

Its important to know what release you have installed on your farm because:

You can better follow the Release Notes for the product, which tell you about new features and known limitations for each version/release.
If you are planning to migrate to a new version of SharePoint, you need to make sure you have a certain minimum version/release installed.
If you need to report an issue to our Support Team, they will need to know what version/release you are using.

Where to find Release Notes

As you look at each product’s documentation page, you will see there is a link to the Release Notes for that product at the top of the page.

Bamboo produces different version numbers of our products for the different SharePoint platforms.

SharePoint 2007 (WSSv3/MOSS) Release Numbers

If you are running SharePoint 2007, the version/release number consists of 4 parts, such as:

R1.2.3.0

The first digit indicates the Major Release. In the case above, this is “1”.
The second digit indicates the Minor Release (2 in the example above).
The third number indicates the build number.
The fourth number will always be 0 unless you are using SharePoint 2013 (see explanation below).

SharePoint 2010 Release Numbers

If you are running SharePoint 2010 (SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010), the Major Release digit of the installed product’s file version includes a zero (0) in the digit such as:

10.2.3.0

To match your current installed product with the release notes, remove the first zero (0). The end result is version 1.2.3.0.

SharePoint 2013 Release Numbers

If you are running SharePoint 2013 (SharePoint Foundation 2013 or SharePoint Server 2013), the Major Release digit of the installed product’s file version includes a zero (0) and the fourth digit is “2013” such as:

10.2.3.2013

To match your current installed product with the release notes, remove the first zero (0) and the 2013. The end result is version 1.2.3.0.

Default Top Navigation

Background

Resolution

Editing a blog or forum site link name

Deleting a blog or forum site link name

Adding an external blog or forum site link

Applies To

Default Top Navigation

For Blog Activities

For Forum Activities

Changing the background color:

Enable Lock Topic

Enable Mark as Sticky

Rating Blog Posts

Disable Content Approval

Community Central Home Page Statistics

Forums Statistics

Blogs Statistics

Individual Forums/Posts Statistics

Add users to these groups to give them permission to the site.

Permissions for Administrative Actions

Permissions for Forum Actions

Permissions for Blog Actions

Configuring Anonymous Access

Create a blog post

Save Blog Post as Draft and Publish

Save as Draft:

Publish:

Creating Categories

Editing Categories

Deleting Categories

Assigning a Blog Post to a Category

Browsing Categories

Add a new announcement

Edit an announcement

Delete an announcement

Overview

Where to find Release Notes

SharePoint 2007 (WSSv3/MOSS) Release Numbers

SharePoint 2010 Release Numbers

SharePoint 2013 Release Numbers